Best show. Ever! The Umbilical Brothers were just as good if not even better than I had expected. Though tired from my 24h Helsinki trip I still feel enormously satisfied with the experience as a whole.

Yesterday I jumped on a train at about half past noon to get from Vaasa to Seinäjöki. That’s about as far as I got until VR (the Finnish FAILway company) started fucking with me. For starters the next train I had to catch was 50 minutes late. Apparently the tracks between Oulu and Seinäjöki are pretty messed up, so the trains can’t go very fast on some parts of them. When I finally got to board the train I find out the train only goes as far as Tikkurila, and not all the way to the central station in Helsinki. Hence I had to switch trains in Tikkurila to get to my final destination. But oh, it does not end there, the train from Tikkurila to Helsinki was 10 minutes late. I guess this wouldn’t have bothered me as much if I wouldn’t have had to stand out in the miserable cold and damp weather for those extra ten minutes, on top of already waiting for the train to Helsinki another 10 minutes for starters.

When I finally got to Helsinki my date for the day (I suppose you can call him that?), Renato, was waiting for me at the station. Originally we had planned to eat dinner before the show that was starting at 7 p.m., but since THE TRAINS WERE EFFING LATE we just walked straight to Alexander theater, where the show was going to be held. While waiting for the show to start it was pretty fun to see some celebrities in the audience as well. I was this |—| close to Jaakko Saariluoma, next to him sat a few other actors from the Finnish show Putous, such as Riku Nieminen (I think?). Then I was about this |——–| close to André Wickström, the most awesome stand-up comedian ever and of course I was this |———–| close to Shane and Dave, a.k.a. The Umbilical Brothers!

As I’ve already expressed the show was amazing! I won’t get too much into detail, you can watch clips on YouTube or buy the DVD after all, but I certainly laughed more than I have in a long time. It was also the last stop of the tour for the brothers, so the show lasted way longer than expected. Shane and Dave had a great connection with the audience at all times (starting with the microphone not working at the very start of the show) and at the end of the show the guys informed the audience they were more than happy to stay and chat with the fans after the show and so forth. If I hadn’t been as hungry as I was after the show ended I would have loved to stick around for a while longer. They probably had enough fans on their hands anyway though, so nevermind.

Renato took me to New Bamboo Center on Annankatu after the show to eat, and luckily the place was still open. The food was delicious! I definitely recommend the place of you’re in Helsinki and looking for something Asian. I had the chicken curry, the portion was really big and the curry was just the right amount of spicy. After we finished our very late dinner we went to Renato’s apartment, where I got some precious hours of sleep before I had to get on the train from Helsinki to Seinäjöki at 7.30 p.m. this morning. Today I got only mildly bitch-slapped by VR though. The train from Helsinki to Seinäjöki departed and arrived on schedule, the train from Seinäjöki to Vaasa however departed 20 minutes late because of another train arriving late. Sigh.

So now I’m back in Vaasa once more and supposedly I should find the energy to celebrate walpurgis night with some friends later on today. Too bad the weather is gray and miserable, otherwise a picnic in the park like last year would have been nice.