I'm very appreciative to Beretta New Zealand for the opportunity, and also to Willie and Ash for generously timing the birth of little Charlie so that I had to go in Willie's stead….
After 32 hours of flying I touched down in just about the furthest part of the planet from little old New Zealand possible, Helsinki. The famous Finnish hospitality began right away as Sako collected me from the airport along with Hannes Grimus, a writer for Wild Deer magazine in Australia.
Arriving at the hotel (Helsinki's former high security prison, quite what that said I'm not sure - we needed locking up at night?) the Kiwi contingent was there already (Dave Benfell from R&R and Cam Henderson from HJ), along with the remaining Aussies and most of the Americans and Canadians. As the night progressed most of the North Americans trickled in and we headed out for the first night's dinner. The schedule said ‘business: casual' so we were in jeans and shirts, nothing fancy, before we got wheeled out to what looked like a tsar-era ballroom! Gilded decorations, 20 foot ceilings full of scroll work and mirrored walls with 17 different knives and forks - not quite us southerner's definition of business casual!
Stumbling across a crate of winter war rifles was a highlight (I pity the buggers lugging It was founded in the 1500's, by a Swedish king (Finland being part of Sweden until becoming an autonomous Duchy after the 1809 war with Russia, and then declaring independence in 1917) but most of the development happened during the period of Russian influence around the turn of the 19th century following a great fire in 1808, making it one of the world's most comprehensive examples of Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture. It is scrupulously clean, and the buildings in the historic downtown area rarely exceed five or six stories, creating a great experience.
