This is what the sidewalks look like during Vappu, the Finnish May Day celebration where students dress like race car drivers (academic jumpsuits color-coded by university department) in sailor hats (graduation caps)…
and everyone drinks large quantities in public space…
until the next day, when it’s capped off with a “quaint” picnic in Kaivopuisto Park with the rest of Helsinki…
Remarkably, the gruesome sidewalk residue of broken bottles, vomit, confetti and corks disappears within 24 hours. A local told me they spend somewhere around 100,000 euros to clean the city after Vappu, and urban legend says they even lift each car to sweep the ground clean. It’s an impressively streamlined mission and a talent they should outsource to other cities. How many people make up the cleaning department? When do they do it? These are some hardcore unsung heroes and it would be enlightening to follow a few of these guys around for a day and see how the magic happens. On the downside, Helsinki cleaning laws are so strict that street art is treated as a serious crime. This hurts. Nevertheless, by Monday it’s as if Vappu never happened and the girl I saw crawling on all fours licking a puddle of beer was but a fever dream…
The legend is true, they lifted all the cars on my street (not very carefully!) then the sweeper came past and cleaned it, taxes are high for a reason!
Also in my experience that’s how the streets look every weekend morning!
Ha wow that’s amazing! Go tax money!
[...] The Day After [...]
They may use the Nottingham crew – our cleaners have to do that about 4 mornings every week (not so much the car-lifting, though!).
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