Early bewilders
Apart from the fact that our new apartment has some confusing wires hanging from the ceiling where you would normally expect there to be light fittings, Nick has already reported on some unexpected across-the-globe quirks.
#1 The postmen are watching
Here is the normal part:
To do anything useful as a resident in Finland (like open a bank account), you have to register your address. So Nick registered his AirBnB address while looking for an apartment. On finding an apartment, he notified his family of the upcoming address. His sister made use of the new address to send a postcard from her holidays.
This is where it gets weird:
Instead of the postcard arriving at the address she wrote to, it arrived right where Nick is currently staying in the AirBnB accommodation with the new address crossed out and replaced by his temporary address. So apparently, the postmen are watching, and they are undeterred by your petty address-related tricks.
#2 Free internet
A 'low quality' internet connection comes with an apartment. And then if you live in Finland long enough*, you can pay extra to upgrade the internet connection. So what is the 'low quality' internet connection that comes with our apartment? 10Mbps is the answer. For comparison, an Australian internet provider sells a 12Mbps connection for only $69.99 per month and a $99.99 connection fee. No complaints here.
*Why length-of-stay is relevant to internet speed beats me.
#3 What's with the split beds? (two separate beds pushed together)
I have found quite a lot of people asking this question on the Google, and no immediately satisfying answers.
I'm not actually much of a traveller, but the one time I went to Austria and Germany, I noticed that only once were the both of us sleeping on the same mattress. The rest of the time it was two mattresses, and a bit less commonly, with two doonas. Is this a European thing ... or an everywhere-but-Australia thing? Is it just a hotel thing? Is it because there are more staircases in European cities and mattresses are vexatious to carry up stairs? Is it so each person can match the mattress to their own needs? Is it cheaper? Are we mattress noobs who don't understand why two mattresses is better?
No answers, only questions.
