Opinion: Drunk Finns in Tallinn
By: Charlotta Herlin
The most common tourists to visit Tallinn are usually Finns. Every day many Finns take a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and the reason for this, is of course alcohol. It is a known fact that alcohol is much cheaper in Tallinn than it is in Helsinki. This is why it is obvious that Finns travel there whenever they have the time and the energy. And why would't it be? Why would anyone avoid buying "beverages" from their own country when it can be bought for half the price in the neighboring country? It is so easy for Finns to just pay 20 euros for a ferry, spend the day in Tallinn buying alcohol.
But where is the limit? Is it really possible to do this without causing problems? And if it does cause problems, is it OK to just ignore the consequences?
During my 24 hour trip in Tallinn I witnessed a lot of this behavior from Finns. When I was at a bar in Viru Street, two drunken Finns sat right next to me and started hassling me. The way they behaved was humiliating. At first they were trying to get my attention by yelling out something that I couldn't understand and after a while one of them started singing in a very loud voice. I started to wonder why the staff wasn't doing anything to stop this. In addition, I was hassled by many drunken Finns at the very hotel I stayed at. I realized that everyone in Tallinn seemed as though this was something completely normal. At that point I got to thinking, why is it, that Finns can come to Tallinn and act as though their actions don't have consequences? And more importantly, why are the people in Tallinn so OK with this? Has it really gotten to the point where Finns can behave how they want and the residents of Tallinn find it completely normal?
Personally, I think that this kind of behavior is astonishing and it makes Finns look very bad. It is exactly the kind of thing, that makes everyone in the world think of Finns in the stereotypical "Finns love alcohol" type of way. This type of behavior should stop immediately.
Finns should learn ho to be civilized. If however, this kind of embarrassing behavior continues, especially in public places, people in Tallinn 1should do something about it!
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