Not in much of a mood to shop anyway, with 3 layers of clothing to go through
The biggest difference between Helsinki and what I'm otherwise accustomed to seeing in many other cities—in particular, Asian cities—is the mall culture, or absence of one here.
I'm used to the way malls figure in the Asian cultural landscape, where each has its distinct feel and even smell: some small with long-time anchor tenants, others sprawling megaplexes housing everything from cinemas to hypermarkets. Maybe it's the lack of better thing to do, but a lot of time can be spent enjoyably in an Asian mall. Not so much here. They're not even like most American malls, which feel exactly the same. The average mall here, for some reason, feels like dull and dingy counterparts from the Midwest, instead. And they're small. Take Stockmann's Helsinki flagship store. It's the largest in the Nordic countries, and after its expansion next year, it will be one of the largest in Europe, at 50,000 square metres. Ngee Ann City in tiny red dot Singapore holds 110,450 square metres of retail space—more than double that. And it isn't the largest mall in Singapore. People in Europe have four seasons and lakes to row across, I guess. Mountains to climb. We in Singapore will have to contend with Orchard Road, our natural landscape to traverse, weekend after weekend.
