A night out!

When I heard that my friend Maike from Germany is also working as an au pair in Finland, I thought it would be great if we could meet and go out in Helsinki. Helsinki is so expensive that so far I hadn't been there for partying. But since I live so close, I wanted to do it at least once.
So, Maike and I met in Helsinki. At first, we sat down in Kamppi (the area in front of the bus station) and had the two beers I had brought with me. However, while drinking we realized that we are the only people with beer in our hands and were wondering if it's even legal to drink in pubic in Finland. (Because it was in Ireland and who would have believed that???) So, we went up to some police men who are always standing around Kamppi and they told us that on Kamppi it is indeed forbidden, but if we only went 20 m back from where we were standing, then we can drink there. So, confused-looking we walked 20 m and sat down on some dirty-looking steps. Later that night we were looking for a club called Rocktown (which didn't seem to be very popular because people in Helsinki didn't really know it) for
quite a while, but we gave up and went to a street where there are lots of bars just side by side. There it was the first time in my life that I paid 6€ for a beer (0,5 litres) and although I knew in advance that it would be that expensive, it still hurt quite a lot!!! (In Germany, that amount would cost 2,80€ in a bar.) By the way, yesterday I found out that Rocktown doesn't exist anymore and that now there is a club called Happy Days which doesn't have anything do to with rock. Since Maike had already been in Helsinki the whole day, she had done some research and knew in which bar there would be some good rock music. So, we went to a club/bar/restaurant called Virgin Oil, paid 10€ and saw some very good Finnish rock bands. I, of course, have already forgotten what they were called! :-P
We knew that our bus wouldn't leave before 4 am and it was only 3. So we decided to have another beer which surprisingly was quite a challenge. The closest bar was already closed. So, we went to On the Rocks (something my host mom has recommended) and I walked through the door and my ID wasn't checked because when I go out I wear quite a lot of make-up and that seems to make me look older than 17 (which is what most people guess when I do not wear make up). But since Maike is smaller, the bouncer wanted to see her ID. So I was waiting for her inside because I knew that she was old enough anyway. However, then the bouncer made a sign that I should come out and told me that my friend wasn't old enough to go in. We both were confused again because Maike is already 21. But the bouncer told us that for this night they had raised the age limit to 23. What an odd age!!! (And I though the US was strict with their age limit of 21!) So, the next bar we tried was also closed. But finally we found a bar/club that was still open and I could have a cider for 5,50€ (which still hurt)!
Back at the Kamppi bus station we realized that all the doors to the inside (where the buses are leaving from) were closed until 5.30 am. So, we asked another police men and he told us that our bus would be leaving from another bus stop just around the corner. We walked there, but couldn't find the bus number on the bus schedules of any of the bus stops. We asked another police man and he told us that the bus into the direction of Nummela leaves from inside the Kamppi and he was even friendly enough to tell us how to get there: through an elevator on the side of the bar (without any signs on it that it would bring us down to the bus stops). We were down at the bus stop 3 minutes before 4 am and were surprise how full this bus was at that time of the night. Of course, it was packed with young people who went partying in Helsinki for the night.
When we arrived at the closest bus stop to my house, my host mom picked us up by car at 4.30 am!!! But she said that it was a good thing to do because it was practice for the future because when the boys are older, they'll be partying every weekend and will want to be picked up from somewhere in the middle of the night regularly.