July 1999

My very first time in Finland. I was on a week's holiday with my best friend Dimitri in Helsinki, with main goal to visit Anna (second time we met in real life). We went out together on Saturday evening and had a great time. Afterwards we decided to be really unhealthy and buy us a snack, french fries with something over it.
There was a huge line outside the booth and we nicely stood at the end of the line waiting for our turn to come. It didn't go all that fast, but in the end we actually happened to get closer to the booth and the line behind us grew longer slowly.
Then all of a sudden a guy walks up to the line. He clearly had too much to drink and he was behaving really annoying, trying to get in front of the whole line (but just behind us, we were some second in line). Behind us was this guy who didn't really appreciate the man's behavior and ofcourse he needed to react to it, probably also to show his girlfriend or wife that he was a tough guy (who by the way had a tiny bit too much to drink himself, although not by far as much as the other guy).
The drunk guy started to step in front of the less drunk guy the whole time and in the end the last one pushed him away.
I looked at this going on for a while and it got a bit more agressive. I exchanged looks with Anna and I think by then she already knew what was going to happen.
The less drunk guy started provoking the drunk guy, yelling something in Finnish what looked to me like "Wanna fight? Common! Wanna fight?" And then all of a sudden the drunk guy sprinted forward with a speed that I found highly surprising for the physical condition he was in. He jumped on the other guy which was at least so surprised as I was. They both fell down four or five meters next from the booth, only because of the force and speed that the drunk guy developed so unexpectingly.
I glanced at Anna again and I saw the look in her eyes, seeing that she knew what I was going to do.
I hadn't been in a fight — an "active" fight — since was in fourth grade of elementary and I think one of the reasons I did what I did there was because I hadn't done anything in that particular situation at the dancing school. As a way to make up...
I looked at all the people standing around the two guys fighting and no one did anything... There was even a guy who stood leaning against the booth almost commenting the fight like it was some kind of ice-hockey or football game. It made me sick.
I jumped on the guy who sat on top (which was actually the drunk guy) and I grabbed him from under his arms and pulled him away from the other guy, who of course got up as fast as he could. I saw his intentions and turned around while I was still holding the other guy, putting me in between the two. I kept on saying to them in English to stop. At that point the friends of the less drunk guy stepped up and helped me by keeping their friend on a distance.
While I was pushing back the drunk guy, I kept on telling him to get a grip and that nothing was worth fighting like that. That there was no reason to be like that. I actually had no idea if he understood what I was saying. If he understood English at all, but I just kept on talking to him. I never raised my voice to him, just kept on speaking to him. And then all of a sudden he took my hand and hugged me and said in English Thank you, my friend, thank you.
It was actually a really emotional moment and it touched me. Even if he was the one who started the whole thing, I could see in his eyes that he regret what he did and I think — no, I KNOW — that had he been sober, this whole thing wouldn't have happened.
Then there was still the other guy, who came to me after I sent the drunk guy off (he was actually walking towards a car, but I never saw if he got behind the wheel or not). He thanked me also, but the look in his eyes wasn't all that positive. The drunk guy had broken his necklace and he wanted to get to him still to make sure that the guy at least took the costs for repair. I told him a couple of times that he was in no mental condition to get into a "conversation" with the other guy, and that it was partially his own fault that this whole thing had happened, but in the end he took a sprint to the other guy before I could stop him. And to be honest I was too tired of it all to go after them again, so I let him. I did check where he went and they didn't get into a new fight, I saw that much, but then I turned around and went back to Anna.
The look on her face I won't forget either. She looked frightened, worried... And she noticed the big red spot of blood in my stainlessly white shirt... I wasn't wounded. It was the blood of one of the guys from when they fell on the ground and tore open an elbow or something. I hugged her, but that didn't really help much, but at least she understood why I did it.

Now... the shitty thing was that I hadn't been in a fight for ... what? 15 years? And then the first time in Finland, with your girlfriend, trying to make a good impression on her parents, who'd seen me only once and heard of me only through their daughter. And then we go out one night and come home and the next morning her mom sees her daughter washing the blood from my shirt, because I had been in a fight.

Anna told her what had happened, and I never heard any comment whatsoever on the whole thing. Nor did I notice anything about her mom knowing the whole story.
I guess in the end everything was "just fine"...

People are stupid... (me included, I've been told, for jumping in between fighting people... who knows what could've happened...)