Antonio Esfandiari in the Land of the Thousand Lakes

Last week, Antonio "the Magician" Esfandiari spent a few days in Helsinki getting acquainted with the nightlife, sauna and some other traditional Finnish pastimes. Read on to learn about the Magician's exploits on the homeground of Ziigmund and Patrik Antonius, and his comments on the memorable trip.

Antonio was invited to Finland by Jasper Pääkkönen, "the most famous actor in Finland," as his friend Ilari Sahamies once introduced him in Las Vegas. "I had a standing invitation for Antonio, but he told me that he was coming only after already booking his flights. I was happy to cancel a scheduled trip to the Toronto Film Festival for a chance to organize a great weekend for Antonio and a bunch of friends," Jasper says to Coinflip.com.

The schedule included a visit to the Grand Casino Helsinki although it was brief as there was only a €2/€2 game going which was too small for our heros. So, no poker this time, but a boat ride to a villa on an island where Antonio dared to swim in the freezing cold sea, a visit to the luxurious spa in the Kämp Hotel (where the water was somewhat warmer), and a dinner at the Saslik restaurant, specializing in Russian food. And of course the Magician was given a taste of the Helsinki nightlife. Events of the night included a prop bet for push ups (which Antonio won easily), and he also taught one of his card tricks to a Finnish player - on the condition that the player must never reveal the trick, and he also had to replace the picture of his girlfriend with the face of Antonio on his iPhone for a whole year.

iphone

Antonio talked to Coinflip to comment on his trip. "I had a great time!" he says. "Jasper is an excellent host, the GLO Hotel was superb and even the food was excellent."

That magical taste of lonkero

One thing that especially stood out for Antonio was a true Finnish specialty, "lonkero" or Gin Long Drink, a bottled drink about as strong as beer and originally created for the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952. "It's like a bubbly grapefruit soda. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the taste. They should definitely start shipping it to the States!" Antonio says.

What about the Helsinki nightlife?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how does Antonio rate the nightlife in Helsinki? "Well... if you take into account the girls (and you definitely should take the girls into account!), I'd give it a 7. It probably helped a lot that I was hanging out with the Finnish equivalent of Tom Cruise, so if Jasper hadn't been there, I'd probably have to downgrade to 5. So, if the XS Nightclub in Las Vegas is a 10, Helsinki is 5 and Helsinki with Jasper is a 7", the self-acclaimed professional party animal says.

Finnish people are known to be partial to a drink or two, but according to Antonio this trip included no drinking contests or other excesses. "If I had tried to challenge them, I would have lost a couple of days in my life, and I don't feel the need to prove anything to anyone. If we actually did take a drinking contest, it would be even but in the end Jasper would outlast me," Antonio predicts.

And the best part of the trip was...

In the end, it wasn't the partying or the girls but a very typical Finnish experience that made the biggest impression on Antonio. "The best part of the trip was when Jasper arranged that boat ride for us and took us to a traditional Finnish sauna. We swam in the sea and afterwards we sat around a campfire roasting sausages. That was something I'll never forget!" the Magician says.