Touristing in Helsinki

From Turku to Helsinki is only two hours or less by bus, train or a car. But two days in an other town feels like being abroad! So we made a trip from the former capital city to the today's capital city.

A nice day as a tourist starts at Krulla's breakfast buffet

before stepping into our hotel

in a picturesque neighborhood

There's always time for a little shopping before seeing the sights, right?

A new Helsinki Music Centre where we heard a short day concert

Surely you can understand that somebody can easily spend one hour in a tea shop, sniffing and comparing different tea qualities

Taiwanese Spring Tea, first flush; aromatic, juicy and refreshing

Church of the Rock

Falafel, halloumi, salad, tabule, matbuha, tzatziki in a pita bread, with extra chili sauce at Fafa's

Fresh green peas make a good snack

See and hear the amazing story of the Afghan Girl in Helsinki Art Hall: Steve McCurry found this girl in the picture 18 years later!

The building of Kiasma is artistic and harmonic

Ruisrock Rocks!

The second oldest rock festival in Europe was held in Turku again for the 44th time, since 1970. I cycled to Ruisrock through the national park, enjoyed the wonderful, sunny weather and great bands like the Finnish grand old rock/ blues/ country man J. Karjalainen and the young reggae artist Raappana. Unfortunately Erykah Badu (U.S.) performed so late it was time for me to cycle back home again... ;-)

"At the end of your life, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away (Shing Xiong)". What are your breath taking moments?

What makes you feel happy? Could you try something really different this summer, maybe a new unexpected experience is waiting for you...? Have you visited a flea market - or even better, been a seller at a flea market? How about a classical music concert, or a dance class at a park?

Visit a cat show, make a train trip, visit an old friend or a relative, say hello to a stranger, buy strawberries at a market place or pick blueberries in a forest, swim in a lake, or...? Enjoy your breath taking moments!

Lazy Weekend

My husband was off for the weekend and I enjoyed my time on my own, doing nothing. On Friday I met a friend in a cafe and coming back to the street I bumped into another friend, and off we went to have some tea again. This great coincidence followed with an invitation to her home on Saturday evening.

On Saturday I enjoyed my time at my favorite place, home, and played with a camera, read a book, cycled to my friends house and had wonderful time with her and her family.

Now on Sunday I wondered if I should clean the windows, or the sauna, do laundry, at least cook or do something else useful... But, instead, I walked in a park, read a book, ate ice cream and strawberries, did some non-serious workout in a gym... All that was useful, enough, for me, for now. What a nice, relaxed weekend!

Midsummer In The City

This is the time of the year when the sun doesn't set at all. It is light all the time. People hurry up to their summer cottages, camping sites, festivals, sailing - as far as possible from the cities. Our home city Turku transformed into a ghost towns already on Thursday, day before the Midsummer Eve. But we stayed and loved it: the city is now ours!

I cycled around the city and it felt surreal, just few tourists wandering around, trying to find a restaurant or a cafe that would be open. Finland is now more or less closed. But the weather is nice and sunny, I see some people having picnics in the city parks.

We had a small bunch of fresh birch tree branches in our sauna, that's a must especially in Midsummer. Another tradition is to eat new season small potatoes, and that's what we did, a lot.

Heavy drinking is very often associated with the Scandinavian Midsummer, but we skipped that part, and instead watched a movie and slept well... Are we getting old or what...? Just don't say that we are old..!

My old fashioned bicycle makes me feel happy!

Normally these restaurant boats are packed, but not in Midsummer.

Love Forever!

What a nice piece of art!

So is this!

History is very present in Turku.

Electrical transformers (is that the right term?) do not need to look ugly, do they?

They can even be funny...

And artistic...