How is it May already?? 2018 sure is flying by! A few insanely fun things have happened in the last few weeks and I'm super excited to share them all. Let's start chronologically with my trip to Helsinki, Finland!
Did you know that Helsinki is one of the coldest capital city in the world, reaching a low of -33°c in the winter. Understandably, to make up for the cold, they have an estimated 2 million saunas in Finland, which is pretty insane for a country with around 5.5 million people!
My friends from work, Samir, and myself set out for Helsinki on a fine Friday evening and landed just after midnight. We started our trip on a gloomy Saturday morning, walking through landmarks such as the Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral (Helsingin Tuomiokirkko), the Uspenski Cathedral, and Kauppatori (Finnish for Market Square) where we caught sight of some gorgeous salmon! Since it wasn't lunch time yet, we quickly tried the salmon soup (lohikeitto) and deer sausage - already food life in Helsinki seemed more promising!).
Helsingin Tuomiokirkko
Uspenski Cathedral
View of Helsinki from Uspenski Cathedral
A ton of canned game meat in the Old Market Hall next to Kauppatori
After all that, we made our way to Suomenlinna, one of many islands around Helsinki, and home to a UNESCO listed 18th century sea fortress! Although I realise now that all of the photos I took on the island does not really showcase the fortress... whoops!
You might have noticed in the photos, we went from gloomy to sunny because the sun decided to welcome us! Suddenly we saw the island in a whole new light (ha, punny I know) and even found some cool fortress tunnels to walk through! When we got back to Helsinki, even the landmarks we saw just a few hours ago seemed all the more stunning!
After seeing the lovely salmon at the market, we set out to search for more salmon for lunch and stumbled upon Deliberi! It's pretty much a cafeteria styled establishment (which is great financially) and I got the salmon burger (and chips) for only €10.
The rest of our Saturday was pretty chill - visited Kaivopuisto park and garden, chilled at the hotel, watch the sunset (Samir and I got stupid and spent a foolish amount of money on whisky), and enjoyed dinner at the hotel! At Meritorppa restaurant, I ordered the scallop risotto, tasted great but what is with the small food portions in this country? Continued the chill mood by relaxing with the girls before heading to bed!
The next day we visited the Allas Sea Pool right next to the Market Square! This area consists of one adult hot pool, one childrens hot pool (both 28°c), and a filtered Baltic Sea water pool. That day the Baltic Sea was 5°c and so the pool too was 5°c! In total, I dipped in the sea water pool three times and spent most of the time relaxing in the hot pool. We also enjoyed the mix sauna after! One of the locals shared with us that about a month prior, the sea water pool had ice in it and they had to break the ice to dip in it. Now that's a proper polar dip!
Had ourselves a well deserved lunch after at Kaarna Baari & Keittiö, where I ordered Smørrebrød, a room temperature dish with shrimp mixture, salmon, pike roe, 65°c egg, and pumpkin bread!
Again good but small portion. It actually took us a while to find a restaurant this cheap (€20+ for my dish), I admit Finnish prices aren't pleasant and I'm happy none of us in the party was keen to drop €40 for a main. After, we had some coffee and dessert at Espresso House before catching the train at Helsingin Päärautatieasema (Helsinki Central Station) to the airport. We certainly had a dramatic experience finding out how to buy tickets to the airport! We eventually figured it out and still made it in good time to make our merry way back to Watford!
Helsinki was certainly a lovely weekend visit! Hope to back to Finland one day to explore more of the nature side of the country, until then näkemiin (goodbye)!
Listening to "Just A Little More" by Per Ljungqvist, George Nakas, & Sara Gunnarsson
Images taken by me
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