A few more days of Finnish winter

One more week of work to go in wintery Helsinki! I did miss sunny Nice, but on the other hand Finland is a very beautiful this time of the year, when the sun is shining over the snow-covered landscapes. Getting to the office was no problem either, what with the excellent bus services from Kamppi, just down the road from my parents’ place.

Monday night was quite a relaxed night out, met up with my colleague Sakari for dinner at Fransmanni, a Finnish attempt at French cuisine. It’s not the sort of place I would take French guests to, since the dishes are a bit fake-French, and the place has a bit of a chain restaurant feel (which it is, actually). But, can’t say the food was bad!

The next night, my parents had booked a table at the restaurant downstairs from their flat, Muru. Apparently it’s quite an in place these days, so advance booking is definitely required… Before our rendez-vous, I took the opportunity to go to the cinema – I saw “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, the John Le Carré adaptation starring Gary Oldman. It’s an excellent movie, although probably a bit slow for some people. Gary Oldman is, as always, brilliant. But don’t expect the pace of a James Bond film ;-).

Muru was a real culinary treat. It’s a place run by a few young guys (including one Frenchman), who are obviously very passionate about what they do. They only have one menu per day – the dishes depending on what ingredients they can find on a given day. It’s quite reasonably priced as well – for a Helsinki restaurant anyway! And very friendly service. I most sincerely recommend this place should you find yourself in Helsinki.

Wednesday, after another hard day at the office, it was time to pay a visit at Jean-Luc’s (or Jallu, as he’s known by his Finnish coleagues, a French friend of ours who lives in Finland. He’s recently moved to Tonttumaki, which is a nice little part of Espoo – in the middle of the forest, one could say. (that’s the great thing about Finland – even in the midst of the 2nd biggest city of the country, you get proper woodlands ). It was good to catch up with him and his family. On the way back, I even ran into some madman who was skiing in the middle of the night. Only in Finland, eh!? (well, maybe Norway as well…)

Thursday was blini evening. It was the end of the Helsinki blini weeks, which take place in Lasipalatsi. So off we went there, then, the whole family (me, my parents, Janne, Katja, Tomi and Leena) for a bit of last-minute socializing, dining and drinking. We all went for the 6 fillings with blinis option, naturally, and what a treat it was. We washed down the delicious food with white wine, and a vodka shot, of course. Yummie.

After the meal, I headed to Kinopalatsi again, to check out Hugo, a film I’ve wanted to see for quite a while. It is, after all, by Scorsese. It’s a great movie, although a bit overly sentimental at times. It kind of reminded me of The Artist – talking about the “golden age” of cinema, but this movie had dialogue, of course ;-).

Friday was my last day in Finland. I met up with Jani for lunch in Ruoholahti, and then it was pretty quickly time to head to the airport, from where I was joining my darling in Paris...! :-)