A few days in Finland!

After our intensive exploration of Hungary, we were rather looking forward to spending a few relaxing days in Finland. We landed in Helsinki in the evening, and jumped on the bus, heading westward towards Parainen, where our family summer house is located. Our arrival was celebrated with pomp and flair, as my parents opened a bottle of Madeira wine dating back all the way to ’45 (it was the 60th birthday present of my mum – the wine having the same age as her!). The wine was surely good, but I am not sure my palate is developed enough to fully appreciate this venerable wine…

Unfortunately, our dreams of lazing about were rapidly squashed, as my parents had a “talkoot” planned for Friday (“talkoot” basically means a bunch of people getting together and doing some work together – today’s task was to clear the area behind the main house of fallen trees and leaves). All the family was present, as well as our good cousin Tomppi, who came along with his chainsaw. Hard work it was, but I really enjoy these days of hard work every once in a while (I guess us office rats at least feel we don’t do enough “proper work”…), so no complaints from me! And the area behind the house did look rather more tidy after the day’s hard work, and we did a good job at replenishing the firewood stock as well! The sauna we had afterwards was very well deserved indeed, I should say!

On Saturday, ‘twas time for some tourism, as we made our way towards Turku, the old capital of Finland. We were joined by my nieces Julia and Sofia. We started the day with a visit to Logomo, a kind of cultural venue/exhibition space located in an old warehouse building (it was actually the main venue when Turku was European Capital of Culture in 2011). There were two pretty interesting exhibitions on – one showing photographs of Turku from the early 20th century (at a risk of sounding controversial, I reckon Turku was a prettier place then than it is now), and one discussing the various aspects of Fire (the link to Turku is that there was a great fire in 1827, which nearly completely destroyed Turku).

After this boost of culture, it was time for lunch. After some brief debate, we ended up in Mami, a very well rated restaurant on tripadvisor. An excellent choice, I must say! I think it embodies everything that’s good about modern cuisine – it’s a small, intimate place, offering traditional local dishes made from local ingredients, but with a modern touch. Really in the spirit of the times – and the set menu was very reasonably priced (especially considering we’re in Finland…) at 25 euros for three dishes. Highly recommended!

After lunch, we walked around a bit in the newly, very successfully reinvigorated Aura river area, making our way to Papa Joe, one of the “beer boats” located on the river. The beer boats are another Turku institution that must be experienced – so off we went. We were also joined by Jocke and Tomppi, who stayed on for a couple of beers.

For the evening, we were persuaded by our nieces to join them in the mad night life of Parainen. Off it was to Friends, the local hot spot for the youngsters of Parainen. Youngsters indeed, I have to admit we (Mathilde, Janne, Katja and me) raised the average age of the place by a couple of years, just the four of us… ;-) But, we had fun (especially Julia and Sofia) – I was even dragged out to the dance floor.

On Sunday, we took it quite easy, relaxing at the summer house, and slowly preparing to head to Helsinki. We stopped over at Parainen for lunch at the guest harbor – we enjoyed rather decent fish fare there.

On Monday, the plan was to take the ferry over to Saint Petersburg in the evening – but we did have a few sunny hours to enjoy Helsinki first. We spent the morning randomly walking around Helsinki; checking out an interesting photo expo on the Baltic, the new chapel they built in Simonkentta, and doing a bit of shopping.

We then wandered over to Kallio, where we were planning to meet Aki for lunch. The walk over there is pretty nice as well, taking in Senaatin Tori and Kruunuhaka (one of the prettiest part of Helsinki). We met Aki at one of the “jewels of Finnish cuisine”, Rosso (I’m being kind of ironic here). Good to catch up with Aki as well – who has recently become a dad (unfortunately no time to meet young Kalliomaki this time around)! After lunch, we took the oppurtunity to check out Hakaniemen Kauppahalli - my favourite covered market in Helsinki.

Then it was time to head back to my parents flat on Freda, and pack our bags for Saint Petersburg!