Just a bit more Finnish summer!

Back to Parainen, then, for a couple of days, before heading back to Helsinki for our flight back to France.

The weather was still pretty much perfect, so we didn't do anything overly ambitious. Thursday was spent just relaxing, enjoying the swimming pool, a bit of walking around the neighbourhood and of course some sauna. My cousin Mikaela came over with her family, which was great, haven't seem them for a while! Interesting to discuss their upcoming trip to Japan as well - we had plenty of tips for them ;-)

On Friday we decided to head over to Turku. We started off by checking out the international market - pretty nice little event with stands selling mostly food from various countries. We then visited the "Ett hem" museum ("Ett hem" is Swedish for "a home") -  pretty interesting place showing how the Turku bourgeois lived during the 19th century... The were even some less famous Gallen-Kallela paintings on display.

For lunch, we decided to try out Tintå - a safe choice we figured, given their number 1 ranking on Tripadvisor. We did have a pretty nice lunch here, and the location by the Aura river is certainly pretty much perfect, but I must say I enjoyed Mami (where we lunched a couple of years ago) more...

Then for the cycling bit... We tried to rent some bikes at the tourist office - no problem with that, except for the fact that Mathilde's bike was too big for her! So no luck with that then - thankfully we were directed to a bike rental shop where we managed to get correctly sized bikes (for a much more reasonable price as well!).

We then headed towards Ruissalo, biking down by the Aura river, taking in some of Turku's most famous sights (the Sigyn and Suomen Joutsen sail ships and the medieval castle). After biking through the port (quite uninteresting from a touristy point of view), we finally arrived at Ruissalo. Ruissalo is a rather nice, mostly undeveloped island located just next to Turku, the perfect place for a bit of cycling. Ruissalo is famous for hosting one of Finland's biggest music festivals, Ruisrock - this time around there was actually a smaller-scale music festival taking place (which explained the numerous youngsters cycling around with beer cans in their hands!).

We cycled all the way to the end of the island, had a well-deserved coffee and ice cream, and cursed the fact that we hadn't brought swimming gear with us (there was a very nice beach by the cafe). Oh well - time to head back anyway... After returning our bikes, we jumped on the bus back to Parainen, very happy with our sporty day in Turku!

Seeing as this was our last night with my family, we decided to have a BBQ - ah what joy... (the Finnish sausages are an absolutely mandatory part of the Finnish summer - even if I must grudgingly admit the French sausages are better - at least as far as the meat content is concerned!). It was really a great way to finish of our stay in Parainen - just hanging out & chatting with family. And drinking the odd beer, of course ;-)

The next day, then, it was time to head back to Helsinki. We got off to quite an early start, and arrived in Helsinki around lunch-time, which left us with all day to explore Helsinki, which is also a great place during the summer (when the weather is the way it was during this trip!) - even if it is somewhat deserted (most Finns spend the month of July at their summer cottages). We started off with the city museum near Senaatin tori, there was an interesting photograpic exhibition.

After a tasty coffee at Fazer's cafe (a real Helsinki institution dating back all the way to 1891 - even if the current establishment is more resent), we decided to just have a walk around Helsinki. We started off in Katajanokka, then headed back towards my dad's flat at Fredrikinkatu, passing by Kruunuhaka and the area around the train station (which has recently been given a bit of a facelift). By now our legs were rather sore, and it was time to head out for dinner as well.

For our last meal, I wanted to try something a bit special, so tried to get a table at Olo (a fancy Michelin-starred restaurant that's been voted best restaurant in Finland several times), but getting a table last-minute just wasn't going to happen, so we ended up in Kuu instead (a place pretty well-ranked on Tripadvisor - I'd also tried & enjoyed their sister establishment KuuKuu earlier this year). Definitely a quality place serving quality food, but I did feel a little bit disappointed with our meal. It's not that there was anything to complain about as such - their food just lacked imagination to me...

Getting to the airport turned out to be a bit of an adventure, actually! We had an early flight at 6:00, which meant we had to take a night bust at about 4 in the morning. I guess I'd forgotten what Finnish nightlife is like - navigating around all the happy party animals and finding the right bus turned out to be a bit of a challenge! Happily, we made it and managed to catch our flight.

All in all, it's been a very emotional two weeks. In the end, rather than being a sad time, I'll remember all the time spent together with friends and family. Just sad that my mum couldn't be with us to share these moments anymore...