Unexpected trip to Finland

I had to unexpectedly travel to Finland this weekend. The reason was not a positive one, as my dad had been taken into hospital about 10 days earlier. Thankfully, though, by the time I made it was time to travel, he was already well on the road to recovery (but still staying at the hospital).




Thankfully, dad was feeling well enough to join us for a bit of a celebration on Saturday, as it was actually the midsummer weekend (a rather big party in Finland!). So all in all, we spent a very pleasant Friday together, all of the family, at dad's flat on Fredrikinkatu - even if dad got a bit tired and had to leave in the middle of the festivities.

In the evening, we all went to over to Tomi's house in Espoo, where we spent some more quality family time - also meeting the younger generation (Nanna and her energetic twin boys, whose energy reserves seem to increase proportionally to their physical growth!).

I also had a pleasant walk around Tuomarila with Tomi and Janne, checking out the old 'hood ;-)

The next day, it was time for another celebrations - Katja is turning 40, so we celebrated her big day, again at my dad's flat at Fredrikinkatu (and he was again feeling energetic enough to join us as well, which is great). So cake, champagne, pressies, and just hanging out together again.

In the evening, I slept over at Janne's and Katja's place, which meant, of course, game night! This time we decided to have a go at Brass, a real board game classic. First time for me - a real classic indeed!  Brass is all about reliving the industrial revolution in Northern England.

Congratulations to Katja for soundly beating me and Janne!

On Sunday, it was time to fly back to France. But since my flight was in the afternoon, I decided to spend the morning walking all the way to Helsinki town centre. What better way to spend 3 hours on a Sunday morning, eh? I started off by checking out some fortifications dating back to World War I in Pajamäki (the fortifications here form part of a defensive framework the Russions built around Helsinki during World War I), just across the rail road from where Janne and Katja live. Quite interesting little place to visit, in the midst of nature.

From there, I carried on walking to the town centre, taking a route through Haaga, Keskuspuisto, by the Olympic Stadium, past the Winter gardens and to Töölönlahti. Quite amazing, that you can basically walk all the way to the town centre, just traversing parks and woodland, in the capital of a western European country. That's Finland for you!

I really love the walk around Töölönlahti, down to the railway station on the Kallio side. There are nice wooden mansions along the bayside (some of them housing rather cozy-looking cafes), and the views across the bay towards the Opera house, the Finlandia house are very nice as well.

My "mighy Helsinki odyssey walk" complete, I jumped on a tramway and headed off to see dad, before making my way to the airport for my flight. All in all, a very nice family kind of weekend - thankfully things turned out great for my dad in the end!