Grand finale: Helsinki & Tallinn!

We arrived back in Helsinki just in time for dinner. This time, I decided to take our guests to another Helsinki institution (that I'd heard a lot about, but never tried), Fafa's. Fafa's specialize in falafels - not very traditionally Finnish, I agreed. But the falafels were absolutely delicious, and excellent value for money, too (good quality & excellent value for money - a rare combination in Finland!).

We finished off our soiree at Corona Bar, a classic Helsinki bar (it's owned by the Kaurismäki brothers). Straight out of a Kaurismäki movie: very retro design, only one beer on tap (none of this modern nonsense where you can actually choose a beer you like!), and service that could be called laconic at best ;-). 

The next day, we continued our exploration of Helsinki, which we'd started earlier in the week. We started off by checking out the Finnish design shops along Esplanadi and around Senaatintori (Aurelien was particularly impressed by the Tom of Finland towels sold at the Finnlayson shop). 

In my opinion, the Uspenski cathedral (an Orthodox church) is the most impressive church in Helsinki, so the logical choice was to continue our walk that way (going passed Kauppatori, which is getting awfully touristy these days). The view from up by the Uspenski cathedral towards Kruunuhaka as well as the Senate squares and Kauappatori is pretty awesome. I particularly like the interior of the church, it's rather more ornamental than most Finnish church, which tend to be somewhat austere in that Lutheran way...

We then proceeded to walk around Katajanokka a bit, checking out the impressive Jugend-architecture houses - including the house where my parents used to live, as well as the house that apparently inspired Tove Jansson when she illustrated the Moomin family's house in her books. It's a really nice place to walk around ....

Before heading off for lunch, we stopped by to check out a military parade that was being prepared at Päävartio - the main guard post (a building designed by Engel again). These days it's used by the Helsinki garrison. As we walked up the restaurant we were planning to have our lunch at, the parade went past us, all very pompous and army-like.

About that lunch. I decided to splash out on this one, to really impress our guests, and took them to Ravintola Olo, a Michelin-starred restaurant that's been voted as Finland's best restaurant at least a couple of times. I'd heard rumours about miniscule portions (always a danger at these fine dining places). My fears were partially well-founded, the portions were indeed small, but oh, so delicious.

For starters, we had beef tartar with echalotes. Divine. The second dish - Emmermanna and chantarels (emmermanna is apparently a "forgotten cereal" that nobody eats these days anymore - amazingly even google doesn't know about it!), again, amazing. Then, salmon and couliflower - a bit less surprising than what we'd had so far, but still great (and I normally hate couliflower!) and finally a rhubarb yoghurt to finnish off the meal. Finnish, refined, surprising, delicious. Best resturant meal in Finland so far (maybe apart from what I had at Chez Dominique), period.

Now, remember what I said about tiny portions ? Thankfully, we had a date with my ex-colleague Sakari as well as Janne & Katja at Fazer cafe just after our lunch. So thankfully, we could fill up there with some delicious pastries ;-) Great to meet up with everybody too, too bad it was all a bit quick this time.

For the evening, we met up with my good mate Jose, also a friend from the old days at Nokia. We invited him over for a quick dinner at my dad's place, after which we went over to Moscova bar for a couple of drinks (it's the other place owned by the Kaurismäki brothers!). Then just the boys went over to Teerenpeli for one last beer. Great to catch up with Jose again, maybe I'll see him more often now that he's located to Helsinki.

The next day, it was time for another must-Finnish experience, a cruise to Tallinn. Yeah, I know, Tallinn isn't actually in Finland, but one must go on one of these booze cruises to truly understand the Finnish psyche. Oh, and as an aside, Tallinn is actually a very nice place to visit too ;-) The departure from Helsinki is pretty cool, with views over some pretty nice islands that dot the Finnish archipelago, including of course Suomenlinna (the Unesco Wold Heritage site that we didn't get to visit this time, unfortunately).

The rest of the cruise, there is plenty to do: buy cheap booze, listen to Finnish musical classics sang with various level of talent, sing Finnish classics (Finns are huge fans of karaoke, once the alcohol kicks in!), drink cheep booze bought on the boat, eat (and drink of course!) at the all-you-can-eat-buffet. So much to do!

We eventually arrived, and headed into Tallinn. We had about three hours in land, so not all that much time to explore the place. We started with climbing up the winding staircase of Oleviste church. Oleviste church's claim to fame is that when construction finished in the 13th century, it was apparently the highest building in the world at 159 meters (this I got from Wikipedia, so it must be true!).

So anyway, we eventually made it to the top. And the views from up there are, in a word, stunning. One can see pretty much all of the stunning old town from up there (the old town, built during the Hansaic era, is in my mind one of the most well-preserved medieval old town in Europe), the Toompea hill (where we were headed next) and also the modern part of Tallinn (including the legenday Viru hotel).

Having checked out the great view from the top, we carried on our tour of Tallinn, heading over to Toompea Hill. This is the place from where Tallinn always was, and still is, ruled. The government of Estonia, and the parliament, is located here, in Toompea castle. Another top sight here is the orthodox Alexander Nevsky cathedral.

The touristy bit done, we rushed off to find a decent restaurant, not a difficult task in Tallinn. There are plenty of good restaurants here. We ended up in a great little place on Rataskaevu, which seems to be a great street for restaurants (this is where I ended up eating very well last time I was in Tallinn). Great local specialities for ridiculously low prices. That's what I like.

And then it was time to rush back to the boat. Back in Helsinki, we decided to have a burger dinner before meeting up with my good friend Jocke. based on Jocke's recommendation we decided to go to a new joint called Friends & Brgrs, a great little place on Mikonkatu. They have a very modern concept, where all the ingredients are locally produced, organic and made in-house. And not many burgers to choose from on the menu. An excellent concept, as the burgers are great. Even better than Hesburger, and that's saying something, eh!? We had a good time with Jocke in Kaisla, one of my favourite drinking places in Helsinki (it's like the opposite of Corona bar - the service is good, and there is a huge selection of beers!).

As a cherry on the cake, Julie and Aurelien also got to experience the night bus from Helsinki to the airport. The trip was "livened up" by a couple of drunkards who made the trip particularly interesting for a couple of female passengers.

But, anyway, a great trip it was, and I was sad to head back to France!