A wintery Helsinki

I still had a day and a bit to spend in Helsinki, and I was planning to make the most of it, especially since there was finally some snow on the ground. I started the day with a lunch in Otaniemi with Riku, Aki and Maija (OK, the fact that I started the day with lunch kind of says it all - I had already failed in my mission to make the most of my time). Great to catch up with them again.

I contemplated taking the bus back to the town centre, but then decided to walk instead, as it really was a fantastic winter day. I walked through the University area in Otaniemi, across the bridge over to Lehtisaari. There's a nice footpath along the coastline, which I walked along. Just a beautiful place - what's great about Finland is that there are still places of almost pristine nature, even in the capital city!

From there, I carried on to Kuusisaari, which is a bit more built up, but still a great place to stroll around. From there, my odyssey took me to beautiful Seurasaari. It's a place I usually visit in the summer, but it looks equally beautiful, if different, during winter. The sun was starting to set, so I hurried along, walking along to Sibelius puisto, where I checked out the Sibelius monument, together with busloads of mostly Asian tourists. Mass tourism has finally arrived in Finland...

To finish off my fantastic little walk, I strolled over to Cafe Regatta, a great little place to enjoy a coffee and pulla. It's a place I've read about, happy to pay it a visit finally. It's what one would call a hidden gem, except that it was very crowded (by tourists and locals alike). Must be great in the summer as well. After my sugary break, I was only about 20 minutes away by foot from my dad's flat. That's what's great about Helsinki (and even more so Finland in general), even in Helsinki city centre, one is but a short walk away from unspoilt nature - quite a rare thing in our day and age. Something I appreciate more and more, as I get older.

For the evening, the plan was to try out Helsinki Escape Room with Janne and Katja. Escape rooms are sort of real-life variants of the popular escape room computer/smartphone games. The idea is to basically solve a series of puzzles, and escape a room, in less than 60 minutes. In our case, the quest was called Archipelago, and the whole thing basically consisted of solving puzzles, mostly to find codes for locks that opened up doors, lockers and boxes (which included hints and codes to progress in the game). We made it all the way to the final control room, when time ran out. We were quite happy with our effort, in spite of our failure to save the Helsinki archipelago. According to the game hosts, we did very well (I suppose they say that to everybody, though?)

For dinner, we went to Gastrobar Emo. It wasn't my first choice for restaurant, but unfortunately choice was rather limited as a lot of restaurants are either closed between Christmas and New Year, or are closed on Mondays. Anway, not to worry, Gastrobar Emo turned out to be a fine choice. They are part of a growing number of restaurants in Helsinki serving Nouveau Nordic Cuisine, a kind of sophisticated take on traditional dishes, using local ingredients in an innovative manner. We tried the 5-course tasting menu along with some wine, so it ended up being a rather pricey meal. But an excellent one, the food was very creative and original (the portions were rather small, but we didn't leave the place hungry...), and the wines we had a great match for the dishes. So all in all, a very positive experience, and a great way to end my visit in Finland!

The next day, it was time to head back to France, which was on the one hand a pity, as I would've liked to experience a bit more of the Finnish winter. But on the other hand, I was looking forward to be reunited with Mathilde! And I did have a few hours in Amsterdam to look forward to as well, as I had a rather long stop-over there...