Quick post-xmas visit in Finland

After a Christmas spent in La Rochelle, I still had enough holidays to briefly pop over to Finland, which I was happy to do. As I was only staying for 3 days and a bit, the program was going to be rather tight, as I was trying to squeeze in meeting as many people as possible.

We started off with a post-Christmas meal at Tomi's place back at Haravakuja. It was great, as always, great to see everybody, including Nanna, Tomppa, their kids and Julia, my dear niece. I naturally ate way too much...

The next day, I was planning to meet Janne, Tomi and my dad in Kallio, where we were planning on having lunch in Oiva, a traditional Kallio haunt located on Porthaniankatu. I decided to walk down to the restaurant with dad - I really love walking around Helsinki. It was particularly nice on a cold, sunny winter day we were lucky enough to experience. A pity there wasn't any snow, though...

Our panoramic stroll took us by the railroad station, through Kaisanniemi park (with the botanical gardens), past Hakaniemen Tori, up Kolmas Linja to the restaurant. Lovely little stroll! The meal itself was your typical Finnish luncheon restaurant buffet deal - pretty good quality. I liked the place - unpretentious, with a retro feel, with a nice mixed clientèle of Kallio hipsters, local old-timers and office workers having their lunch there.

The next day, I had the foolish idea to go for yet another Christmas swim. Clearly, the La Rochelle experience wasn't enough... My dad was foolish enough to join me. We decided to head to Löyly, a fancy new seaside sauna opened a couple of years ago, a pretty trendy place these days, apparently. It's a place I've wanted to check out for some time. It felt like a pretty good plan, since it would've allowed us to combine a nice hot sauna bath with the rather wintery dip in the Baltic. 

Alas, though, Löyly was closed, so we only went for the icy dip in the Baltic part of the plan. Still, a lovely experience - the views from the sea are pretty lovely, and the sunny weather actually made the experience significantly more enjoyable than my swim in La Rochelle. 

The mandatory foolish swim bit done, I decided to walk to Kallio again, where I was meeting Janne, Katja, Yang and Rasse for some escape room action. The walk was lovely, as it was the day before - this time taking me through Eira, past Johanneskirkko, Esplanaadi, the Senate Square and so forth. Each time I walk around Helsinki, I get quite nostalgic and a bit regretful about not living there (the feeling of regret is usually quickly dispelled when I compare the Finnish weather to the Cote d'Azur weather between September and April....).

We did better in the Escape Room than last year (when I had a go at it with Janne and Katja) - we managed to escape with minutes to spare! Yoppii! After a nice lunch in my favourite Middle Eeastern restaurant in Kallio, Sandro, we headed off to Janne and Katja's place, where we had one of our nerdy, and very enjoyably board game nights. 

And then, alas, the next day, it was time to fly back to France. It was short, but oh so sweet!

Christmas in La Rochelle

Time to celebrate Christmas! Most years, we celebrate Christmas apart, which is a real pain, so this year we decided to to do it together. So the plan was to head down to La Rochelle a few days before xmas, spend Christmas even there, and then for me to head down to Paris, from where I was to fly to Finland for a bit of post-Christmas fun.

As we were flying via. Nantes, we naturally decided to pop over at Aude and Magaye's place for a quick visit - they kindly cooked a nice lunch for us. From there, we took Bla Bla car down to La Rochelle (travelling between "provincial towns" in France is a bit of a pain, so a car pooling service like Bla Bla car is really handy).

Our stay in Puilboreau was pretty much as usual - that is to say, very nice. Francoise and Etienette sure know how to spoil us with good food, of the home-cooked, hearty kind, which of course is the best! Apart from that, our routines involved daily games of Scrabble with Joel (where I disgracefully and consistently lost, as usual), and a few runs in the surrounding countryside.

We did pop over to La Rochelle to catch a movie - the excellent, if somewhat depressing Manchester-on-the-Sea. La Rochelle is definitely one of the nicer cities in France, picturesque, yet human sized. I love walking around the old port - even if the rainy weather wasn't the best for outdoors activity.

On Thursday, we went for lunch to a nice restaurant just across the sea from the Ile de Re, a very beautiful, charming island we cycled around last year. After a tasty lunch in the panoramic restaurant (a pity the fog meant the view towards Ile de Re wasn't exactly splendid), we crossed the bridge and walked around for a bit in Rivedoux, the first village on the other side of the bridge. A lovely little place, with its typical white houses, and lovely sea-side views. We also checked out La Flotte, the next village down the coastline, this one even more picturesque, with its beautiful little port.

No Christmas celebration is complete without a Christmas swim. I was a little bit put off by the rather miserable weather, which showed no signs of brightening up. But, filled with foolish pride, I decided to have a swim anyway, accompanied by Mathilde and Herquise (who both wisely stayed on the beach, though). I can't say it was a very enjoyable swim (compared to the winter swimming on a sunny Cote d'Azur). But hey, at least I can now proudly say I did it, right? (OK, fair enough, nobody cares...)

For Christmas eve, we were joined by Nathalie, Herve and their lovely rascals Titouan and Colin, both energetic as usual. The food was, as expected, absolutely delicious (oysters, followed by pearl hen, followed by my favourite - Le Buche de Noel!). And then of course we got to open the pressies - yoppii. All in all, a fantastic Christmas celebration then!

The next day, 'twas sadly time for me to say bye bye to Mathilde and the others, jump on the train, and head down to Paris, from where I was catching a flight to Helsinki.

Circuit de Castellet

One of the things we missed during our 4 month absence from the Cote d'Azur is for sure the nature. Asia in general, and Japan in particular, can feel rather crowded at times. Hiking in Japan was quite a relevation - on our hike up Mount Tsukuba, we sometimes had the feeling of being stuck in a Parisian traffic jam or something...

So, this sunny weekend, we decided to do a hike. After some deliberation, we decided to do a hike called "Le Circuit de Castellet" near Saint-Jeanette we'd already done a few years back (we've done all the coastal walks available in our hiking books already!). We started off by walking around the village for a bit, trying to find the start of the trail - which in itself was pretty nice, since the French medieval villages is something else I missed in Asia (there is sadly quite little left in terms of historical buildings in Japan). Saint-Jeanette is not one of the most famous ones on the Cote d'Azur, but it's certainly a charming place to stroll about.

We eventually found the footpath, and headed off. The hike took us around the Baou de Saint-Jeanette (rising up to the lofty altitude of 802 meters) - a popular spot for people doing hang-gliding. This hike didn't go to the top, rather we walked around it, ending up at a nice ruined medieval sheepfold, where we stopped for a picnic lunch.

From there, the footpath took us back to the village. All in all, quite a fantastic way to spend a wintery Sunday afternoon.

Le 44

It's been a while since we've been to a proper restaurant in France, what with our 4 month absence 'n all (ahem, I forget myself, we were in Lyon a couple of weekends ago weren't we?

So I was more than happy to accept when Julien and Charlotte (who are very much up to speed with the best places to eat on the Cote d'Azur) suggested joining them as well as Aurelien and Julie to check out a nice new restaurant in Antibes they'd tried and enjoyed.

The place is called "Le 44" - since their menu (with starter, main course & desert) costs 44 Euros (does that mean they will have to rename the place when they have to raise prices due to inflation and the place just being so darn popular - which will inevitable happen when people discover this gem of a place).

I loved the place - the food was really excellent. Almost Michelin-star quality, but without all the fancy pancy stuff that sometimes comes with those Michelin Star establishments. We had a rather lengthy chat with the young, energetic, friendly and extremely friendly chef. I rather like his approach to cooking - using local, reasonably sourced ingredients.

So, should you ever find yourselves in Antibes - do come here - but remember to book (the place is popular, and when people find out just how good it is, it will become even more so!)

A weekend in Lyon

So it's just been a couple of days since I've been back in France, and needless to say, I'm finding it just slightly difficult adjusting back to our daily routines, having to go to the office, and all that...

Actually, while we were in Japan, we'd signed up to participate in the JLPT exam (JLPT stands for Japanese Language Proficiency Test), which just so happened to be taking place in Lyon on the first weekend after my return. So, time to pack the bags then and hit the road for Lyon! (great excuse to check out Lyon again, one of my favourite cities in France).

Our hotel was a rather unexciting chain hotel called Le Campanile in a rather charmless suburb of Lyon. So after checking in, we jumped on the metro, and headed into the town centre. We spent the morning walking around in the lovely old town, checking out all the cozy-looking restaurants (many of them Bouchons, traditional Lyonnaise eateries). We settled on a nice-seeming restaurant in the old town, where we had an unsurprisingly delicious French meal! Nice change to get back to French food, after 4 months of Asian grub.

We spent the afternoon randomly walking around town - we've been to Lyon a couple of times already, so didn't feel an overwhelming need to go to any museums or similar (well, we were planning on visiting one the next day, actually). Lyon was pretty busy on this Saturday, with some sort of festival going on, involving a lot of students putting up various spectacles in the streets. Some police demonstrations going on as well....

For dinner, we decided to try our hotel's buffet restaurant - not one of the best ideas we've had, I have to say. The buffet was unsurprisingly unappetizing, so I decided to order something from the menu instead - pizza. It was definitely the worst pizza I've had for years - and that's saying a lot. One of those Micrwave pizzas you can get at the supermarket tastes better! A bit of a fail then...

The next day was our Big Exam Day. But before that, we decided to check out a fancy museum they've recently built in Lyon, Le Musee des Confluances. It's quite a masterpiece of modern architecture (if you are into strange geometric shapes made of glass, metal and wood, which I obviously am then, since I rather liked the building!). The museum itself is pretty interesting too - it's apparently a science centre and anthropology museum.

I loved the place - this is how modern museums should be like. Basically they've found the right balance between what traditional museums used to be like, yet using modern technology where appropriate. And most importantly, it's a place where you learn a lot - which to me is the most important thing when it comes to museums like this. A much more interesting museum than for example MUCEM -  the new museum in the port of Marseille.

And the Japanese exam, then ? Well, given that we were doing the N5 exam (the lowest level), I would've expected it to be easier, given our 6 weeks of intensive studies in Tokyo. Actually, I found it a bit tough, so fingers crossed, results are out end of January....

Anyway, nice to be back in France! ;-)

More Beijing exploration

After we got back from the Big Wall, we continued our exploration of Beijing. So much to see, so little time...

The next day, we woke up to a totally different Beijing compared to the previous days. The famous pollution had reached peak levels, with the famous smog rolling in. Pretty scary actually, not something I could imagine living with all year around... Anyway, we decided to brave the warnings and head out to explore town anyway.

We started with another one of the main sights of Beijing, the Summer Palace. It's quite a long metro ride to get out there, as the place is 9km outside of town. The palace complex, which is actually the largest and most well-preserved Royal Park in China, dates back to 1750, when it was constructed as a place for the Emperor and his family to enjoy and entertain guests. Empress Dowager Cixi actually embezzled navy resources to make the place as splendid as it is today.

It's a huge place, and to really see it  all in one day is a pretty challenging task. We did manage to see most of the highlights. We probably preferred the Tower of Buddhist Incense, which sits on one of the highest spots in the Summer Palace. The views from there towards the Royal park are pretty amazing - even if the smog did admittedly ruin the view a little bit.

We were also treated to the spectacle of some Chinese theatre at the Grand Theatre, which is located in the poetically named Garden of Virtue and Harmony (most famous historic places in Chinese palaces seem to have grandiose names like that).

All in all, I was a little bit disappointed by the Summer Palace, actually. I mean it's an impressive place, for sure, but I just didn't enjoy the visit as much as say the Forbidden City. I'm sure the tourist masses had something to do with it (but then again, they were at the Forbidden City too...), and even more so, the pollution. Perhaps the best time to visit the place is during summer, when the pollution is less oppressive... Still, the Summer Palace is obviously worth a visit, no question about that!

We then made our way to the town centre, where we decided to check out one of those famous Hutongs we'd read so much about. Hutongs are basically small historic alleyways, lined up with historic stone house complex, with inner courtyards. As we quickly discovered, they are basically the heart and soul of Beijing, just great areas to have a walk around. They are becoming rarer and rarer, sadly, as Beijing continues to raze them in its mad rush for modernization.

Thankfully, they are becoming very popular with tourists, with trendy cafes, restaurants and bars lining up the alleys, which I suppose gives some intensive to preserve them. If you ask me, the Hutongs of Beijing are just as much a most-see "attraction" as the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace!

For dinner, we decided to try out the Beijing Branch of my favourite steamed bum dumpling restaurant chain, Din Tai Fung, located (as they often are), in a fancy modern shopping mall, not to far from our youth hostel. As always, the dumplings were nothing short of amazing - I tried truffle-flavoured as well as chocolate dumplings this time around. Yummie!

The next day, we checked out the third absolutely must-see Beijing attraction - the modestly named Temple of Heaven. This Imperial temple dates back to the Ming Dynasty, or 15th century - it was mainly used by the Emperor to pray for good harvests. It's actually not a temple in the ordinary sense in that normal people do not come here to pray.

The temple is surrounded by a huge park, which was actually a very fascinating place to observe Chinese people in leisure mode. There were people doing jogging there, people doing sports, people playing go, people playing cards, people doing Tai Chi, choirs singing communist hymns, people walking their dogs. So we actually spent a good hour just walking around, watching people going about their routines. Fascinating!

The temple itself was, as expected, overrun by tourists - and for good reason! I definitely enjoyed the Temple of Heaven more than the Summer Palace - I found the architecture more impressive here. The highlight of the temple complex is definitely the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests - this is where the emperor came to pray. This 36-meter high circular, tower-like building must be one of the most magnificent wooden buildings in the world.

Almost equally beautiful was the Imperial Vault of Heaven, also circular, and just perfect. There is plenty of more to write about the Temple of Heaven, its buildings, and just the important the complex used to have in Imperial China, but I shan't bore you with the details - please read wikipedia or something if you want to know more ;-).

Anyway, I would say that if there is one place you need to visit in Beijing, I would say it's the temple of heaven (even more so than the Forbidden City) - I just loved the place. In spite of the touristy hoards and the pollution that was still very much there, ruining my photos...!

Isabelle absolutely insisted on doing a bit of souvenir shopping, so we decided to check out a proper Chinese antiquities market. We decided to go to the big daddy of Beijing antiquities markets - Panjiayuan. What a massive place it is - and actually I found the whole experience rather fascinating (that's saying a lot from a guy who dislikes shopping as much as I do!). I mean, there is so much beautiful stuff on display here! We also ate duck head soup here - now that's something that doesn't happen to me very often! I even gave in and bought a couple of souvenirs myself there...

This was actually Isabelle's last night in Beijing, so we decided to have a rather fancy meal at a nice boutique hotel located in the same Hutong as our hotel (anyway, I felt like a proper meal, after that Duck Head soup - there just ain't that much meat on the duck heads to dig into!). Anyway, excellent meal, and a nice way to end our common journey together.

So, one more day for me to explore Beijing solo, before it was time for me to head back as well (argh, was already starting to get a bit fidgety about going back to the office after 4 months off work!)

I started off with a visit to the Yonghe Temple (aka. the Lama Temple), which is biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing. And an impressive one it is. What's nice about this one is the fact that it's also a temple mainly for real worshippers, rather like camera-wielding tourists like myself. The main place to check out here (apart from the peaceful Tibetan atmosphere) is the 26 meter Buddha statue sculpted from a single piece of sandalwood (now that's what I call an impressive piece of engineering!). It was a gift from the 7th Dalai Lama to the Qinglong emperor, and took no less than three years to transport from Tibet! It was also quite interesting to read all the official party jargon about how the temple promotes unity and harmony for Tibet as a part of China...

There's an interesting Confucian Temple  near the Lama Temple, that I decided to check out as well. As other Confucian temples I've been to, it's a rather austere place, not a place of worship in the traditional sense. The main thing to see here is the huge collection of stone steles here, upon which the 13 Confucian classics have been engraved. Wow, that's impressive, I guess, to the initiated... What was more fascinating was the beautiful Confucian University, located just next to the temple, with its beautiful gardens and ponds.

I spent the rest of the afternoon Hutong-hopping, just enjoying the local life and atmosphere in those atmospheric back alleys. Yep, I would say the Hutongs are definitely the part of Beijing I prefer. I even came across the oldest microbrewery in Beijing (interestingly, operated by an American). The cherry on the cake for my Hutong tour.

I ended up my Hutong walk by checking out the famous Bell and Drum towers. As mentioned before, all major Chinese cities seem to have their Drum and Bell towers, usually pretty impressive historic buildings. The Drum towers are usually located at the symbolic centre of a city. They were originally used for musical purposes, and later on to keep track of and announce the time. IN Beijing, they stand facing each other along the Northern end of the central axis cutting through Beijing (the Forbidden City is directly to the South of the towers).

I decided to finish my visit of Beijing with a big bang - so I went to check out the Legend of Kung Fu show. It tells the somewhat tacky tale of a young and innocent boy who goes to a monastery to learn about Kung Fu, but alas, he's led astray by a beautiful girl, only to refind his way and become a master of Kung Fu. So, like I said, the storyline is tacky (told in a badly dubbed English voice over), but boy is that Kung Fu impressive. Most of the show consists of beautifully choreographed spectacular sequences that are a bit like a mixture between martial arts and dancing. Pretty impressive!

That, alas, brought an end to my Chinese adventure, and my 4-month Asian adventure as well. China was certainly a fascinating place to visit. There is so much history, nature and culture to visit. I think China gets a lot of bad press - for sure some of it is deserved, but I think if people actually travelled around China a bit, they might also discover another side of the coin...

Beijing, and one Big Wall

The final stop on our trip in China was Beijing - a place I've been looking forward to visit for a long time. We'd booked yet another youth hostel in a Hutong (Hutongs are traditional Beijing alleys, which are lined with historic courtyard homes). We arrived pretty late at night, so we just had a burger in the cozy bar/restaurant, before hitting the sack.

The next day, we started our exploration by heading off to one of THE emblematic places in Beijing, Tiananmen Square. The square is named after the "Gate of heavenly peace", located to the north of the square, separating the square from the Forbidden City. It's a pretty impressive place, the soldiers touring the square kind of reminds one of the sad events of 1989.

Most of the people around the square were tourists, though, this time around. Of course, we planned to visit the Forbidden city, but we stated off by checking out Mao's Mausoleum, which is located opposite to the Forbidden City. It's a special place, in a kind of morbid way, as Mao's mummified body is actually on display. One does, again, feel a kind of resonance of history.

The next stop was the Forbidden City, which needs no introduction, I suppose. This was the Imperial palace from the Ming dynasty until the end of the Qing dynasty, which ended the Imperial Era (so from 1420 to 1912). The name comes form the fact that nobody was allowed to enter the palace without the Emperor's permission.



It's a huge place, and also the most visited museum in the world (with nearly 15 million visitors per year). The Forbidded City measures 961 meters by 753 meters, and has no less than 980 buildings and 8886 rooms - pretty impressive numbers. Of course, not all of it is open to visitors, but there is still more than enough to keep one busy even for a full day.

We spent about 3 hours there in total, gaping at all the impressive treasures. The place kind of reminded me of the imperial palace we visited in Seoul, except that the Forbidden City is obviously much more impressive in all respects. I won't bore you with the details of all there is to say - what I can say is that you obviously need to visit this place if you ever make your way to Beijing. In spite of the inevitable hordes of tourists.

The Forbidden City ticket off the bucket list, we headed off to the nearby Jingshan park, or Prospect Hill. It's a pretty nice little park, and made for a nice change, as there are significantly less tourists here than in the Forbidden City. And the views from the top of the hill over the Forbidden City are rather magnificent.

The next day, since the weather forecast was rather good, we decided to head off to check out THE other place one really has to visit when coming to Beijing, the Great Wall of China. We decided to visit a section that's a bit harder to access than the place most tourists go to (Badaling), at Mutianyu. As it's a bit further away, getting there was a bit of an expedition, which took about 3 hours in total.

We then had to buy an entrance ticket, then a shuttle bus ticket, and then there is the optional cable car ticket. We decided, rather, to walk up, as it only takes about 30 minutes or so. Now, as we approached the top of the wall, I was kind of worried I would be disappointed - after all, one has heard so much about this place, so there is always the risk that expectations are not met.

I needn't have worried, the Great Wall really deserves its name - the sight of the mighty wall snaking its way up and down the surrounding mountains really takes ones breath away. The Great Wall here at Mutianyu is (apparently) particularly interesting, since the watchtowers are particularly densely spaced here. The views are also quite simply spectacular. And what's important too is the fact that the place is not overrun by tourists.

We spent about 4 hours on the wall, walking back as far as we could towards the Western end, and then doubling back, walking past as far as the Eastern-most cable car stop. I also had one of the most expensive beers ever on the wall (the Golden Rule in China - always agree on the price before buying ANYTHING). As the sun was starting to set, we decided to walk down and catch the bus back to Beijing.

So all in all, a fantastic day out. The Great Wall of China definitely deserves its place among the wonders of the world!