More Finland, and a bit of Estonia!

My adventures in wintery Finland continued with - surprise, surprise, a cruise to Tallinn. Tallinn is the favorite destination for Finnish booze-cruisers, but it's actually also one of the most picturesque and well-preserved medieval cities in Europe. So off we went, me, dad, Janne and Katja, on the brand-new (the rather boldly named Megastar, if memory serves me).

The journey through the snow-covered Helsinki archipelago was quite a nice one, and we arrived in Tallinn just in time for lunch! After some quick research on tripadvisor, we decided to book a table at a place called Mekk. And boy, was it good... Tallinn is one of the best places in Europe to eat very sophisticated and tasty food for extremely reasonable prices. The food here was about as good as at Chef et Sommelier the day before yesterday, yet the prices were considerably easier on the wallet. OK, I know labour costs aren't the same, but for people coming from Helsinki, it's great!

The food bit done, we had our mandatory stroll around the beautiful historic centre. We checked out the main square, with the picturesque town hall, and visited the free pharmacy museum - quite an interesting little curiosity (and still an open pharmacy as well, actually!). We then made our way up to Toompea, or castle hill, and briefly checked out the nice views across the old town. We also paid a brief visit to the beautiful Orthodox cathedral - this one is even nicer than Uspenski cathedral in Helsinki, I would say.

The next stop was the (bear with me, a bit of a mouthful, this) Lennusadam seaplane harbour. It basically houses a huge seaplane hangar, which has been converted into a naval museum, which charts the small yet energetic nations naval history. The place is worth visiting just for the inventive building, and how it's used to showcase the boats (including a submarine!). The highlight here is no doubt the submarine, which can be visited on the inside, but there are also other interesting ships outside in the harbour that can be visited. A very interested place to visit, if miliary/seafaring history interests even a little.

And then, 'twas time to head back to Helsinki. We were nearly sober on arrival - are we getting old or what ? Nobody should get back sober from a Tallinn cruise...

On Thursday, I had a crazy plan to go and meet some ex-Nokia colleagues in Tampere. I actually managed to convince my young cousin Jukkis to drive me to Tampere with Jarkko's rather cool 5-series Beemer. We started our visit by checking out an ex-colleague's, Pentti's, startup called Nomicam. Quite an interesting setup they have, great to catch up with some ex-colleagues as well.

The plan was then to meet up with some more folks for dinner, but before that we had a bit of time to kill, so after a rather tasty burger meal at Friends n' Burgers (I say that without irony, their burgers are great!), we headed off to check out the Finnlayson factory complex, kind of for no particular reason, other than the fact that it's quite an interesting place to stroll around. We visited the Werstas industry museum, which was actually very interesting - and fantastic value for money as it's free! Tampere is sometimes called the Manchester of Finland thanks to its industrial heritage, and this museum pays great homage to this aspect of the city's past. I warmly recommend visiting should you happen to find yourself in Tampere.

The meal was great - we had loads of beer and ridiculously spicy chicken wings (I asked for suicide level sauce - you get what you ask for), and had quite a good turnout (Sami, Hannu & Rita, who used to live in Nice, Pentti and also Olli, my ex-colleague from Ulm). Great to catch up with everybody! We made it back in one piece, rather late at night, thanks to some sterling driving from young Jukkis.

Now, no wintery visit to Finland is complete without an "avantouinti" (Finnish for "winter swimming"). This time around, I wanted to try it out at a place called Löyly, a sort of fancy sauna in Helsinki, located in Hernesaari. It's a little bit pricey, but quite a wonderful place to visit. The architecture is great, and so are the saunas. There is even a "savusauna" (a smoke sauna). And of course, I got to do the winter swimming, even if the hole of the ice was rather tiny (not that winter swimming in my case really implies any actual swimming - it's more a case of "get in there, try to survive for about a minute, and get out").

After a booze filled night out with Aki and Jani, it was sadly time for me to head back to France on Saturday. All in all, yet another wonderful visit to my home country.  Hopefully it won't be too long until I can make my way back!

Wintery Finland

Of course, a visit to Finland was kind of mandatory before heading off to the land of the rising sun. As often, I had a pretty full program planned by the time I arrived, the basic idea being having the time to see as many people as possible in one week.

I arrived in Helsinki late Thursday, and spent Friday day just chilling out basically, and enjoying a not very wintery Helsinki. For the evening, I made my way over to Katja and Janne's place, where Rasmus and young Philip joined us for our traditional gaming night (it actually snowed on the way to their place, yippee!!). Let the nerdy times rule - we kept on playing Dominion until about 3 in the morning!).

The next day, I drove up to Turku with dad, where I was planning to meet up with the old gang from Pargas for a few beers. We started in Koulu (where else?), with Oski, Jocke, Tomppi, Jani and Jonas showing up. After some heavy debating about Brexit, Trump and so forth (with Jani being a bit outnumbered...), we carried on to Apteekki, another classic Turku drinking establishment. I ended up crashing at Jonas' place, where we wore off the hangover by watching Family guy and other intellectual stuff on Netflix...

On the way back, we stopped by to say hi to Tomi and his family, and check out Suvelan Kappeli (they chose quite an unexpected location for such an interesting architectural creation - after all, Suvela is a bit like the Bronx of Espoo ;-) ).

I spent Monday doing what I love doing in Helsinki, that is walking around and taking photos. The weather was not the best for it, as it was a bit cloudy, and VERY windy indeed. So it felt like a bit of a polar expedition at times, since I didn't have any gloves. But I was treated to some pretty nice views, especially towards Katajanokka from Tervasaari (a small island located in Pohjoissatama). I also checked out Uspenski cathedral (the orthodox cathedral, in my opinion the prettiest church in Helsinki), after which I headed off for my lunch date with Jocke in Bellevue. Bellevue is, in spite of the somewhat misleading name, actually the oldest Russian restaurant in Helsinki. The reason for this choice of venue was that I wanted to try blinis, and what better place than this to try this Russian delicacy?

On Tuesday, the plan was to celebrate Janne's 40th birthday (OK, a month or so too late, but better late than never, eh?). To mark this milestone, we decided to go to Chef and Sommelier. It's a place I've wanted to try for ages, since the sommelier, Johan, is actually a childhood friend of mine. And they do have a Michelin Star as well. So expectations were high. And Chef and Sommelier surely didn't disappoint! I love the concept - modern nordic cuisine, all made of locally sourced ingredients. There were some real surprises, like pine soup. What I like about the place too is the laid back atmosphere - this is not your typical Michelin starred restaurant at all. Hats off to Sasu and Johan for a great culinary experience!

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!

A week in Finland

Time to enjoy a bit of Finnish summer! This year, I only had time to head over for about a week, so it turned out to be a rather intensive affair.

I started my trip in Helsinki, where I stayed for a couple of days. I had a nice walk around Helsinki, as always, to check out what's new in the capital of Finland. Unfortunately, as the weather was rahter dodgy, Helsinki was not at its finest.

I met up with my cousin Jukkis and dad for lunch in Mei Lin, which is probably the best Chinese restaurant in Helsinki (well, at least the best one I've been to - and my cousin Rasse's Chinese wife seems to agree with the assessment as well). What's great about Mei Lin is that the food really is authentically Chinese - which means very hot in this case (as Mei Lin's cuisine hails from Szechuan).

In the evening, I headed off to Katja's and Janne's place, where we enjoyed a game of Brass - one of the best board games around. The afore-mentioned Rasse came along as well. Predictably enough, Janne won. All in all, a great nerdy way to spend an evening!

The next day, I headed off to Turku with dad. The plan was to meet Jani and Jocke for a "couple of beers". I arrived in Turku a bit ahead of schedule, so decided to have a walk around. Thankfully, the weather had turned very nice, and Turku certainly looks at its best in summertime, when the weather is nice. I checked out all the main landmarks, which aren't that numerous actually.

I met up with the lads at one of my favourite Turku drinking establishments, Koulu. It's a microbrewery located in an old school building (Koulu means School in Finnish). As expected, lively debates were had with Jani in particular over the recent Brexit (I suppose the conclusion was that we agreed to disagree on the matter). We headed over for a burger lunch at nearby Shamrock (an Irish pub), after which me and Jani headed off to Parainen by taxi, to spend the night.

Normally, I would of course stay at Rågard, our summer house, but this time around it wasn't possible, since there was no running water. So I ended up heading over to Kyrkäng instead, to Berit's place, where my dad was also staying. No problem with that - it's a lovely place. There is a nice sauna, and one can swim in the sea just down the road. What else does one need from a Finnish summer cottage ? I even had a morning run before catching the bus back to Helsinki the next day!

The plan for Wednesday was to chill out with Aki and Riku in Kirkkonummi, and then meet up with Jocke and Jonas for some beers in the evening. Before that, I managed to squeeze in an improvised lunch with Pete (a friend of us who used to live on the Cote d'Azur, but who's since relocated to Singapore). Good to catch up with him!

After my brief excursion to Kirkkonummi to meet up with the "brothers", I sped back to Helsinki, where I met up with Jocke and Jonas at the BrewDog pub in Punavuori. I really liked the place, it's a bit of a craft beer's mecca, so just my kind of place. After hanging out and catching up for a bit, we headed over to Sports Academy to check out the 1st EURO 2016 semi-finals, between Portugal and Wales. My heart felt strongly for Wales, but alas, Portugal proved the stronger (I'm afraid my somewhat illogical dislike of Ronaldo means I can't bring myself to hope for Portugal to win!).

Next day was my last day in Finland before flying to Paris - wow how quickly did that week go!? Again, I had a busy schedule. Things kicked off with me heading over to Sörnäinen, towards the east of Helsinki, a place I'm not at all familiar with. It's a suburb with a working-class past, which is being gentrified rapidly, in the wake of nearby trendy Kallio (much of the area resembled a big construction site). I met up my colleagues Jose and Jean-Luc for lunch in Teurastamo, the old meat handling/butcher site of Helsinki, which has been transformed into a rather attractive collection of restaurants. Good to catch up with them, even if the context was a bit sad. Microsoft had recently announced the termination of their mobile phones business, which they had acquired from my former employer Nokia. This effectively meant the end of mobile phones RnD in Finland.... Anyway, the food was good, that's what's most important ;-)

For the evening, I wend to a rather cool event called Monsters of Rock - a concert, as the name implies. The line up was impressive (if one liked metal, that is...): Amorphis, Opeth and last but certainly not least: BLACK SABBATH (on their farewell tour). Amorphis and Opeth were great (the Opeth lead singer is one of the funniest musicians I've seen live!). But of course most people were there to see Black Sabbath. And they did not disappoint - even if Ozzy's age is starting to tell... 

That brought an end to a short, but sweet visit to Finland!

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...

Christmas in Finland

This year, we were spending Christmas apart again, sadly, as Mathilde headed to the West of France, and I myself headed back to wintery Finland. Or rather, as the case was this year, a rather non-wintery Finland (the forecast promised something like 10 degrees on the plus side!).

I arrived after a rather long voyage (as the case often is, when going to northerly Finland), as planned on Tuesday evening, happy to meet my dad, who picked me up at the airport.

On Wednesday, the plan was to go and see Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, but before then, we had a couple of administrative formalities to take care of. And lunch, of course, which we had at a nice little place called Pompiers. It's a nice little lunch restaurant, managed by the Michelin-starred chefs of Postres. The name refers to the fact that the restaurant is located in an old firefighters barrack (the cool, retro interior decoration still reverently remembers this past). Pretty good food, but most importantly, excellent value for money! (somewhat rare in Finland, and especially Helsinki).

What about the film then ? I loved it! Unlike the prequel trilogy released ten years ago or so (jeez, is it really that long ago?), Part VII very much lives up to the spirit of the original trilogy. The nerd in me was certainly awakened ;-)

For the evening, we visited Jukkis, Jarkko and the kids at Ylästö, in Vantaa. Great to see then again, and glad to see that Jarkko seems to be coping well on his own with the kids.

The next morning, what better way to start Christmas eve than with a Christmas Swim ? So off we went, to Oittaa, us three fools (me, my dad and Jukkis). Actually, to start with, it didn't really feel like winter swimming, as the temperature was several degrees on the plus side (as promised), and the landscape was sadly snow-free. Well, the moment we got into the water, though, it definitely felt like winter swimming!  I think I did a bit better than earlier this year (I did my first winter swim this January), managing maybe 30 strokes or so instead of 10. Getting out of the water was clearly easier with a more modest air temperature. I wouldn't go as far as saying it was too easy though ;-)

In the afternoon, before starting the Christmas eating marathon, I decided to have a walk around Helsinki for a bit, since the sun was happily out. Unfortunately, there was no snow, but the light was just perfect for a bit of photography. So I had quite a longish walk in the end, taking pictures and just taking in the beautiful views over Helsinki, from Kauppatori and up from Uspenski cathedral. It really is a beautiful city.

For the Christmas celebrations, we headed to my brother Tomi's place in Espoo. Nanna was there with her family, as well as Sofia and Julia as well with their other halves. As always, we had a great time, eating traditional Finnish Christmas food (I did bring some foie gras for a French touch...), opening up pressies (I had one this year, which was an improvement over last year ;-) ) and just chatting away.

Christmas day was very relaxed indeed. We had a proper lie-in, and only got up at around 11AM. We then slowly made our way over to Tomi's again, for more eating and socializing. This time, Janne and Katja joined us for the fun. Time for some sauna action as well!

The next day, the plan was to head to the West of Finland. We started off by visiting mum's grave at the cemetery, and paying a visit at Estrid's place, for some coffee and cake. From there, dad drove me and Janne to Tomppi's place in Kaarina, for a real nerd/lad's day out, or whatever you want to call it. It basically involved board games, beer, greasy food, sauna and just hanging out, basically. The usual suspects were present, that is to say Tomppi, Rasse, Oski, Jocke and Janne. Great fun! And after all the fun, I got the unique privilege to experience Kaarina night life with a real expert (Tomppi). We nearly beat the local champions at pool! (more thanks to Tomppi than me!)

On Sunday, 'twas then time to head back to Helsinki, Rasse drove us. Surprisingly, I didn't even have much of a hangover. What was great was that some snow had appeared on the ground overnight, so Finland was starting to look vaguely wintery. I finished off a busy weekend with a few beers in Kaisla with Jani, Jocke, Jonas and Jose, followed by a decent, if over-priced burger in Morrison's Grill.

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!