Helsinki
I'm slowly getting the hang of blogs and have now added some photos, so check out the posts below for some piccies.
I seem to be only able to add one picture per post (is there another way Ben??).
Anyhow, back to the saga! We did a last minute 2 hour shop for Eva and a 2 hour walk to discover parks for Les in Stockholm and then we headed out on the train to the airport. We arrived in time, but had to queue for nearly an hour to get checked in! And then the flight was delayed half an hour which was just as well as we (or our luggage) may not have made it.
The flight was about 2 hours and the time difference was 1 hour, so we are back to daylight till midnight now, which is great.
We found the hotel, (Seurahuone) after getting a bus from Helsinki airport that took about three quarters of an hour to get in. The frightening part is that the traffic going the other way was heavy and we will have to get through that going back!
We decided to go for a few hour walk which we did to the botanic gardens, which is set around a fairly large lake with a water spout in the middle and surrounded by bushes, trees, flowers and a healthy Finnish supply of joggers! From there we crossed the railway line, and called in at a teahouse that had a beautiful view of another larger lake, with people sitting about drinking tea. We just looked and moved on to walk in a third park that went around the olympic site built for the 1952 (?) olympics here. We returned via the opera house (had a beer nearby) and the Finlandia building designed by Alto. It was a good walk and got all the cobwebs out.
We went out to dinner at a Finnish restaurant and my salmon was excellent as was Eva's reindeer. It is very hot and the hotel does not have air conditioning, so I stayed up till late and did email things, updated my diary (I've written over 100 pages now) and updated the blog.
Next day we go going early and had a great breakfast. This hotel reminds me to some extent of a bygone era. There are chandeliers, large drops of curtains, long sweeping elegantly curved stairways that look like they have come from the "Gone with the wind" set. But it is all very tastefully done. So, we had breakfast in such a setting, and we felt very special.
Afterwards we headed out to see an number of Design shops/museums, and for some reason there are very many in Helsinki, more than in Stockholm which surprised me. In general, Helsinki seems like a poorer cousin in that it has a worn sort of feeling, but not that of a favorite jumper, more like a carpet that was once grand, but is now a bit tattered but cannot be replaced as a new one costs too much! But when it comes to design, a different story. They are so well organised, with a "Design District Helsinki" brochure that list 104 design places in the city alone! We went to only a few and they were amazing!
For those of you reading this that are not so interested in design, you should read this paragraph as I talk about it. And those of you interested....well....you know! We first went to Artek which was a design showroom and a shop. I think the success of their presentation here, is that all the places were both, so you could actually buy the stuff as well as see the history. Much of the design was done by Aalto (husband and wife) but there was much much more. We stayed a bit too long for me (felt like shopping, for which I have a tolerance that can be counted in milliseconds on one hand) but Eva enjoyed buying stuff. Then we went to a few other places which were pretty amazing, but I want to get to the Design Forum. In their showroom part they had a display of so many varied design things from utensils, to lamps to furniture and more. Some were concentarting on design, but most had an aspect of the material that was fascinating. Some were on recycled materials, other were on new techniques (such as printing on concrete). There was a brush made of pine that was water blasted at the end to rough it up so you could use it for scrubbing pots - things like that. Then downstairs there was the cup of grass (or as the French might say Coup de grace)! There was a design of concept vehicles and they were amazing. Many designs were minimalistic (is that a style Ben?) and so different. The best was a three wheel motor bike that was driven by petrol that generated electricity that drove separate magnetic motors in each of the wheels. This allowed the wheel to be completely hollow, no axle, just supported top and bottom by struts! I just stared (and wanted one).
We had coffee and a well known (but I've forgotten the name) place that was in a long strip of green parkland, and it was styled like out hotel - very old world. We also visited the markets, which had so many strawberries that there would be enough sticks in all of Finland to shake at them!
From there Eva and Les separated - Eva to shop, Les to go exploring. Not sure what Eva did for more than 2 mins of shopping, but I had so much fun exploring. I walked for about 1 1/2 hours and found some churches, lots of flats, a few embassies, some interesting restaurants and bars. I kept getting lost, somewhat intentionally, and then having to figure out where I was and which way might be nice to head towards to get lost again.
One time I found a path between some flats that opened up to a very big park. It was quite unusual to find that the huge green lawns were undulating, as Helsinki is quite flat. One part of it was a very large south facing hill, where there were hundreds of people all stripped down to bikinis and shorts etc. It was so weird, like being on a beach but there was no water in sight! Then suddenly, the park ended at a major street! I think it was a green area for all the flats. Helsinki is good that way, there are lots of parks. I also came across a really cool looking night club, which was a set of stairs leading up to doors that looked like a church. Reminded me of Ben telling us of a night club called The Church. Will Eva and I go to this hot night club? Nah, don't think so, we are way too cool for that!
As I neared the hotel, I found a large Piazza where there was a rock band called Carmen Gray playing. I think they are famous througout the depth and breadth of the Piazza and there were more piercings on weidly hair-coloured 15 year olds, than there were strawberries in the markets! Actually the band was OK - they sang in english, and it was fairly heavy rock, but not noise.
(arghhhhh...I just lost 20 minutes of typing, well here goes, I'll do it again - bloody computers!!)
Eva had orgainised for us to go to dinner an hour later so she could do some more shopping (no she's not addicted, just female). This gave me more time to do stuff, so I updated the blog and my diary as well as catching up with some email - including hearing from Ben who was on line at the same time. It was almost as good as talking to him!
I then went to a chocolate place, that was descibed to us as "the best chocolate in the world". I had a wonderful berry tart, that was all berry, and a very nice hot chocolate. It was good, but Koko Black in Melbourne need not worry - those non-Melbournians who have not been to Koko Black should make the pilgrimage! I got back in time to have a shower before heading off to a Lapp restaurant to have some reindeer. Does having reindeer make you horny? I was about to find out!
We felt quite comfortable in finding our way around now, and just headed strait to the restaurant. I should add that in Stockholm Eva was somewhat navigationally challenged, but here in Helsinki she was able to find her way back to the hotel without a map. Go girl!
The restaurant was quite nicely done as a Lappland theme restaurant, with all the walls and ceiling (even the lights) all done in logs. Its funny, it looks like it might be Lapp, but for all I know they live in round houses made of insulated plastic!
Eva had fish and particularly enjoyed the salad for which I think she was having withdrawl symptoms. I had the reindeer osso bucco, which was nice but a little dry. When had with its accompanying sauce, it was nice. We also had a Cloudprioska, which is a caprioska with cloudberry liqueur with schnapps and lime. Yum! With some hard work and concentration we are also getting back into the swing of having wine, and the burgundy I had was very nice! Just a glass mind you.
No dessert as we were full and the restaurant was a little noisy with loud diners, so we were happy to go. We came back and watched England score a goal in the World cup against Sweden and repack our bags ready for the trip to Munich tomorrow afternoon.
In the morning we intend to go to the Arabia factory/museum/shop and amybe some other things (depends how late we get going) , but I will write about those things from Munich.
We will meet Chris and Kathy (Eva's brother and sister) and Hedi and Werner (Eva's Aunt and Uncle) in Munich as well as other relatives. I'm really looking forward to it. Hard to believe we have been away for 4 weeks now.
Oh, does eating reindeer make you horny? Well, I'm not going to tell you ..... ;-)
I seem to be only able to add one picture per post (is there another way Ben??).
Anyhow, back to the saga! We did a last minute 2 hour shop for Eva and a 2 hour walk to discover parks for Les in Stockholm and then we headed out on the train to the airport. We arrived in time, but had to queue for nearly an hour to get checked in! And then the flight was delayed half an hour which was just as well as we (or our luggage) may not have made it.
The flight was about 2 hours and the time difference was 1 hour, so we are back to daylight till midnight now, which is great.
We found the hotel, (Seurahuone) after getting a bus from Helsinki airport that took about three quarters of an hour to get in. The frightening part is that the traffic going the other way was heavy and we will have to get through that going back!
We decided to go for a few hour walk which we did to the botanic gardens, which is set around a fairly large lake with a water spout in the middle and surrounded by bushes, trees, flowers and a healthy Finnish supply of joggers! From there we crossed the railway line, and called in at a teahouse that had a beautiful view of another larger lake, with people sitting about drinking tea. We just looked and moved on to walk in a third park that went around the olympic site built for the 1952 (?) olympics here. We returned via the opera house (had a beer nearby) and the Finlandia building designed by Alto. It was a good walk and got all the cobwebs out.
We went out to dinner at a Finnish restaurant and my salmon was excellent as was Eva's reindeer. It is very hot and the hotel does not have air conditioning, so I stayed up till late and did email things, updated my diary (I've written over 100 pages now) and updated the blog.
Next day we go going early and had a great breakfast. This hotel reminds me to some extent of a bygone era. There are chandeliers, large drops of curtains, long sweeping elegantly curved stairways that look like they have come from the "Gone with the wind" set. But it is all very tastefully done. So, we had breakfast in such a setting, and we felt very special.
Afterwards we headed out to see an number of Design shops/museums, and for some reason there are very many in Helsinki, more than in Stockholm which surprised me. In general, Helsinki seems like a poorer cousin in that it has a worn sort of feeling, but not that of a favorite jumper, more like a carpet that was once grand, but is now a bit tattered but cannot be replaced as a new one costs too much! But when it comes to design, a different story. They are so well organised, with a "Design District Helsinki" brochure that list 104 design places in the city alone! We went to only a few and they were amazing!
For those of you reading this that are not so interested in design, you should read this paragraph as I talk about it. And those of you interested....well....you know! We first went to Artek which was a design showroom and a shop. I think the success of their presentation here, is that all the places were both, so you could actually buy the stuff as well as see the history. Much of the design was done by Aalto (husband and wife) but there was much much more. We stayed a bit too long for me (felt like shopping, for which I have a tolerance that can be counted in milliseconds on one hand) but Eva enjoyed buying stuff. Then we went to a few other places which were pretty amazing, but I want to get to the Design Forum. In their showroom part they had a display of so many varied design things from utensils, to lamps to furniture and more. Some were concentarting on design, but most had an aspect of the material that was fascinating. Some were on recycled materials, other were on new techniques (such as printing on concrete). There was a brush made of pine that was water blasted at the end to rough it up so you could use it for scrubbing pots - things like that. Then downstairs there was the cup of grass (or as the French might say Coup de grace)! There was a design of concept vehicles and they were amazing. Many designs were minimalistic (is that a style Ben?) and so different. The best was a three wheel motor bike that was driven by petrol that generated electricity that drove separate magnetic motors in each of the wheels. This allowed the wheel to be completely hollow, no axle, just supported top and bottom by struts! I just stared (and wanted one).
We had coffee and a well known (but I've forgotten the name) place that was in a long strip of green parkland, and it was styled like out hotel - very old world. We also visited the markets, which had so many strawberries that there would be enough sticks in all of Finland to shake at them!
From there Eva and Les separated - Eva to shop, Les to go exploring. Not sure what Eva did for more than 2 mins of shopping, but I had so much fun exploring. I walked for about 1 1/2 hours and found some churches, lots of flats, a few embassies, some interesting restaurants and bars. I kept getting lost, somewhat intentionally, and then having to figure out where I was and which way might be nice to head towards to get lost again.
One time I found a path between some flats that opened up to a very big park. It was quite unusual to find that the huge green lawns were undulating, as Helsinki is quite flat. One part of it was a very large south facing hill, where there were hundreds of people all stripped down to bikinis and shorts etc. It was so weird, like being on a beach but there was no water in sight! Then suddenly, the park ended at a major street! I think it was a green area for all the flats. Helsinki is good that way, there are lots of parks. I also came across a really cool looking night club, which was a set of stairs leading up to doors that looked like a church. Reminded me of Ben telling us of a night club called The Church. Will Eva and I go to this hot night club? Nah, don't think so, we are way too cool for that!
As I neared the hotel, I found a large Piazza where there was a rock band called Carmen Gray playing. I think they are famous througout the depth and breadth of the Piazza and there were more piercings on weidly hair-coloured 15 year olds, than there were strawberries in the markets! Actually the band was OK - they sang in english, and it was fairly heavy rock, but not noise.
(arghhhhh...I just lost 20 minutes of typing, well here goes, I'll do it again - bloody computers!!)
Eva had orgainised for us to go to dinner an hour later so she could do some more shopping (no she's not addicted, just female). This gave me more time to do stuff, so I updated the blog and my diary as well as catching up with some email - including hearing from Ben who was on line at the same time. It was almost as good as talking to him!
I then went to a chocolate place, that was descibed to us as "the best chocolate in the world". I had a wonderful berry tart, that was all berry, and a very nice hot chocolate. It was good, but Koko Black in Melbourne need not worry - those non-Melbournians who have not been to Koko Black should make the pilgrimage! I got back in time to have a shower before heading off to a Lapp restaurant to have some reindeer. Does having reindeer make you horny? I was about to find out!
We felt quite comfortable in finding our way around now, and just headed strait to the restaurant. I should add that in Stockholm Eva was somewhat navigationally challenged, but here in Helsinki she was able to find her way back to the hotel without a map. Go girl!
The restaurant was quite nicely done as a Lappland theme restaurant, with all the walls and ceiling (even the lights) all done in logs. Its funny, it looks like it might be Lapp, but for all I know they live in round houses made of insulated plastic!
Eva had fish and particularly enjoyed the salad for which I think she was having withdrawl symptoms. I had the reindeer osso bucco, which was nice but a little dry. When had with its accompanying sauce, it was nice. We also had a Cloudprioska, which is a caprioska with cloudberry liqueur with schnapps and lime. Yum! With some hard work and concentration we are also getting back into the swing of having wine, and the burgundy I had was very nice! Just a glass mind you.
No dessert as we were full and the restaurant was a little noisy with loud diners, so we were happy to go. We came back and watched England score a goal in the World cup against Sweden and repack our bags ready for the trip to Munich tomorrow afternoon.
In the morning we intend to go to the Arabia factory/museum/shop and amybe some other things (depends how late we get going) , but I will write about those things from Munich.
We will meet Chris and Kathy (Eva's brother and sister) and Hedi and Werner (Eva's Aunt and Uncle) in Munich as well as other relatives. I'm really looking forward to it. Hard to believe we have been away for 4 weeks now.
Oh, does eating reindeer make you horny? Well, I'm not going to tell you ..... ;-)
Comments
Your adventures sound awesome. Though I must admit I knew about the fancy magnet car. But i´ll be interested to see you photos nonetheless! I´m so jealous of you! Sounds like an amazing trip. Helsinki especially sounds like a nice place with the parks etc. as well as the shopping by the sounds of it. Feel free to pick me up an alto stool or two. I know they´ll be hard to carry but at least you´ll have something to sit on when you´re tired!
I forgot that you´re meeting Kathy and chris in munich (I hadn’t forgotten about hedi and Werner etc). give them big hugs from me, and let chris know i´ve been looking for him in the television coverage.
Also your food and drink delights sound much more exotic, fancy and daring than mine. Remind me to travel with you next time! Though no more lunch on the run, tacos standing up or pastries on the beach – well maybe not the last one!
I´m looking forward to the picture and videos when you get back, so don’t worry too much about posting them, but its sure nice to see you in one for a change. Remember to let mum use the camera sometimes so we can prove you were actually there. Your photo album might end up looking like a picture of mum with the scenery changing behind her! Hows the iriver going? I couldn’t survive the long bus trips without my poddy.
Well, been on the internet for 4 hours now, should probably go get some food and head to wait for the bus. Imagine if after 5 hours of waiting I missed it! Touch wood. Much love to you and the mumkin. And no more reindeer! At least I know you cant get it in Australia! x