My Finnish Travels : Pt2 – Helsinki

On top of the fact that Annika’s dad was allowing me to live in their home, eat their food, and basically listen to my constant chatter and ridiculous stories, they surprised Annika + I with a trip to Helsinki!!!  I couldn’t believe it.

Helsinki was a 4 hour trip from Kuopio, and Annika and I had discussed the option but opted not to travel there due to the time and the cost. It would be a minimum of $300 for a roundtrip flight plus the fact that we’d have to rent a hotel for at least a night or two. But just when we’d given up on the thought, Martti (Annika’s dad) informed us that we’d be driving to Helsinki with them, spending one night at Sokos Hotel and the next night with their friends in the city!!! I was floored.

My parents love to travel and told me of all the places they’d visited in Europe, Helsinki was their favorite! They’d taken a bike tour and spent the day exploring….and although we werent planning to bike, I was looking forward to the adventure and seeing the city my parents had spoken so highly of!

This first picture of us was actually taken in Kuopio just before we left for Helsinki…but I thought I’d throw it in the mix.

As soon as we settled into the hotel, I looked out the window to admire the view!!!  CHECK. IT. OUT. I absolutely love all the graphics and textures on the urban buildings.

Like most European cities, Helsinki was VERY pedestrian and bike friendly. AH! I would love to live in a place like this.

Ok. The bike paths…blew.my.mind. They were like 10 feet wide!!! In addition to the 15 foot wide sidewalks! This is clearly a bike heavy city.

Our first night in Helsinki, we had drinks at the well known restaurant in Esplanade park called Chapel or Kappeli in Finnish. The weather was amazing so we made sure to sit out in the terrace area!

IPHONE PHOTOS BELOW:

TOP LEFT: I’m sure by the time I went home, Annika was SO over iphone photos. LOL…”Annika, let’s take a picture here….ok, now here”…..”Oh wait, can we take one here too”

TOP RIGHT: And then, I had to get EVERYONE in on it…so I grabbed one of Martti and Anne too. We took these just outside the restaurant we stopped in for dinner on our first night (which… my memory fails me and I can’t remember the name of)

BOTTOM LEFT: Taken inside the SOKOS hotel, Anne and Annika were enjoying the super cool seating in the lounge area.

BOTTOM RIGHT: The next morning, we headed to the market. While there I bought a really cool necklace made of metal. 🙂 AND…discovered that I need to work on my bargaining skills.

Our next stop was at the large white lutheran church! I’m not sure what it is about me and churches, but when I visit a new place…I always want to see the churches there. What was also really neat (that I don’t have a picture of here) were the pods in the square out front. Approximately a dozen designers had designed the interior of these portable pods which they used to sell their work. You could shop for everything in that area from purses to hats and accessories. The really interesting thing for me, was just seeing how they designed each individual pod.

IPHONE PHOTOS BELOW:

TOP LEFT: So..I saw this little sign with the head cutouts, and OF COURSE..I wanted to take a photo in it! It wasn’t until AFTER I got out that I realized we were posing as a “couple in love.” LOL…oh annika, the things you put up with bc you’re my friend.

TOP RIGHT: We stopped for ice cream near the indoor Helsinki market, and this FINE car was parked outside.

BOTTOM LEFT: There’s ME…posing in front of the Helsinkin Port. There were a ton of sailboats nearby and lots of vendors selling fish, etc out of their boats!

BOTTOM RIGHT: We also walked inside and a bit through Stockmann, a well known business and department store center in Helsinki.

Helsinki is such an artistic and design-based city. I couldn’t help but grab a shot of this wall.

IPHONE PHOTOS BELOW:

TOP LEFT: In August Helsinki offers an incredible experience called Dinner in the Sky. They organizes champagne tastings, lunches and dinners at a height of 40 meters on the Railway Square! We weren’t one of the lucky 22 people to be lifted, but it was an amazing sight to see!

TOP RIGHT: Instead, we settled in for lunch across from Esplanade park at Strinberg.I enjoyed a really good chicken salad sandwich, and Annika had the shrimp dish that I continued to see throughout finland called the “Open Faced Shrimp Sandwich” consistently of fresh bread, shrimp, mayo, dill, and occasionally other ingredients like lettuce or eggs.

BOTTOM LEFT: The second night, we had the pleasure of spending with their friends Yari and Paivi (I sure hope I spelled this correctly). We laughed SO much..and Annika and I realized that we need to learn how to HOST when our friends all get together (ie: buy an additional 32 glasses…and lots of liquor). 🙂

BOTTOM RIGHT: This is the Kamppi…another shopping area. And on one of the top floors, there was an endless amount of Iitala and really interesting china/kitchen goods. I think Martti was in heaven!

Aside from the hospitality of Paivi and Yari’s family, we also had the pleasure of meeting this adorable little pup:

IPHONE PHOTOS BELOW:

TOP LEFT: When Martti asked me on our last day in Helsinki what I wanted to do, my only request was to see the inside of this chapel. It’s known as the Kamppi Chapel of Silence, situated on the busy Narinkka square and offers a space of retreat. The chapel is not meant for congregational services or ceremonies but more for gathering and a break from busyness.

TOP RIGHT: Salakauppa (Scret shop) is one company’s little dream come true. Annika really admires their work and I can appreciate their wit and enthusiasm for design! The designers are Aamu Sogn & Johan Olin.

BOTTOM LEFT: So what may LOOK like a typical European Police car, is actually ENTIRELY knitted. Like…are you kidding me? If you’ve been following the blog for awhile then you know that we have a knitting group that gets together every winter to hangout and create unique projects. So, when I saw this, I immediately was in awe. I can’t even imagine how long and tedious this was to create.

BOTTOM RIGHT: This image was also taken inside the Steven Hall Kiasma musuem of contemporary art. Of all the art we saw, it was definitely my favorite exhibit. There was a lot of humor and we had fun exploring. I will never forget Annika SWEARING that the art on the wall in the photo below was “coming at her.” I told her that she just needed to check her glasses. lol

*I don’t have a shot of it, but we also went to the Ateneum to see an exhibit about a female painter (Helene Schjerfbeck), who, in her lifetime had completed over 10,000 paintings. That’s right 10,000. DANG*

IPHONE PHOTOS BELOW:

TOP LEFT: This was taken in the Steven Hall MOCA.

TOP RIGHT: Also taken of the Steven Hall architecture at MOCA.

BOTTOM LEFT: Anne…chillin in the window seat at SOKOS.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Anne and I laughed a lot when we spoke. A bit of our conversations were lost in translation, specifically this one! I couldn’t get over that she was eating something called Chicken Spit. You should have seen my trying to visually translate the word “spit” to her.

I never did find out what the name of these trees were but they were scattered throughout Finland. And I loved them.

I find them to be very beautiful…and almost magical looking! On the way home we stopped at this well known sailboat port for one last Helsinki snack.

And here’s ANNIKA! 🙂 Being Annika.

It was SO nice..and such a pleasant surprise for Martti and Anne to take Annika + I to Helsinki. It really was an awesome experience, and I’m happy that I had the chance to explore and get a feel for the city.

My Finnish travels were truly wonderful and I owe it all to Annika and her family!