Vappu

Here are some pics from yesterday. We’ve been down at Esplanadi for the yeary Vappu ceremony, starting at 6pm on May Day Eve every year. Students are first washing Havis Amanda (called “Manta”), a statue of a mermaid at the end of Esplanadi, and then dressing her with the white student hat. Naturally, that all goes along with a lot of drinking & partying…

After that we’ve been to Dinner at Kolme Seppää (Mannerheimintie 14), an Italian restaurant opposite of Stockmanns. I’ve never been there before but I’ll definitely go there for a second visit soon!

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Suomenlinna

To make use of the nice weather last weekend we decided to visit Suomenlinna, which is just off the coast of Helsinki. No extra ticket needed to go there – you can just use your normal bus ticket for the ferry, leaving at the harbour at the end of Esplanadi & arriving at the islands 15min later.

Suomenlinna was built in the 18th century and is now part of the Unesco heritage sites. It spreads over 4 islands and features its own church, a dry dock, a submarine, museums & some cafes/restaurants plus lots of walkways along the edge of the sea. Actually a perfect place for a picnic in summer – so it won’t be my last visit there!

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Sibelius Monument & a walk on the sea

Before playing Jesus and actually walking over (ok, frozen) water, we first did some proper tourist impersonation and visited Sibelius monument.

I have to admit that I had to ask Wikipedia about Sibelius but now know the following:

The Sibelius Monument (Finnish: Sibelius-monumentti) is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). The monument is located at the Sibelius Park (Finnish: Sibeliuspuisto) in the district of Töölö in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland.

The monument was designed by Eila Hiltunen and unveiled on September 7, 1967. Originally it sparked a lively debate about the merits and flaws of abstract art, for which reason an effigy of Sibelius was included in the work. It consists of series of more than 600 hollow steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern. The purpose of the artist was to capture the essence of the music of Sibelius. The monument weighs 24 tonnes (24 LT; 26 ST) and measures 8.5 × 10.5 × 6.5 metres.

A smaller version of the monument is located at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. A work with a similar concept, also designed by Hiltunen, is located at the grounds of the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibelius_Monument_(Helsinki))

Afterwards we just followed lots of other Finns and took a shortcut over the ice to Seurasaari, past the house of the primeminister & the president. I’ve already been to Seurasaari before xmas, but this time – with some blue skies & sunshine – it was even nicer.

But unfortunately no squirrels this time, and also no open coffee places, so it was back to the mainland after an hour. And after warming up at Cafe Regatta (Merikannontie 10, 00250 Helsinki) with Korvapusti and some hot chocolate (with cream!) we were ready to tackle the rest of the day.

And that consisted of a visit to the German Bakery Crustum (Pursimiehenkatu 7, 00150 Helsinki, www.crustum.fi). I’ve always wanted to do that but Punavuori is unfortunately not really round the corner. And  I was positively surprised! First of all the bakery actually includes also a small cafe and offers brunch on the weekend (which is on the to do list for the future), then it is actually open on weekends until 18:00 – and the food has been really nice. I bought some pumpkin-seed-bread and can definitely recommend it!

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Helsinki Zoo – Art meets Ice

-12 degrees today, sunshine, blue skies – perfect weather to spend the day outdoors! So we’ve gone to see “Art meets Ice”, an ice sculpture competition at Helsinki Zoo in Korkeasaari.

With 122 years in business, Helsinki Zoo is one of the oldest in the world. It’s not really big but as it’s located on an island, it’s definitely special. And despite the cold & the snow, we’ve still seen most of the animals. We’ve visited Mister Lion, a tiger, snow leopards, normal leopards, reindeers, wild horses & donkeys, an otter and even some crocodiles & frogs in the tropic area.

The ice Sculpting Competition was located directly in the center, and we even met an Austrian artist (Ursula Beiler) which was an extra bonus as I got to speak some German. (The monkey in the pictures below is made by her, by the way.)

http://www.korkeasaari.fi/news/artmeetsice

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Apassionata – By the light of the Stars

It’s already a week ago that I’ve been at Hartwall Arena to get a bit of a “horse” fix, after I had to leave my own horse behind in UK when moving to Finland. And it was just amazing – Apassionata is really a great show.

There were more than 45 horses from all breeds – from big Friesan Horses to tiny Shetland ponies, and even a donkey! The show included dressage elements, stunt riders, Spanish horses and more – so definitely well worth seeing if you have a chance.

I ended up with over 2 GB of pictures & videos – so below only a very small selection (and no videos due to copyright).

http://www.apassionata.fi/

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Matka – Nordic Travel Fair Helsinki 2011

To prepare for our planned trip to Dallas at Easter, we thought a short trip to Matka Nordic travel fair for some inspirations wouldn’t be a bad idea – especially as we had free tickets! And so we spent Saturday afternoon at the Helsinki Messukeskus, close to Pasila trainstation (1, Messuaukio Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre).

In the end we were a bit disappointed: The US section only consisted of two small stands and we could have gotten most of the information from internet research as well (but at least we now know that flying via Iceland might be an interesting option, especially if we can arrange an overnight stay including some geysir & volcano sightseeing). Germany by the way wasn’t represented at all – apart from one small booth to give infos about Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Then Finnish area was a lot more interesting, especially my “visit” to Rovaniemi & Father Christmas who even signed a xmas card that’s now on the way to Germany. A bit disturbing was the fact that during our brief chat he didn’t tell me about Rudolf and the other reindeers, but rather mentioned that he was about to get an Iphone. You can imagine how shocked I was: Finnish Father Christmas & an Iphone – that’s like chocolate cake with gerkins, or porkroast with icecream! Outrageous! I finally succeeded in convincing him to get a Nokia N8 instead – only to be presented with his business card & the question if I could organise one for him then. Well, wasn’t it the other way round – Father Christmas bringing presents?!

Anyway, after getting all childhood dreams throughly destroyed (and I don’t mention Rudolph, the reindeer, in tins on the stand next door!) we at least got some more ideas for Finland-trips in the summer, visiting some islands & lighthouses. So, at least something to look forward to!

(More infos about Matka Travel fair: http://web.finnexpo.fi/Sites1/Matka/en/Pages/default.aspx)

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Helsinki – Season of Light

Until Sunday, Helsinki has some nice illuminations all across the center. The whole event is called “Season of Light”  and features installations from various artists:

• At The Espa Stage in the Esplanade park, Village of Light (Valokylä) by Jouko Kärkkäinen
• Senate Square displays Mercy (Armo) by light artist Mikki Kunttu
• Unioninkatu will be home to 100 years by German light artist Martin Kuhn
• In the courtyard of Topelia building (at Unioninkatu 38) performances by fire circus group Walkea
• The light artwork entitled Good Light – Bad Light (Hyvä Valo – Paha Valo) in the Kaisaniemi park is by Finnish lighting designer Tülay Schakir
• The Media Piazza of Sanoma House will present the Stage Emotions photo exhibition by German Ralph Larmann
• the Parliament House, the light artwork Soul of Suomi by Swedish light artist Per Sundin

(For more details see: http://www.helsinkithisweek.com/events/articles_on_events_and_exhibitions/season_of_light_in_january.html)

It was pretty cold & windy tonight but definitely worth it!

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Nokia Winter Party 2010

What a great night!

Very different to UK parties though – the dresscode definitely wasn’t “black tie” yesterday, but a bit more relaxed… And there were definitely at lot more people around!

The Venue was Kaapelitehdas (Tallberginkatu 1 C, 00180 Helsinki), the old cable factory in Ruoholahti. The location was divided in the main hall with a big stage where live bands were playing – apparently some of the Finnish Idol singers (I definitely have to watch the next season then to get a clue who is who!) – and then a smaller hall at the other side with a Karaoke stage. And to the guy who bravely tried to master the song “10 kleine Jaegermeister”: I haven’t laughed that much for a long time, so thanks a lot for this kind of entertainment!!

The afterparty was at the Apollo (Mannerheimintie 16, 00100 Helsinki)  – and again, it was just great. More Livemusic and I really wondered how many more people would have fitted in there – it was packed!

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Helsinki Restaurants – today: Jailbird

The location of yesterday’s dinner was “Jailbird”, located in the basement of the BestWestern Hotel (Merikasarminkatu 1a, http://www.jailbird.fi/). It’s in the premises of the old Helsinki prison and even features one room that is still showing how the old prison cells looked like. So quite an interesting scenery and different from the normal restaurants you normally visit! (And a very nice thing if you have friends/family visiting and wanna show them something different, but also good for business dinners as they have separate rooms where you are on your own.)

Foodwise it’s quite rustic – we had some steak and chicken yesterday with country potatoes, cheese filled jalapenos (loved them!) and vegetables. You can order the dishes not only “by person” as you’re used to, but they also have pots/platterns for larger groups.

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Independance Day (Itsenäisyyspäivä)

On 6th December Finland is celebrating independance day. On this day in 1917 Finland was declared an independant state and no part of the Russian empire anymore.

As the day is a public holiday I finally had some time for my Finnish books. In the last days I even visited Lauttasaari library to check if they maybe have some secret there that helps me understand Finnish overnight. Well, they didn’t – but they had a section of German books (which left me a bit suprised, but apparently there are really some more Germans around here!) and I actually left with some kid’s books that are quite helpful as they have both pictures and then the english description as well as the finnish word for every day items.

Now I just need to memorize all the words… (And I already start hating all the words with tons of “yy” & “ää” as I seem to never remember those. Whoever invented the word “pysähtyä” is on top of my “most hated people” list, as it took me 3 days to just remember this single word…)

And it’s a bit strange for me to hear about people who live in this country for years but still have difficulties with the language. Ok, you definitely can get by with English – but it’s nevertheless a pain if you have to work your way around the supermarket with a dictionary all the time.

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