Farewell Finland temporarily

Yesterday was a busy day for us getting in our last sightseeing and enjoying our last meal with Line and Jesper before they flew home this morning.

Regan and I went to the food hall in the morning for breakfast, I was a little disappointed as it is basically a series of cafes and tourist food stalls now so not quite what I was expecting. However I did manage to have a delicious breakfast with incredible yoghurt and delicious rhubarb jam. They really embrace the rhubarb flavour in Denmark and Finland which I have appreciated.

We walked to the Uspenski cathedral near the harbour to meet Line and Jesper. This is a Greek Orthodox cathedral built around 1868 and very distinctive with onion domes. Inside it was surprisingly small but every inch was painted and guilded.

From there we took an Uber to Temppeliaukio built approximately 100 years after the Uspenski and could not have contrasted more. This church was built on a design which won a competition in the sixties and proposed building a church down into the rocky site rather than on top of it. The design is really breathtaking in its simplicity and the way the sunlight plays across the space. It has an amazing copper coiled roof and if it rains the water runs down the rocky walls and drains away under the floor. We spent quite a bit of time marvelling at the construction process.

As mentioned we had discovered a second hand shopping area the night before so that was our next stop. Line and I had fun trying on items and she made several purchases. I struggled to justify anything when I had to double the tag price. There were two pieces I loved but the price tag was 350 Euro so they did not come home with me. It was super fun though.

The end of the afternoon we poked our noses into some of the famous Finish shops such as Iittala for glass, Marameko for clothing and the Moomin shop which is a huge cartoon and children’s obsession over here (think the Finish alternative to Bluey).

We had booked dinner at a traditional Finnish restaurant opposite the Helsinki Cathedral.
Before we left the hotel we enjoyed a drink on the roof top terrace which was finally open. The restaurant was filled with groups from an American cruise ship and so noisy. In the end none of us chose the really traditional food, with the boys having lamb burgers and Line and I had rainbow trout.

We had an ice cream in the park on our way back to the hotel where some very aggressive seagulls had a good attempt to snatch mine from them. One managed a beak sized scoop through the top of the ice cream. We had a cuppa in Line & Jesper’s room and chatted about the fun we had had over the past 6 days.Read more