Käpylä

Back due to popular demand (thanks Helen and Kevin for noticing its been a long while since a post..!). We have been a little busy over the last couple of weeks so I will try to catch up now.

Since we last spoke, we first stopped off in Helsinki. The capital of baby Finland (which is only celebrating its one hundredth year this year). We met with our friend Hanna who you may remember avid readers from our post in Brno, Czech Republic. Hanna lives in Helsinki and although currently finishing her thesis for her masters, kindly met us to show us around. She also brought us some homemade blueberry pie which was delicious and shows you how lovely she is!

We met at the central station and wandered the streets before entering into the beautiful Cathedral. It is a stunning white Lutheran Cathedral set at the top of some steep steps and the domes are green (my fave colour) with gold stars. The effect of the exterior is elegant and the inside is minimalistic - which I now understand is in typical lutheran style. We then headed to the harbour which sparkled on the sunny day (and I thought Finland was supposed to be cold..) and across to the market halls. Admiring the mounds of liquorice and reindeer jerky, we were quite hungry. Hanna took us to a place to have a buffet lunch (all you can eat it seems) which is standard for workers to eat at their lunch hour.

After lunch we wandered further around the streets with Hanna acting as a free guide (Thanks Hanna :D ) and ended up having the possibly most expensive pint in a long time accompanied by some yummy cured reindeer. Hanna told us lots of interesting facts about Finland - bears, elks, knives, saunas and all. Some of these facts include:

1. Street names etc are listed in both Finnish and Swedish because both are the official languages of Finland;
2. If you hit a reindeer when driving it is the owners fault but if you hit an Elk you are dead;
3. If you see a bear - walk away slowly...

On the Wednesday was the much anticipated arrival of my BFFs!! Once we picked them up we switched apartments to one with its own sauna! BBQ and beers and a blooming good catch up, needless to say I was very happy!

Nothing specific was on the agenda for Helsinki but our first full day was spent in Suomenlinna. It is an old fortress island 15 mins on a ferry from Helsinki Harbour. It has lots of old structures still in place and is a great place to picnic on another sunny day - and as it was Kate's birthday we of course had Prosecco!

The second day we visited Allas Seapool - a public sauna and pools which is set in Helsinki harbour. Following some amazing pizza for lunch, we went to see more sights. The silent chapel - in which Kates mobile went off and we met the chattiest American child who amusingly tried to guess where we were from based on the language we were speaking... Finally we headed to the Rock Church - a church carved into the rock - and got in for free as their was a piano concert taking place!

Next off to the wilderness...Read more