Day out in Helsinki with Graeme

What a day!! We definitely made the most of our time in Helsinki together: skating, visiting the new art gallery and visiting a public sauna with a sea pool. I am getting tired just thinking about all we did!!

We (mum, dad, Graeme and I) started the day having a poached egg breakfast in our apartment. Our traditional breakfast ever since I learnt how to poach eggs at home Ec in Grade 9. 

We then went out for lunch in Helsinki to a restaurant called "No Pizza". And can you guess what they had? Pizza!! Well, sourdough pizza. 

Graeme and I then went iceskating while my parents went shopping. 

We then went for a walk through the streets of Helsinki. 

My favourite place in Helsinki is the White Church!! And yes, it is actually called such a simple name ;) 

Graeme and I had then planned to meet my friend from high school, Aigerim, and her boyfriend, Gintas to go to a new type of art museum called Amos Rex, renamed after being called Amos Anderson Art Museum.

The museum is named after Amos Anderson, who was a patron of the arts in Finland, and owned the largest Swedish speaking newspaper in Finland. Before his death he asked two architects to design a building in the centre on Helsinki for a combined personal living quarters and work space. After his death it became an art museum dedicated to the man. It was then reopened last year with a new type of interactive exhibition called "Massless" by a collaborative called TeamLab from Japan, where we are encouraged to interact with the exhibition.

The first exhibition at the Amos Rex museum. It was a room of waves that were formed by lines moving. 

Graeme and I in the room

The second exhibition was a huge room full of moving graffiti at first glance. When you looked closer you realised it was colourful animals and flowers all moving. When we checked the museum guide it said that we could touch the exhibition. So we touched the walls and flowers started growing, which attracted butterflies. 

We then went to a room where you could colour in an animal that could then be let loose into the room with all the colourful flowers and butterflies on the walls. There were also frogs and crocodiles. So I coloured in a frog, Graeme coloured in a crocodile, and Aigerim and Gintas coloured in a crocodile as well. We then let them be scanned and uploaded into the room, where they bounced and moved all around the walls and floor.

The next room after that was a big room where we waited to go to another exhibition. The room had heaps of moving lines moving up. The room was called a "Vortex". The next room was a video of a crow flying through space. It was very moving. Get it? ;)

I think by far my favourite of the exhibition was the Graffiti room. It was so amazing to be able to touch the wall and flowers grew!!

We went to dinner at a quaint Vietnamese restaurant called Onam, where we had a lovely Pho soup

After eating we had to rush to get to the Allas Sea Pool. When Graeme and I got there, we realised that the mixed sauna was closed due to a party being there. So we were a bit annoyed that we couldn't go to a sauna together. So we went to our individual changing rooms, and hopped into the sauna, realising that because it was a Finnish sauna most people weren't wearing any clothes!! I was fine because I didn't have my glasses on, and was more used to it than Graeme. Graeme, however, walked in and out again, apparently, the first time he went it ;) He had his contact lenses in so that he could see everything much more clearly than me.

We then met at the outdoor pool. It was a very slippery path to get to the pools. Not to mention that it was cold!! I think it was around 3 degrees celsius. So the first time I walked to the pool I slipped on the ice :o I was fine.

The warm outdoor pool

There was also a sea pool that guests could use. Graeme wanted to go and have a swim in it :o I definitely did not want to ;) 

After going back into the sauna and swimming in the warm pool a couple of times we were ready to leave. We were very relaxed, but needed some sugar to give us energy after our bodies had to keep adjusting to the hot and the cold temperatures.

We were walking up the Esplanade, and I was just telling Graeme about the most expensive cafe in Helsinki. And before he could hear me he went straight in to the cafe I was talking about to get something to eat!!

Having tea and hot chocolate at Kamp, while looking out over the street 

Our awesome desserts!! I had an amazing, the best in my eyes, creme brûlée!! It was so creamy and delicious!! Graeme had a nice macaron with ice cream. 

Sneaky kiss with the Christmas decorations in the Esplanade park

If you look closely the reindeer has a red nose!! 

We were then so incredibly tired that when we got back we literally fell on our beds!! The next day Harri was arriving on a plane from Cardiff.

Till next time,

Laura xx