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

~Juhannus Eve in Finland~

25th June 2016

Yesterday was Juhannus Eve, which means Midsummer Eve.

When my mum asked her kids at work, 4-6 year olds, what Midsummer Eve meant to them, they had not idea what it meant. It was only when she asked them what the Finnish word for Midsummer, "Juhannus", meant they said something along the lines of going to their summer cottage, spending time with family, and one little boy even started talking on and on about the awesome automatic-opening-boot car they drive in to their summer cottage every Juhannus :)

What does Juhannus mean to me? Time to spend with the family, time to slather on that insect repellent to tell those mosquitoes, more firmly than last year, to please not bite me. It is the time to relax without noticing the time go by for three whole days over a long weekend. And before you know it, you are up at 11 p.m. watching, and laughing until you cry, to some old TV shows on Youtube or, more traditionally, slapping yourself in the sweaty sauna with a birch branch to tell your blood circulation to get a move on.

So what does Juhannus mean to you?

I am aware that this question might be weird for those of us who don't celebrate Midsummer, or Juhannus, but in actual fact, when you notice the packed grocery shops that close at 2 p.m., Juhannus is like Christmas in Finland. It is like Thanksgiving, or some similar celebration in America. Because it is a celebration of life; life spent living in the sun before the dark winters come around again, together as a family playing games that the sun has energised into us. That is why I love Juhannus.

So what did I get up to on Juhannus Eve this year, well I am glad you asked :)

We started the day by going to the local "tori", market place.

After the adults had their morning coffee, we all got into our separate cars; my grandparents and I in one, and Harri and my parents in another, and we all set out for Tamelantori in Tampere.

As we neared the tori we discovered that everyone had the same plans that morning. The most traffic my grandparents (who have lived in Finland for around 11 years) had ever seen around the tori was at a near standstill all around us. It took us around 15 minutes to find a car park!

After that we walked into a huge crowd of Finns looking for "new" vegetables, that had just been harvested, flower pots and "munkkikahvi" pastries and coffee, at the many outdoor cafes all at the "tori".

The most popular things to buy at "tori"s: mansikka, hernet ja uusiperuna; strawberries, snow peas and new potatoes.

The amazing array of rainbow-coloured flower pots and bouquets.

More beautiful flowers.

Hernet; peas. 

New sweet carrots and potatoes. As you can see, when we arrived at 11 midday most of the new potatoes were already gone. Finns and their new potatoes ;) 

That is Juhannus for you guys, what have you experienced from Midsummer?

Have an awesome Juhannus day!

Laura

xoxo

Day One: Lapland Trip Lempaala to Oulu

20th December 2013

Well, yesterday was the day we set out to travel by car from my grandma's cottage in Lempaala to Oulu. By we, I mean my grandparents, auntie, uncle and cousins along with Harri. We started our day when the alarm rang out at 5:15 a.m. I have to say, I was amazed at how fast everyone became awake after around 6 to 7 hours of sleep! From then on the day went so fast that it went by as a blue, snowy blur...

The previous day Harri and I had left school early and got a train at 5:13 p.m. from Helsinki to Lempaala for the holidays. We had been so tired that by the time we got on the train Harri lost the ticket which he was sitting on. After we retrieved it, we talked about nonsence topics and enjoyed the absent view from the darkness. Anywayz, needless to say we enjoyed that train trip:)

The next day, Friday, we woke up and were dragged into the car by an invisible magnet with Lapland written on it. We were all asleep, and found it difficult to stay awake. However, we did all managed to find the wonder in the trip.

The darkness of the day made me annoyed. I was prepared for reading and knitting, but not for reconnaisance. Sitting and doing nothing is hard for me, but I listened to some christmas carols and was fine. When the sun did finally rise it was around 10:30 a.m., and I was bored. Not that I was finding it difficult to find something to do, which I was, but because I was tired out. I started knitting, but had to stop because I was really not sure if what I was dong was correct, and I couldn't be bothered to check:)

Luckily, we stopped along the way a couple of times for bathroom breaks and food. We all had a large buffet at an ABC roadhouse, and were full enough to continue another couple of hours to our hotel in Oulu. The scenery was gorgeuos, as always, which Ella complemented by saying "It's like a dream". Well, in truth it is a dream, because Mummu has dreamt of this moment for as long as I can remember...

Ella, my beautiful cousin.

Finally, we arrived at our amazing hotel. All-in-all, I think it is safe to say that we were all in awe. Kai kept jumping on the snow saying "Laura, come here. Look at the snow, It's so deep!" I think it would be a lot for a seven year old to take in:)

Kai, my other handsome cousin.

Eden Sokos Hotel in Oulu. It was very child-friendly, because we found a rubber duck on the desk in our room. Can you believe that it was only 30 euro for both Harri and I for extra beds in the room and breakfast?!?

We had checked in, been to the room, and put our swimmers one by the time Mummu decided she was sleepy. 'Bout time Mummu!!:) We had seen the pictures online, but nothing had prepared us for the vast area displaying a huge pool packed with slides and spas. I was overjoyed, and we headed straight to the slide :D As eigtheen year olds do...

Well, that was about it. After swimming we ate dinner, watched 'The Paradise', and went to sleep. The next time we were in the car we would be off to Santa land in Rovaniemi, and finally our rental in Levi.

Now you are uptodate,

Laura

xoxo