Scandi Trip

Day 16-17: Last days in Helsinki (bike, sauna, and more!)

For previous posts about our trip, start here and go forward.

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

Day 16: We decided to have a lazy morning and sleep in a bit. It was nice. We had a bike tour booked for 2 pm, and needed to take a train to it, so we hung around the apartment/Airbnb until it was time for a late breakfast/lunch. We went to a place called Cafe Cafferino Oba that served coffee and breakfast, which ended up being greek food. We both had some good eggs, veggies, bread, yogurt, etc, with coffee.

Our guide had given us specific instructions on what train to take to meet him, so we walked to Central Station, and found a train to board. It was pretty easy.

And then it was a short walk from there to the meeting place.

I’d booked a day trip with biking to Seurasaari, a picnic, and a sauna. It looked like a lot of fun and actually ended up being our favorite thing!

We met the guide, Luca, at a sort of garage where he kept the bikes and gear. I had asked about riding an ebike instead so I got one of those, and Louie and Barbara, the only other person on our tour, got regular bikes. We headed out towards Seurasaari, which is an open air museum outside of Helsinki, on an island.

We were very visible with our helmet covers! I loved riding the ebike: it was like riding a regular bike but with help on the hills, so I could go just as fast uphill as on a flat ride.

When we got to Seurasaari, we had to park our bikes and walk as the island doesn’t allow bikes. We did a quick walk through, looking at the outside of some buildings while Luca talked about the history and culture of Finland.

We ended up at a large picnic area with a grill, and Luca started a fire (with wood that you could just use) and we helped prepared a vegan Finnish lunch, with various appetizers he had made, and vegan reindeer sausages.

The food was delicious: some sort of vegan cheese dip, pate, gazpacho, the vegan reindeer sausages, grilled onions, blueberry drink, and more. After eating more than we probably even wanted, we finished walking around the island, and then headed to the next stop: sauna.

We had talked as a group about the various kinds of saunas that we could try and collectively chose what Luca called the “hippie sauna” which was a sauna on the edge of the Baltic Sea, where you could get in the sauna and then jump in the sea. Oh, and most people would be completely nude.

It was called Sompasauna, there would be no pictures, and yes, most people were nude. You quickly learned that nobody cared and just to keep your eyes down, and that WOW it was amazing getting really hot and sweaty in a wooden cabin and then jumping into the freezing sea was amazing once you were really hot! I could have stayed there longer, but we had to get back as our time was almost up, so we left after probably an hour or more. (I didn’t have my watch on during this part).

Anyway, we biked back to where we started (I was really glad I had my ebike as I kept up really easily!) and then said our goodbyes. It was a really terrific day, the sauna was absolutely amazing (I just loved the feeling of floating in the Baltic Sea, so much!) and we had a terrific time. One regret is not getting to spend more time really exploring Seurasaari, but we did see plenty of open air museums on this trip, so it really wasn’t a huge loss, haha.

We weren’t really hungry for dinner as the lunch had been quite late, so after we got back to Helsinki we went to a place called the Beer House, and ended up having a few snacks there like reindeer jerky and cauliflower wings. We also ended up trying Taco Bell that evening: Leslie had teased me that I should try a bean burrito there, and I did, though it wasn’t really a bean burrito but was a “vegan burrito” instead. Louie and I split it back at the apartment and it was nice and hit the spot.

Day 17: Suomenlinna

We decided to go to the fortress of Suomenlinna on our last full day in Helsinki. We didn’t get the earliest of starts again, but we did manage breakfast rather than lunch, ha! We went to Cafe Ekbert and had some delicious pastries and cappuccinos.

We had a cinnamon bun, an almond croissant, and a little sandwich with cheese and eggs and sauce.

We took the ferry to Suomenlinna then: you catch it at Market Square down by the water (obviously). You pay using the HSL app, and the ferry fits a decent amount of people plus up to two cars/small trucks.

We walked around the island then, using some information from Rick Steves, but also just wandering and seeing what looked interesting.

After a few hours, we took the ferry back and continued wandering. We enjoyed a salmon pie and a little pastry with grits on it (unsure of the name) overlooking the water.

We looked at the map and tried to walk through some parts of Helsinki that we hadn’t been to before.

We had one more concert to attend that evening, a staged opera by Mussourgsky called Khovanshchina conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. We had seats behind the orchestra. The music was beautiful and well played, but we were exhausted and just couldn’t seem to follow the plot, and I convinced Louie to bail at intermission rather that stay to the bitter end.

If we had stayed until the end, it would have been too late to have a nice dinner, but of course, we felt conflicted (me less so I really thought I would simply fall asleep if we stayed, ha!) So left and went to search for dinner. The hall was amazing though, the pictures are crazy, aren’t they?

We found a place that served Finnish food and stopped by, they could serve us! Ravintola Skörd, not far from our airbnb. They offered a 4 or 6 course menu, we chose the 4 and split up the choices so that we could taste all the foods. It was another great meal! The trick was that all of the foods were from Finland, in fact, everything except salt, the server said. She was terrific as well, nice and friendly and funny, and a great server. We loved the meal, and enjoyed some Finnish wines made from berries, but they weren’t sweet like you might think, they were dry even. 

After dinner we just walked back to the apartment.

Day 18: We had to check out by around noon as well as leave around then get to the airport. We went to the original cafe we had found on the first day for coffee and pulla, Kulhma Kahvila 48, and then just walked around for an hour or two, figuring we would be sitting plenty in the future!

And then we caught the tram from our airbnb to Central Station, and caught a train to the airport. One thing I possibly regretted is that we didn’t have seats together on the flight: Finnair makes you pay extra for seat choice and I had figured they would put us together. I had figured wrong. We both had aisle seats near each other, but neither of our seat mates would swap. It was fine though, we just enjoyed movies and read of course, but it would have nicer together. Next time I suppose I’ll just shell out for the extra leg room both ways.

We got home exhausted but uneventfully. Our global entry worked great, though since we checked a bag we lost time waiting on it, but it wasn’t an issue as we had a long connection in Chicago.

We ended up with quite a lot of “loot” from the trip: chocolates and such. And Salty licorice for Louie. We’ve been slowly making our way through it.

My favorite so far was the Karl Fazer chocolate with lemon!

Anyway, overall we had a great trip, it was seriously fantastic and amazing. Having had some time to reflect, there were minor things we would do differently but nothing major. I thought we stayed in great places, the itinerary was good if exhausting, the excursions added great value to our vacation, and we just really enjoyed ourselves. I highly recommend any of the cities we visited and would be happy to share even more information with you, so feel free to reach out with questions.

Random thoughts

Whew!

2 Comments

It has been A MONTH. Nothing bad at all, but I am running on fumes. I got to have the evening free last night, but that was about all.

I am just running from thing to thing, keeping to do lists and barely keeping up, and really feeling like what I’d love to do is snuggle up in my warm bed and sleep…

Last weekend was great fun though. We took the weekend and did an organized bike/canoe trip, and had a blast! I’m going to spend a little time this week writing a more organized post on that (another thing on my to-do list, but FUN so I’ll leave it there now.

Then I hit the ground running. I tell you: it’s been teaching, gigs (so many weddings, funerals, etc), practicing (another baroque concert coming up!), rehearsing for various concerts, and trying to keep up around the house (grocery shopping, cooking, laundry are my main tasks). It’s been a balancing act, and the thing being balanced out is well being, most likely. I don’t know. I’m probably trying to do too much, but the thing I’d most want to cut back on is teaching, and teaching is my main source of income, so it’s a tricky situation. Do I give up more regular income to have the chance at other things, or do I just keep cramming it in? I keep thinking to myself, maybe I won’t grow my studio for the next year or so and see about dropping down a little more over time, and then see how that works out.

We’ve also had a friend staying with us this past week, which has been nice but is, you know, one more thing! Meals are a slightly bigger affair and don’t have as many leftovers, and honestly, I have hardly even been here, but I can’t just run in and out as easily.

I know this is “famous last words” and “never really happens” but I do think November will be a little more relaxing. I have a few weekends with much less stuff, though who knows, more things may pop up that I want to do, but I am hopeful that we will get some bike rides or hikes in, as well as getting some work done at the old house.

And it’s not all “bad”: I’ve made time for plenty of books this month: reading is easy to fit in in small breaks, over lunch, and of course at night. It’s something that I find relaxes me, and it’s easy to pop my kindle into my tote bag for the day and read a little bit if I get somewhere easy or need to “kill time” between gigs or something.

I often thing it might be worth doing a post about how I plan and organize my time, but I don’t know if I do anything that exciting or unique. Would that be something you’d like to read, or are there question about being a musician/teacher/freelancer that would be interesting to read about? Perhaps there are aspects of my life that are more unique than I realize?

Scandi Trip, Travel

Day 14-15: 36 Hours in Tallinn, Estonia

For previous posts about our trip, start here and go forward.

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

We decided to take an weekend trip to Tallinn, Estonia, just across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki. It ended up making the most sense to keep our airbnb in Helsinki and just double book accommodation for one night, and then we didn’t have to check out/check in anywhere and we could travel exceedingly light.

We woke up very early after our fantastic evening meal at Grön, grabbed our backpacks, had a quick cup of coffee and caught the tram to the ferry terminal. Did I mention how amazing it was that there was a tram stop right outside of the airbnb we stayed at? It was a ten minute ride to the terminal and we got there around 6:30 am for our 7:30 am ferry. We didn’t have to wait long until boarding began.

The ferry wasn’t as large or fancy as the one from Stockholm to Turku, but it was still perfectly nice. We quickly grabbed some comfortable enough looking seats by a window and then settled in for the two hour boat ride.

We got some breakfast, coffee (which was pretty terrible!) and just relaxed for the ride. We were both tired but excited to see a new country!

The ferry landed at 9:30 am and we headed into the old town, just a 10 minute walk from the terminal. Old Town Tallinn is one of the best preserved and most intact medieval towns in existence today. The city itself is the capital of Estonia, and has a fascinating history–read a bit of it on Wikipedia if you like!

We arrived earlier than the cruise ship crowds, so we walked through the town a bit without all the crowds–we were headed to drop our bags off at our hotel and then to meet a bike tour to, oddly enough, get OUT of the city first and get some biking in and learn a bit about Estonia from a guide.

In Estonia they speak, obviously, Estonian. Many people we interacted with spoke excellent English as well, lucky for us! They use the Euro, just like Finland, though things were cheaper, especially outside of the Old Town (which is super touristy and has the corresponding prices, though it is amazing and beautiful and worth seeing!). Estonia is the first country I have been to that used to be part of the Soviet Union.

We started the bike tour near one the town walls. Back then towns had really high walls to keep out intruders. It sometimes worked too.

Our guide was named Marcus and was a young Estonian man. He was very knowledgeable and friendly, and did a good job. We learned many things about Tallinn and Estonia from him, most especially that Estonians really hate Russia and Putin. They are (understandably) still mad about having been part of the USSR and they are worried about the future, and they really value their independence.

We biked outside of the Olde town, mostly along the sea, which was a lovely route. We visited the Olympic Stadium from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, built by the Soviets and now crumbling and overgrown. We learned that it cannot be torn down because it is “historical” but yet the government won’t approve the money for renovations.

Next we biked to an area with shops, where Marcus told us the Finns would take the ferry over and fill up their trunks with cheap booze to take back. It seems that Estonians think Finns look down on them (and Finns think Swedes look down on them!)–though Marcus was clear to point out he liked the Finnish people he knew, so it was more of a country stereotype than a real feeling of animosity.

We continued along the water to visit the Monument to the Victims of Communism. This was a somber yet gorgeous space.

We enjoyed views looking back at Tallinn, as the road had curved around.

Next we biked to Kadriog Park, which was built by Peter the Great. It is really beautiful, though hard to get a photo without people in it! I guess we were all saying that, haha.

After that, we biked back to the place we started. It was a nice bike trip, though not exceptional. I was glad we did it for the opportunity to learn more from a native Estonian and to get outside of the old town a bit, but it wasn’t a “must do”.

We were starving then, and had trouble deciding where to eat that wasn’t too touristy or too crowded…we ended up at an Indian Restaurant with nice patio seating called Elevant Resto, and enjoyed some nice Indian food (not so different than what we get here).

After lunch we walked around the Old Town more, just wandering and taking pictures and looking at things.

We headed back to the hotel then. We were staying one night at the Merchant’s House Hotel, and it seemed like a nice place. They had a sauna as well, and we signed up to use it for an hour (included with the stay).

The courtyard view from outside our room.

I ended up not staying in the sauna very long at all: I probably did things all wrong, I was already feeling tired and head-ache-y and then I didn’t know what to do and ended up sitting up high away from the steam and immediately felt not good, so I left Louie to it on his own (he didn’t mind) but I learned I should sat lower (duh, heat rises!). (Spoiler alert, we will have another sauna experience that is better). Anyway, I went back to the room to clean up and relax, I think I took a nap as well. Louie came back an hour later having enjoyed himself thoroughly so it all worked out, though I felt like a sauna failure.

We were going to a short opera next, called the Emperor of Atlantis, put on by the Estonian National Opera. We had to walk about 15-20 minutes to the venue, which was in the Telliskivi Creative City part of Tallinn. It was a really nice walk.

It was confusing when we arrived, because the opera apparently started in the main lobby, so we got drinks (very inexpensive, like $5 for a glass of wine) and a snack (olives in a jar!) and sat at a table. The show began with live music and singing in German, and we had no idea what was going on–I had verified before purchasing tickets that there would be English subtitles, but for the pre-show there was nothing. However it was nice, and then we all walked into the main hall, where the rest of the orchestra was set up and the opera began.

Again, I’ll refer you to Wikipedia for more information, but the opera was fascinating and intense. It was written in a concentration camp and definitely was making fun of Hitler and it was just amazing and so upsetting to think of. Upsetting being not even the right word to describe the despair I sometimes feel thinking of how much death the Nazis caused and how much art and music was STILL being made, even while people were being killed. Human beings are amazing and human beings are absolutely horrific.

We would have gone again to catch things we missed, but we weren’t staying in Tallinn another night. But I am so happy we caught the show!

After that, we had 9 pm reservations at Rataskaevu 16, a highly rated restaurant in Tallinn (very near our hotel too).

I was quite surprised when I used the bathroom to see there was a window to the earth below!

Our dinner was fantastic and the perfect end to a very long and exciting day. After dinner we were exhausted and slept well.

Day 15:

We had planned to get up early to “beat the crowds” and do Rick Steves’s walking tour, but we were too tired. We did get up early enough to get the tour in before check out, but not to really beat the crowds.

First, hotel breakfast. It was in the basement of the hotel, a fascinating almost dungeon like place. They had a cold buffet and you could order hot foods as well: I was happy with the cold stuff.

The walking tour covered the lower old town where we were staying and headed up into the upper old town as well. There was so much to explore, but we did hit the highlights.

We saw the Russian Orthodox Church, some important government buildings, and had a great overlook of the lower old town. It was a lovely morning to walk around, and it wasn’t overly crowded in any case. After that, we checked out of the hotel (stored our bags there though) and caught a Bolt (Estonian’s version of Uber) to the Estonian Open Air Museum, which was a few miles out of town. Bolt is the only company that can drive into the Old Town, and they have a few places set for pick up and drop off, one was the well near the hotel (and outside of last night’s restaurant.)

The drive to the museum took us through what I would consider the more “normal” parts of Tallinn, which just looked like you would think a city where people lived and worked would look like. The driver was very quiet, perhaps he didn’t speak English or didn’t speak well, but he got us where we needed to go.

Like all of the open air museums we’d seen, there was more than we could take in in an afternoon, but we had a terrific time learning about the history of Estonia, how people lived, and enjoying the outdoors. The thatched roofs were a highlight and were truly fascinating.

We had lunch at their cafe which offered “authentic Estonian food”.

Brown bread, soup, potatoes, and something else…I sadly can’t recall.

Mashed potatoes with groat and pickles.

After eating, more exploring!

As you can see, there were a wide variety of homes and variety of eras. Some were more decorated inside, others had different displays inside. Some had people in them to answer questions, though we did run into some language barriers.

We met this cat: he seemed friendly and Louie was petting him but then he scratched Louie! We learned later his name was Vasso and we bought a magnet with a picture of him on it, haha.

One of the bathrooms had a lot of information about bathroom use historically, which was super interesting.

We really enjoyed the afternoon at the Museum, and not pictured was an apartment building with various apartments showing the way people lived during the Soviet era. I just didn’t get good pictures of it, not that you couldn’t take pictures.

Anyway, we finally left, took a Bolt back to the hotel and then walked down to the terminal to catch our ferry back to Helsinki.

We had the “Delight Buffet” for dinner, which was a nice buffet with unlimited food and drink. They had wine or beer you could serve yourself–the choices were beer, white wine, or red wine! As well as a nice variety of fish, cooked entrees including meatballs, salad bar, breads, vegetarian caviar (did you even know that is a thing? yes, it is!), and more. We enjoyed a table right by a window as well, and spent most of the time there, even after we finished eating.

We landed in Helsinki around 9:30 pm, and squeezed into a tram to get back to the Airbnb. I mean really squeezed: more and more people kept getting on and it really seemed like nobody else would fit and then more people did! We luckily were near a door as we got off the tram before most people (they were likely mostly going to Central Station which was a few stops further.) We got back to the Airbnb without incident, and felt like we were arriving home!

Love

Oktoberfest

It was a busy week!

First off, I will still finish telling you about my trip to Sweden and Finland (and I’ve got notes, I just need to sit down and write it up) but I’m not doing that today. This past week was a bit…busy. And here we are, Monday morning, and I have a few hours of time to myself, and I’m writing a quick post, and doing some other things. It’s almost October and I would say that things will be easier, but that would likely be untrue.

So, the weekend was fun! My parents came into town en route to Phoenix, and they got to attend my neighborhood’s Oktoberfest celebration on Sunday night (my dad in vintage lederhosen he has owned since the 1970’s, from Germany). I was late to the party due to a gig, but it was fun and the weather ended up being great.

Yesterday I had my baroque violin debut with the Kingsbury Ensemble, but had time before and after to spend time with my parents. We did dim sum with Louie’s family in the morning and then pizza in the evening. It was a lovely visit!

One of the pieces I wasn’t on. They sounded great without me!

I was a little nervous about the baroque stuff, but it ended up going fairly well and I had a good time. I’ll be playing some more this season, I believe.

Moving backwards, Thursday I was playing a concert in Paducah, and driving home in the rain…rain from Hurricane Helene, unbelievably. More unbelievable is the horrible devastation throughout the south, especially in western North Carolina. My own hometown is struggling as well, with many power outages, though things should be back to normal there within a few more days, I hope. The flooding is just awful and knowing that the true extent of some damages isn’t even really known yet due to the remote nature of some places in the mountains…it’s just awful. Climate change is here with us now, and these 100 year floods come more often, and it’s so scary to see the results.

On a lighter note, these cats enjoyed their week, as usual. They were a little stressed out this morning as my parents were packing up as I believe they worried Louie and I were going as well, but seemed relieved and settled back down after my folks left.

And we had a nice concert in Paducah.

I did have a goal this year to say yes to more concerts, and I have done so with a vengeance, or perhaps to a fault, but I’m enjoying myself despite of the schedule. I do feel like life is a bit of a run-on sentence right now, but I also enjoyed having time to spend with family yesterday and seeing friends more at concerts and rehearsals! Teaching is fun, but can feel rather isolated from colleagues.

This week isn’t any better as far as the schedule, really, though less driving. I’m playing two different concerts with small orchestras and chorales, as well as teaching (of course). It should be a nice week though! Louie and I are going to see a musical tomorrow night and who knows what other fun things this week will bring. We are grateful to have water, electricity, and a roof over our head, and grateful for so many opportunities to do interesting things in our careers. And grateful to be able to spend time with family and friends!

Performing

Rainy Day

I promise I’ll get back to the last two trip recaps, but for today, you get a more present post.

It’s pouring rain outside! I’m old enough to say, aha, we needed it, and it’s nice and makes things feel cozy inside, but I also do need to leave the house at some point, and that is less fun.

Life has been super hectic and crazy these past few weeks, and it continues for a few more. I’ve had so much work, it’s been great and awful, all at the same time. I’ve had a bunch of fun gigs, taught some neat students, done a short recording session, spent a morning judging students at a contest, played a fun concert and there’s more to come!

Notice how fabulous my right and left hands look. Also notice my expression, I seemed doubtful over what I was reading, perhaps. This was an outdoor gig at the Art Museum the other week.

Recorded a few things the other day, it was super fun. I enjoy the permanence of recording, when so much of music is fleeting.

My friend April took this picture from last night’s concert of the St Louis Chamber Soloists. She is in town (one night only) for a work thing. We went to Blueberry Hill after the concert for dinner and hanging out.

So, there’s my pictures. Life: practice, teach, play, try to get some exercise in, emails, and just barely keeping up on stuff around the house. BUT it’s so nice, so DECADENT not having to get up at 5:30 am, so I can sleep until after 7 am most days (there were a few earlier mornings last week, but that’s not the norm). We did manage to get out to eat one night (we sat outside and I’m still suffering from bug bits, those ridiculous bugs even bit my finger!), and Louie and I went to see “American Idiot” one night. It’s based on the Green Day album and a friend was playing in the orchestra so we thought it would be fun.

I’m very much in “get things done” mode, as you can probably tell. This week is baroque violin prep for a concert this weekend, in addition to a gig on viola in Paducah, Kentucky (!!). Also a couple of weddings, plus the dentist, probably book club (if I finish the book, which I’m a little behind, gah) and the usual students. My parents are popping in this weekend and will come to a concert, so I’m super excited about that! And the day they are here I’m not as busy, so I’ll be able to hang out mostly. But getting to that day will be a bit busy…

I had sort of forgotten how car rides to gigs with friends can be a fun diversion. I had a few out of town things the past weekend, and while I hate wasting the time, it was actually quite fun and relaxing to spend the time in the car chatting before and after. I used to spend a lot more time carpooling and driving to gigs–when I lived in Cleveland I played in a variety of regional orchestras that were a drive away, so each week I might drive 45 minutes to over an hour each way for rehearsals and concerts. I had put in my head that that was awful and annoying (and it WAS) but doing a bit of driving for this or that isn’t so bad, and maybe is even a little bit fun.

Anyway! As much as I’m enjoying this time of the year and happy for all the work, I am also looking forward to mid-October when things slow down just a little bit more. I do hope to finish my last trip blog posts before then…but you’ll just have to wait longer.

Random thoughts, Scandi Trip, Travel

Day 13-14 Helsinki Part 1

For earlier posts on our trip, start here and go forward from there:

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

So! We left off on a train from Turku to Helsinki. I forgot to mention one sort of funny/strange thing that happened on the way to the Turku train station–we got on the bus and then at one stop the bus doors got stuck open for several minutes. The bus driver tried a variety of techniques to get them closed, and finally she got it done. No one else besides us seemed even remotely interested in the process, which led me to believe that either Finns have really great poker faces or that it is a common occurrence.

Anyway! Our train to Helsinki was uneventful: we ate little cheese on rye sandwiches. We got to the train station in Helsinki and stopped for an espresso near the station and then walked to our airbnb. It was about a 15-20 minute walk, but pleasant enough. Louie did find navigating in Helsinki to be a little more confusing than other cities: there were more roundabouts and streets going at more angles. The city was full of life, lots of trams, people walking, cars, buildings (some much more modern than we had been seeing), etc.

Our airbnb was terrific.

I took those pictures to share with you from the listing. It was a great place on a second floor, with plenty of space in the apartment and the bathroom, plus a large kitchen! The apartment is right near a tram stop and was easy to find (and a great location in the Kamppi neighborhood.)

Our first night in Helsinki wasn’t going to be relaxing though (if you thought that, you would be new to this blog) and so we set off for a concert at the Musiikkitalo which was part of the Helsinki Festival: the Orchestra of the Finnish National Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. We walked there from the airbnb and enjoyed a nice walk, though I was hungry and we were sort of looking for a cafe. We ended up eating a nice snack at the concert hall, some sort of sandwiches with sparkling water (my addiction) and then found our seats.

I hope nobody is afraid of heights, hahahahahaha. The bars were very sturdy though and fairly close set.

Program:

The Orchestra of the FNO, Hannu Lintu & Karita Mattila
Sofia Gubaidulina: The Wrath of God
Ludwig van Beethoven: Ah! Perfido! op. 65
Richard Wagner: Liebestod from the opera Tristan und Isolde
Aleksandr Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy

The hall was really modern looking, with zig zag aisles and seats on all sides. We thoroughly enjoyed the concert and then went for dinner afterwards. We found a mexican place that ended up being terrific. It was named Taqueria El Rey, and I had the cactus tacos with a hibiscus margarita.

By this point in the trip we were both exhausted, both for the day and for the weeks. We did sort of wish we could take a day off from traveling, but everything we did was so much fun and so interesting that it was hard to want to actually stop and take time, but we did find that stopping for fika (that’s the Swedish idea of coffee and pastries) was a good compromise, rather than spending too much time at home sleeping in, etc. We did go to bed right after this dinner though, and mostly maintained a fairly early bedtime of 10-11 pm. We also weren’t walking “as much” and seemed to be averaging 16000-18000 steps rather than than over 20000. So still quite a lot, but settling into a slightly “lazier” routine.

Day 14: Helskini Architecture Tour and Grön

I booked an architecture walking tour for us this morning. I had read that the architecture in Helsinki was more different than other places we were going and wanted to learn more about it, so I thought the tour would be a great way to do so. It was run by Ataman Tours and I would highly recommend it if you are interested in a small group tour that is really informative.

But first, coffee! We did have coffee at “home” but we wanted food too, and found both at a nearby coffeeshop called Kulma Kahvila 48. It seemed to popular with nearby construction workers as well, and we both got a coffee and a pulla (basically seemed to be a generic term for a pastry) for just a few euros.

After eating we walked to the meeting point for the tour, enjoying the views along the way. It’s quite fun noticing the different buildings and stores and businesses.

It was easy to meet up with Emet (the guide) and the other members of our walking tour–just two other people besides us and the guide. We started in the main square and then visited the University library, various buildings along the Esplanade, including a bookstore, and then ended at the Oodi Library.

That’s Emet talking in the photo. He was incredibly knowledgeable yet made it approachable and interesting. This is the library at the University of Helsinki, very fascinating architecture.

These are the buildings along the Esplanade.

In addition to learning about architecture, we learned a lot about the history and culture of Helsinki. One particular fascinating thing we learned was that all buildings are fully renovated as needed to keep up on codes, environmental things, and keep them in good shape. This is why so many buildings were under construction–they must be! Buildings aren’t allowed to be run down, the owners of apartments must chip in and do renovations, even moving out for 6-12 months while it is happening, but as a result the buildings stay in better shape, have the latest fire and safety codes, and use energy efficient systems and have modern conveniences. If there are historical features of significance they must be maintained, however. This is probably more complex and controversial than we were told about, but fascinating nonetheless!

The Academic Bookstore designed by Aarvo Aalti, a well known Finnish architect. It was a really cool building!

The library was fascinating: the architecture was terrific, I just didn’t get any good photos, so google it. It is far more than what you might think of as a library. This picture above shows the musical instruments you can borrow. There were rooms to use for meetings that anyone can reserve, recording studios, practice spaces, 3-d printers, all kinds of machines to use, places to just sit and hang, clubs to join on almost any subject or hobby you might have, and a full cafe and restaurant.

Our tour ended at the library and we said our thanks for a great morning. It was really a good one, and we learned so much more about Finland than we might have otherwise. Emet had said he often ate lunch at the library cafe, so we decided to do the same. It was a buffet (surprise!) and was good enough. There was a really nice beet soup, even though I ended up spilling it on the buffet line by accident…oops!

After lunch we did more walking! I wanted to visit the Moomin shop and a grocery store, so we did a little shopping and then headed back to the Esplanade (which is a lovely street with a park down the middle, I should go back and add that but I’ll just leave it here instead) and then we ended up by the water and checked out the scene there as well.

The grocery store had a large display of salty licorice, so Louie bought a few things.

We had dinner reservations at a restaurant called Grön. My sister Carrie had recommended it, saying it had been the best meal she had ever eaten in her life, so I thought, well we have to go. It was super close to our airbnb as well, so it seemed like fate.

The reservation said to not arrive early or late, so after we relaxed at the airbnb for a little bit and got cleaned up and packed for the next day’s adventures, we headed out as precisely as we could. We got there just at 8 pm, and waited in a short line to be seated.

The meal was really great! All of the restaurant was seated at 8 and we all got the same courses. It was a very different vibe than Punk Royale, haha, and was in fact a place that Punk Royale was “punking” on, but it was great food and a lovely evening. The restaurant was very quiet and at one point Louie joked that actually nobody was allowed to talk. We were especially tickled by the fact that the silverware was in a drawer inside the edge of the table, and we didn’t realize that until after a few course. We ended up having silverware left over and must have done something a little bit wrong, and then I used a steak knife on my dessert instead. It was a bit of an inside joke, but I can’t explain it very well here! I’ll try though: we realized that should have used slightly more silverware for some courses and had taken it too literally at one point to mean that each course required one utensil. We had a spoon with a dessert and I kept having issues so I thought, aha, I’ll grab this extra steak knife to push food onto the spoon, which worked surprisingly well. As the server took the plates away, she laughed and said “classic silverware choice”. Louie wanted to do something like that again for the next course, but we FORGOT! and ended up leaving the remaining extra silverware in our drawers, sadly. He did say it was his biggest regret of the trip, not using all the silverware for another joke.

Notice there isn’t any silverware on the table–this is before we even knew about the drawers.

And…dessert. Everything in between was good too.

Then we headed back…the next day would be an early start, and we were likely already behind on sleep. Such was the trip at this point, full of delicious food, light on sleep!

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.