Category: travel

Helsinki Day 3

We were so scared of the rain the day before that we ended up spending most of the day indoors visiting different museums.

The first one was a Burger House showing how well-off people in Helsinki lived in the second half of the 19th century.

With Anna at the Senat Square

Then we visited Aethenium Museum and then – The Helsinki City Museum.

Both of them had activities for kids, which made everybody happy. In fact, Nadia was so fascinated with the “classroom” exhibit in the Helsinki City Museum, she didn’t want to go anywhere else and stayed there almost until the museum closed 🙂

Anna at the classroom piano

All these exhibits plus more ice cream made the day, and we were glad we didn’t plan anything else!

Helsinki Day 2 – Dinner

Harald restaurant is an awesome place. I discovered it last year when we had two conference events with my previous company, and this time, I didn’t have any doubts about where we should have a family dinner (what was supposed to be the June birthdays dinner, but whatever :)).

Everybody loved it, both the food and the ambiance. And it turned out that there was a playroom for the kids 🙂

Helsinki Day 2

Boris and I had an early morning bike ride, and I was shocked by how empty the streets were in the morning. Even at 6-30, there were almost no cars and no bikers or people. That was a great ride, and I was thankful for Boris because it’s not his favorite time of the day to bike 🙂

Unfortunately, the rest of the day didn’t go like the day before – it was raining on and off, often heavily. we still decided to go to Suomenlinna, which was probably not the best decision we could make :), but what’s done is done.

No good pictures because of that, but a couple of them taken by Anna earlier – on the plane and on the first day:

Helsinki Day 1

We successfully resolved the puzzle of not matching the numbers of people and bicycles and ended up with everybody having the appropriate means of transportation :).

The morning started with a grey sky and rain, but later, it became nice and sunny, so we were able to go ahead with our original plans. Oodi is an amazing place, and we spent the first half of the day there. Then, we went to pick up a bike for John and a bike seat for Kira, and then there was more biking, and a playground by the library, and more biking and more walking.

We had ice cream, and then Nadia’s ice cream was lost to the seagulls, and we got another one for her and guarded it from the audacious birds. The rain started only about 8 PM when everybody was in their respective homes. With the forecast how it is for this week, every day without the rain is a blessing!

Lots of berries. Lots of yogurts. Lots of ice cream.

In Helsinki – Finally!

We made it! Everybody had their passports, the plane was on time, the luggage was not lost, and Anna’s family was settled in their AirB&B.

Anna is going to use my old bike, and Nadia got a new one; both of them will be donated after this trip, but they will serve us well for now.:)

Lion’s Den Forest Preserve

I spent a day in Milwaukee with my girls, and at my request to do some nature, we went to Lion’s Den Forest Preserve. It was amazing! The best thing I could imagine, and the thing which is impossible in Illinois: both the Lake and the Nature preserve in one place! I took tons of pictures, although I fully understand that the pictures don’t convey the true beauty of the bluff. As Anna put it: that’s how Lake Michigan looked before the white people came. Breathtaking views!

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Morning In Helsinki

Just a couple of pictures taken on the way to the ferry in Helsinki – it’s amazing when the sun is so bright at 6 AM!

Tallinn At Midsummer – The Rest Of The Pictures

Once we discovered the oldest cafe in Tallinn, we stop there each time we visit.

Two kinds of Rhubarb pies and sea buckthorn pie
Vana Tallinn coffe
Round two – Chocalate to go
Marzipan Museum
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Tallinn At Midsummer – More Pictures

I started to put this post together yesterday, and today is very different. I am on the plane back to Chicago, and since early morning, the only thing I can do is to scroll the new and to hope that Ukraine will use this time the best possible way. I didn’t see any confirmation of recapturing Donetsk, but I hope that it was not somebody’s joke.

At first I wanted to conserve this post for a while, but then I though that there is nothing wrong in celebrating the beauty and the spirit of freedom of the country that so far gave the greatest portion of it’s budget to support Ukraine. So let it shine!

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Tallinn At Midsummer

Today was the first day of this trip when I was really happy that Anna’s family trip was rebooked. Today, we all would go to Tallinn, assuming “there was no holiday n Estonia,” and it was! Somehow we missed when Midsummer became the same everybody’s time-off in Estonia as in Finland, and today almost everything was closed! Olevista, most of the museums, and even many smaller boutiques, believe it or not! Even finding public restrooms was a problem!

We tested the routes for our August trip, and I took pictures of all opening hours, located the restaurants which allow people from the street to use their bathrooms for one euro fee; took notes of all places which are not child-proof (a lot!) and almost counted the steps 🙂

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