Tag: finland

Seen In Helsinki

Partially obscured, because I was in a hurry and didn’t want anyone seeing me taking pictures of the bathroom, but I still wanted to take a picture of a gender-neutral parent changing a diaper 🙂 .

Two-level bike parking at the train station
And yet anothe ice cream!
Lindonberry season – I got a box in the store, and ate it with rahka, and there is still some left – I will take it ho

On Monday, I worked at Valo again (the staff is saying “Nice to see you again :)).

And in addition to breakfast and lunch, they now have afternoon coffee:)

And finally, here is a mystery photo of the day – any guesses where I took it?

Gender Disbalance

I wouldn’t think about it, but Boris pointed it out, and I thought I should mention it: note the difference between the sign indicating the pedestrian side of the path in Tallinn and in Helsinki:

The Rest Of Vacation

The rest of my time in Helsinki was spent biking with Boris and supporting the Finnish economy by shopping for chocolate, marmalade, and both kids’ and adults’ clothes. Also, I was still doing tons of conference-related things, and I also had to dial in to work several times. One might argue that I should have disconnected entirely, but I was afraid that if I left things as they were, there would be too many things to fix when I returned, and it would take way longer.

Unfortunately, it was raining almost every day, and between the rains and the necessity to do some community work, the bike rides were less frequent and shorter than they would be otherwise. Also, I didn’t have a chance to go to Soumenlinna. The good thing is that I finally broke Boris’s resistance to going to the Regatta, and in addition to my going there alone on the first day, we went there twice together, including today.

They called it a reindeer pie, but I would say it was a reindeer quiche. In any case, delicious!

Also, we witnessed something really special: two Asian ladies trying a cinnamon bun and a blueberry pie with vanilla sauce for the first time! They asked to sit at our table, since it started raining again, and it was pretty crowded inside the Regatta. And when I saw (and head :)) their reaction at the first bite, I asked them whether it was their first time, and they confirmed. I told them that Regatta was the perfect place to do it for the first time!

Horseriding

Today, I did something I have never done before. My friend Zoya invited us to the stable, and we walked with the horses, and then tried to ride.

Here I am combing the tail of the minihorse named Romeo. The purpose of taking this picture was to show my granddaughters that the horse doesn’t mind combing, even when I pull hard!

Approximately fifteen minutes into the walk, I realized that walking the horse and pulling him when he demonstrates his temper is worse for my spine than holding my granddaughter’s hand, so I passed the bridle to Boris. Later, Zoya let me walk the bigger horse, so I got another fifteen minutes. I think I stopped both times at the right time, because my back didn’t hurt afterwards. Then, we both tried to ride the horse. I think I could get on her back on the fifth attempt 😂, but I did!

Midsummer And Doing Nothing

Gorgeous days of doing nothing! I am still doing all related to my NFP and the 2026 conference, but that’s a fun part of whatever I am doing, and so small compared to my regular workload. All this aside, there can’t be a better way of putting yourself into “doing nothing” than being in Finland during Midsummer, when everyone around is doing nothing, and even most of the museums are closed.

And this sudden warmth, when 66F feels ten degrees warmer than in Chicago, even withth the wind, and even by the water. I would never think about going short-sleeved at 66F in Chicago! But here I was, taking off a light jacket and walking in a t-shirt.

I went to Regatta, knowing there would be a line, and it was, but I stayed in it for less than 15 minutes, got the best cinnamon bun in town, a dark roast coffee, and sat by the water. I wondered about “Beware of birds” on the terrace railing by the tables, but I didn’t wonder for long! It was not even a seagull, but just a sparrow, who swung by my cinnamon bun, which I held in my hand!!! I was just: what’s that soft thing that fell down from nowhere?! And he was gone! Sitting on the railing, showing with all its appearance that he had nothing to do with what had happened! I had to cover my bun with the paper bag flap between bites!

Regatta

For some magical reason, there were zero people in line at Regatta – and it was not just a weekend, it was May Day! I am just grateful for the opportunity 🙂

A Very Brief Visit to Helsinki

No, I am not flying Business Class all the time; it’s just that I had a total of 14 upgrades because of my Finnair Platinum, and I can only use them on the Finnair flights, not on the partner’s flights. And also, there are fewer and fewer direct flights from Chicago, so I am flying on the partnering airlines most of the time. For this super-short visit, I used six of these forteen upgrades to fly Business Class on the way there, and Economy Premium on the way back. One benefit of Platinum at ORD was that I could go to the LOT Business Lounge (otherwise, the Quatar Airlines Lounge is absolutely horrible).

My gate was right next to the longe, so i could see the aircraft
Business class dinner
At breakfast, I asked why they are not serving Finnish yogurts, and the flight attendant told me a horror story about how they are required to remove all the food from the aircraft when they arrive to the US< and how they have to throw away a lot of food.

As usual, I started with sleeping for ten hours straight to compensate not just for the flight (I could sleep fine, since it was all horizontal), but for the previous weeks of anxiety.

And then, there were three days of biking :). It was rather intense, because I still didn’t bike much in Chicago this spring – it was too cold. It might be not much warmer in Helsinki, but I could not say no to Boris, so I just did.

Continue reading “A Very Brief Visit to Helsinki” →

Suomenlinna

We made it to Suomenlinna (in search of the salmon soup, which, as we found out, is not being served on Sundays).

In Vanille Cafe, they still bake fresh pies each morning, and they are still the best in town
I resent not purchasing this poster!

Post-Christmas Helsinki

The weather was/is really miserable; it’s warm, but no sun, no snow, no nothing. Probably the worst I ever saw at that time of the year. However, still a lot of Christmas decorations up!

I met up with my friend Natasha, and we walked around a bit before sitting and chatting at the Fazer cafe.

The city is still beautiful, even with this miserable weather 🙂

Back To Work (In Helsinki)

Resuming my work at Valo coworking space didn’t go smoothly. The app kept saying there were no rooms with extra displays available, and even a room without an extra display was not available until 9 a.m. I made a reservation, but the room number didn’t show up in the morning, so I decided to go to Valo and figure out everything while I was onsite.

I arrived five minutes before 7 AM, and nobody at reception could tell me why the rooms with displays were unavailable. I knew I couldn’t officially claim my room until nine, but I also knew it should have been assigned by that moment. The next thing I realized was that since the room was not assigned, my magic button did not work for anything, so I couldn’t go to the gym or close the locker. The morning reception shift came, but they still couldn’t tell me what was going on “until Jarkko comes.” I knew from the last time that Jarkko could fix anything in the system, but he is not a morning person, so I couldn’t expect him to be around at 7:15.

Suddenly, a room with an extra display popped up as available on the app, and I grabbed it, but nobody at reception could help me to cancel the previous reservation: “You need to wait for Jarkko!” But at least I had a room, and my button started to work, so I hurried up to drop my things, change, and go to the gym.

One more change since last time was that the breakfast price went up; however, it remained the same for the tenants, so I could still enjoy “all-you-can-eat” for 10 euros. Also, it turned out that they had several conferences going on, so many rooms were converted back to hotel rooms, and all the staff was busy servicing the conferences.

On my third trip upstairs, I finally found Jarkko at his desk, and everything started magically working: my canceled reservation was credited back to my account, I was able to book the rooms with an extra monitor for the remainder of the week (“Try now, I added five rooms!”)

I remembered how to make the magic button work on the elevators and realized I could pour cappuccino into a ceramic cup and take it back to my room. I found a fruit bowl in the cafeteria and grabbed a couple of pieces for later. Life is beautiful again 🙂