Roses – The Is No Life Without Roses!
Tag: helsinki
The Photo Exhibit At Esplanada
Border Control
One more thing which made my arrival to Helsinki miserable was the wait at the border control. I had never experienced a situation like yesterday when I waited in the border control line for over 45 minutes, like in O’Hare. I lady who was managing the line replied to my question, saying that I was lucky if I never saw it before :). I think it was a combination of several flights arriving almost at the same time, with many of them being late, so passengers with connections proceeded first. Also, I noticed that there was once again a significant trickle of Russian-speaking people with all sorts of passports coming in, and they would always go through extra scrutiny by the border control.
Trying to save time at this last stage of my journey, I gave my passport to the border control officer and said: staying here in Finland until next Saturday, not going anywhere.
–And where are you going next Saturday?
–Back to Chicago
–And you are not here for business, I assume?
–Nope, for husband. It doesn’t count like business, does it?
–Well, more like a hobby! Or… maybe… some business?
It was good to have a laugh, and I think he enjoyed it, too.
The one before the last disappointment was a rail tacks construction for the airport trains, which meant they are less frequent now. Sometimes on the weekends, you would have to wit for the train for 30 minutes! And the last one – massive road construction and a reroute of traffic by our house (it has been going on for a while, but when I was in Helsinki last time, I didn’t have time to notice). So, I need to learn new traffic patterns just when I learned my way around!
Helsinki – Love, Always
… even when it’s raining all day, mixed with wet snow, I still love it! Especially since, if you know how, you can walk underground almost from anywhere to anywhere in the city center. And if not underground, there are roofs over the courtyards!
I met with my friend Natasha in the Oodi library, and we caught up on all the news in our lives and in the world in general, and then Boris joined us, and we had lunch on the first floor of the library. Then Boris and I did some shopping, and we returned home. I resumed doing some work (I do not count myself on vacation until Thursday), but after a little bit, Boris asked me what my plans were. It took me a while to get from him what he meant, but as it turned out, he was wondering whether we were going to celebrate Pie Day 😀. How could I say “no”?!
Traveling As Finnair Gold
My two weeks of travel had begun. There are no direct flights to from Chicago to Helsinki this time of the year, so I had a connection in London. It was the first time I used a Oneworld lounge in O’Hare, and it was a great decision because I could have a way better dinner than on the plane. Also, I could go to sleep immediately after the boarding was complete and have close to normal sleep time. No need to wake up for food :).
Same with breakfast – they gave us just a half-cup of yogurt on the plane, but I went to the Oneworld lounge in Heathrow and had an English breakfast there.
I loved that they had small teapots with a cup and a milk pitcher (same as when you have plates and cups at the buffet). You can take one, choose your tea bag(s) and pore whatever milk you prefer, and then take this set back to where you sit.
After I arrived in Helsinki, I tried to put a contact lens in my right eye for the first time since this weird thing happened, and it felt OK. Today, I wore both lenses for about six hours, and it was all good, but I am not sure for how long I will wear them tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a very long day!
Biking In Helsinki
I will never get tired of saying that I love biking in Helsinki! Even though it is so much colder than in Chicago (it was a peak of Indian summer in Chicago last weekend, with temperatures rising to 74F), it is so much nice! I can’t stop marveling at the fact that there are safe bike paths everywhere! This time, I bought better and warmer biking gear, and I like it so much that I almost want to take it back to Chicago :). We went on two bike rides, Sunday and Monday, and the weather was perfect for biking!
Fazer Ice -Cream
I wanted to try one of Fazer’s ice cream creations for a while, and yesterday was the first time tried Fazerella. And believe it or not, my verdict – too much chocolate! Boris was wiser to choose rhubarb sorbet with truffle ice cream!
More Helsinki
What else is there in summer? The strawberries that can’t be matched, forty flavors of ice cream, pride festivities, 86F weather for two weeks in a row.
And also – Helsinki’s IKEA.
IKEA always gives me a sense of stability and an “all is right” feeling. Now, it is almost impossible for me to go to the Schaumburg IKEA, so most of my orders are online (which means, that IKEA food is out of reach for me). We decided to go to IKEA “just for window shopping,” but then we found these coffee cups of that perfect pale turquoise which was gone several years ago. The cups were not rectangular as Boris likes them, but they were still near perfect. We didn’t buy them because I wanted to check online first, and for some reason, my internet went down. When I checked at home, it turned out that 1) this was a new product and 2) this color was sold out in all of the IKEA stores in the US!
The next day, when I was at the Swiss PG Day, Boris went there again and got two boxes of coffee cups with saucers, and a box of espresso cups. I only managed to get one box in my luggage, and he should bring the other two when he comes to Chicago next time.
Seen On The Streets Of Helsinki
if a scarecrow should scare crows, these “black birds” should be called “scareseagull,” because their purpose is to keep the seagulls away from the open-air dining. However, I saw a couple of very brave seagulls making their way through, trying very carefully to avoid the black scare 🙂
Summer Music In Helsinki
During my unplanned stay in Helsinki earlier this week, we went to two concerts. One was a short lunchtime concert at Suomenlinna Church (yes, we went there again :)).
Then on Wednesday, we went to the concert of Finnish Baroque Orchestra in the Saksalainen Church in Helsinki. Boris is a part of their “friends circle”, and I never attended their concerts.
They are really-really-really good! Performing “here and now”, enjoying what they do, and giving the distinct feeling of “making the music”.
Hettie's Reflections 