I used to live on this street!
The brown house at the end of the street used to be my old home!
It was fun to be back in Helsinki! In case you didn't know, I used to live there for 6 years while studying, but it's almost 8 years already since I moved away. After that I've been there to visit friends or on business trips myself and never really had a lot of time to just walk around and see the sights. This time was different because every one I know in Helsinki worked during the days so Theo and I had the days for ourselves to do whatever we wanted. The weather wasn't as nice as I would have hoped but it only really rained on one day so I guess we can call us lucky. Other than that it was cloudy and windy except on the last day when it suddenly became sunny and warm, shame that we had to leave home then!
We visited the Ateneum Art Museum and saw the newest exhibition called Japanomania. It was about how Japanese style influenced the Finnish artists (as well as other European artists like Monet and Van Gogh) in the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th. It was actually really interesting although Theo didn't quite grasp it yet and we didn't get to spend there as much time as I would have wanted to.
The Winter Garden is also worth seeing from the outside!
The parks and the two botanical gardens were more to Theo's taste and that's where we spent quite a lot of time. We both liked the Winter gardens more than the Kaisaniemi Botanic Gardens, they were better maintained. And Theo liked the Koi fish in the Winter Gardens and started to cry when we had to leave.
I loved this little cafe called Johan&Nyström in Katajanokka district. Great coffee and nice views over the harbour and the sea!
The view from Johan&Nyström cafe.
Mostly we just walked around and looked at the beautiful old buildings (why are all new houses either boringly white or gray?) or sat in cafes and watched people walking by. We also visited a few toy stores, book stores and two yarn stores. The first one we visited was Snurre which is in Kamppi district (Malminrinne 1B). It was a lovely little place with a surprisingly wide selection of different yarns. And most of them were brands that you really can't get anywhere else in Finland, at least not here in Vaasa. I ended up buying two skeins of Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles in shade teacup.
The other shop we went to was Fiinaneule, also in Kamppi (Simonkatu 12). They carried a lot of Sandnes Garn and different varieties of Rowan wool. I bought some Sandnes Garn Alpakka in a lovely greenish mustard shade and light blue Minialpakka for a new hat for Rowan Theo. I also bought light grey Rowan Felted Tweed and I'm planning to use it for the Gable sweater.
There were so many things I would have wanted to do but didn't have time so we definitely need to do another trip very soon!
Knitting and coffee at the Maitolaituri cafe in Kaivopuisto.
looks like it was an amazing trip! Love the photos, those botanical gardens look so lovely. And yay for souvenir yarn! You'll love Turkey when you go- I lived in Istanbul for a couple of year a very long time ago, it's a magical city.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting! We visited Istanbul a few years ago, but only for a couple of days which was way too short to explore that amazing city! Also I had otitis and bronchitis + a 39 C fever when we were there so that limited my sightseeing even further. Would love to go there again some day, but this time we are going to Cesme for a week.
DeleteHelsinki looks very pretty and the streets are so clean. It sounds like your trip was a huge success. Love the gorgeous yarn too.
ReplyDeleteYes, Helsinki is very pretty, you could visit if you ever get the chance!
DeleteYour trip looks fantastic! All these spots are picturesque. I wish I could visit these places someday. We will be travelling to Chicago for attending a grand destination wedding at one of Chicago event venues. Truly excited for this fun trip.
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