Cafe Fanny

August 19, 2014February 7, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 3 Comments

We met some friends for brunch on Saturday at Cafe Fanny in Sinebrychoff Park. Finns love a buffet and Fanny doesn’t disappoint! There were croissants, rye bread, eggs, bacon, sausages, filled tortilla, a delicious salad bar and of course, dessert.

The sweets section had cereals as well as lemon tart, cream, yoghurt, marshmallows and berries. Filter coffee, tea and juice were also included.

Cafe Fanny has a strong connection to the park and you can borrow games such as croquet to play on the grass. As the website says, ‘Fanny is park and park is Fanny’. In winter there are even sleds you can use for free to ride down the snow-covered hills.

The park itself was once owned by Nikolai Sinebrychoff, a Russian merchant, who founded one of Finland’s largest breweries in 1819. They are now part of the Carlsberg brand and produce Koff and Karhu beer as well as owning the license to produce Coca-Cola products in Finland.

Nikolai Sinebrychoff built a house and stables in the park as well as an observation tower and beautiful gardens. Lucky for us his foresight has created an oasis in the city, as well as being the birthplace of Fanny.

Cafe Fanny

Bulevardi 40

Helsinki 00120

Twice Around the Lake

August 12, 2014August 12, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 5 Comments

All this lying on the beach lately is good for my Vitamin D but I’m starting to feel like I’ve had too much Vitamin F, A and T. So last Sunday morning I got up and went for a walk around Töölonlahti (Töölö Bay).

Set amongst the trees is an easy walking path that winds around the lake for 2.2km. Soon after heading out I came across Kahvila Tyyni, right on the water’s edge.

This rustic cafe had problems last year after complaints were made about its electrical cords stretching across the path. After a series of negotiations a small victory was won and with the backing of the local community the cafe is open again this summer.

Filter coffee seems quite popular here and at Kahvila Tyyni there are free refills – as if you need any incentive to stay, sit and just enjoy the view.

As I walked on I saw many people out jogging or walking. I still love to see Finns just sitting, smiling with their faces lifted to the sun. A group of paddle-boarders launched themselves out onto the water as I rounded the northern end of the bay.

Amongst the trees on the far side from Kahvila Tyyni is Linnunlaulu, home to a series of villas built 120 years ago. One of the villas now functions as a writer’s centre and some have saunas in the garden and their own private jetty.

Nestled amongst them is Café Sininen Huvila (Blue Villa). As well as coffee they sell Finnish juices made from blackcurrant, raspberry and lingonberry.

This week there’s a Cultural Walk on that takes in Töölönlahti and beyond, covering many of Helsinki’s best sights. I highly recommend checking out the map here just to get a feel for how close this bay is to many of Helsinki’s best attractions.

I had such a good time on my walk I went around again before meeting up with the boys for a few Sunday chores. Luckily I hadn’t indulged in any sweet treats on my stop or this post would have to be retitled Four Times Around the Lake at a Brisk Pace.

Bringing Cricket to Finland

August 4, 2014February 13, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 7 Comments

Trip Advisor is a good way to find things to do in your city. I recommend it even if you have lived somewhere for a long time. A recent browse led me to Pihlajasaari (Rowan Island) – a small island 3km off the coast of Helsinki.

After fearing summer would never come, July has been amazing and it was on a very sunny day that Miko and I walked to Ruoholahti and caught the boat across. They seem to leave every 15 minutes in summer. The return fare is 6 euro and as usual, children under seven travel free.

Pihlajasaari is actually made up of two islands connected by a footbridge. It has an area of about 26 hectares in total and has no permanent residents, although you can camp on the eastern island. There is also a restaurant and a sauna you can hire.

Back on the main beach there’s a gorgeous row of wooden changing sheds. Pihlajasaari is also home to a unisex nudist beach, one of only two in the whole country. That beach apparently has very little sand though and is not suitable for swimming….

The view back to Helsinki is of Länsisatama (West Harbour) where some of the big cruise ships to Tallinn and St Petersburg berth. It’s quite astonishing to be relaxing on the beach, hear a loud noise and then see a huge 3000-passenger ferry the size of a large building come sliding into view.

Miko slept for two hours in the stroller so I enjoyed the luxury of reading my book before he joined me in the water. It’s quite different to the beaches we are used to, as although it is the sea, it is not very salty at all, there is no surf and swimming is hardly affected by the tides.

As we got off the boat on the way home Miko dropped his cricket bat about 10 feet down into the water. I was ready to kiss it goodbye but a small rescue effort was deployed which ended up involving a man in a fishing boat coming across and hauling it out for us. A small cheer went up from the crowd that had gathered, which was really nice considering some may have not even known what a cricket bat was!

Pihlajasaari

Where the Animals Never Sleep

August 1, 2014August 18, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 4 Comments

One thing about visiting the zoo is that if you go at the wrong time of day you’ll find most the animals are snoozing. Not so at the Finnish Museum of Natural History, where the animals are stuffed and permanently alert.

You can’t miss the building as it has two large giraffes drinking coffee on the balcony. It was originally used as a gymnasium for Russian students in 1913 and was adopted by the University of Helsinki ten years later.

Inside the foyer an imposing African elephant stands next to the ticket seller. As with many attractions in Helsinki, you can enter for free for the last two hours of the first Thursday of every month.

The ground floor holds The Story of Bones. I found the monkey skeletons quite creepy, until I opened a cupboard and found a human skeleton, curled up in a corner and that creeped me out even more.

Moving upstairs to the World Nature display we were greeted by a giraffe and two red pandas. I felt a bit sad seeing a stuffed orangutan swinging from a tree, next to a mandrill baring his teeth to us from behind the glass.

Seeing the Australian section was quite strange for me. There were stuffed animals that I’ve seen very much alive in the wild – echidna, small marsupials, sugar gliders and native birds of all descriptions.

The African section was impressive with many natural scenes recreated, including a night room full of nocturnal creatures. It dawned on me that for many Finnish children this may be the only way they see some of these animals as they are not housed at Helsinki Zoo.

The Finnish Nature section was really impressive and moved through different seasons, showing arctic foxes and bears in the snow and rivers, feasting on salmon. There is of course a collection of specimens in jars and large shells from the world’s oceans.

The top floor holds the History of Life exhibition which Miko loved as it was dominated by prowling dinosaurs. This level was quite interactive and the aquatic section was cleverly done with lights instead of water.

To be honest, it was a fascinating experience but it left me feeling queasy. Miko loved it and I realised sadly that if we lose more animals to extinction this will be the only way many children get to see them.

So we really must be grateful for the research and preservation of these animals I suppose – otherwise we’re all stuffed aren’t we?

Finnish Museum of Natural History

Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden

July 29, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 4 Comments

A lot of construction goes on in Helsinki during the summer months due to the extreme cold here in winter. Unfortunately this means the grounds of the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden are closed for maintenance, but Miko and I spent a lovely afternoon wandering through the glasshouses recently.

Also known as the Helsinki University Botanical Garden, this is the oldest scientific plant collection in Finland. Originally opened in Turku in 1678 they were moved to Helsinki in 1829 after the Great Fire of Turku.

The greenhouses were originally wooden and had to be rebuilt after they deteriorated. During the Winter War of 1940, bombs smashed the glass and only the seeds of the giant water lily and one cyprus tree survived the cold.

The greenhouses were rebuilt in the 1990’s and are now automated. There are a series of eight interconnected houses, each home to a different family of plant species.

I was interested to see they had a Wollemi Pine, an amazing fossil of a tree from Australia. They also had some specimens of New Zealand plants in the Island House. This made me smile as I forget New Zealand is an island nation and tend to think of islands as the many smaller land masses off our coasts.

There was a cafe in the grounds but we didn’t stop. Somebody’s child (mine) was following me around saying “Can I have an ice cream?” on repeat until I eventually gave in, so he enjoyed that as we made our way home.

We’ll be back to visit the grounds once they are re-opened but in the meantime the greenhouses are lovely and warm and a good place to visit on a wet, Helsinki afternoon.

Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden

This is the sound… of silence

July 23, 2014July 23, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 5 Comments

It was Miko’s final day at childcare before the July break. How best to use my time seeing the sights of Helsinki without my two-year old in tow? The Chapel of Silence? Sounds perfect!

Like the hull of a giant wooden boat, Kamppi Chapel looms high above a bustling market square outside one of Helsinki’s busiest malls and transport hubs. We have walked past it numerous times and I have to admit I’ve never given it a second thought.

It’s a lovely sight, the warm wood rising above as students, workers and tourists move about like pieces on a giant concrete chessboard.

It’s easy to get church-fatigue when sight-seeing in Europe, and an edifice made of wood is no big deal to New Zealanders, but this is an architectural pleasure and a welcome relief from high-vaulted stone cathedrals.

The chapel doesn’t hold services or events such as weddings and is operated by a partnership of Helsinki parishes and the city’s Social Services Department. When I entered I could hear someone behind a screen weeping softly as they spoke with the Social Worker on duty. I was ushered into the chapel where I sat down on a pew and just absorbed absolute silence. It was an incredible contrast to the noise and hustle outside. I felt like I was inside a giant, warm wooden egg.

The Chapel contains pews, a pulpit and a place to burn thin tapered candles. There’s also a pile of cushions shaped like rocks that reflect the colours of river stones. I sat for about 15 minutes before heading back out into the hustle of the streets and off to pluck Miko from a mob of excitable kids at daycare. Being in the Chapel is not quite like taking Valium, but it was all the Mother’s Little Helper that I needed.

Kamppi Chapel of Silence

Helsinki Second Hand

July 13, 2014August 18, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 2 Comments

Miko and I spent hours recently at the playground near Kaivopuisto. He was so tired when we left he fell fast asleep in the stroller. I took a new way home and was pleased to come across Ravintola Sea Horse and its little kiosk across the road. People were enjoying cool beverages in the late-afternoon sun and I decided to join them and read a few pages of my book while I had the chance.

Ravintola Sea Horse kiosk

After a pleasant half-hour I wandered up towards the city centre and came across Helsinki Second Hand, a huge warehouse with a ramp leading down to just below street-level.

The store was full of antiques and furniture, some familiar and some that seemed very nordic. It reminded me of Junk & Disorderly, a second-hand store we really like back in Auckland.

The markets and second-hand stores here are full of glassware and crockery with the two big names being Arabia and Iittala. Arabia has been making ceramics, porcelain and other forms of pottery in Finland since 1874. Iittala has been making glassware since a factory was opened in the town of the same name in 1881.

Large pieces of industrial furniture are as popular here as they are at home, with old farming items from traditional Finnish life featuring too.

NOT Miko’s new bed

Now that summer is here, huge cruise ships frequently come and go from the nearby ports of Tallinn, Stockholm and St Petersburg. There are some great vintage posters you can get and the booming horns of boats can be heard across the city as they slowly pull out of Helsinki’s various ports.

Thankfully they’re not enough to wake a sleeping child and Miko slept soundly until we got home, giving me a good amount of time to navigate the store without having to say once, ‘don’t touch!’

Helsinki Secondhand

Arabia

Iittala

A Little Island Paradise – in Helsinki

July 1, 2014February 13, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 10 Comments

Saturday morning was spent buying paint and supplies for our new apartment. With no car and a two-year-old in tow we felt we deserved a slice of pizza and a drink in the sun once our mission was complete.

Ravintola Skiffer on Liuskaluoto

We walked down to Meripuisto which looks out onto a few small islands in the Gulf of Finland. You could almost swim across if you had to but its a busy waterway and still pretty cold. We saw loads of boats go by, including a large wooden one with a sauna and benches on the back deck to sit on while you cool down.

We caught a small ferry across to an island where there are a few jetties, a shop for boaties and 24-hour diesel pumps. Just further along is Skiffer, an outdoor bar with a menu specialising in wood-fired pizza.

The bar and outdoor seating at Skiffer

It felt so good to be outside, sitting in the sun and enjoying the atmosphere which was not unlike that of an Australian beer garden. The music was good, Miko played happily, it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

We stayed a few hours before catching a ferry back. They seem to run every ten minutes or so with the last one on a Saturday being at midnight.

A floating wood-fired sauna

The next day the temperatures plummeted and we bussed to Ikea in freezing rain, only to realise on arrival that it didn’t open for another hour. With temperatures lately forecast to reach a ‘high’ of 12 degrees we have learnt to savour moments like we had at Skiffer and to make the most of the nordic sun while it’s here.

Looking back to the city

Skiffer

I heart Kiasma!

June 26, 2014June 26, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 5 Comments

I don’t really like art galleries. Or Christmas fruit cake. And as a woman of a certain age I feel like I should – but sometimes I stand in front of paintings wondering how long before I can move on to the gallery cafe or gift shop.

A giant rose made from soft jube sweets

But I loved Kiasma, Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibitions are tactile and interactive, offering inspiring representations of ideas, rather than classical depictions of iconic scenes.

Someone has been mucking around in the office

Slow day in the office?

In one room we were invited to wander through thousands of coloured ribbons, feeling our way blindly as we tried not to bump into each other. I later doubled back to go through again because I just felt so happy in there amongst all that colour.

I know the door is here somewhere….

I loved the glasshouse that was filled only with green items, like the work of a colour-blind bower bird or an OCD backyard hoarder.

It’s a very greenhouse

I wandered around big coloured blocks depicting the houses of an Italian village and large copper circles that spelled terve (welcome) in braille. I laughed with strangers as we tried to figure out why our images were not reflected in the mirror before us.

Holiday scenes depicted on perspex

I was deeply moved by the work of Alfredo Jaar, a Chilean artist who addresses political and humanitarian issues with his art. One Million Finnish Passports is a room of just that, showing how many people would have been permitted into Finland had they a more open immigration policy. The Silence of Nduwayezu is a room containing a million slides of the eyes of a boy who saw his parents killed in front of him. Many of Jaar’s works comment on the world’s failure to talk about issues happening in African nations.

The Silence of Nduwayezu, 1997 Alfredo Jaar

I left Kiasma feeling informed and entertained and a bit better about myself for genuinely enjoying an art gallery experience. In fact I felt elated because I enjoyed it so much. And as it was raining outside I was happy there was still time to look around the art gallery gift shop.

I’d love to know – what have been your favourite art gallery experiences?

Kiasma – Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art

Alfredo Jaar

Where the Wild Things Are

June 22, 2014June 22, 2014 / Mel_inHelsinki / 9 Comments

I’ve mentioned before the wild abandon with which Finns let nature explode in the warmer months. The changes in our natural surroundings are incredible as trees and plants accustomed to the harsh climate come to life with just the smallest amount of encouragement. Hedges and edges are left untrimmed and greenery grows out of cracks in walls and pavements. Nowhere was this more evident than on our recent trip to the island fortress of Suomenlinna.

Suomenlinna (Suomen: Finnish, linna: castle) is not actually a castle but a sea fortress built on a series of islands 15 minutes by ferry from Helsinki’s Market Square. It is quite unique as it has played a part as a defence base for three different states: Sweden, Russia and Finland.

Construction began in 1748 when Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. King Frederick I named the fortress Sveaborg and visited four years later to see how the construction was going. King’s Gate was built on the site where his ship anchored and is now considered the most emblematic site of interest on Suomenlinna.

King’s Gate

In 1788 the fortress served as a naval base during the Russo-Swedish War. Twenty years later the fortress surrendered during the Finnish War and became a Russian naval base for the next 110 years.

A Russian Orthodox church was built on the island in 1854. During the early days of Finnish independence the church was converted to an Evangelical-Lutheran church and all signs of Russian decoration, including the onion domes, were removed. A lighthouse still operates within the church steeple.

Moss graffiti!

During the Crimean War of 1855 the fortress was damaged during bombing by the Anglo-French fleet. At the time of the Finnish Civi War in 1918, a prison camp was set up on the islands and the fortress was renamed Suomenlinna.

The fortress went on to play an important role as a base during the start of the Second World War. As well as cannons and guns still in place there is a submarine you can pay a small entry fee to explore. In 1991 Suomenlinna was added to UNESCO’s list of unique monuments of military architecture and became a protected World Heritage Site.

Skimming stones

The islands are also home to tunnels you can explore if you bring your own torch. It reminded me of Kirrin Island in the Enid Blyton books I read when I was younger and I wonder if there’s a Smuggler’s Cove.

If you look close enough you may spot the man sunbathing on this beach

More than 800 residents now call Suomenlinna home and there are art galleries, museums, shops, cafes and wonderful lookouts. We briefly considered living here when an apartment became available but we wondered about accessibility during the winter months.

The beauty of the wild flowers was my favourite thing about Suomenlinna as we stopped for ice cream and later for a beer in the late afternoon sun. But I know it will be worth another visit during winter when the landscape will be transformed by ice and snow into a surreal frozen scene. And lying underneath will be the the seeds of the wild flowers and grasses, resting until the warmer months.