We {heart} Helsinki

In honor of our 15th wedding anniversary we decided to take a little trip. 

Okay, perhaps not so little after all.

Mark had a business trip scheduled to Finland close to our anniversary....and all the Stars in the Heavens aligned so that I could tag along with him (sans girls).    It might not be a set of pots and pans but I think this will do nicely...

Welcome to Schipol....aka the Amsterdam Airport.  

Schipol is one VERY busy airport.  You can hear just about any language out there spoken here. 

I was in for a (pleasant) surprise....in the past every time I got off the plane coming from the USA and stepped into this airport it smelled of cigarette smoke.  Lots and lots of smoke. Not this time!  Mark explained that they turned the airport into a smoke-free zone (or most of it anyway).

Yes, you can really buy flower bulbs in Holland and bring them home!  They're even approved for shipping to the USA.  Maybe next time I'll pick some up!

Our flight got into Helsinki around 11am local time....and after dealing with "lost" luggage (the help desk said it wasn't technically lost since they knew where it was) and finding our way to our hotel in downtown Helsinki we ventured out.

And found this fun open-air market close to the harbor.

All kinds of produce was for sale (local and some from far away).  That's a bunch of chantrelle mushrooms....YUM!

They also had lots of booths selling foods....and we just had to try the reindeer sausage with potatoes dish and the Finnish pancake with berry topping and whipped cream.  Oh my.  LOVE those Finnish pancakes!

Not sure what kind of seafaring bird this is but they were all over the market, trying to steal people's foods (especially the fried herring).  

View of the harbor from this church....

The Russian Orthodox church.  We got to quietly watch a wedding in progress.   (but no cameras were allowed inside).  I can't say I've ever witnessed a Russian Orthodox wedding before...it was fascinating to watch.  AND....I learned from a Finnish lady the following morning while roasting myself in the sauna (yes, they really do use saunas)...is that a royal wedding (Princess Victoria of Sweden) took place the following day (and no...it wasn't the one I saw...she just thought it was interesting that I'd seen a wedding when most of the country was glued to the TV watching the Princess get married).  And that's me holding a Marimekko bag.  Love, love, love Marimekko!  

Our Lovely Hotel Room.  Very modern and nicely appointed.  And at this point in the trip we CRASHED.  We'd tried so hard not to fall asleep during the day but that EIGHT hour time change was really wearing on us.  Oh, and the hotel saunas aren't co-ed.  I'll admit I felt a little weird going into the sauna the first time we tried it (swimsuits aren't allowed) but I had a lovely chat with a Finnish lady in there.  She also told me that Finland has a female president...among other things.  Yes, they're fluent in English...and Swedish.  And sometimes German or French.  Puts us to shame, no?

The following morning we ventured back out onto the streets.  This is some church.  It's big and white.  I think it might be Lutheran but I'm not sure.  They wouldn't let us in so off we went.  Bummer.

Lovely lattes while people watching at one of many outdoor cafes in Helsinki.  I saw a bottled drink called Froosh at this cafe.  Okay...I should perhaps mention that Finnish is a really strange and unique language.  With my German background I can generally understand bits and pieces of other languages BUT NOT Finnish.  Not a word!  I rather enjoyed not understanding anything...kind of fun for a change.  I did try to learn a few key words...I'll have to see if I can remember them.

Train station ...notice that there are two signs....most road signs are marked in both Finnish and Swedish.  Helsinki is Finnish and Helsingfors is Swedish for Helsinki.  Just to confuse you.  And me.

We only stayed in Helsinki for 1.5 days....Mark's actual work was in Tampere- Finland's second largest city. It's about 2 hours by train north of Helsinki.  And since we LOVE riding in trains....that's what we did!  About the nicest commuter train I've been on - complete with electric plug-ins for laptops or cell phones.  I don't ever remember seeing that on the other trains!  About the cleanest train station I've been at too.