Finland Finland Finland, quite a long way from Cairo...

 You've probably noticed that when big things are happening, I disappear for a while. For the past few months we've been planning a trip away, then we were on the trip and now we're home jet-lagged but happy!

We really didn't expect to make a trip to the U.K. and France last year for Eurovision. And we doubly didn't expect to make another trip to Europe again this year.... for Eurovision.

For Eurovision 2023 we were lucky enough to be able to purchase ticket packages to see the afternoon preview shows for semi-final 1, 2 and the grand final. So we scrounged all our pennies, rearranged things in the way you do when leaving offspring and pets at home, and we went!

And we said to ourselves, "Wow! That was a once in a lifetime bucket list item ticked off!" And were content.

For many people living IN Europe, it's possibly not too difficult to go to a Eurovision. For Aussies it's a lot harder and a heck of a lot farther to travel. So it's a kind of a big deal.

The Bear and I are members of OGAE Australia (the Aussie branch of the official Eurovision fan club). So we hear all the hype, share our love of Eurovision and once a year can throw our names into a ballot draw to be able to buy ticket packages to Eurovision.

Shortly after returning home last year, we had the kind of conversation you have in the kitchen while cooking dinner and having a few glasses of wine.

The Bear: "Wow, Liverpool was AWESOME! I'm so glad we went."

Me: "OMG yes. It's been my lifelong dream (since the mid 2000s) to see Eurovision in the FLESH!"

The Bear: "Well, you did say it was your lifelong dream to go to Eurovision in a Scandinavian country."

Me: "Why I do believe you're right. But Eurovision in the U.K. was amazing. And while it technically wasn't in a Scandi country, I'd still consider the bucket list item ticked."

The Bear: "So true. But it would be like AMAZING in Sweden. I mean Sweden does a great Eurovision!"

Me: "I know right? Maybe one day. There's NO WAY we could possibly go to Eurovision twice in a row!"

The Bear: "Wellllll, if we really tightened our belts. And maybe sold a few things. And your parents did say they'd happily come back and stay with the boys...."

Me: "I think they were kidding. But no, don't be a tease!"

The Bear: "So we could throw it into the hands of fate and maybe put our names in for the OGAE ballot and see what happens?"

And the Eurovision Goddess Petra Mede deemed it to be so because in November, our names were pulled out of Loreens' magical panini to be eligible to purchase full ticket packages to all 3 Live shows.

To Eurovision 2024 in Malmö, Sweden.

We decided that if we were travelling all that way we would visit a few different places while we were up in that part of the world. After a stack of research and looking at the best flight deals online we decided on the following:

Helsinki in Finland, Malmö Sweden (for Eurovision), Copenhagen in Denmark, then finally Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  

Instead of hitting you with all at once, I might do what I did last year and spread the love over a few blog posts.

I've already jabbered on for a bit so I'll start with our first port of call: 

 🌼 HELSINKI 🦌

Why Finland? 

One of my oldest friends is Finnish. For years she told me about cloudberries and wolves (suuri susi) and what it was like when she was a child growing up in Rovaniemi. It sounded rather magical. When I was a child, I also loved Tove Jansens Moominvalley stories. So when the travel agent suggested adding Helsinki, I said an immediate YES!

We arrived exhausted and completely bedraggled after 30 (THIRTY) hours of travel. There was a last minute cancellation to our direct flight from Doha to Helsinki and it was switched to Doha to Stockholm... Ugh.

Someone gimme a hyaluronic acid mask and 20 hours sleep stat....

And then finally a transfer from Stockholm to Helsinki.

And we were greeted with the sight of large mounds of dirty snow on the tarmac. SNOW! 

In the middle of Spring!

We arrived at our airbnb apartment to be greeted by a very cheerful and chatty host who told us we were lucky enough to arrive on May Day Eve. He explained May Day Eve and May Day were the biggest events in Finlands calendar.

Boy was he correct.

We woke up on May Day morning and decided to take a little walk into town. Who knows? We might see something May Day-ish!

And then some....

After 30 hours travelling from the other side of the world, it was a bit overwhelming.

I'm fairly confident every single Finn within cooee had converged upon Helsinki on this day and at some stage was in Kaivipuisto Park at the southern point of the city.

We were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of sea captains in boiler suits. 

Or so we thought!

May Day or 'Vappu' was traditionally a day for the working class, but now it also celebrates students.

We were told the white caps are given to students who complete year 12. Most people who complete year 12 dust their white caps off and wear them out for a day at the park to recover from May Day Eve frivolities.

The university students all wear their faculty boilersuits covered in patches they have collected from anywhere and everywhere. Friends, colleagues and families set up picnics in the park. I was told they'll do this no matter what the weather.  However this day was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining.

We wandered aimlessly through thousands of white capped, boiler-suited, champagne swigging Finns feeling a little underdressed, so wandered back into the city to the Kauppatori markets at South Harbour to find some lunch.

So eating Rudolf is a thing.

The dish on the left was the 'mixed fish' plate which had fried Vendace (white fish), a piece of delicious salmon, and side of mashed potatoes and veg. The dish on the right was 'Nordic meatballs'. Which could have been anything really. With whole potatoes, veg and lingonberry jam.

All delicious.

We stopped by Helsinki cathedral, and then after clocking about 20,000 steps jumped on a tram and headed home for all of the sleep and ibuprofen.

Here are some of the stuff we visited, stuff we saw, stuff we ate...

At Kaivipuisto Park, the boys are very well catered to with .... outdoor urinals. I challenged the Bear to give them a go, but publicly peeing into what looks like a giant, orange bottle stopper is not really something we do in Oz (unless you're absolutely smashed after a night out on the turps with your mates, then most fellas happily peel off to the side to pee wherever.) 

He declined. 

Coming from Autumn straight into Spring was glorious!

Our apartment building was over 100 years old with wide staircases up to the top, but had a tiny little elevator installed at some stage.  It only fits 2 people comfortably, or 3 people who are very familiar with each other. 😉

It had this metal label plate & almost immediately we started calling the elevator the 'Hissi hiss' and thought that was cute and funny. Many signs (including street signs) are written in Finnish at the top and Swedish at the bottom (to cater to the 5% of people who speak Swedish). So 'elevator' is 'hissi' in finnish, and 'hiss' in Swedish!

*side note: In Sweden, they don't afford the same consideration to finnish speakers.

All the statues in the city were given hats for May Day.

On the 3rd day we visited Suomenlinna Fortress located over a few islands just a short ferry ride away.

From 1748, the fortress was built during the Swedish era as a maritime fortress and a base for the Archipelago Fleet. 

This beautiful church was built as a Russian Orthodox garrison church in 1854. The original building had five steeples with onion domes, but was changed at the beginning of the Finnish era, when it was converted into an Evangelical-Lutheran church. 

I read that the church steeple houses a beacon for air and sea traffic which emits four consecutive blinks which in Morse code stands for the letter H, for Helsinki.

There is a village, as well as the impressive bastions, with underground cellars and bunkers to explore.

The Kings Gate.

The tomb of Augustin Ehrensvärd is in the centre of the Great Courtyard which he designed.

The many buildings around the island vary from beautiful and grand to simple but sweet.

We did stop for lunch in one of the cafes. Whilst we usually logged in to free wifi, I had a feeling this was discouraged here.

Translation suggestions welcome as Google translate turned up its' heel and died at this one...

One thing I had been looking forward to trying was cloudberries. In Finland they are known as lakka, hilla, valokki or suomuurain.  They are only in season from mid-July. So no fresh cloudberries for me. Cloudberry jam was readily available in the Aleppa supermarkets though! I ended up buying 4 jars. 1 to eat during the trip, and the other 3 I posted back home to Australia.

Kaupuuhalli is the Old Market Hall at South Wharf near Market Square. It's very similar to Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne. It smelt amazing and all the stores had beautiful carved wooden facades.

It was a fun exploration of food... I don't know if Reindeer chips were like a joke item only purchased by tourists, or if locals ate them as well?

There was baked potato stall with interesting toppings.

We were reading the menu board intrigued, when the stall holder asked us if we were interested in ordering. We apologised and said we just had eaten (the unknown meatballs and fried mixed fish dish).

However we asked him how he prepared the sauteed reindeer. He explained that he started cooking it in a slow cooker the night before in a rich flavoured casserole or curry depending on his mood.

He insisted on making a little tasting spoon for us both.

On a mini bed of mashed potato, he placed a sliver of reindeer, a little bit of lingonberry jam, topped with some crumbled blue cheese. So good!

So Bear pâté. I declined a sample. And about 20 € a tin.

The salmon looked delicious.

We spent alot of time popping into charity and vintage clothing shops around the city and found a basket filled with vintage USSR badges.

And learnt the finnish word for CROCHET HOOK!!!

Virkkuukoukut were 2€ each! Sadly I did not need any. 

Have you heard about Moomins?

I have loved Moomins ever since I stumbled across the Moominvalley story books in the school library when I was about 8 or 9.

Moomin stuff is EVERYWHERE!

And the Finns are justifiably proud of their Moomins and the author Tove Janssen.

I bought this Moomin cup in an op shop. And I know you're all gasping at the price of the cup, but we walked into a department store 5 minutes down the road where they cost 25€! And I had serious FOMO and wanties. I got a little bit nutty about Moomin stuff.

Moomin toys in the Suomenlinna Toy Museum.

Moomin yarn. Full disclosure: I DID NOT buy the Moomin yarn. Because as cute as it was, this was just the beginning of our trip and I was kind of paranoid about potentially going over our luggage weight limit (omigod did I just say that and not buy yarn?????!!!!)

But I did buy charms which in the eyes of any crocheter are actually stitch markers, and we can never have enough stitch markers, amiright?  

Snufkin, Little My, Moomintroll (holding the finnish flag) and Snorkmaiden.

I've often felt like Little My is my spirit animal.

There was even a Moomin Ferry.

I was not able to confirm if this is true... but I now think this.

On a whim, we took a bus trip to the nearby town of Porvoo.  The 'old town' still exists adjacent to Porvoo. There are the most beautiful 17th and 18th century shops and houses.

Smack bang n the middle is Porvoo Cathedral.

We walked up and down cobblestone streets.

Another sign showing the finnish warning at the top, and the swedish translation below.

A clever clogs has changed this from:

'No winter maintenance. 

Can be dangerous'

to:

'I can be dangerous too.' (I think it was defaced by Little My)

The abandoned train station and yard on the opposite side of the river.

Looking back at the old town from near the train yard.

One of the gift shops had... Moomin tshirts and dresses! Did I not tell you I went a little nutty about Moomin stuff?  So a Moomin dress, WITH POCKETS! Pockets. I really needed a dress with pockets.

We stayed in Helsinki for 5 days. I really liked this city. I think this was classified as mid- Spring?  

It was warm and sunny every day we were there. About 14-19c.  But the air was dry and crisp just like my home town of Canberra. Stark and barren in some places of the city, then there would be parks with amazing rock formations and trees covered in Spring buds.

Everyone we met was friendly and helpful.

Whenever I entered shops, I would say 'Moi!' (hello), and then the shop assistant would say, "Moi! Hoovey doovey povaninen. Hoover poover doovanen!"

And I'd say, "Sorry?"

And they'd say, "Oh! English?"

"Australian." 

And they'd be all like, "What the Mika Hakkinen are you doing all the way up here!? Doesn't it take like 30 hours to get here?"

And I'd say, "Well, I ran out of cloudberry jam."

"Oh, ok. Well you can get some at the Aleppa supermarket just on the next block."

In the meantime, someone else comes into the shop, pauses and listens to our conversation. The shop assistant says to them:

"Moi! Hoovey doovey povaninen. Hoover pover doovanen!"

And the new customer nods towards me and asks the shop assistant:

"Moi. Poover doover hakkonen?"

And the shop assistant replies:

"Beaver boover Australianen. Peever kirkinen lakka."

And the new customer would look at me and say, "Oh, yes. You can get some at the Aleppa just on the next block."

And I'd say "Kiitos! (thank you)" and leave the shop.

Summary of Finnish words learnt:

Moi- hi

Moi moi- goodbye

Hei - hi

Hei hei- goodbye

Kiitos- thank you

Hissi- elevator

Lakka- cloudberry

Virkkuukoukut- crochet hooks

And thanks to Finnish TV, our swear word for this country is...

Molopää- dickhead!

Louise

 🐻Red Haired Amazona🛗