en Finlandia

Archive for 'helsinki'

Summer in the city

Monday July 5th, 2010. 11:37 AM. Published under Photos, Summer, helsinki. 5 Comments.

Let’s rescue a hit from Summer’66, while we watch some pictures:

The Lovin’ Spoonful - Summer in the city

Juhannus weekend was very nice in a cottage with our friends Stefan and Catta and the playful Faro. Thanks for invitate us! Who wouldn’t like to spent a weekend with friends in a place like this?

Let’s say clearly. Finland in summer is

(Taken from a shop-window in Helsinki)

Other photos from Helsinki:

Yeah! Beaches, boats, barbacues, warm weather, even a Samba/Carnaval day.

So this post goes for people who doesn’t know Finland:
Finland is not only snow, reindeers, sauna and Santa Claus.

This other side of Finland is worthy to be discovered.

Related: Last year I was in Tampere in the summer and I talked about the looong summer days with very few hours of night. Good memories & friends from that time

And now, excuse me, but probably I will publish very few posts until summer ends.

Buen verano!

Gazpacho

Friday June 11th, 2010. 11:33 AM. Published under Photos, helsinki. 2 Comments.

Spanish temptation in K Market, Ruoholahti.

Green Kaivopuisto

Monday June 7th, 2010. 11:26 AM. Published under Photos, Spring, Summer, helsinki. 2 Comments.

This is Kaivopuisto, an old Helsinki park, close to the Embassys and the harbour. Perfect place for a picnic… maybe in some days, still is 15-18º only.

Only 3 months ago, kids where in the same place sledding with their “pulkkas” on Laskiaissunnuntai.

Delicious Korvapuusti, that Päivi and me prepared at home this Sunday. Yum!

Winter Finishing

Monday April 12th, 2010. 09:54 AM. Published under Photos, Winter, helsinki. 4 Comments.

At least in Helsinki. Very few snow left in the streets. Still there is ice pieces floating in the sea. Sunset at 20:00, 21:00… and temperatures about 10º. Yes. plus ten degrees.

Finnish people like ice cream, they are leading consumer of ice cream in Europe. And they start early in the year. You can see already long queues on Sundays in ice cream shops in the harbour. They wear cap and gloves.. but eating ice cream. Such a contrast.

Now the good weather is coming. Spring is just around the corner.

Funny signs

Saturday March 27th, 2010. 04:38 AM. Published under Quotes, helsinki. No Comments.

From the window display of the Day shop, in Bulevardi street, Helsinki.

Instead of Cleaning the house, I just turn off the lights.

Tired parents and happy kids live here

A golfer and a normal person live here. Guess who is home

A dirty house is a sign of A Brilliant Party!

The first 50 years of Marriage are Always the hardest.

You don’t have to be mad to live here but it helps.

I can please one person per day. Today I choose me.

Beer is cheaper than therapy.

We serve only the finest French wine, did you bring any?

Nobody is perfect, but I’m pretty close!

A clean house is a sign of a wasted life.

Related: Top 10 funniest one-liners

Snow Plow skidding

Saturday March 6th, 2010. 11:02 AM. Published under Videos, Winter, helsinki. No Comments.

Small snow plow in a street of Helsinki.

The coldest winter

Thursday February 25th, 2010. 12:07 AM. Published under Spain, Videos, helsinki. 2 Comments.

… in Europe. That’s what everybody says. Even in Spain is snowing and raining more than normally. A Spanish TV Program “Comando Actualidad” made a program about how is the winter in rest of Europe compared to Spain and they came to Helsinki too.

Here you can see the video. (1 hour)

Cheap Flights Spain - Finland. My experience.

Saturday February 20th, 2010. 01:42 PM. Published under Spain, Tampere, helsinki. 10 Comments.

Spain is a popular destination for holidays among Finnish people. This is the picture of the home page of Air Finland and shows All Europe flights that they offer. Not France, Greece…etc. Only Spain.

air_finland

I’m from Málaga and it’s good to have direct Air Finland flights (5 hours) for 130-200€ one way.
Not bad price, but you can find cheaper ways if you don’t fly directly. For example Helsinki - London, and then London-Málaga. Bad thing is that you will spend all day long in airports and you have the risk of losing your suitcases in the first flight (still didn’t happen to me) or a delayed first flight that will make that you can’t take the second flight. No refunds, because they are 2 independent flight tickets.

But if you want so save some money, you will have to take these risks.

skyscanner

The best tool I have found to search combination of flights is skyscanner. Also I like that you can make generic searches. From Finland (without city) to Spain, and it will show you all airports, the whole month, etc and indirect flights are automatically calculated .

After finding the right flight, jump to the airline company website to book the flight.

Ryanair (from Tampere) and Easyjet (from Helsinki) are normally the cheapest ones, both flying to London. And then London-Malaga.

Remember that flight prices only includes 1 handbag of max-weight 10 kg. Any extra suitcase you will have to pay for it. If you have an extra suitcase, Ryanair adds 15€ and limits max-weight is 15 Kg. Easyjet adds 9 pounds and max-weight is 20 Kg.

Also, they will add other extra in the last step of the payment. Because of paying with credit card you will have to pay some extra euros. (Except Easyjet it will be free if you pay with Visa Electron).

So if you take 2 flights, multiply by 2 these “extras”.. and think if still worth it. Also add the price of a meal in London airport because you’ll be hungry after the first flight. (And you will have to change cash to pounds to pay!)

More tips:

GOOD news. Ryanair will open a base in Málaga, opening a direct route Málaga - Tampere since June 2010. Also from Málaga to Aarhus, Berlin (Schonefeld), Bratislava, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Krakow, Maastricht, Memmingen (Munich West), Oslo (Torp), Paris (Beauvais), Pisa, Santander, Santiago, Stockholm (Skavsta), Valladolid, Venice (Treviso), Wroclaw and Zaragoza.

Cheap flights airlines are VERY strict with sizes and weights… some times being ridiculous about it. Don’t risk, make sure you are not overweight. And your handbag is correct size.

If you are planing to go to Helsinki, a Tampere->Helsinki Train costs (now) ~~36 €~~ 28 €

If you fly to Helsinki, the airport is located in Vantaa, you can take a cheap bus 615 that goes to Helsinki or Airport taxi for 25€ for 2 people.

I will add here more tips in the future. I hope it’s helpful. Please ! add some tips in the comments, or experiences. I will like to know your experience too.

Update 9th of June. These holidays I took 2 flights with Easyjet from Málaga -> Manchester -> Helsinki, about 100 € all together. I was lucky that the vulcano wasn’t active during that time and I didn’t have problems except that my suitcase was lost in Manchester (it didn’t arrive from Málaga). I had to fill a form and happy end: They ship the suitcase to my address in Helsinki and it arrived 1 week later. No extra cost. I had to call them all the time to know about the status of the process, at the beginning they give you a reference and you can track it online in mylostbag.com. If it happens to you, don’t worry, 95% of suitcases are found

Hymyile! olet Espanjassa

Saturday February 13th, 2010. 12:57 PM. Published under Ads, Photos, Spain, Winter, helsinki. 2 Comments.

Smile! You are in Spain.
Fast Finnish lesson: -ssa means ‘in’.

Good way of promoting my country. Congratulations to the creator. It reminds me to this other advertisement about traveling: Routine sucks

terraroutine1-500x321

Natural History Museum photos in Helsinki

Sunday February 7th, 2010. 03:11 AM. Published under Photos, Winter, helsinki. No Comments.

We went last Sunday to the Natural History Museum (Luonnontieteellinen keskusmuseo). It has 3 open exhibitions, but specially the Finnish Nature part is awesome. Many and very realistic stuffed animals. If you want more information, schedules, prices, etc this is official website of the Museum.

Also “The History of Life” exhibition was good for refreshing my memory about history. (There is a English paper guides in the entrance). Did you know that Finland was in a time by the Equator line, so it had a tropical climate? It was in the Devonian age, 390 millions years ago, when first amphibians came out of the water.