Just back from the first early birthday jaunt, this one with the wonderful Fitz, Lyds and Hatch to….Helsinki!
What a complete hoot.. Most ‘Finnish’ activities being two different sea water pools with saunas, where you do, literally, jump into the freezing Baltic Sea, then let it in to the sauna to defrost. God knows what it’s like in winter, it’s bloody icy in August…
Had a lot of surprisingly good food, with salmon in at least a dozen guises. A great market, albeit bloody pricey, and our first dinner was in a wooden waterside restaurant, the Finn equivalent of a Russian dacha. Fitz’s nettle pancake was practically luminous..
Of course, Moomins and Moomin Cafes everywhere, rather sweet as remember those from my childhood..
Went off by boat to a fortified island, with bonus hot chocolate as we clambered around the walls, rocks and a lot of Asian tourists…
And our second sea/sauna even had beer and – amazingly – gin on tap. Quite odd, drinking in a swimming costume, by a fire?!
But the photo of the weekend still has to be this one. A band set up on a big stage behind the sauna and w3 are still not sure quite why this was their set decoration!
Answers on a post answers on a postcard please…. x