Tag: 365 Project

Day 89: Day of balloons and funny hats

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I stepped out of the office today and realized I have forgotten the culmination of Vappu (May Day) in Helsinki: Mantan Lakitus. 

It is a dramatized placing of a Finnish matriculation hat on Havis Amanda, the statue in Helsinki harbor, by one of the university student unions. So naturally, tens of thousands of people come every year to see it. This year, the weather was fine, so the event gathered 80,000 people to Market Square.

The last time I participated was when I was a student myself. So, as the time was almost right, I decided to go and take some photos.

I gave up before I even saw Havis Amanda in the distance.

Too crowded.

The overalls are the “official” party outfits for university students. Each student union has it’s own color and you are not, for example, allowed to use it after graduation. It may sound stupid, but it is one of the things I miss the most from my student days…

Day 88: Salt and Vinegar

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I have never been a big fan of vinegar. I remember when I was 16 and spending my exchange year in the UK, it didn’t matter how many times I emphasised in fish & chip shop that I want ‘absolutely no vinegar’, I still got too much. Every time.

In cooking, though, vinegar can make a dish sing. And (combined with a few other random ingredients) it is also surpringly effective at polishing copper. Emphasis on surprisingly.

So now, naturally, I need to polish this copper plate everywhere else

Day 87: Railway

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Train travel in Finland is incredibly comfortable and, in many instances, very convenient. But as it feels awkward to start taking photos in a train carriage, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Instead, I took a few shots at the Helsinki railway station. At a first glance, it is a quite a modest building. In fact, as I never eat at the station, I passed through the building a hundred times before properly looking around. Especially the restaurants in the old section are gorgeous Art Nouveau. Not something you expect from such a small railway station.

The metro tunnel underneath, less so.

Day 86: Old Kokkola

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I travelled to Kokkola for work today. It’s a small town on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. In spring, before the nature awakens, there isn’t all that much to see. In summer, it can be nice (so I hear).

The old town of Kokkola has some beautiful wooden houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, with a few dating back to the 17th. They were definitely worth a walk.

Day 85: Small Bites

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With my siblings, good food, good drinks, and escape rooms tend to go hand in hand. That didn’t leave much time for any other sightseeing. With stormy, rainy weather, it hardly felt like a loss.

In between showers, I managed a few quick pictures around town and a short visit to Fotografiska – still my favourite photo museum in the city.

Day 84: The Great Escape

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As said before, escape rooms are a thing in my family. The idea of going to Tallinn for an “escape trip” started off as a joke. But turning jokes into reality is also a thing in my family (e.g., annual the-most-useless-useful-Christmas-present competition).

One weekend, four rooms. Three of the rooms were actually hard, one was… an experience… We escaped three of the rooms, but are now trapped to a haunted orphanage for all eternity.

Luckily there was drinks after.

Day 83: Tallinn

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Tallinn is just a 2 hour ferry ride from Helsinki, which makes it a perfect weekend get-away with Stuart, my brother, sister, and brother-in-law.

Tallinn is an old Hansa city and the old town is just beautiful. As a tourist, one rarely wonders outside of the old town. However, one purpose for the trip was to solve a number of escape rooms – none of which are in the old town.

One down, three to go. And we got to see some of the modern Tallinn too.

Day 81: A Day For Just Alanna

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When you are a twin, you share everything: attention, toys, clothes, most experiences – and birthdays.

In Finland, tho, there is an age-old tradition of celebrating name days. A few years ago, we picked up the idea and started small-scale celebrations to make sure Alanna and Kiara both have their own day.

Alanna’s name day was today. Alanna, as a name, is very rare in Finland (fewer than 60 in the whole country), so it doesn’t appear in the name calendar. Alina and Aida were the closest matches I could find.

As a treat, Alanna got a few small presents in the morning and chose a restaurant for the evening: Korean BBQ (smart kid!)