Sisters reunion!

Kuin kaksi marjaa - not

My sister came to Finland for the weekend. Obviously only to see me, her lovely big sister! Hadn't seen her for three months... I guess it's my turn to go see her in Sweden soon. After I've handed in my dissertation, that's a promise! (I'm also a bit worried that she'll turn into a swede soon, today she watched at least 3 episodes of Solsidan in a row. I need to remind her more often of her Finnish heritage.)

Last time we met was when she came to see me in Paris last October, (*click*) feels like ages ago..


Hur högt - Hur högt? feat Jerry Hoffmaestro and DJ Vietnaam

The Tourist

Last night we went to the cinema and the plan was to see something 'light' and easy. Love and other Drugs was already sold out when we got to the cashier, so we quickly chose another film they were showing at the same time. That's how we ended up seeing The Tourist. And I'm well happy we did. It was good Friday night entertainment. Not that the film was mind blowing or anything, but a very nice combination of action, romance and comedy. Angelina Jolie looked amazing through the whole film. Johnny Depp didn't look so amazing as he purposely gained a few pounds for this role, but his acting was as perfect as always. Have to say though that big reason for the film being good was the scenery and languages; well nice combination of French in Paris, some nice British English by the Scotland Yard and Italian in Venice.

It still bothers me that in the beginning when Elise (AJ) is having breakfast at a cafe in Paris she orders a croissant but I'm sure she got a pain au chocolat instead. Hmm.. or I'm just blind.

Luckily I have friends who can pose so that I can just be the fool at the background

Even though I'm not such a big fan of Töölö, at least you can walk home easily from Kamppi

Where did my roommate disappear?

I came home to an empty flat today :( What a tragedy, just like Paris all over again. Where is my roomie? I even bought chocolate cake to share!

I bought the most amazing ring from J&C last weekend. Modeled by my bf above. Now I'm gonna try if it has any magical powers to summon my roomie back home. She's probably just doing something smart like studying at the library or being sporty at the gym, but I don't care, I want her to eat chocolate cake with me now! I'm such bad influence... Come back! You in the picture, you're welcome to come back too!

See you in Huhtikuu

My bf came to see the Finnish winter for the first time ever and I've been trying my best to show him at least some of the winter activities in Finland.

When we went outside the first day he was here, he suddenly picked up a handful of snow and I was like "what the heck are you doing?". Then I remembered that it was the first time he saw proper snow.  :D Not that it wouldn't snow in England, but it is a bit different...

We went to see HIFK-JYP game (bf had never seen an ice hockey game before), but I was a bit disappointed as HIFK lost and both of the teams played badly. This is why I am an Espoo Blues fan..

Having promised to show as many winter activities as possible was a good excuse for me to buy myself a toboggan. Tobogganing is well fun!

Cross-country skiing is not so much fun. Bf was wearing dad's ski boots that were 3 sizes too small. I bet that  made the experience less fun for him as well...

Now it's time to get back to reality. Bf headed to Gatwick couple of hours ago and I will set my alarm for 6.30am for tomorrow. Holidays are over.

Warm up the house

Last week me and my awesome roommate decided that even though we'll be living in this new flat only for three months, it's not an excuse not to have a house warming party. Most of our mates had already disappeared back to England and Germany after the christmas hols, but luckily we were able to attract some cool people to see our uncool flat.

Skint as we are, we could only serve our guests water with some pieces of lime.

When the doorbell rang for the first time we raced to the door to welcome our first guest and this is what we found behind the door... :O

Omg I was lucky not be alone, this prettyface would scare the shit out of anyone!

At some point people said that the water with lime is not tasty enough and they were ready to go somewhere where the grass is greener so we jumped into a taxi van and headed to Motellet. Which I didn't mind at all as it has always been one of my favourite places in Helsinki.

Motellet

Motellet was just as nice as I remembered, I love the atmosphere. And the dance floor was not too popular so I could do my best to mesmerise everybody with my amazing (...not!) moves.

It was really dark inside, but luckily I had my night vision lenses with me, so I could still recognise my friends.

Le Bonkbonkbonk sparkles

As an aspiring restaurant (bar) critic, I decided to share my latest favourites with you. This is to be continued! I haven't really had enough time to see many places in Helsinki though.... Well, so far so good! (And there's still at least two Parisian aces up my sleeve to be shared, lol)

Le Bonk - The Best After Work in Helsinki

A glass of sparkling wine only for 1 euro and it's actually even good sparkling wine. Do I need to say more?

And in my opinion this beats the Baker's. Though my opinion might be affected by the fact that a Baker's bar tender didn't serve me their one-euro sparkling wine when I was 21 (a long time ago). Too young he said. And they didn't have a pianist at Baker's. Le Bonk pianist even sang a couple of tunes in French - with a not so French accent though. But as French undoubtedly is one of the sexiest languages in the world, there's no accent that could ruin it :P 

Oh, and as you can see from the pic above, they had some "tapas" too. It was actually just a variety of three of the saltiest snacks to make us thirsty. But hey, it's free and I'm still a student. It seems that we also had a some sort of a millionaire with us as there's a beer on the table.

You know what is scary? When you go to a place that's supposed to have a very high age limit and then they don't ask for your ID. I'm really starting to feel old. And I know why it has hit me so hard. I kinda had the feeling as if the time had stopped while I was living abroad. And now that I'm back I'm continuing from where I was before I left. But I guess it doesn't work like that does it? Love them shoes btw ^^^

Yks esimerkki siitä että huomaa että on ollu poissa, on se ku kuulee jotain sanoja joita ei ymmärrä. Matkalla tonne Le Bonkiin pysähdyttiin kattoo talvitakkeja ja se myyjä ehdotti että voisin "trebaa" sitä rotsii. Oletin että se tarkotti kokeilla ja minähän kokeilin ja myyjä näytti tyytyväiseltä eli sitä se ilmeisesti tarkotti. Mut voisko joku kertoo et kuulinko väärin vai onks tää joku uus slangisana Helsingissä??? Tai jossain muualla?? Olin liikkeellä toisen paluumuuttajan kanssa ja se oli ihan yhtä pihalla ku mäkin...

My new flat - the 10th

I just realised that this is the 10th place I've lived in during my life.  Might as well show some pictures of the home number 10 to celebrate this milestone. It's the second week in this flat now, and yes, it think I can call it a home. I reckon that's a positive thing.

Tom Frager - Home

Almost like in Paris

It has been such a shitty weather today, barely a couple of degrees on the plus side, slippery and wet roads full of sleet, big drops of water (but it's not raining) falling on your face now and then and a nice cool breeze. Just like in Paris in December.

We went to ysibaari with my friends. The waitress didn't even bother to say hi when we got in. We realised that there was no space for three people, maybe for two. We stood there for a while wondering if we were able to fit somewhere. All this time the waitress was standing almost next to us, not even once lifting her head up to say something - organising the teabags apparently. The service was almost like in 16 Tholozé in Paris. The food in 16 Tholozé is so delicious though that I didn't mind the bad service. Unfortunately 9 Bar didn't even give me a chance to taste the food, which I assume should be awesome as people still keep on coming to that place with that level of service! I've been there 2 years ago and I can't really remember if it was good or not... I might give them another chance one day. Peut-être.

We were obviously still craving for that lunch, so we continued further into Montagne Rouge. A random guy passed us and said "Terve!" with a yucky flirting tone in his voice. Almost like when walking in Paris.

Then we decided to go to Tori. Nice atmosphere, good food, friendly service and a celebrity at the corner table. Almost like in Paris.


After the lunch we felt like having a nice cup of cappuccino so we ran to catch a 3T or 3B to get us to La Torrefazione on Aleksanterinkatu. I really need to work on remembering which of the trams is the T and which is the B, it's funny how you forget those little details while you're away... Anyway, at La Torrefazione we ate macarons. Almost like in Paris.

I'd like to end this post with a note to all those who drive a car in an area where there's a high possibility that a pedestrian might be crossing the road that you're driving on. First of all, the law says that when there's a zebra crossing you should stop and let the pedestrian cross. If you're not capable of understanding this, you should at least realise that if you speed through a puddle, all the water splashes on the poor pedestrian who was trusting on you to know the Traffic Act. After you didn't realise this I hope you at least paid attention to the finger that was raised - only for you my dear.

Southern comforts when it's cold

New flat is starting to feel like home and the minus degrees outside don't even feel so bad. I'm loving the Presidentti coffee every morning and I'm not freaking out every time when I hear someone speaking Finnish on the street. I am struggling though when I go to the shops and suddenly there's no need to plan before hand what to say and how to say it in French... 

One thing I love the most is having my best friends around. Though I'm getting a bit worried listening to my roommate talking about London with that wistful look in her eyes, she'll be gone before the snow starts to melt. Luckily I have a month or two to persuade her to stay.. Or she'll manage to persuade me to leave again :D

I'll be back - any day soon (From Helsinki with el ou vii ii)

It's been a while. So many things going on and it doesn't help to be slightly depressed and frustrated and blaah. BUT. I don't wanna moan here. That's not cool at all. So I'll be back with some Paris stuff soon. And I kinda feel like writing about being back in Helsinki. And there would be no point in ending the blog as one never knows how quickly one needs to stop writing about the reverse culture shock and continue writing about a culture (hopefully without the shock).

But in the meantime. I love my life I love my town, Helsinki.

Peace Out