Travel to Helsinki

Friday, 5 October, 2018 – Weather – All over the place as we travel
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At this point I would like to say a bit about the Food in Finland. The food has been rubbished by Jacques Chirac and Silvio Berlusconi when they said that Finnish Food and British food are the most boring in the world. A funny thing happened when a Finn company Kotipizza won an international prize for its Pizza Berlusconi, defeating Italian pizzas in the contest.

Pizza Berlusconi is Kotipizza’s product name for a pizza of smoked reindeer, with tomato, cheese, chanterelle mushrooms and red onion.

Kotipizza named the pizza after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in their summer 2008 ad campaign and menu. Berlusconi had caused a minor diplomatic incident in 2005, when he said that he had had to “endure” Finnish cuisine, and joked disparagingly about Finns eating “marinated reindeer”. Although marinated reindeer is a common dish in Lapland, in the rest of Finland the meat is traditionally stewed or dried.

Any way, we are up relatively early and leaving for Helsinki around 11:00. Julie goes out to the food court to get her breakfast.

20181005_103850 — Blurred vision of her Pancake with Salmon

20181005_103630 — More sweet stuff suitable for Tanika

20181005_090210 — I have the mushroom soup with bacon pieces that Julie had bought for me yesterday. It was very rich and filling.

By the usual 3-1 vote, we start the walk to the train station very early, before Noon. We sit around in uncomfortable, crowded seats in the train station.

20181004_125840 — The train does not leave until nearly 1:30 PM

20181005_125928 — We are able to board the train early and wait there

20181005_130011 — One other person in the train carriage

The trip takes 2 1/2 hours. The weather changes dramatically at least 8 time along the way. When we arrive in Helsinki, the ground is wet but it is not raining much.

20181005_152620 — Our train with Ryan humping suitcases

Our host had indicated that we should catch a taxi from the station to the apartment. We picked a medium sized cab and the driver did a remarkable job of cubic close packing to fit everything in. When we get to the apartment, we receive a message that our Host was travelling and we would be met by a delightful young girl, Riika. The door was chocked open when we arrive and Riika arrives shortly after and we go up to the apartment.

She shows us around and after she departs, I take a couple of photos.

20181005_160218 — We take the kids room. The antique bed on the right is a disaster for grown-ups as even with the pillow top, you are sleeping on cold, hard steel

We had not had much to eat today so send Julie out to scout around. In the mean time, I throw Ryan out of a spot at the kitchen table to do my work. Outside is a dog park. There are a lot of dogs within and of course a little yapper was chasing them all around.

20181005_182827 — Gusti is right next to the apartment

When we go in, the owner says that they are very busy but eventually we will have food and wine. His Son the cook comes in from outside – he was smoking.