Sunny Sunday

The sun is out today. And it's going to stay sunny the whole day.

Enjoy the beautiful day and have a great Sunday!

Off into the woods for mushrooms

The summer is coming to and end. The middle of August has been extremely rainy and wet. This might be annoying but it has its upside as well. The mushrooms are growing.

The woods around Helsinki, especially the big forests as well as the national park Nuuksio in Espoo are the perfect area to pick some mushrooms. And don't worry, much like berry picking mushroom picking is allowed everywhere. Even on private property and in national parks.

But be sure to pick the right once. Always be onehundred percent sure to know the once you are about to pick. And use a knife rather than just ripping them out by the root to protect the plant and give it a chance to regenerate.

Happy picking!

Clean and get rid of your stuff

Tomorrow is Sivouspäivä again. Meaning that you can get rid of all the stuff you don't need anymore. Just register online on the official Sivouspäivä website and open your own stand wherever you like throughout the city.

And if you don't want to sell but rather buy then check out the map for stands that might be interesting for you. There is surely something for everyone.

Have a great day!

Movie Picnic

It has become a modern tradition. As part of the Helsinki Festival the Movie Picnic is held every year. And so also the upcoming three days. Grab some snacks and drinks and head to Kansalaispuisto next to Sanomatalo to enjoy a wonderful outdoor movie evening.

This year the following movies are shown:

29.08. Sideways (2004)

30.08. 100 years of Finnish Animation and Mies joka ei osannut sanoa ei (1975)

31.08. Samsara (2011)

The Movie Picnic starts on all three days at 21.00. Wear some warm cloths, don't forget a blanket and enjoy the movies!

Street Food Carinival

Street food has arrived to Helsinki. More and more street food trucks tour around the city to sell fresh and delicious snacks. Sometimes you just have to be lucky to find them since they change locations all the time.

But if you want to have them all in one spot to find your favorite street food in Helsinki, then you should come to the Street Food Carnival every Wednesday on Karsarmitori. From 16.00 till 21.00 several food trucks from around the city come here to offer their specialities. Go for a delicious vietnamese sandwich, some tasty pulled pork or some Belgian waffles.

Find out more about the Street Food Carnival on their Facebook page. And be aware that the day might change from Wednesday to Saturday in the future.

Enjoy!

Lunch at the Street Kitchen

Do you happen to be in the city center for lunch and are just up for some easy take away food? Then check out Street Kitchen. The new food shop in the rennovated Aikatalo has probaly exactly what you are looking for. 

From jumbo sandwiches to fresh salad and smoothies they have a huge selection of fresh food you can choose from. At the moment they even have a special offer for their sandwiches of just 3.95 €. Quite a decent price.

Check it out and enjoy!

Last chance for a boat ride to the islands

The sailing and ferry riding time is almost over. If you haven't been on the water yet for this summer or still would like to go again during the next weeks you might have your last chance.

Take one of the ferries to Pihlajasaari, Iso Vasikkasaari or one of the other small public islands around the capital area. But don't worry, the ferry to Suomenlinna operates the whole year through.

Enjoy the ride!

Seurasaarenselkä in August

August started with warm summer temperatures but has become pretty rainy during the second half. Temperatures are still well over 15 degrees though.

To see how the view from Seurasaarenselkä changed during one year you can see the pictures of the previous months here.

Happy crayfish season!

The crayfish season has started in Finland. Till October is the time for Finns to come together with friends and family to celebrate crayfish parties. And there it is of course all about getting the delicious meat out of the crayfish. But also singing is an important part of the party. And with it always a good sip of snapsi.

You can do your own crayfish party at home with either deep frozen or fresh crayfish from the supermarket. Many restaurants in Helsinki also organize crayfish parties during the season. They normally already include singing books and the waiter is happy to show you how to open the crayfish. You can also just follow the instructions in this video.

No matter what you decide to do enjoy your crayfish party!

Decilcasies from around Finland

Today and tomorrow you can try some of the finest food from around Finland at the Herkkujen Suomi festival at Rautatientori. Stands from all areas of the country present their specialities here for you to try. Try some sweet lettu or enjoy some fresh muikku.

As every year also Syystober is held at the same time right next to the food stands. Here you can try beer from microbreweries from around Finland and find your own favorite.

The entrance to both events is free. Give it a try and enjoy!

Street Gastro at Stockmann

Street food is booming in Helsinki. For that reason Finland's biggest department store Stockmann starts their street food campaign today. Till the end of September you can get delicious street food ingredients from Stockmann Herkku. Buy e.g. Street Gastro's delicous pulled pork straight from the meat counter. Or check out all their other offers.

 

Or get the real deal right away. From today until Saturday Street Gastro will be on Keskuskatu with two food trucks selling their delicious sandwiches and other street food fresh from the grill.

Check it out and enjoy!

Night of the Arts 2014

Don't miss tomorrow's Night of the Arts in Helsinki. The city will once again transform into a stage for hundreds of cultural events and performances.

This year the arts carnival, which is part of the Helsinki Festival, is already held for the 26th time. The most exciting thing about the Night of the Arts is that it invites not only renowned artist but everyone to show and exhibit their own art that night. To find out what's happening in the city tomorrow visit the website and find a map of all the things happening. Make sure to already pick your favorites. There is just too much going on to see everything.

Have a great Night of the Arts!

A hotel for Amanda

Some of you might have wondered where Havis Amanda suddenly went. Around her fountain between Esplanadi and Kauppatori a black container has been errected and there is no sign of the statue.

This container is a project of the Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi and is part of the Helsinki Festival. It's called Hotel Manta and it actually is a real hotel. With just one room though. And the middle of this room is formed by Havis Amanda. Till October 12 the hotel is already fully booked and unfortunately there is no chance anymore for you to spend one night in the same room with the famous statue.

You can however visit the hotel during the day. Every day from 11.30 till 17.30 the hotel opens for visitors. For an entrance fee of 3 euros you can see the interiour and how Havis Amanda has been integrated into it. To get a first impression of Nashi's installation you can also have a first peek at the pictures by MTV3.

Art goes Kapakka

The art festival Art goes Kapakka already started last week but there is still a lot of great program to come during the upcoming couple of days. Art goes Kapakka is all about combining art and food and is celebrated in 34 restaurants throughout the city. Music, theatre, dance, choirs, food menues, art exhibitions, science panels and fashion shows are awaiting you.

Till August 23 there something is happening every day. Check out the program and find your favorites.

Have a great week!

Summer Restaurant Day

Today the Restaurant Day is held again. Hundreds of small pop-ups can be found in and around Helsinki again offering a huge variety of all kinds of food. 

And today should be the perfect day for the Restaurant to take place since according to the weather forecast it is the last day with temperatures over 20 degrees for a while.

As always you can find all participating restaurants on the official website or on the Restaurant Day app. Have a great weekend!

Tori Quarters Street Festival

Live music, street food, barbecue, urban playground for kids, cargo bike gathering, courtyard dinner and outdoor evening club. All that and more is waiting for you today at the Torikortellit next to Senaatintori.

The festival already started and will last till after midnight. Don't miss out on the great program in the inviting yards in the historical center of Helsinki.

Helsinki Festival 2014

Today the Helsinki Festival starts. And it will go on till the end of August. Two weeks of full program in and around the city lay ahead of us.

The Helsinki Festival is Finland's biggest multi-art festival and at the same time marks the end of the summer festival season. The heart of the festival will be the KoeHelsinki (Experience Helsinki) festival park at Kansalaistori. Many great performers such as Los Lobos, Ginger Baker and Finnish star Jonna Tervomaa will be on stage during the two weeks.

Find out more about the festival and the whole program on the official website and have great upcoming two weeks!

Win with #kamppi

Want to win a 100 € gift certificate for Kamppi Kauppakeskus? Then just tweet, tag or post using the hashtag #kamppi on Twitter or like their Facebook page and you have a chance to win.

Every week you have a new chance. Good luck!

Outdoor movies in English

Have you been to the Kesäkino Engel already this year? As mentioned here before it is probably the nicest movie experience you can get in Helsinki in the summer.

But you always have to check in which language the movies are shown there. But luckily for all us English speaking Helsinkians there are still a lot of good movies in English language to come such as:

until Aug 14, 22.30   Red Obession

Aug 21, 22.00 Pixadores (Portuguese with English subtitles)

Aug 24 - 28, 22.00  Magic in the Moonlight

Aug 29 - 31, 22.00  Take this Waltz

Also stay updated on the program of the Love & Anarchy Film Festival Helsinki being held from Sep 18 - 28. The program will be announced shortly and some of the movies are shown at Kesäkino Engel as well.

KHL is here

You might have seen the poster already hanging all around the city. The KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) with teams from around Eastern Europe and Russia has a new member starting from this season: Jokerit.

The team, which is now also partly owned by the Finnish-Russian Rotenberg family, won't compete in the Finnish SM-Liiga anymore but will play international. The KHL is considered the second best league in the world after the NHL and is structured similarly. Starting from this upcoming season Jokerit will play in the Western Conference in the Bobrov Division against SKA St. Petersburg, Dinamo Riga, Slovan Bratislava, Atlant Moscow Oblast, Dinamo Minsk and Medveščak Zagreb.

Hartwall arena will continue to be their home stadium. But derbies with their local rival HIFK, also based in Helsinki, will become more rare.

So now you can follow two different ice hockey leagues here in Helsinki.

Healthy, cold and Finnish

Get ready for the healthy Finnish alternative to all those frozen summer treats like ice cream and frozen yoghurt. A group of friends has started reviving an old Finnish recipe: Musikkamaito (Blueberry Milk).

Basically that just means eating blueberries swimming in milk. But the guys from Mustikkamaito make it more of an ice cream using deep frozen berries, adding milk and sugar, mixing the whole thing up and finishing with a little bit of cinnamon. 

Musikkamaito is sold from a moving stand on a bicycle traveling around town. You can most often find them on Esplanadi next to Cafe Kappeli. One portion is 3 €.

Give it a try. You'll love it!

Flow 2014 in pictures

Still one day to go for the Flow Festival 2014. Here are some pictures of the festival so far.

Relax on the long pier leading into the virtual water...

 ...or chill out in the skater area.

 Suvilahti is just the ideal place for a festival.

But when it gets dark it gets even more impressive.

Great music and amazing atmosphere.

That's what Flow Festival is all about.

 And of course amazing food. You can find countless food stands of some of the best restaurants in town here.
 

If you are planning on still joining for the last day, then go ahead. There are still tickets available online or at the main entrance.

Berry picking the easy way

This year the berries don't grow as much as normally due to bad weather conditions. Picking berries by hand might take quite a bit of time. But luckily their is a simple device that makes the berry picking much easier and faster.

With those so called Marjanpoimuri you can basically comb through the shrubbery and it collects all the berries. The Marjanpoimuri are tradtitionaly made from wood and metal. Nowadays you can also find plastic versions. They can be bought for a few euros at almost any supermarket. Try them out.

Good luck picking!

Flow Festival 2014

The Flow Festival starts today. It's one of the coolest and best festivals you can imagine. Not just is the music good and very diverse. Also the location and atmosphere is amazing. Flow Festival takes place in Suvilahti, an old industrial area right next to Sörnainen. Between old warehourses and garages stages as well as food and drink stands are built up.

At Flow Festival it's not just fries and burgers. Some of Helsinki's best restaurants cater here and offer some amazing snacks to keep your hunger away during the day.

Among this year's line up are The National, Skrillex, Jessie Ware, Outcast and many more. Check it out and get your ticket for one, two or all three days online, in one of the sales points around the city or directly at the festival.

I, Helsinki

Well, it’s about time the world noticed me! A lady always appreciates compliments, and in recent years I’ve been getting a lot of fantastic reviews in the media and praise from visitors. I’ve been a European City of Culture, a World Design Capital and even my airport has consistently won awards for quality. Important organizations appreciate my reliability, my beauty, my natural surroundings and my friendly inhabitants.

Helsinki, the proud lady at the shore of the Gulf of Finland introduces herself. She tells about herself, her sights, her culture, her sourroundings and of course her people in the new e-book written by Rusty Snyder.

Rusty, originally from California, has lived and worked in Helsinki for over 30 years and knows the city inside out. He is a journalist, lecturer and author. You can also follow him on twitter.

Find a list of all the online shops selling I, Helsinki from the publisher's website and enjoy this nice little book!

Beautiful summer nights

Don't miss out on the beautiful summer sunsets on the waterfront of Helsinki.

Enjoy your day!

Beware of sinilevä!

It's the perfect weather for a swim in the sea or one of the thousands of Finnish lakes. But be careful. The warm temperatures give the perfect conditions for the blue-green algea (Sinilevä) to grow. And they are unfortunately quite common in Finland. 

Life guards and authorities regularly take samples of the water and warn swimmers in case it get's too dangerous to go swimming in certain areas. Anyway you should always be careful when the water appears very green and follow those ground rules:

- Avoid swallowing the water.

- Keep kids out of the water and away from the shore

- Shower right after swimming

- Avoid swimming if the algea are clearly visible

Since Blue-green algea are likely to produce toxic and irritating substances in the water they may cause skin problems, burning eyes, blocked nose, muscular pain and nausea.

Be careful and don't let that ruin your summer!

Helsinki in 48 hours

Let's start the week with a great video. Jose A. Fuentes and P. Soler from Lavueltaalmundos made an amazing film of the best sights of Helsinki to see in 48 hours. How many places do you recognize?

Have a nice week!

The water is never far

One the great things about the Baltic Sea is that due to its relatively small size compared to other seas its tidal range is quite small. That means that the water is always there and doesn't vanish for hours like elsewhere.

Still there is a small tidal range also here which is just about 20 - 40 cm. At beaches with very shallow water you can still see the effect pretty well though. But don't worry, you will never have to walk more than few meters more to reach the refreshing water.

Enjoy your Sunday at the beach or whereever you might be today!

Block Party in Kallio

Do you have any plans for today? No? Then off to Kallio. Today it's Block Party time there. The whole neighborhood turns into a big party with live music, food, drinks, sports, dance, kids program and much more.

The party starts today at 13.00 and continues until 22.00 in the evening. To see what happens when or which stage check out the full program of tonight.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

The best view over Helsinki

Helsinki doesn't have many very high buildings. One of the highest ones is Hotel Torni. And on the very top of it you find Ateljee Bar.

Coming up here is a must for every tourist visiting Helsinki. From both their terraces you have a great view over the whole city and can get a good overview of what is where in Helsinki. You can see all of Helsinki's main sights and neighborhoods from Linnanmäki to Kaivopuist, from Katajanokka to Lauttasaari.

But Ateljee is not only a place for tourists. Also for locals it's a great place to come from time to time to see their beautiful city from above and enjoy the view with a glass of wine or an outstanding cocktail.

To get to Ateljee Bar you have to enter from the main entrance of Hotel Torni and take the small evelator to the 12th floor. You have to climb the last steps yourself. And if you are at Ateljee don't forget to go to the bathroom. The toilets here are the most impressive in whole Helsinki.

Check it out!