Travel Diary: My Lovely Helsinki

This past week has been busy one for me. I have been traveling around Finland and even did cruise abroad. A lot of new places and experiences on short time so a lot of travel diaries to write for you.

Today I’m going to tell about weekend adventure I did with one of my best friends. The idea for this trip started a few weeks back but we only bought the tickets week before leaving. Our destination was Tallinn, Estonia, but first we decided to spend day in Finland’s capital city Helsinki.

Today’s diary is going to be shortly about that day in Helsinki. Enjoy!

Our day in Helsinki was full of stormy clouds and rainy weather

Helsinki in Day

My mum drove us to the bus stop after nine in the Saturday morning and we had hour before our ride would leave. I had been bright like I’m every morning and decided not to take jacket with me. MISTAKE! We used the remaining hour to buy warm clothes from the super market close by.

The weather wasn’t on our side. It rained when we ran towards the bus and it rained the whole two hours ride to Helsinki. Rain became the norm of our trip. Whatever we decided to do the water was coming down from the sky. We didn’t let that dispirit us.

We had decided to start our day in Kiasma modern art museum. I have been there probably too many times and it’s one of my family’s yearly day trip destinations. My friend on the other hand had never visited this amazing museum.

I loved the exhibitions they had this time. Colorful and spectacular.

So after our daily dose of culture it was time to find something to eat. We of course decided pizza -eat as much as you can- buffet. No need for fancy meals because we were still in Finland.

Stomachs full we walked around in the rain. Saw some big attractions like Helsinki Cathedral. We even got lost in middle of running race in the bay area. The traffic was stopped and even trams weren’t moving. No idea what it was. All respect for the runners, I’m so lazy would never take part to event like that.

One of the amazing experiences we had happened in Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. I have never seen Orthodox ceremony but ended going inside just in the middle of one. So interesting! It was more powerful and showy when compared to the Christian one I’m used to.

A little by little the black clouds were going away and the sun was starting to shine. What did we do? Went and bought ice creams! It’s Finn syndrome… Sun makes us crazy because we don’t see it enough.

We enjoyed the last sun beams and then walked towards the cruise terminal. Everything went fine in the boarding (odd because we had never done it by ourselves so I expected more problems!) we arrived to our cabin’s door safely and from there the “fun” began.

In the photo you can’t even see our cabin’s size. But basically it was made of toilet and living are. The toilet took over half of the cabin leaving just enough walking space for us. We had known it would be small but it’s size still surprised us… Fortunately it was going to be just one night so we survived.

After the shock and laughs for the situation we started to examine our “new home” more closely. That’s when I found information paper stating that we should leave our cabin before 6.45 at morning. Before seven!! Too early! Who the heck makes these cruise plans?

Because of the early wake up we then wanted to sleep early but next problem was waiting for us. The bottom bed was meant to come out from the sofa taking over half of the living area. We were pulling it with all our strengths but could not open it. We tried good five minutes and were going to give up and go to the reception for help. Then I magically pullet and pushed and can’t even remember how but it finally opened.

After all the hassle it was time to sleep. Reluctantly we put our clocks to wake us at six and tried to rest the remaining few hours in the wildly swinging boat.

 

 

Next time: story from Tallinn’s old town

Wait for my next travel diary to hear about the day we spend in Tallinn! Have you ever been in cheap cruise? I think starting from now I will only take day cruises to Tallinn…

I hope you are having amazing day.
With love,

Viivi Severina

Photo Diary: Day In Stockholm

Hello there and welcome to my blog! Like some of you may know I went to Sweden at the beginning of this week. I am going to publish travel diary about my trip but because I just happen to be lazy enjoy first these photos I took. (The real travel diary should be out some day next week. Sorry…)

So just to tell you more information before we start I went to day in Stockholm cruise with my family. Taking this cruise is quite normal in Finland and I have done it several times but every time it is as fun.

The cruise is three days long. First you spend evening and night in sea. The second day is spend in Stockholm and after that you return to the ship and spend another night there. I hope you enjoy the photos I took.

 

 

I have been on this same Silja Line ship so many times there isn’t a much to explore. However the scenery never disappoints.

 

Ship is ready. Welcome aboard!

 

I’m totally in love with the Silja Line ships’ promenade street. Say whatever you want about our ship being small but I feel like in home here.

 

Listening band is always fun experience! Specially when some drunk Finns are dancing in front of you. The Asian guys next to us had fun time laughing to our fellow Finns.

 

No complaining in our breakfast scenery. I would spend every morning like this.

 

Finally in Sweden! It is so close to my home country but still so different. The building right is the Royal Palace. (Fun fact in Sweden it is called castle not palace even if there is nothing castle like in it.)

 

Our main attraction in this trip was Moderna Museet and Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Here you see the self portrait of the artist.

 

Anyone else loving infinity rooms? Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition had several of them. I am in love.

 

Even my brother kind of liked it and stated that Sweden has better museums than Finland.

 

Another infinity room. This time with water and color changing balloons. This museum is definitely made for taking selfies.

 

I’m not fashionista so for me find something from this girly shop was miracle. I am happy new owner of flowery toiletry bag.

 

Walking around all the alleys is something I want to do one day. Now it wasn’t possible because I was with my family. No getting lost with them…

 

There’s our ship and Silja Line logo. Time to return home.

 

Our last goodbyes to Sweden. I hope I will return soon. (PS. why are the islands here so idyllic and beautiful?)

 

If I would make one wish, it would be to see the sunset every day in new place…

 

 

Happy travels for everyone!

Viivi Severina

Travel Diary: Montpellier & Paris pt.4

 

Day 11: The art of canceling plans

We meant to do a lot. Only two days left and there’s still much to see. We ate breakfast and just decided to not do anything. Unexpected decision right?

My opinion is that even when traveling the most important thing is to know yourself. When you are tired and need free time from tourist life just take it. Cancel all of your plans and just be. This is what happened to us. We had seen and done too much and it was time to rest.

 

Day 12: Art, shopping and bye Montpellier!

Our last day in Montpellier had dedicated to visiting museum Fabre. People told us it takes whole day to explore this museum and let me tell you that it’s not joke. The place is huge. Even one day isn’t enough if you want to see everything carefully.<

 

 

There is a lot of old art pieces. Some from famous painter and some from unknown ones.<

 

 

And then there is modern paintings and everything between. Also statues and changing special exhibitions.

At the end of our museum visit we started to be too tired to even properly admire the art. However the museum was amazing and I recommend it to everyone! Well you get lost easily but the staff are nice and always ready to help.

After this we did last souvenir shopping and then went back to our apartment. Our last night at Montpellier and I knew I would miss this city too.

Day 13: Hi Paris! And we got sick…

We left Montpellier before the sunrise and said our goodbyes to the sleeping city. We sat quietly in train both tired and at least I already missing the place I had called home the last two weeks.

 


When we finally arrived at Paris bad weather welcomed us. It started to rain when walked towards our hotel. Both of us were feeling a little bit sick and the recipe for disaster was almost ready. Our time in Paris would soon turn o nightmare…

.

After taking nap in our hotel we decided to start the day. It was only a couple of kilometers to the Picasso museum. Well it was two kilometers too much. I was feeling sick but I have got used to doing things even when feeling bad. But when we were in the museum my sister started to look really pale and almost fainted.

I took her to the cafe in museum (very expensive and not even good food…) After that I took her to the closest metro station and send her back to the hotel. Well at least we didn’t pay for the museums because under 26 years old Europeans get in free.


I have always loved metros and Paris’ metro isn’t exception. There is so many lines and ways to go. It took a while for me to understand the map because it’s already been over half year from the last time I used metro. In the end I found Les Halles shopping mall without problems.

The last time I visited Les Halles was year ago and before the horrible Paris’ attacks. I knew there would be more security than the last time but the guards and security measures still surprised me. There was security people in every door with their metal detectors and other security things.

My visit was still pleasant. I got flash back to Japan when visiting Muji and spend too much time in Forever 21. My trip did stop when I got really sick… I didn’t visit even half of the shops before I had to go back to the hotel.

Rest of the day we just sat on the hotel room and rested. Fun trip to Paris… right?

 

Day 14: Goodbye France!

Guess how it feels to be in Paris one day and be so sick you just decide to go airport and pass the opportunity to see the capital of romance. With heads down we left our hotel and took the long train journey towards airport.

After waiting spending six hours in airport we flew away from lovely France and headed towards home.

I hope I see you soon Paris!

Because I didn’t have any interesting stories in this post there’s some more photos for you:

My favorite thing from France was the road trip we did

 

In the future I will visit Sète for longer time…

 

…and go see the charming Montpellier again!

 

Arc De Triomphe in Montpellier

 

 

 

 

 

Modern art in Musée Fabre
Paris Charles De Gaulle airport
The last sighs of France

Thank you for reading and I will write soon!

Sincerely,
Neidotta