Welcome To Helsinki Queen Sheba

Wonderful new restaurant in Töölö and the only Ethiopian restaurant in Helsinki: Kuningatar Saba ie. Queen Sheba at Mechelininkatu. I actually used to live in this same building 10 years ago and at the time there was a pizzeria called Diandra at the same premises. Welcome change to have more ethnic restaurants like this instead of basic pizza and kebab places.

Kuningatar Saba, Mechelininkatu 8

Restaurant has been really popular since it opened in April and the number of tables is limited it is a good idea to book a table (closed on Mondays). Really friendly and easy-going service. Just remember not to be in hurry.

I was very keen on trying Ethiopian specialities and chose Doro Wot, which is the national dish of Ethiopia. Basically the dish is a spicy chicken stew with a boiled egg seasoned with a taste of berbere. You eat the dish by hands with injera (sourdough crepe). So rich in taste and totally new flavours for me.

The other dish I tried was Lega Tibs, which is lamb marinated in white wine and Kibe (clarified butter seasoned with cardamom and sacred basil). Both the dishes were brilliant, but Doro Wot was my absolute favourite.

Doro Wot and Lega Tibs on top of Injera

I particularly liked the easy-going, stress-free athmosphere as well as the food. The service was friendly, waitress had traditional dress on, food was served in native dishes and there was also local music in the background (sounded like Asian music to me due to flutes). One area of improvement was that there was no washing bowl or wipes in the table when you are eating with your hands. So remember to bring your own hand & face wipes.

Summer Memories 2011

One more month to go and then my summer holiday finally starts. Happy to have holiday in July as it often is quite nice weather in Scandinavia. Then you are able to explore Finland is totally different way than in winter time or between your normal working day routines.

Helsinki is a perfect summer city and I just enjoy walking around the town having coffee at the market place, picnic in the Suomenlinna, ice cream at the park and lunch in the outside terraces of the nice restaurants.

Helsinki

Finland is absolutely on its best in the summertime: beautiful green nature, lots of lakes where you can swim, long light days and happy people.


Finnish countryside

There are also lots of different kinds of happening all over Finland during the summer season: festivals, concerts and traditional events. It is always nice to get to know other towns besides Helsinki during the summertime. Last year I visited lots of places in the west coast, mainly because Turku was the European Capital of Culture 2011. 

Turku

Uusikaupunki

My favourite summer event is the Flow Festival in Helsinki in the beginning of August. Urban, trendy city festival with interesting selection of artists, like Janelle Monae in 2011.

Janelle Monae at Flow

Like all the concerts in Finland were not enough last year I did also few trips abroad in order to catch my favourite artists and saw Arctic Monkeys in Oslo, Coldplay at Where The Action Is in Gothenburg (why they have yet not played any concerts in Finland?), Veronica Maggio in Visby and several great acts at Popaganda in Stockholm.

Arctic Monkeys at Sentrum Scene in Oslo 2011

 

Coldplay at WTAI in 2011

Where The Action Is 2011

Popaganda Festival in Stockholm August 2011

Arcade Fire at Popaganda 2011

Well, it is pretty convienient to make few days breaks also abroad, nearby towns like Tallinn, Riga, Oslo, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen and Visby. For example Tallinn is just so beautiful old Hansa town which you can easily reach by taking a few hours ferry trip.

View to Tallinn Old Town from Toompea

Chocolaterie Pierre at Vene 6 in Tallinn is worth a visit

I prefer starting my holiday by travelling and being able to unwind and relax. I try to take a short break somewhere in Europe and it is always nice to visit new places. Last summer I finally had a change to visit Iceland, which was one of my dreams coming true.

Arnastapi, Iceland

Last summer I also visited Gotland for the first time and totally fell in love with the island. Stayed in Visby and visited Fårö with magnificient rauks.

Visby

Fårö coastline

Useful thing to keep in mind when planning a trip to Gotland that there are certain weeks you maybe want to avoid (like Stockholmsveckan) so do your pre-research about the summer events in the island. Visby is very popular during summer season so you should make hotel reservations in time.

Now I am really inspired to start planning this year's summer holiday. My only wish is that July weather will be as brilliant as past few years.

Summer holiday 2011

Day Trip To Lake Como

While in Milan it is definitely worth taking a day tour at Lake Como. You can easily get a train from Milan Central Station to Como (San Giovanni) and walk to the Como ferry terminal. However, it is good to check the timetables in advance in order to plan your schedule.  

Como seaview

Ferries stop in several villages and it is so relaxing just to adore the beautiful scenery on the way. You can either sit on the deck or inside depending on the weather. Coffee and some food is served on board.

Ferry trip from Como to Bellagio, where two legs of the lake meet, took some 2 hours. So many cute villages and beautiful views on the way.



Bellagio harbour


Bellagio is a charming little village and you could explore its picturesque surroundings by foot. Little bit touristic and can be really crowded during the high season.

We ate at Restaurant Salice Blu, which went directly on my top list. Outstanding food, fantastic service and charming athmosphere. It was nice to get seating on the pretty terrace outside, but inside it is also very cozy. It is recommended to book the table in advance and if you do not have a car the restaurant provides free shuttle service from Bellagio.

First starter

Difficult choices

Chef Luigi Candola is the heart of the place and despite of his your age he is very talented and has won lots of international competitions. Chef Luigi gave us good recommendations for the menu and I must admit that I have never had so delicious pasta in my life. All the portions were superb both visually and taste-wise.

Fish for main course

Pasta as one of the starters

Unfortunately I was so full after 4 courses that I was unable to order a dessert. So untypical for me, but this just tells how delicious the food was. This is the restaurant I want to visit again!

Overall I had high expectations for my visit to Lake Como and I must admit that those were fulfilled.

La Dolce Far Niente in Milan

Before this short Milan trip I had only been to Italy once before and that was in Rome some four years ago. So it was about the time to get to know a little more of this country of art, history, culture, style, food, chaotic traffic and very relaxed concept of time.

Brera district in Milan

Milan is mainly for fashion, design and shopping. I had my share of shops, great food, delicious coffee and ice cream.

One place worth mentioning is ice cream take away bar Cioccolat Italiani, which had wide range of ice creams and delicious coffee. And it was totally packed with people: on Friday evening it was almost 1 hour queue for ice cream after paying and receiving your number in the line. 

In Milan it kind of feels that all roads lead to The Cathedral Duomo, which without a doubt is the main sight of the town. 

Duomo

Just next to The Cathedral is the classic shopping arcade Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

Another famous sight is Leonardo da Vinci's painting Last Supper at Santa Maria Delle Grazie church. But remember to book your tickets at least a week in advance as this venue is extremely popular! 

It is worth going up to the roof of The Cathedral in order to catch view over Milan and see the details of the beautiful building. Options are take either steps or choose the elevator, which is money well spent as you need to walk some steps also in the roof and the corridors are quite narrow.

You can also get a good view from the roof-top terrace of restaurants above department store La Rinascente. We had a lunch at Obika Mozzarella Bar, which is a simple chain and can be found also at Milan Malpensa airport. 

When walking in Brera district we found a charming restaurant Carminio, which had only been open for a week. Adorable little place with extremely frindly staff and gorgeous food. The concept was to concentrate on local produced Italian food. Everything I ate was extremely tasty and gracious service was the icing on the cake. I can highly recommend this place if you want to experience great food in lovely athmosphere.

Via Del Carmine, 3

 

There a quite a few restaurants called Carminio nearby as the street and the square have the same time so do not miss this modest entrance to the Restaurant Carminio.

The best part of the trip was the day tour to Lake Como. Utterly beautiful, so relaxing and therefore absolutely worth a visit! So convenient to take appr. 30 minutes train trip from Milan Central Station to Como and then hop on a ferry and pop into some of the villages by the lake.

Ferry trip from Como to Bellagio.

Arrivederci e Ci Vediamo!

One Day In Photos

Tuesday 15th May was all about Aday.org theme: picture today, inspire tomorrow. Just another ordinary Tuesday, but still so different when looking at different people's lives. Purpose of the project was to invite different people to take photoes of their normal activities during the day. Categories for photoes were home, work and connections and one was able to load 10 photoes all taken on Tuesday.

I found this really interesting concept as different people would share their perceptions of the world during the day. Also, for myself this was tempting idea to look my day as my schedule variates so much day by day. And it made me think about my time management challenges.

Basically you can divide the day in three parts: 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of leisure time. That should serve just fine, but if one sleeps and works more than 8 hours the remaining free time becomes less. And it really is precious to dedicate spare time to things that matter in order to enjoy life to the full. For me that is meeting friends, walking, having coffee, watching movies, going to town, listening to great music, reading, dinner parties or exercising.

Frozen yogurt from Yobot

Chilling at Yobot

This Tuesday I had planned and booked plenty of other things besides the work and managed to carry out my program quite as planned. Sun was shining in the morning and I had some errands to run in the center of Helsinki before going to work. Working till 18.00 and going for a cafe after work. Then meeting a friend and going to see Juha Lehti (lead singer of Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit) at Korjaamo. As it was such a gorgeous evening I also took a short walk in Töölö before going to home.

Korjaamo

Juha Lehti

Sunset at Taivallahti, Töölö

Like Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of Finland decribed the event: “The scope and diversity of this project makes it unique. It puts everyone’s life in the centre of a giant story of our times, yet to be told.”. 

Ps. Here is my aday.org profile and 10 photoes: aday