Roadtrip in Finland

After several years of talking about it I finally did my first ever trip to Savonlinna Opera Festival. The famous Finnish opera singer Aino Ackté founded the festival in 1912 so this year was the festival's 100th anniversary and about time for me to visit the event.

Olavinlinna

And actually this was my first ever visit to Savonlinna, which is a vibrant summer town, but pretty quiet outside the Opera Festival period.

 

Medieval Olavinlinna castle is dominant part of Savonlinna silhouette and very impressive stage for the Opera Festival.

 

At the festival we saw Verdi's Aida, which was such a superlative experience. Overall ambiance in Olanvinlinna castle, vast crowd scenes, outstanding costumes, dancing scenes and of course the magnificent music of Verdi.

And while in Savonlinna it is easy to make a small roadtrip around Savonia and South Karelia visiting places like Punkaharju, Lappeenranta, Rantasalmi and Kuopio.
 

Rantasalmi



VB Photographic Center in Kuopio often has high quality photo exhibitions that do not come to Helsinki and is absolutely worth a visit while in Kuopio.

VB 2006

VB 2012

Art Center Retretti in Punkaharju organizes summer art exhibitions and the building itself is quite unique as part of the exhibition is in the caves under the building.

Retretti 2012

Lappeenranta is a small place nearby Russian border and convenient place to start 2 hours train journey back to Helsinki.

Lappeenranta, Maalaisten laituri

I just want to say that Finland is so beautiful in the summertime!

Roses Are Red - And Pink, And Yellow, And White, And

Now it is the perfect time to visit Helsinki Winter Garden and see beautiful roses blooming in front of the green house.

The Winter Garden

The Rose Garden is in bloom from July till late autumn.

 

So many beautiful and colourful beds of roses.

 

 

Not only lovely to look at, but also heavenly scented.

What a good year for the roses, many blooms still linger there.

Summer In The City

It is so wonderful to be on holiday and enjoy your hometown without any timetables or schedules. Today I was walking around downtown Helsinki the whole day just enjoying summer.

It is always good to start the day with good coffee and therefore I first took a coffee break at Brooklyn Cafe in Viiskulma.

After that I walked around Punavuori occasionally popping into the shops and doing some minor shopping.

There are so many attractive boutiques at Freda and I found a neat metal storage box on sale at Pino.

On a way I bought some berries, peas and flowers at Fredantori

I also went to Hietalahti Flea Market (Hietsun kirppis) and bought 2 books for 3 € (Barack Obama: Dreams From My Father and Märta Tikkanen: Yksityisalue).

 

Then to Forum Box gallery to see the much talked-about exhibition Art Is So Gay.

And after all walking a fine lunch at Boulevard Social: artichokes, lamb and pannacotta.

Lamb chops and polenta

I call this a fine summer day!

Saturday Evening at Pueblo Bar y Taqueria

When strolling down Eerikinkatu you will find relaxed Mexican bar Pueblo Bar y Taqueria.



Pueblo Bar y Taqueria, Eerikinkatu 27

Casual easy-going place to start your Saturday evening with drinks and tacos. There is also DJ - at least on Saturday nights.

Positive remarks on drinks selection includes Strawberry Margaritas and besides typical Corona and/or Sol beer they also serve Dos Equis.

We took quesadilla con salsa as a starter, but I would rather replace it with an extra taco as they were much more tasty. Tacos can be ordered in 2, 3 or 4 and I think 3 is the absolute maximum portion for me. I chose chicken tacos (Tinga), which was delicious and I especially liked the spicy sauces (both green and red one). My friend's vegetarian portion (Verduras Mixtas) was also savory.

As a dessert we ordered coffee and home-made chocolate and chili ice-cream, which tasted exactly like SIA's similar variant. So nothing extraordinary, but a fun evening and nice place to have drinks and tacos.

However, I still prefer Patrona's Mexican culinary when choosing Mexican restaurant in Helsinki.

Visit At Tammerfest In Tampere

Tampere is only 2,5 hours away from Helsinki by train, so it was very handy to make a short trip there for Tammerfest city festival. For this visit in Tampere we had planned to eat well, see two bands and just take it easy and enjoy summer. And the mission was successfully accomplished.

We had dinner at Restaurant C, which instantly became my favourite restaurant in Tampere.

Ravintola C, Rautatienkatu 20, Tampere

Restaurant was quite tiny with less than 40 seats. Interiors were plain and simple, but Iittala's Taika collection plates brought little bit of twist to table setting.

The flavours were delectable and the service was superb. As I do not drink wines I cannot comment on them, but the restaurant is especially known for their good selection of wines. Handmade breadsticks were salty and a tasty appetizer with ecological beer.

Me and my friend both had smoked whitefish as the main course and it was excellent. However, the highligt of the dinner was the dessert or actually both of them. I had refreshing and sweet strawberry mint milkshake and I had never thought that strawberries and mint go so well together. My friend ate rhubarb with rose, which tasted like roses. 

I would definitely go here again just to eat these gorgeous desserts (although the main course was also great, but the desserts just blew our minds).



Whitefish

Milkshake



Rhubarb with roses

  







  

After the great dinner it was time to head to Klubi and see Tammerfest festival gigs of two Swedish bands The Nomads and The Soundtrack Of Our Lives.





This was my first ever The Nomads gig and liked them so much that will go to see them again at Tavastia in the autumn.TSOOL I have seen several times and they are now on the farewell tournee so hopefully there are some more Finland gigs scheduled for the rest of the year.

 







Putte's Bar & Pizza

When you feel like pizza and better-than-average pizza, then you should go to Putte's Bar & Pizza at Kalevankatu, Helsinki.

Easy-going and urban athmosphere, certainly a great place to have early evening pizza and few drinks. Well, there is also lunch and some salads available and a club downstairs in the weekends.

Pizza menu itself is narrow, but there are tempting options and this time we tried three of them: Quattro Formaggi, The Silence Of The Lambs (lamb with African spices) and Nettle. All of them were splendid (+ large) and the overall ambience as well as service was excellent.

It is not that often when I eat pizza and when I do I want to enjoy it to the full. And Putte's will be high up on my list.