Blogs from Finland, Europe - page 2

Nous dormirons ici deux nuits... car arrivant en début d'après midi, on préfère se reposer un peu, mettre un peu d'ordre dans Pollux car déménager tous les jours n'est pas de tout repos et tout ne se fait pas toujours dans les règles de l'art à tout point de vue... Il faut aussi penser à se cultiver et donc visiter... Nous avons eu tellement de difficultés à trouver notre route vers le camping à cause des nombreux travaux dans la ville qu'heureusement nous avons à deux pas de la réception du camping un transport en commun qui existe !!! A Helsinki, il est facile de se déplacer en transports en commun. Les tramways, les métros et les bus sont fiables et appréciés par la population et leur réseau s'étend dans toute la ville. Presque les deux ... read more

Finland! Our journey to Turku, Finland from Crete involved nearly every form of transportation available: car(taxi), airplane, train, subway/metro, bus, ferry and walking. We had a brief overnight stay in Stockholm but I lost the photos as I lost my phone in Turku (most of my Greece photos were backed up ... but I lost about 5 days of photos I think. Thankfully I also brought my work phone as a backup. Turku is a lovely place, not too big, not too small (population ~200k). Lots of parks and walking trails. Really, it's quite similar to New Brunswick with a lot of outdoor activities, similar flora and fauna, rocks everywhere! I went on a hike that could've easily been a trail 30 minutes from home. What I really like about European cities are the outdoor cafés ... read more

When I look for flights for my visits to Singapore, in addition to searching for flights departing Honolulu, I often search for flights from Los Angeles because there are more connecting options between LAX and SIN, and the fares, even with a HNL-LAX return added, can be cheaper. This time, on a whim, I selected Business Class in my search parameters, and an intriguing and inexpensive (for Business Class) option popped up - LAX to SIN via Helsinki. I would have long layovers in both directions, but I didn't mind as I would have an opportunity to explore a new city. As an added bonus, I would get to try Finnair's unconventional new Business Class seat between Helsinki and Singapore. Even though it was a relatively cheap fare for Business Class, it was still a sizeable ... read more

Does overflowing boulevards and backstreets filled with magnificent architecture, intriguing drinking and dining venues, featuring groundbreaking designs interest you as a visitor to a new location? Then Finland’s capital city of Helsinki should be on your latest bucket list. This is a country famed for its streamlined and functional designs with Helsinki being its creative hub. A Little Bit of History: following the end of the Ice Age, after the ice cover retreated, the first colonizers to this area arrived about 5,000 BC. Their presence has been documented by archeologists, but permanent settlements only appeared at the beginning of the 1st century AD. Vikings plundered these early settlements on a regular basis, closely followed by Christianized colonists from Sweden around the year 1,100 AD. Written chronicles dated 1417 AD mention Koskela village near ... read more

There are more than 37,000 coffee shops in the United States, about 40 percent of which are owned by Starbucks, according to Allegra's World Coffee Portal. Americans spend tens of billions of dollars on coffee every year — and yet, they're actually modest coffee drinkers in terms of per-capita consumption. In fact, they're not even among the International Coffee Organization's top 20 coffee-consuming countries. No. 1 on the list? Finland, which blows away the competition by consuming 12kg of coffee per capita every year. According to the U.K.'s Independent newspaper, this is due in part to the fact that coffee breaks at work are protected by law. Coffee is also a big part of the social scene; it's custom to offer coffee whenever you have a guest. Don't expect to find a Starbucks on every corner, ... read more