Citymarket - the first hypermarket in Mäntsälä!

Another landmark of modern civilization was finally opened this week. Mäntsälä got its' first hypermarket, the Citymarket. Though I will probably still be doing most of my daily grocery shopping at Lidl I'm really glad also this option, with wider selection, is now around!

I consider this to be the second biggest "cultural" event of the year for Mäntsälä (The biggest still being start-up of Rekolan Panimo). This is a huge step for this town on the evolution path towards becoming a real city.

Rekolan Panimo - a microbrewery in Mäntsälä!

This is like my dream come true. I've always been a fan of microbreweries, and today I got to taste Amerikan Serkku ("American Cousin") at the Maja kiosk terrace! The beer travelled like one kilometer from the brewery to the tap.. now that's what I call a local beer. :)

The brewery that makes the beer is called Rekolan Panimo. Rekola is actually a city district in Vantaa, but it seems it was worthwhile for them to come all the way to Mäntsälä to find optimal premises the brewery. Lucky us! You can read more of the story from their blog [in Finnish].

Personally, to me this is probably biggest cultural event of the year concerning Mäntsälä. Now I'm only waiting for bottles to appear for sale.

Next up: "The second biggest event of the year concerning Mäntsälä".

Cheers!

At a summer cottage again

A week apart, and I find my self from a summer cottage again, this time near Salo. It was nice to perform sports like "frisbee golf" with friends.

It's also interesting what kind of creatures can suddenly land on the lakeside pier.. ;)

Juhannus 2012 @ Heinola

This year it was time to relax on a summer cottage in Heinola by the lakeside. Too bad the "Heinola city" wasn't very active due to it being Midsummer time, but managed to catch my traveller's interest. So Heinola, it was nice to see you, and we'll probably see again next year!

Tramspotting (a.k.a "My WDC day")

Helsinki is World Design Capital in the year 2012. One sunny wednesday in June I took a day off and decided to check out how it looks like.

Too bad the main attraction I was looking for, the HI Design exhibition at Kaapelitehdas was only open from Thursday to Sunday..

After seeking consultation from WDC guides at Kauppatori I decided to see the Finnish Design Museum (Designmuseo). I also was along on the very first ride of the Culture Tram (Kulttuuriratikka). During the ride I noticed that the Spårakoff restaurant tram was following us, so I stepped out from Kulttuuriratikka and stepped into another interesting tram for one-hour ride.. :)

(Anyway, luckily I've finally also managed to check out the HI Design exhibition now, in August!)

The Rhododendron Park @ bloom!

Every now and then it just so happens that one may discover amazing places you didn't realize were so close, even though you've been walking past them for 10 years or so!

There's a large park at Etelä-Haaga in Helsinki with rhododendron rose trees. It's not much of a sight for most of the year, but defintely worth visiting in the beginning of June when they're in bloom (I happened to finally discover this place on June 15th, and will definetely try to return there at approximately the same time next year).

Crazy Drivers Stunt Show

Let's get started with June updates. Crazy Drivers Stunt Show visited Mäntsälä in early June. It wasn't cheap, but offered pretty good entertainment for the whole family!

Ping!

Long time, no update. Even though it's only mid-August you can feel that summer is turning into autumn slowly but inevitably.. So I guess it's time to index all the sunny summer 2012 photos and start publishing them into this blog again. Stay tuned, there's going to be a bunch of updates heading this way soon.. :)