Angry Birds shop

Wow - while doing Christmas shopping I bumped into this "little" shop in the Kamppi shopping center. It's the "first permanent Angry Birds shop in Finland" according to Google search. I don't remember if I actually bought anything, but for some reason I decided to take a picture for the blog. Hmm.

Jätkäsaari scenery terrace

Oh yeah, I just suddenly remembered that I have a blog! ;) So, before we chronologically enter last year winter, there's one more update (I'm actually wondering a bit why it wasn't included earlier.)

Anyway, here are a few shots from Verkkokauppa.com terrace on a beautiful summer day last year. A year has passed, and this area looks pretty different today. The field where Madonna had a big concert in 2009, for an audience of 85000, is now crowded with brand new apartment houses - some of them are still being built.

There is also nice video game museum on the same building (ratio of the last picture is different because it was actually taken six months later).

Local beers! :D

Had a chance to try out this trio - and they all tasted really good! (Well, to be honest, Metsän Henki was my least favourite and Amerikan Serkku was the best.)

KohinaBaari

KohinaBaari was opened in the first half of 2012 in the Numminen village, and it may just be what this whole town (Mäntsälä) has been waiting for. It's about time Gasthaus Wäinölä gets some competition!

No - seriously - these bars are like 10 kilometers apart from each other, and both are kind of unique. But KohinaBaari was a really nice place to visit. It was rather quiet evening when I visited there, but I'm looking forward to another visit, and I'm sure it will be more lively the next time.

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!

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).

A week apart

Sometimes one week is all that is needed for winter to finally arrive! :)

The first picture is from the last week of 2011 and the second one is from the first week of 2012. And that's what we've been seeing ever since, luckily, even though the temperature tends to hang around zero degrees during the daytime.

Happy New Year everybody!

Summer 2011 update 16/16: conclusion

Hmmm, seems I made a bit of counting error at some point of the way.. I'm already "out of events".. :)

Anyway, I had a nice time during summer of 2011 in overall. I wasn't able to accomplish anything major, mostly small domestic trips. And actually I didn't even have much of a holiday - I was spending most of the summer at home taking care of my kids, on a so-called "paternity month".

But not bad, given that I had two out of the following three - time, the kids & money (if unsure, please check past updates and figure out which of those I was mostly missing..)

Signs of summer 2011

It's starting to look (and feel) quite a lot like summer around here. :)

Let's call it spring

The trees seem to be getting the leaves a little earlier this year, which is certainly nice! :)

Jänkhägrilli?

A traditional sight in Finland - nakkikioski! (Let's see how this new hot dog stand fits in.. as you can see, there are already two pizza places in the picture.)

Signs of Spring 2011

The pictures of flowers were taken yesterday and today from around the same place. It seems sun sure can make the hay grow in one day. :)

(The first picture is from last week.)

A small earthquake nearby!

There was a magnitude 2.6 earthquake at Mäntsälä yesterday, some 10 kilometers away from where I live. I recall it lasted maybe some five seconds altogheter, and felt a bit like "a train passing nearby". Nothing was broken, though our neighbour said some books had dropped from their shelves.

It's very common to have these small earthquakes (about one thousand magnitude 2-3 earthquakes occur worldwide every day), but it was the first time I've ever experienced one. Finland is seismically very calm area, and yesterday's earthquake was in fact among the stongest ones having occured here in ten years. It was reported in the national news too.

But hey, not to forget, this little tremor was nothing compared to the enormously powerful magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan a week ago, summoning a massive tsunami and leading to various tragic events that still affect the lives of thousands. Please, let's all reach out - you can help by donating to the Red Cross or some other charity organisation doing important work for those in need!

A nice temperature reading (2011 remake)

Hmm, this one is from last week, but it's even kinda "nicer" that the one from last year.. (the peak that morning was actually -32.6 degrees of Celcius).

A mountain view!

How nice, when I look out the window I see big snow pile. Please make a few more of those, and I'm sure that if I try hard enough it'd almost feel like looking at the Alps. ;)

An affordable breakfast

After wandering around Rautatieasema ("the Helsinki Central Station") for some 10-20 minutes, I found that "Food Jones" is a place that probably serves the most affordable cup of coffee in the area (well, besides R-Kioski at least).

It's a little bit to the side from the main hallways, and I'm aware that the rent is probably very high for all business premises inside the station, but I'd still rather pay 3,50 euros for a coffee and a roll than five to six euros..

Winter primetime

This is what winter looks like! The picture is actually a few weeks old, but the scenery still looks pretty much like it (though, there may be even more snow these days).

Signs of Winter 2011, part.. oh well :)

During the past weeks I was thinking about headlines like "routa" or "kaamos", but I missed to make those updates in time.. it's been a great winter so far - lots of snow, and solid sub-zero temperature since some mid-November.

Starting from tomorrow, the forecast shows "suojasää" at least for the whole of next week. Suojasää basically means that the temperature will be above zero degrees Celcius at least during daytime. I just hope all the snow won't turn to "loska" and melt away..

Christmas markets @ Helsinki

Today is Epiphany, the end of Christmas time. So it's about time to post a few pictures from the Christmas Markets in the centre of Helsinki.

These pictures were taken on the 17th of December from Tuomaan Markkinat at Esplanadi Park, and Kampin Joulumaa at Narinkkatori. I visited these sites early on the morning, when they were not yet fully open, thus the closed booths and absence of other people. :)

Joulumaa was moreof a commercial setup for children, but it looked nice in any case.

The two other pictures are: Sokos department store in Christmas lights, and "the French market" event arranged at Lasipalatsin Aukio.

Happy New Year 2011 folks!