Helsinki-Quickie

So I promised you to show you more pictures of my stopover in Helsinki than a pram parked out of a restaurant. When my colleague and I arrived late on Wednesday night, we took a(n incredibly expensive) taxi to our hotel and were more than pleasantly impressed. In fact, if you're ever in Helsinki and ideally staying on company money, I wholeheartedly recommend GLO Kluuvi. I took about 20 pictures of the rooms (yes, plural) in my "deluxe room" and all the stylish freebies that I of course packed. There is a plush tiger waiting on the bedspread, but alas with a discreet tag around his neck, informing you that you can "bail me out for € 23 at reception". They also provide you with condoms, but as my colleague found out, these are also a hefty € 10, if you want to use protection for your wild night with tiger:

It was furreeeezing when we arrived, but we still took a walk around the block and mentally bookmarked all the lovely shoportunities. To defrost, we went to find some tea, which we eventually did in a Belgian bar/restaurant, where we were the only guests drinking something non-alcoholic. In fact, if you're in Finland on a budget, I recommend ordering hot drinks, which are surprisingly cheap and our guess was that nobody ever orders these. Beer, however, is around €10 a glass..

Thursday was nice and sunny, if cold, and we basically walked around the inner city and found plenty of excuses to go into shops to warm up. Below is a picture of a harbour, where we had arrived the night before on a ferry of similar size as the one waiting there:

There's a little market by the harbour that sells souvenirs and groceries. We did not buy any reindeer hide, but it looks quite cool anyway:

In Helsinki, there's a Marimekko store at literally every other street corner and at the airport, too (for the same price, alas). I tried on a skirt and some scarves, but then only bought a modest tote bag and cool necklace, along with some napkins. I also bought a pair of grey gloves with rhinestones and a cute polar bear hat from H&M that I haven't seen here. I know I'm probably 30 years to old to waer that, but I'd been seeing similar ones on blogs and YouTube channels and wanted one:

Helsinki is the World Capital of Design this year and there are lots of stores with seriously tempting stuff. If I had been there longer and my suitcase had had more space, nothing would have stopped me. Well, apart from the limit of my credit card. Speaking of Finnish design: when I returned to the office on Friday, my Fab-order of Iittala plates had arrived. Loving them: