Finland is famous for its stunningly beautiful nature, and even when you’re right in the country capital, you have the most wonderful sites right around the corner. Recently I went kayaking for the first time, we went to Natura Viva kayaking centre in Vuosaari. Now that summer is coming, why not paddle around the beautiful coastline?

You can rent all the necessary equipment there (prices are very reasonable!) and get started! If you’re as lucky with the weather as we were, it will be an unforgettable experience. Sun, blue sky, the sea and great views on the islands and mainland shorelines around. It was one of the most relaxing trips in a while and it didn’t feel like actually doing sports!

How to get there: take the metro from the main station to Rastila and continue with Bus 96 or walk there. You can find a detailed description of the location (Ramsinniementie 14, 00980 Helsinki) on their website! In total it takes about 45minutes to get there.

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Vuosaari | Relaxing | Kayak (2 hours) € 16
Rautatieasema | +358503768585
Check the website

When I mentioned to a friend, I was going to write about Majava, he looked at me with big eyes and said: “No, you can’t do that! That’s where all the REAL rockstars hang out!”. I will have to investigate on that particular statement a bit more, though, but take it as a quote from a Finn who knows his neighbourhood!

Majava (Beaver) Baari is the little hidden livingroom in Helsinki’s Kallio which is sometimes considered a slightly sketchy area compared to the rest of the city, but really is not. It is significantly cheaper though, I think I haven’t paid as little for a beer in any other place in Helsinki.

Majava is a great spot for people watching indeed, you probably won’t get a more genuine impression of Finns elsewhere. It’s a great place if you just feel like having a couple of drinks somewhere and chat with friends, there is some room to sit, it’s cozy and not too loud (although it’s mainly rock music, if you wondered).

Oh and for you Canadian people out there: despite the beaver theme, this bar has no connection to your country whatsoever. Sorry.

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Majava Baari | Bars | Beer € 3.80
Porthaninkatu 9 | +358400466673
12:00 – 02:00 daily

Let’s face it: Finnish food is not as world-famous or as tasty as Thai or French food. Finnish food culture has been changing a lot during the past few decades and nowadays the new young chefs like to mix traditional ingredients in a new, interesting way.

My favorite Finnish restaurant in Helsinki is Juuri, The Root in English. They use Finnish ingredients in a new interesting way. They call their appetizers “Sapas” (like tapas, but the first letter is changed to S, because of the word Suomi which means Finland in Finnish).

I took some of my foreign friends there and they were impressed. They especially loved the “Slightly smoked reindeer heart with gelée made of rowanberry wine” and “Horse tenderloin with dark sauce seasoned with sage, 
fried leafeparsley and speltpearls”. I loved whitefish and sparkling wine made in Finland! I wasn’t even aware we made decent sparkling wine, but we do! Next to the restaurant, and as a part of the company, there is a small shop where you can buy organic Finnish food to cook at home.

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Juuri Restaurant | Restaurants (Finnish)
Korkeavuorenkatu 27
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 22:00, Sat 12:00 – 22:00, Sun 16:00 – 22:00

Kitch is a retro place where the food is good and reasonably priced! They serve pasta, tapas, salads and burgers. During the weekend they have a great brunch. They cook using fresh ingredients. Why don’t you try beetroot pasta with goat cheese and rucola or how about prawns with wasabi-mayonaise? Delicious! The wines are either organic or fair trade products.

The comfortable chairs & couches, tables and dishes are mostly used and recycled. They used very warm and strong colors when they decorated, so the place is very down to earth, yet quite chic.

This season’s Must-Drink is Glögi a.k.a. mulled wine. There are several different kinds of Glögi: wine based, vodka based and of course a non-alcoholic one. My personal favourite is the one with red wine. Kitch, as well as some other restaurant make their own mix, others use the one you can find in grocery store (Marli).

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Kitch Eat&Drink | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Intern.) | Veggie hamburger € 13.50
Yrjönkatu 30 | +3589666001
Mon – Tue 11:00 – 22:00, Wed – Fri 11:00 – 00:00, Sat 12:00 – 00:00, Sun 12:00 – 20:00

There is only one shop in Helsinki where you can find design, fashion, art, music, books, vintage, gallery and bar under the same roof, that’s Helsinki10. They sell cd’s, bubble gum, expensive clothes from small designers and well-known fashion houses, vintage clothes, bags and shoes from all over the Europe and even weird painted china, like tea cups and pots!

Helsinki10 is a place where you go to wander and touch very odd clothes and accessories, but end up buying something: a key-chain or pair of odd boots. The staff is very helpful and friendly!

Last summer Helsinki10 started to sell Topshop clothes in the store as the only shop in Helsinki. It is a bit sad that they made their vintage section smaller (to make room for Topshop), but I am super-excited about all the new Topshop clothes and it is about the time to have it in Finland as well!

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Helsinki10 | Music, Shopping | An old velvet jacket € 100
Eerikinkatu 3 | +358505596504
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 20:00, Sat 11:00 – 18:00, Sun 13:00 – 17:00

Apollo cafe/ street bar is the coziest place for after work in town. The big cafe/ bar is divided into two spaces: One is a very chilled out lounge and the other one is a terrace indoors where you can watch the shop-goers passing by. The cute cafe is in the Forum mall.

On Wednesdays they organize a fun trivia-game where the teams (from 1 to 4 people) compete against each other. The winning team gets free tickets to the Apollo Night club (next door). It doesn’t cost anything to participate either, so it is good fun after work.

For a Helsinki bar it is quite cheap (to be such a nice place too!). They have excellent offers from Monday to Friday between 16:00 – 19:00: 12 cl of wine for 3 euros or a class of wine or a bottle of beer and a toast for 6,50 euros. That’s cheap for Helsinki!

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Apollo Cafe | Bars | Wine (12cl) € 3
Mannerheimintie 18 | +358207759404
Mon – Thu 14:00 – 21:00, Fri – Sat 14:00 – 04:00

Carusel “the house by the sea” is a cool café & restaurant in Kaivopuisto. Its round shape and the windows that are all the way from the ceiling to the floor guarantee that you will get a good view from where ever you sit. The place has a chilled out feeling.

In winter I go there for hot chocolate. I sit by the fire place inside and watch the snow falling outside. In summer I sit in one of the wooden couches outside and drink ice tea. The place changes a lot during the season, thanks to the big windows. It is, as the rest of Finland is, the best in summer time though!

There are concerts and other happenings around the year. They serve good breakfast, lunch, café and drinks, but I think the best thing you can eat there is their pizza!

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Carusel | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Intern.) | Lunch € 9.00
Merisatamanranta 10
09:00 – 22:00 daily

Miun shop sells clothes that are designed and made in Finland, The clothes are Scandinavian style with a cute little twist. Miun makes two collections in a year. The designer uses lots of angel and flower figures and lots of bright colors (compared to the typical Finish design).

Miun is worried about the environment, hence all the clothes, purses and wooden necklaces are made mainly in Finland, but also in Europe. The clothes are a very basic style, but the figures, textile and colors make them interesting. The main material used in the collections is bamboo jersey, which is also made in Finland.

The story behind the name is cute, like the clothes in the shop: the fashion designer Ilona Hyötyläinen, living in Savo (about 500 kilometres from Helsinki), used to say “Miun” (which means ‘mine’ in Savonian dialect) every time she saw someone wearing clothes designed by her. She said “Miun” so many times that in 2004 the first Miun collection was published. That’s how she found a name for her fashion line.

About the big sales in Finland: the summer sale starts right after Midsummer and Christmas. This year on Monday June 28th and Monday December 27th. They last for a month or so.

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Miun, mine! | Shopping
Uudenmaankatu 14 | +358503528893
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 18:00, Sat 11:00 – 16:00

When it is getting colder outside, it is lovely to take a ferry to a windy island and drink some hot mulled wine in the cosy restaurant on it.

Uunisaari has the cutest little beach in the city. It takes only two minutes by a little ferry to get to the rocky island where you will find a restaurant, café, beach and adorable old-fashioned changing rooms.

The island itself is also small. It is right in front of the city but when you are on it, you will feel like you are miles away from the city dust! It is accessible around the year: in winter there is a bridge from the mainland. You can also walk on ice to get there!

Uunisaari has been a recreational place for the city-goers for centuries. There used to be a “sea spa” hundred years ago. The beautiful main building, made of bricks, on the island used to be a pain-factory, but it has been a restaurant for more than twenty years by now. There is a children’s playground and a few saunas. No wonder it is a popular place to arrange weddings and different kind of parties.

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Uunisaari | Relaxing | Ferry € 3.50
Ehrenströmintie 1
daily

In the heart of Helsinki there is an area called Design District Helsinki. The area consists of 25 streets and 180 little shops, cafes, boutiques, restaurants, galleries and design hotels. The members of Design District are all unique, creative and exotic and very Finnish. All the members are marked by a black sticker saying “Design District”. You will see those stickers on the shop windows in the large area from Esplanade to Eira and from Kamppi to Hietalahti square.

The idea is simple: the stickers will tell the consumer that the shop sells design products that are creative, artistic and unique. You can buy clothes, antique, jewellery or just simply walk in and admire the art and design. There is a map of all the shops of the design district and you can plan your shopping route with it. Design district is more than shopping: there are also many art galleries and cafes, like in the Design Forum on Erottaja (check the Design Forum shop article).

My favorite spot in Design District is Urbana shop (on Erottaja), where the atmosphere has a cool Finnish-Swedish feeling, but the clothes, bags and shoes are from all over the globe.

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Design District | Shopping
Around Pieni Roobertinkatu
Opening times vary per shop