Holiday Help

[jimmy k]

Hi folks, I have a freind who is going to go to Helsinki for the weekend sometime soon, she is looking for infomation on things to do and see. Hoping on eor more of our native Finnish Girls will be able to help, but any help at all will be appreciated from anyone, cheers.

Going to leave a link to the forim page so you can have a read, you don't have to join up and leave your answers there, you can leave anything you can here and i'll copy and paste it over to the forum or send her it by e-mail.

http://www.thelocal.se/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=14688

Tack ska du ha.

[sandcat]

Hi folks, I have a freind who is going to go to Helsinki for the weekend sometime soon, she is looking for infomation on things to do and see.

www.designdistrict.fi/design_district is a great site listing all the fab, really cool little shops in the "design district" of Helsinki. Great to look around for inspiration even if you can't affrod to buy everything you see! (Though you'll want to... some amazing stuff there, clothes-wise, jewellery, accessories, things for the house etc.) Not that trips should be all about shopping, but personally I like to come back with some memento.

There's also a good market by the harbour bit with local crafts and stalls where you can buy tasty fish snacks, and that's a good place to wander around. And I remember the zoo was a good one, if you like zoos.

[jimmy k]

Cheers for that, ive sent it on to the local website for Kaylo.

[Suvi]

Your friend probably already has visited the Helsinki website for tourists? She can find the most popular tourist attractions there. The city centre is rather small, so walking around in the city is easy. Even if she isn't religious, she should go to the Temppeliaukio church (if she's interested in architecture). The Senate Square is also worth visiting, and quite hard to miss. And the Market Square! The parks Esplanadi and Kaivopuisto are both very popular when it's warm and sunny.

Shopping
Stockmann is the biggest department store in Finland. Their bookstore (The Academic Bookstore) is one of the best in Finland.
Shopping centres Forum and Kamppi are in the city centre. Kamppi is a bit more upscale than Forum.
The street Aleksanterinkatu has plenty of stores, mostly clothes and shoes.

Restaurants that serve Finnish food (and even locals go to ):
Sea Horse, one of my favourite restaurant in Helsinki. The address is Kapteeninkatu 11, it's easy to get there by the tram 10.
Salve (I couldn't find a website in English..) is a very old Finnish restaurant, it used to be very popular among the seamen. You can get there by the tram 6. The address is Hietalahdenranta 11.
Zetor is a tractor-themed restaurant.

If Finnish food just isn't her cup of tea:
Bar Tapasta is my favourite tapas-restaurant in Helsinki. It's not exactly cheap, but the food is very good. A table reservation is needed, the restaurant is very small and often full. I found an email address (tapasta@marcante.fi) on their site, I'm sure she could use that if she wanted to make a reservation there.
Restaurant Koto is japanise, I've only been there once, but the food was very good and the place isn't really that expensive. It is very centrally located on the street Kalevankatu 21. About a 10 minute walk from Stockmann.
Santa Fe and Cantina West are both popular texmex restaurants.

If she's thinking of taking one of those sightseeing tours, I recommend the tram 3t (or 3b) instead. It passes most of the sights in the centre, and you get to see the district Kallio. Doesn't cost nearly as much as the organized tours. Of course the tram doesn't have a tour guide

The journey planner is a great help, I use it almost daily. It helps with the public transport. Here you can find a map service, but I prefer Google..

It's a bit difficult to try to recommend anything to someone you don't know at all.. I hope this helps at least a bit.

Edit: My signiture is ideal for this topic: "this is nonetheless my city".

[Suvi]

I forgot the nightlife..

Lux is the most trendy nightclub in Helsinki. Boooooring..
Lost & Found is Kent-approved
Baker's is also very popular. The address is Mannerheimintie 12, it's in the corner of Mannerheimintie and Kalevankatu.

I prefer pubs over nightclubs, here are some of my favourites:
Praha/Dubliner are two pubs in one pub The address is Mannerheimintie 5, but the pubs are on the Kaivopiha-side of the building. Just take the Stairs down from the Student House..
Molly Malone's used to be very popular, I haven't really been there since they did some renovation there.

Sorry, time to go to bed..

[jimmy k]

Thank you so much for your help and ideas, have forwarded them on to her. Seeing her at the Umeå IK football match tomorrow anyway haha!

[Grävlingen]

It's so nice that somebody else here is interested in women's football too! I saw UIK play when they visited Vasa,Finland last february, and played two games here. I've also seen them in Umeå and Skellefteå. Marta is simply best, uncredible Sorry for my english, don't use it very often nowadays, and writing is even moore difficault. I think that the game tomorrow will be sent on television? We can watch swedish tele here in western Finland, so I'll be able to see it

[Suvi]

Hey Jimmy, you might want to send your friend a link to this thread. I noticed that the links don't work on the other forum. And after all the hard work I've done... I didn't add all the addresses of the places since I thought if your friend was interested in something, she could just check the website. If she has some more specific questions, I'm happy to help (That's if I can.. I've never been a tourist here )

[jimmy k]

Have linked it for her to read, and also copy and pasted your replies and sent them to her. Thanks.

[jimmy k]

Grävlingen - You English is fine, better than my Swedish that's for sure.

I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow, just watching a live game of footie is great, was suffering from withdrawl symptoms before I started to go to the games at the end of last season. Spoke to a guy at the club house on wednesday about getting a season ticket. Met Hanna Ljungberg when I was there too!

[m@rco]

What are the odds Umeå IK winning?

[jimmy k]

1-1 Draw Damnnit.

Have it all to do next week in Germany.

[jimmy k]

My thanks to everyone who helped out, she is in Helsinki now, and i'll hear how it all went next weekend.