Weekly Favourites

Posted on by Suvi

Here in Finland we had both Friday and Monday off for Easter. The past week has involved holidaying in Tallinn and getting ready for the boating season.

Tallinn is such an easy mini-holiday destination as it only takes two hours to get there by ferry from Helsinki. I go there many times a year, usually for a day trip, but last weekend hubby and I stayed one night at the Telegraaf hotel. Telegraaf is a beautiful hotel, located in the Old Town – definitely recommended. The best thing about Tallinn was getting to see the Patarei Prison which I’ve been wanting to visit for years. I will write a separate post on it, so you can see just how spooky it is.

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Tallinn, Old Town

My mom is a great cook and it’s tradition to have an Easter feast at her home. I’m really not a fan of lamb but if anyone knows how to cook it, it’s my mom. In addition to lamb, we had salmon sandwiches, asparagus, tiramisu and creme brûlée. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, so there’s no photos of the food..

Instead, I have a great porridge recipe for you for the weekend. It’s more like dessert than porridge and so easy to make. The original recipe is from a blog called Lunni Leipoo (in Finnish) – she has many other interesting porridge recipes too but this is the best IMHO.

Raspberry-yoghurt porridge

1 dl oatmeal
2 dl almond milk
1/2 mashed banana
1 egg
a dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 dl frozen rasberries
2 tablespoons Turkish yoghurt

Turn the oven on at 180 celcius. Mix all ingredients in a dish that can be placed in the oven.  Last, add two big tablespoons of Turkish yoghurt on top. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or till the middle is still a little bit jiggly. Perfect for unhurried weekend mornings!

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Raspberry-Yoghurt porridge

Waking up in the mornings this week has been such a nightmare. We changed to summer time on Sunday morning from 2 am to 3 am which means that mornings are darker again. This silly tradition was introduced over a 100 years ago in order to save energy and use the daylight hours for work. I don’t see the point of it these days and neither do many other people. Summer time means grumpy children in daycare/school and grumpy adults at work. Besides, as Finnish summer is on it’s way, days are getting longer anyway. This definitely has not been a favourite for this week.

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Tallinn, Kalamaja

After buying a sailing boat last week, hubby and I feel very impatient to get the boat into water. We need to get everything ready for summer and actually start practicing manouvering it. Unfortunately there’s still a lot of ice out there, as nights have still been quite cold, but the former owner has an idea that we could get the boat into the water as early as next week. I did see some boats in another harbour on Thursday, so let’s see. I have been preparing by getting some warm wooly gear at the shops and even sailing pants, so I’m ready for anything.

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Tallinn, near Viru Keskus

I took this picture below on a walk in Kruununhaka in Helsinki. I walk around the area a lot, as I’m lucky to actually work there. This week The Guardian had an article of the 10 best Art Nouveau cities in Europe. And as you can guess, Helsinki was featured! One of the buildings mentioned in the article was the building in the photo – the Wilkman house from 1904. Can you make out the cute golden roosters?

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Helsinki

In addition to all this, I’ve been having fun planning for my mini-holiday in London. I’m not sure if I will actually be able to do everything in the end, as it always takes a lot of time to move from one place to another. On the list are Highgate cemetery, Borough Market, Sky Garden, St Katharine Docks, The National Gallery, tea shops and Malaysian restaurants…

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London, from the London Eye

Today I am going to the hairdressers. It’s about time, as my hair is so dry that it feels like straw!

What have you been up to?

xx

31 thoughts on “Weekly Favourites”

  1. Looks like such a lovey little spot!

    We switched to Daylight Savings time about a month ago, which did the same thing you mentioned (time moved forward an hour) for us, and I always have a difficulty with adjusting to the time. Ah well—I eventually catch up with the rest of the word!

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    1. Thank you Diana for your comment and visit! It’s been a week since the turning of the clocks and I’m still tired. Hehe, maybe this is just due to the fact that I go to bed too late 😛

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  2. Hi, did you know that London has its very own Moomin shop in Covent Garden? – where all my favourite shops are! I’m originally from South London and in 2 week’s time I’m taking my Italian girlfriend to the UK for the first time in her life – So I too am planning lots of things to do in the capital and in another cities.

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    1. Yes, I even visited the shop in Covent Garden and spoke Finnish to the lady working there 😊 Can’t wait to hear what you have planned, London is so cool!

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  3. Welcome to coffee/tea share. I enjoy learning about Finland today. I remember when daylight savings time went to effort. It was durning World War Two. It allow an extra hour of daylight to work for the war. For over 80 years I have heard nothing but grumbles aboutvit. It is always the same.

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    1. Thank you Bettylouise for your visit and lovely comment! How amazing to hear that you have experienced the time when daylight savings were actually of use. Now that it’s not really needed, I guess we can take it as a moment to remember history 💖

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      1. So much has happened in my life, telephones, refrigerators, atomic bombs, not to mention the wars. Much of what was taught in schools no longer is true. I am amuse when someone complains about their life. Cars were just coming in. I remember the depression. The microwave and dishwasher both arrived e my lifetime.

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    1. Thank you for your visit and comment 🙂 I assure you the porridge is super delish! London really has so much to offer, it’s a place where one can return again and again..

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  7. It sounds like you have fun things planned for your trip to London. I agree with you, time is always the biggest challenge when trying to fit everything in! I am currently planning a trip to Greece and am trying to see how everything will fit in as well. Sometimes I think planning is half the fun though. Have a nice weekend! 🙂

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    1. Greece sounds awesome 🙂 And you are so right, planning is half the fun – discovering all these new things about ones’ upcoming destination. But I have to admit, I’m such a planner that sometimes it gets overwhelming!!

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  9. I’m not a fan of daylight saving either. We don’t have it in Queensland as we are subtropical, where it makes no sense at all. It puts us out of step with the rest of the east coast and everyone gets in a spin about it. What ever it was supposed to do is not happening.

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  11. Sigh – Tallinn. There are many years when we last time visited there buying beads for my wife. Next autumn we will move back to our birth town Helsinki after thirty years tour around Finland and then I hope again to start to make short visits to Tallinn.

    Have a nice day!

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    1. That sounds awesome Sartenada! It will be so much easier to visit Tallinn 🙂 The best times are during the week, when everyone is at work, but of course that is not always possible.

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