The Life and Travels of Mrs Suvi

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As you know, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Finland but nevertheless it seems that we have adopted Black Friday. Thus, this weekend is going to be full of sales. But before attacking the shops, let’s take a look back at what happened in the past week.

Some of you may remember that I was up to meet Ivy on Sunday. Ivy contacted me through my blog and suggested we meet up. And as you can guess, I was game! Ivy was visiting Helsinki, Tallinn and Riga. The story of why she decided to visit Finland is so random. It was all about an episode of Top Gear which was guest starring Mika Häkkinen (the F1 driver)! How cool is that?!

We met up in the afternoon after she’d got back from her visits to the two other capitals. Luckily for us, Sunday was the same day that Helsinki turned on it’s traditional Christmas lights.

We had arranged to meet at Ivy’s hotel which was just a short walk away from Aleksanterinkatu where the action was. As we both felt like having coffee, we popped in a café to admire the parade that was to go past after the lights had been turned on. I have to admit that I was expecting more of the parade, so it was quite a let-down. At least we saw Santa.

After, we visited the Design District Market that was on in the student house Vanha. We sure have some cool designers in Finland.

Of course we had to get something to eat too. We went to Ônam in Forum, as Ivy had just had a traditional Finnish Christmas buffet on the ferry and I was suspecting that she wouldn’t appreciate any more Finnish food at that moment. Ônam is such a cute restaurant, I just love the decor!

We both enjoyed their Phô, it was tasty with lots of coriander (you can never have too much coriander!). I notice that I miss Vietnamese food – I used to have it almost every week when working in Kruununhaka.

After dinner, it was time for drinks and where else to take a visitor except the Torni Ateljee bar. The bar boasts great views over Helsinki. Unfortunately it’s really overpriced. You need to go outside on the balcony to fully appreciate the view. We struggeled to get a photo of the two of us for a bit until..

..a kind lady came to ask us if she could take the photo for us. Much better don’t you think?

I really had fun with Ivy – it was like meeting up with an old friend even though we’d never met before! We found out we’d even gone to the same school in Kuala Lumpur. Granted Ivy’s much younger than me, LOL. I hope to see you back in Finland soon (hopefully in summer next time) – thanks again for contacting me, it was such an awesome meet-up!

On Monday I met some of my old colleagues from my previous job. Ever notice how you you realize you’ve missed someone the minute you see them after a while? That’s what it was like seeing them. Anyway, we met up for dinner at Loung3 in Kallio and had a great evening catching up.

I had chosen this place for the tapas they served, as sometimes it’s fun to share and taste many different things. We ordered two of their Bingos and it was more than enough for four people.

Now let me say that I thought that meat on a stick looked quite nasty. I had to wait for someone else to taste it before trying. It’s actually smoked ham and to my surprise it was great! Cesar salad, crispy fries (omg, I’m craving them right now), Marquez sausages, tiger prawns, chipirones and mozzarella. Need I say more? I definitely recommend Loung3 as the atmosphere is relaxed and the food is yummy. The only gripe I had was the smell of grease frying from the kitchen. Because it’s an old building, I don’t think they can do anything about it. It’s not something that will put you off when you are there but you will notice the smell on your clothes when you leave.

Last, I’d like to give a shout out to Megan from Etsy’s TealOwlCo. I love Etsy, you can find such cool things there. The fun thing about it is communicating with the person who has made the product you are buying. I bought some American Flag Mason Jars from Megan and it was such a pleasant experience! I was her first international customer, so she sent me some super cool things from Texas. The magnet and card are on my fridge as you can see below.

Ta-daa! Here they are making my bathroom pretty. I added the flowers (from Ikea). The jars are so cute, thank you again Megan! If you are planning on getting some red, white and blue jars like this, I can wholeheartedly recommend Megan’s shop.

How has your week been? Did you celebrate Thanksgiving? Let me know in the comments below!

xx