Finland

fjon

I'm going to Finland for a weekend in Feb. One day in Tampere, and one in Helsinki.
Anyone any stories/ info about either of these two places? Are there any unmissable things I should see or go to when I am there? Any good restaurants or bars I should check out?

drrnwbb

it will be still very cold here in feb, prolly -10c to -20c. maybe a bit colder in tampere (2hrs north of helsinki). whole country still full of snow.

hmm, there isnt really all that much to do here in helsinki that time of year, esp just for one day. you could walk around and freeze yer private parts off, get drunk in some really nice pubs n stuff. give me a day or two and i'll come back with links.

ive only been to tampere a few times during the summer, so not too sure what goes on there during the winter months, i can ask a finnish mate who lives there and claims the city to be his own domain, so he should know.

dw

DadaKopf

Never been to Tampere - apparently it's the conference centre capital of Finland!

Helsinki's a wonderful city. I lived there for exactly a month and did nearly as much exploring as an unfit 24 year old can. Being broke, I did a lot of walking, and not so much dining out. Although I'm not sure how much walking you'll be able to do in February, as it'll probably still be cold enough to freeze you back into the stone age. The great thing is: lots of Helsinki is underground!

The modern art gallert, Kiasma, is worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing, and the general area around Lasipalatsi (a magnificent 1920s modernist masterpiece where you can eat food and watch old movies) and Mannerheimintie, their version of O'Connell Street. If you walk to the end of Mannerheimintie and turn to the right, you'll get to Boulevarden and that whole area, which is a whole area built in the 1800s, and you might as well be in Paris. Nice park around there, too. Around there are really cool bars (alterno-cool) and towards the posh areas, some ace-looking restaurants.

A walk down Alexanderinkatu (their version of Grafton St.) is well worth it, too (that's off behind Mannerheimintie and the BIG BIG Stockmann department store (their version of Switzers/Brown Thomas). That'll take you to their big cathederal thingy beside the university, and if you walk past that, towards the harbour, you'll see a big red church/cathederal. All along there you'll find some restaurants and the city's 1910's Art Nouveau buildings, well worth a look. A very fashionable/posh-looking (and expensive) place to eat and drink is on the Esplanade, just behind Alexanderinkatu.

However, the area to the back of Lasipalatsi, going towards Kamppi is worth checking out. Right now the area is a big building site, but if you turn off Mannerheimintie a little past the Forum Shopping Centre, and a little past it, I think I remember seeing some interesting bars and restraurants.

If you're looking for live local music, a club called Tavastia (behind the Forum shopping centre on Mannerheimintie) seems the place to go. If you're looking for a meat market, there's this place called Lost and Found (don't go, please God), and there's all these awful places close to the central train station (Rautatietientori).

For getting around, but a day tourist transport card - that'll get you all over the city on bus, tram, train and metro for 24 hours.

Ah I dunno, there's so much to choose from, these are just the things you can do in one day by staying central. That's *if* it's not below freezing. I was there in summer so I wouldn't know anything about that .

Here's a link to the city's tourism website: http://www.hel.fi/english/index.html

gonker

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=53591&highlight=helsinki

calis

go on the beer tram in helsinki. brings u around the city and serves beer

there quite alot of markets near the docks and the main railway station.

as for nightlife go to molly malones bar.

fjon

Good stuff - thanks everyone.
I'm looking forward to it - seems everyone here loves the place.

DadaKopf

Oh yeah, forgot about the Koff beer tram. Mneh. Molly Malone's is LAMELAMELAME. Why would you go to an Irish pub when on holidays?

Anyway, enjoy your trip, and let us know how you get on!

drrnwbb

eugh, molly malones. there are so many better pubs here than that.

around the city centre there is erottaja, bar ysi, tori bar (great mashed patatoes), sauna bar (have a drink, then a sauna!), corona bar and lots others (all are within 5min walk of the very centre of the city). just got back from a club called "rose garden" 3euros in, fantastic night. even new years eve its 7euros. cheeeeep. its on isoroobertinkatu in the centre too.

in kallio (just to the north of the centre) there are a lot of rough n ready pubs, some cool ones too like "kola" bar on helsinginkatu.

erm, all that been said, ive been in helsinki over 2yrs and ive only been inside an irish pub once for about 10min (there is about 7 of them here) so who knows.

dw

drrnwbb

fjon wrote:

Good stuff - thanks everyone.
I'm looking forward to it - seems everyone here loves the place.

what date are you here?

dw

fjon

I believe it's the 7/8th Feb in Tampere, and the 8/9 in Helsinki

DadaKopf

Drrnwbb, what was that Russian bar? That was ACE'SKI!

Yeah, Kallio's pretty rough'n'ready. PARTY HEARTY!

drrnwbb

DadaKopf wrote:

Drrnwbb, what was that Russian bar? That was ACE'SKI!

Yeah, Kallio's pretty rough'n'ready. PARTY HEARTY!

"moskova" or something, all written in cryillics apparently. ive never been in it

dw

DadaKopf

Nonono, the one near Sauna Bar.

drrnwbb

DadaKopf wrote:

Nonono, the one near Sauna Bar.

moskova is pretty near saunabar (no27). its on eerikinkatu, right beside the corona (no11) bar

dw

DadaKopf

The bar with the old name (?) what's down by the letterbox so you can hardly see it?

drrnwbb

DadaKopf wrote:

The bar with the old name (?) what's down by the letterbox so you can hardly see it?

no idea man, did i go there with ya?

DadaKopf

Yep, after that BBBQ in that cool wooden house. REMEMBER? It used to be a Russian bar/restaurant, but it was bought out or changed - there was a huge photo on the wall.

jetsonx

cheapest and coolest bar I found was Mascot bar in ~ you guested it
Kallio.

Cheap beer, good atmopshere and loads of pool tables.

DadaKopf

I remember the name of it, I think.

Bar Åbo.

drrnwbb

DadaKopf wrote:

I remember the name of it, I think.

Bar Åbo.

aaaaah yeah, bar åbo is pretty cool. not been there in a while. add that to the list up there.

dw