Finland

We began our day early, early in the morning. They came to pick me up at 5:45 a.m., but it was already sunny outside. I began our day in Finland well with some cherries and strawberries that we had bought at the farmer's market the day before. Then I read the free travel guide, Welcome to Helsinki, which the ferry offered us and saw that the Finns like drinking coffee while eating something sweet. At the moment, I can't remember the exact words. When we arrived at Helsinki's port, there was another "Farmer's Market" ... or a tourist trap ... whichever you prefer. But it wasn't the same as the one we already had visited. These items were handmade, yet felt more commercialised than what I had seen in Tallinn.

We walked around their Old Town, which is still more modern than Tallinn’s. Actually, that’s a bit of a lie. While Helsinki is a younger city (1550) in comparison to Tallinn (5000 BC), the real difference is that Helsinki keeps old and modern together whereas Tallinn’s Old Town is pure - only old buildings - no modern buildings, even though the old buildings have been properly equipped with modern things … you know ... like electricity ... and running water ... you know. As we walked around, I noticed that there were a lot of coffee shops. Not that that is surprising, right? But wait, these coffee shops seem awfully familiar. Isn’t that a croissant? Aren’t those tables outside facing the street and not each other? What did that book say? If I was going to have any Finnish experience, it should be sitting at a café and doing nothing … Hmm, without even trying ... in a Scandinavian country, I have found France and she is quite strong. Look at this Magnum ice cream. Doesn't it look like an ice cream that Marie Antoinette could have eaten? It's really covered in gold.

Unfortunately, we didn't arrive in enough time to take our sweet time at a café. For lunch, we went to a restaurant where we saw a lot of people going inside. This particular restaurant served a buffet of a different "theme" everyday. And, of course, the theme today was salmon. I'd had enough fish, so I said I'd pass and looked at the other options. Baguettes. Croissants. Pastries. Sandwiches. Yes, France was all around me. I chose a ham and cheese sandwich which was more like a tomato and cucumber sandwich. All that I could taste was the cucumber, so I took some of the cucumbers off ... except then all I could taste was tomato. The ham and cheese was practically non-existent. Still ... the sandwich, in my mind, is a pleasant memory. I probably could have eaten another one because, as you can see, it wasn't exactly big.

A little bit after we ate, we got into my friend's car and we went to Porvoo, which claims to have a traditional Finnish village. Although that was a lie, there was a small part of Porvoo which was very idyllic and picturesque. After walking around a bit, we went into a cozy tea room. It's a shame that we didn't realise the place was a tourist trap because they definitely trapped us. If you don't see the price, you should know that it's very expensive, right? Eh, well ... we didn't remember that in the moment. For one coffee, one tea, one hot chocolate and two pieces of cake, it cost about 30€. We once again tried a chocolate cake and a non-chocolate cake. They were both delicious, but they would've been even more delicious if they had been cheaper. I know, I know ... it was our fault.

The first cake, the one without the chocolate, was a cream cake with fruit. It was really good and I would have liked to have eaten it side by side with the "Ma Cherie" cake in Tallinn. That would have been the best way to know which one of the two was the better cake.

The chocolate cake here was much, much better than the chocolate cake in Tallinn. Without a doubt. Although, I definitely wouldn't have been able to eat an entire piece on my own without having something to counterbalance it since it was pretty rich and a little heavy.

But these two cakes worked in harmony to create a "mouthgasm". In the end, maybe they were worth the cost.

After we finished up there, we went to IKEA. They had to buy things since they had to keep 10 apartments in order for their business, thus IKEA was the obvious choice. We spent a few hours there, which is not a surprise. They told me that all Europeans should experience a traditional day at IKEA which consists of spending a few hours there (check) and then eating at the cafeteria. Which is what we did. And I'm going to tell you, it wasn't a memorable meal. With difficulty, I remember that I ate a pork chop and some fries.  Although the furniture may be cheap, the food was not. And, after an hour, I felt quite ill. I again thought that I might need to vomit and I got a terrible headache - in fact, it was the worst I'd ever had. I know that this meal in IKEA was not the reason, but in my mind, the two are linked together.