Tag Archives: Eurotrip 2024

Jun25

Exploring Helsinki!

Posted on by
Standard

Saturday, 01-June-2024, through Thursday, 06-June-2024


Helsinki. Capital of Finland, and my final stop of both the Nordics and the Scandinavian countries before forging south toward the Baltic region.

When I first planned this trip, I freely admit that I came into it with certain preconceptions. Particularly salient to this post was my vision of Finland as another of the Scandinavian countries… technically a correct assumption, but after wandering Helsinki and learning a bit more about the country’s history… I’m not quite so certain.

See, I learned that while Finland currently belongs to the Nordics, its history is a bit more unique – The Finnish language, for example, has roots as a Uralic language similar to Estonian and Hungarian… and frankly sounds similar to Slavic languages to my untrained ears. Culturally, Finland has been its own country, part of Sweden, part of Russia, and even sort of part of Germany during World War 2.

Complicated.


Exploring the city, however, was quite a bit less complex than the history. It was lovely – I found Helsinki to be similar to Oslo and Portland in that there were quite a few small parts scattered about, in contrast to Reykjavik or Stockholm that seemed to have larger homogenous sections of either big parks or big concrete. There was some street art, mainly on electrical boxes, but not nearly as many murals and such as in Reykjavik… but it still felt like more than I saw around Oslo or Stockholm.



As with all European Cities so far, Helsinki was extremely walkable… seriously, I think I walked around 10 miles every day, just wandering around and visiting near spots!

For food – everything was delicious, to the surprise of absolutely no one. After eating at Aifur in Stockholm, I finally broke through my mental barricade against going to “tourist restaurants”, and so started exploring some more clearly touristy venues in Helsinki… Which, as it turned out, was a really great idea! I was able to find quite a few great spots, ate some more traditional Northern Finnish cuisine, and got some options that I definitely wouldn’t have if I’d stuck with being a “cool” tourist:

  • Saaga – This was a tourist-focused place, but ohh man it was good! Focusing on Northern Finnish / Sami food, I fully recommend it for someone wanting to try out a traditional Finnish meal, like you’d get in a cabin up North in the deep winter.
  • Lazy Fox – Turns out, most Finnish places don’t really do breakfast. From the Finns that I met, it seems that most Finns simply don’t do breakfast, or have it at home, so that makes sense. I, however, wanted a hearty breakfast… and Lazy Fox provided that exceptionally well!
  • Lie Mi – A Thai spot I went to on a date! It was neat- I had a lot of Thai while I was living in North Portland, and this was… similar. Less spicy, but definitely good. Full recommendation.
  • Bastion Bistro – A nice and fancy bistro on Suomenlinna Island, with an excellent chicken cesear salad. The downside is that the outdoor seating is overgrown with stinging nettles, which I learned about the hard way. My leg stung for the rest of the day, which kind of outweighed the good food.
  • Woolshed Helsinki – an “Australian Gastropub” that I went to, because they were the only spot in town that served Chicken Parmesan. Like… what? None of the Italian restaurants had it… and what Woolshed had was an abomination – but an absolutely delicious abomination. Served over crispy French fries, with ham thrown into the Chicken Parm because why not, it was delicious and abominable.
  • La Lasagne – A full-day Lasagna restaurant that I went to for breakfast… and had breakfast lasagna (made with eggs and bacon instead of beef and ricotta). It was amazing.
  • Lappi Ravintola – Another amazing touristy-restaurant that I went to on a date, this was my favorite restaurant in Finland… and possibly my favorite on the whole trip so far, in terms of decor and “fun”. Aifur, ROK, and Cafe Unicorn were great (Stockholm, Reykjavik, and Nuuk, respectively), but Lappi Ravintola basically took a New Hampshire ski lodge and stuffed it into a building in the middle of Helsinki. Good food, great decor.
Jun14

The Oslo Botanical Gardens

Posted on by
Standard

Wednesday, 22-May-2024


My first day in Oslo, I wandered.

My goal was the Oslo Natural History Museum, or the Naturhistorisk museum in the Norwegian parlance, but I wasn’t locked into getting there in any rush. Oslo was still new to me, and I was enjoying the opportunity to wander.

I’d had a coffee, sandwich, and smoothie earlier in the day and was feeling well fortified, so I set up directions on my phone, grabbed my satchel, and headed out the door.

Nearly to the museum, I realized that it was guarded by one of the most effective barriers in existence against a member of my family… a garden. An expansive garden, full of beautiful flowers and interesting greenhouses. Those clever devils, they knew how to distract me from my destination! How was our hero going to get past this blockade??

I mean, I wasn’t in a rush.

I got past the cleverly-placed blockade simply by walking something like 5 miles, wandering into every corner of the gardens that I could find. Through outdoor pathways, paved and gravel, I wandered and appreciated the views and the smells. Through greenhouses, I ogled massive lily pads and sweat in the heat of a simulated Arizona desert. I saw a pineapple, and the biggest pitchers I’ve ever seen on a pitcher plant.

It was awesome.



I even found a cool “Viking longship” educational sculpture!

Jun13

Adventures in Oslo

Posted on by
Standard

Tuesday, 21-May-2024, through Sunday, 26-May-2024


Oslo, the capital of Norway.

My first visit to the “mainland” Scandinavian countries, and my surprisingly abrupt transition into Summer. I mentioned how, when I stepped off the plane in Greenland, how I was blasted with gloriously cold arctic air, which immediately set my soul happily ablaze? When I stepped onto the tarmac in Oslo, the heat of Summer hit me, leeched into my bones, and warmed my core into a bright cozy fire. A different happiness than the cold, but happiness none-the-less.

The drive to my flat in Norway was about as different as it could possibly get from Greenland or Reykjavik. Unlike Greenland and Iceland, Norway is not focused primarily on Tourism. Oslo’s a working city, with a close-by airport and a population twice that of the entirety of Iceland… and 12 times that of Greenland. It was a city – a true, working, bustling city, and I couldn’t wait to explore it.



I started as I always do – just wandering around, and finding myself some food. So lets start with that – Where’d I eat, while exploring Oslo? Excluding smaller cafes and other “quick stop” options;

  • Folkets Burger – Symmetrically to Nuuk, I started Norway off with a cheap burger from a townie fast-food / greasy cafe. It was… Well, it was tasty and a nice change of pace!
  • Baken Hansen Løren – Absolutely delicious, 100% a lovely European cafe
  • Kjøkken og Bar AS – Also absolutely delicious! Super quiet, and I had an amazing chunk of salmon that was glazed to perfection
  • Kaffebrenneriet Løren – Absolutely delicious, another lovely European-style cafe
  • Barcode street food – I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed, to be honest, and just needed some simple calories that reminded me of home. I got loaded waffle fries, with pulled pork, and felt better
  • Åpent Bakeri Tranen – Nice American-style breakfast – pancakes, bacon, and eggs! Great spot to work from a cafe on photos and blog posts
  • Herregårdskroen – A quite fancy restaurant in the Vigeland sculpture park. Good, and exactly what you’d expect from an up-class museum restaurant
  • Fryd – Tasty neighborhood bar and grill. Nothing special, but perfect for what I was looking for after Herregårdskroen
  • Pepe’s Pizza – Similar to Fryd, just simple and good pizza with especially lovely and friendly staff



Let’s see… what else about Oslo?

My first exposure to the “mainland” Scandinavian capitals was definitely interesting. As I alluded to earlier, it wasn’t quite as friendly & tourist-focused as Nuuk or Reykjavik, which definitely took a bit of getting used to. I felt more isolated here, more alone in my world of speaking English. It may have been partially due to the location of my rental as well – I was staying in more of the suburbs, instead of in the center of tourism, which led to seeing more families and friend groups… which, in turn, reminded me that I was traveling solo and was hours and hours away from friends and family.

I won’t say it was bad, though. Part of this trip is the learning process – learning about Europe, and learning about myself, and learning to continue growing as a person out of the stagnancy that I’d found myself in while living in Oregon. The isolation hurt, but it helped me grow and move through some mental blockades… and slowly but surely, let me bloom back into the person that I want myself to be.


Thinking back, one of the big drivers for those isolated feelings could be just how child-friendly Oslo felt. There were countless families pushing strollers or carrying kids, all walking around nearly infinite playgrounds and child-friendly parks. It FELT like a city meant for families, far more than the cities I’ve recently been to in the United States. I tried looking up statistics to see if that feeling was enshrined in reality, but… turns out, those kind of stats are complicated, and every country uses different numbers and I just gave up. I accepted how it felt, and moved on with my exploring.





On a less introspective note, Oslo was also the first place that I really leaned in toward using Electric Scooters. I admit – I was one of the people who mocked them when they first came out… and I still mock them in some ways, and still get annoyed when people park them like crap or just do dumb things with them.

They’re amazing for tourists, though – I can grab one, get to an area I want to walk quickly, and then leave it for someone else to use… all for just a few dollars.

Another nice new thing with them – I don’t know if this is just new rules, or Scandinavia, but there’s LOTS of geofencing on these things now. You can’t park just anywhere, and you can’t ride everywhere – There’s designated “scooter only” parking spots, slow zones for pedestrians that automatically reduce your speed, and other protections in place. They don’t interfere with cycling as much anymore, or so it seems, which is pretty rad.