I miss Helsinki. I’m back in the UK now and, annoyingly, I can’t stop thinking about your gorgeous city.

The crabapple trees. Granite boulders casually everywhere because apparently that’s perfectly normal. The beautiful Art Nouveau architecture. Recycling taken seriously. The sea, which somehow always seems to turn up at the end of the street. Outdoor gyms. Lunch deals (Pompier, mon amour!). And that wonderful Finnish talent for being perfectly nice while also understanding that sometimes the nicest thing you can do for another human being is leave them alone.

We travelled with our senior dog and I was anxious about how he’d cope. Turns out I was the one who needed to relax. He settled in like a champ, accepted the Helsinki way of life almost immediately, and generally behaved as though he’d been Finnish all along.

Helsinki followed me home. Thank you for having us.

Yango a.k.a. Yandex Taxi is owned by Yandex, a Russian tech giant company. By using and promoting Yango, you are indirectly supporting Putin's war in Ukraine.

If you want to support Russian war efforts in Ukraine, you might well send cash money into Putin's war chest in Kremlin.

If you don't want to do that, stop using Yango, don't promote it and tell everyone you know to stop using it.

Thank you.

More information:

Yandex Taxi article in Wikipedia

Yle: Ministers: Finland can't ban Russian taxi service Yango

We just returned from our highly anticipated family vacation from Finland and you guys have done it - both my wife and daughter fell so in love with your country that they were sad to leave.

This was their very first ever visit to Europe for both of them (my first one to Finland although I have always cheered for the Leijonat and seeing them play live in Tampere was AMAZING).

My wife loved the train ride to Tampere and the many farms and fields. We took the Intercity to Tampere and ended up taking the commuter train back a couple of days later so we could spend more time on the train. The city of Tampere really resonated with her. The hockey games at Nokia arena were everything I ever hoped for and I was able to mark it off my bucket list. We also had a great pizza dinner at Basiliko. At the time we were the only people in the restaurant and got to chat with the really nice owners.

My daughter, who is 11, was most impressed by Helsinki. She took right to the city life and energy of your capital. Many people call her shy and introverted - only her innermost friends and family can get her to talk (she is actually quite smart, she just doesn't advertise it) - so she took right to the energy of the Finnish People and enjoyed being amongst you without the need of any conversation at all. We bought her a Helsinki University sweater at Kauppatori and she wore it every single day. And she is already busy on Duolingo to learn Suomi.

I was so happy to watch my girls, their eyes all big and their smiles wide. Every interaction we had was so friendly and kind - from the Fazer Café Baristas, the Cashiers at Tokmanni, the security guards at Nokia Arena - to the people at Kauppatori. Their travel experience was so life changing and positive and all the credit goes to you guys. I know you Finns don't like to brag but your country and your people are so worthy and deserving of praise.
Also so much thanks to everyone who replied to my prior questions on this Reddit. I know alot of the questions get asked again and again (food, transportation, sights...) but that info was so helpful during our trip. So Finland - Kiitos paljon and nähdään myöhemmin!

At first I thought someone was “cooing” from above but it was actually this owl. I’m not 100% sure if it was a hawk owl or long eared owl, I’m sure someone else knows :)

First and second photos we’re taken by my iPhone in low light, so there’s some motion blur. some details were filled in automatically by cameras AI (not a raw image)

The third photo I had sharpened using ChatGPT.

I have a video too, I’ll try to upload it somehow

Just got some more pictures from my visit in February. We got beautiful light during the day and then the big snowfall of February 16th (if I'm not mistaken).

Here's 20 film photos in color from 1970s Helsinki. Public domain, I found from a historical archive.

Some of them are blurry and tilted to one side, but the feeling is great. I want to teleport there with a time machine😎 enjoy!

Edit: colored -> photos in color. Photos are original color photos, not colored sorry😄