heaven-sinki

you might have caught snippets of our adventures in helsinki on my other blog, but in case you haven't, it's worth a quick look. i won't repeat any of the stuff over there, here.

we were in helsinki for a whole week and stayed in two different apartments. we would have stayed in just the first one, but the rest of the week was already booked.

here's a peek at our first apartment, which was actually a stand-alone hotel room. we'd highly recommend it for your next helsinki visit.



and here we are, clearly posing for two different pictures.



and our second apartment. very spacious, but not quite as fun.



as we made our way around, we thought it seemed liked a pretty dead town. apparently, everyone and their mother was at stockmann for their crazy days. two times out of the year, they hold sales where you can get something crazy like 5 tubes of toothpaste for $2. i just made that up, but you get the idea.



stockmann is finland's largest department store, and it's said that if you can't find it at stockmann, you probably don't need it.



agreed, they had all kinds of stuff there. including trolli choco banana. i was tempted to buy some, but knew it would pale in comparison to tokyo's finest.



and during crazy days, all their mannequins are covered in huhuu costumes, the window displays are draped with huhuu banners and the store is filled with huhuu balloons. who is huhuu you ask? that's who. and look at who got to meet huhuu.



and just outside on the tram platform, do you see what i see?



let's take a closer look ... a child dressed in a rainbow stripe snowsuit. i want!



and in the same general neighborhood, we come across this. i'd like to be a fly on the wall at one of their joint happy hours.



we also did a bit of traditional sightseeing. my family should recognize this, the helsinki cathedral behind senate square.



and some design sightseeing at marimekko.



and some non-traditional sightseeing, like this public restroom that was converted into a karaoke bar. i bet the acoustics are awesome.



stay tuned tomorrow for some everyday food we had. just wouldn't seem right lumping food with public restrooms.