I’m finally settling into life in Helsinki. It took a while.
Between the kids being sick and the cold weather, I wasn’t really jiving with Finland at first. But now, I love it here!
Let’s jump in to discussing Happy Things from the week!
RICOLA
When we were in Austria, there was a display at the grocery store with a giant tin can of Ricola for a few euros. I bought the container, used a handful in Vienna, and then felt silly for buying cough drops in bulk and having to transport them in our limited luggage space (I know I could have left them behind but that felt so wasteful)!
Well, I was thankful for each and every one of them when our family was sick. We’ve gone through almost the entire remaining supply—Ricola for the win.
TRAVEL PAGE UPDATES
This is something that is of relatively little practical importance, but I’ve gotten my blog Travel page updated. And you know I like a good collage 🙂
EXPLORING WITHOUT KIDS
On Sunday John and I headed out to explore Helsinki for a few hours. The waterfront was beautiful! There were cruise ships and ferries and markets and waterside saunas. Also, sunshine and no kids!!!
Enjoying a bowl of delicious salmon soup!
The stunning Uspenski Cathedral.
The equally stunning Helsinki Cathedral.
We saw a very fancy Audi parked on the street and it made me smile to note a variety of faith-centric bumper stickers and this cross emblem on the front hood.
A stop at the iconic Marimekko.
The textiles are gorgeous.
I came away with a lovely (and practical!) souvenir: a bright floral tote bag.
MINT HOT CHOCOLATE
The kids have discovered a particular hot chocolate powder from Lidl that they love. Within a week we had finished an entire carton. When I picked up more, I decided to get a can of mint hot chocolate for me. I add a teaspoon into my morning coffee and it is DIVINE.
VAPPU + FATHER/DAUGHTER BONDING + MINIONS
Our family spends a lot of time laughing about minions. We watch funny clips on repeat and have a series of catchphrases we use regularly in conversation.
When Belle and John were out for Vappu (also called May Day, which is roughly equivalent to Labour Day in North America), they couldn’t resist picking up a Stuart minion balloon and he has been keeping us company in the apartment ever since.
High school students in Finland each receive a white sailor-type hat (ylioppilaslakki) upon graduation. Generations of graduates keep their hats and proudly put them on at 6 pm on April 30th. It symbolizes academic achievement and the switch from winter to spring.
Current university students all wear mechanic-style overalls in a variety of colours (which reflect their department of study) and covered with hand-sewn patches.
We didn’t manage to get a great picture, but there are literally thousands of people walking around the city dressed like this (picture from here)—so imagine this picture multiply it by many thousands!
It’s very fun and festive and I’m so glad we were in Finland for this iconic event. You can spot the sea of white caps in this photo; engineering/technology students are identified by a large tassel dangling from their hats (teekkari).
BELLE MADE COOKIES
She is SUCH a good baker. After over a month without home baking, she’d had enough and we bought the necessary supplies in Helsinki.
The measurements, the ingredients, and the ovens are all different and yet she managed to create cookie magic. They were so good!
WALES PLANNING
After booking dozens (and dozens) of things over the last few months: hotels, apartments, flights, trains, ferries, museum visits… for some reason, getting things sorted for the final leg of our European trip felt particularly daunting. Decision fatigue? The need to learn yet another system (and download yet another public transport app)?
It took Rachel coaching me over the phone and doing all but holding my literal hand to get it done, but our train from London to Wales IS BOOKED.
Also, Rachel has sent me the most wonderful itinerary for our time in Wales. Bus schedules! Entry fees! The distance from where we’re staying! Basically, she has prepared everything I want in a schedule without me having to lift a finger.
What I’m most excited for is meeting Rachel and the rest of her family. I can’t wait to hang out and I’m pretty sure Belle is going to fall HARD for toddler twins 🙂
CITIZENSHIP PROGRESS
We have been limping along with the process of getting both kids Portuguese citizenship. It’s a handy thing for them to have available as they enter adulthood. (For example, they could access FREE university tuition in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Germany, etc…)
When we had looked into doing things back in Canada it was going to require a long drive (like 24 hours round trip + hotel stays). John wisely looked into a Portuguese Embassy here in Helsinki and we went there this week.
There were a few hiccups, but things are coming together. While at the Portuguese Embassy we learned we needed one final document from Canadian officials. Back home in Canada this had the potential to require some quasi-complicated logistics.
In Helsinki, I walked about 200 m from the Portuguese Embassy to the Canadian Embassy. Even though I didn’t have an appointment (usually required), they buzzed me up and prepared the paperwork we needed right then and there. Woot, woot!
It was also an unexpected delight to see our beloved Canadian flag flying here in Finland.
BONUS HAPPY THINGS
- Sunshine! It makes such a difference.
- Everyone is healthy.
- Technology. What a joy to be able to stream our church service from home from the comfort of our apartment in ________ (fill in the blank lately)!
- Jazz Morning Vibes with Snoopy YouTube playlists that randomly showed up in my feed and have been my go-to background noise lately.
Okay. That’s a wrap on Happy Things for now.
Happy Weekending!
Your turn.
- Happy Things from your week?
- Do you have dual-citizenship?
- Favourite type of cookie? Mine is probably chewy ginger cookies, but a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie is hard to beat (and impossible for me to resist).
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