Day-Tripping to Porvoo.

Okay, today we have another post in the ‘Porvoo’ saga. If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you probably know that I’m kinda pathetically obsessed with this small town near Helsinki. I should probably have a category of its own dedicated to Porvoo here in my blog…

Anyway, this post is meant for those who are interested in taking a day-trip to Porvoo from Helsinki. I definitely recommend doing that since it’s quick, easy and pretty cheap (even in the Finnish scale) way of exploring Finland a bit further from the capital city.

The first two pictures are from the Kamppi bus terminal for long-distance trips. You can get there by walking from Helsinki Railway Station or taking the metro and exiting in ‘Kamppi/Kampen’. It’s also worth mentioning that they have another terminal for the short-distance buses so make sure you’re going into the terminal that’s located one floor down the first floor (escalators on the opposite side of the metro ones). If you’re not sure, just follow the signs or ask people.

For this trip I took OnniBus for six euros all together (so three euros per trip) but the prices can really vary according to the date and the time of the day. You can check the timetables through here!

The ride takes about an hour and you will end up in the local bus terminal which is in the centre of the town and only a short walk away from the famous Porvoo Old Town.

If turn left, you will end up in the cute little harbour. The Old Town is located on the right side with the gorgeous old Cathedral that is definitely worth visiting!

Above is one of the street views that opens up when you enter the Old Town! More adventures coming up tomorrow when I’m diving deep into the specifics…

Yours,

Miah

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Kos S.O.S.

Hello to every beautiful rainbow soul out there!

When this post becomes public, I have already dived deep into the heat of summer in Greece.

Knowing that this might sound like ‘first world problems’ but I still just have to post this picture of my first desperate attempt in packing a weeks forth of skimpy (but fitting) clothes for the trip! I’m no definite expert on this, but I’d still advise you to start packing early. That way you can keep adding and removing things based on your instincts, speculations and the changes in the weather forecast. (Unless you’re planning an ex tempore experience, of course. In that case, just throw everything into the luggage and GO!)

And talking about the weather. Oh shit – take a look at this forecast my friend sent me!

Carve this into my tomb stone.

Okay, I’m not going to complain about the free tickets I was gifted to a place some people would call ‘paradise’. I’m only going to make a small note here that for a Northern girl like me… Anything over +25 degrees celcius sounds like a bad, bad idea. Also, this ain’t a blog about my looks but in case you are interested, I am naturally pale AF. So I don’t know what kind of safety measures I will have to take into account without burning my butt off during that week.

This is where I’m going!

Based on this map of the island, I would be interested in all of the archaeological and historical sites in Kos. I’m just afraid I have to get the biggest umbrella to protect myself against the evil sun rays.

If you have any tips or suggestions of what to do, where to go plus more – now is the time to get those tips out here! I will be reading my comments though unfortunately the pics and stories will be published at least a couple of days after my return in Helsinki.

Yours,

Miah

Lenin of Vyborg.

Hi guys!

Today I am here with a short post about my relatively short trip to one of the neighbouring Russian cities close to Finland, Vyborg.

Unfortunately, at this trip I wasn’t able to explore and photograph the city for you guys but I did manage to take a couple of pics of the Lenin statue, built in 1957, that is located in the main square of Vyborg called ‘the Red Square’. Previously the same place was known as Punaisenlähteentori in Finnish when the town actually was a part of our country before the wars that took place in the 1940’s. (Up to this day some old people choose to believe that Vyborg or Viipuri in Finnish should ‘belong’ to us, but that is a story about ignorance to be saved for another time.)

If you thought a historical monument like this could only be found in a capital city like Moscow, you’re wrong. What I’ve learned about the history of Soviet Union, is that the party liked to implant symbols of the communist power regime basically in every Soviet city (or town) despite of the location. It could be statues or names of the streets but up to this day many Russian towns still have their own Lenins. I mean, if modern day Russia is a HUGE country, Soviet Union was even bigger with multiple ‘member states’ composing it. Of course you had to remind the people about the story of the one great nation, right?

Mister Lenin-the-Statue was undergoing a series of restorations around him. Apparently the reddish building you can see behind the statue represents the style of ‘art nouveau’; designed by Finnish architect Jalmari Arvi Lankinen in 1929.

I just have to end this post with a pic of a random sweet Russian old lady running errands on a ordinary weekday in Russia. Despite of all the cultural differences, people are still pretty much the same everywhere you go…

Yours,

Miah