Busy busy

We were in Helsinki last week on a "look-see find ourselves a house" type trip. This was my first visit to Helsinki and I was quite impressed, quite a majestic city in parts, with some interesting 1920's and 1930s architecture and lots of design type things going on. There were parts that looked a bit "eastern block" - I kind of expected to see a queue for bread in places, but they were the minority. The majority seemed to be bustling and cosmopolitain - I think we'll be fine living there. We mostly wandered around different parts of the city and didn't really do that much tourist-type stuff, except for a boat ride.

We found some interesting shops and markets: an open market from where the boat left, with fruit, veg, mushrooms, fish and tourist tatt; a couple of covered markets; loads of interesting looking and well stocked ethnic shops.

There were also loads of pubs selling a pretty wide variety of, mostly European, beers (Finnish, Belgium, Real Ale [Hoorah!] etc). I found one wool shop, which looked pretty good, and there were lots of fabric shops - so I think I'll be able to get my crafting fix and keep my ikke ferdig list well stocked!

We also found a house - it's about half way between the centre and David's work. Three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, small garden and (of course, being Finland) a sauna.