A day off…..

How do you spend a day in Finland when you are not working, “a day off”?

Go fishing on a lake, paddling a canoe, doing some shopping at Prisma’s, at the local S-Market, buy gardening stuff at K-Rautta.

So this day off it should be something else … I went by train from Järvenpää to Helsinki.

At arrival I immediately regretted the decision to visit Helsinki on a hot summer day (yes, the weather was good!), when I left the train it was like arriving at the railway station in Amsterdam.

I regularly visit Finland for meeting my partner’s family – outside the summer season – and then of course there is tourism with the Fin’s but now, … only tourists you could see, hear and smell.

But soon… I remembered the beautiful seashore I visited once as I visited the isle of Suomenlinna. So after a great cappuccino at Roberts Coffee in the old wooden market hall I took a short cut through the park Kaivopuisto towards the waterfront at the Baltic Sea.

There is the terrace of Café Ursula – one of the remainders from the Olypics in 1952 – a wonderful place to stay, a breeze of the wind, the view at the archipelago, boats coming along, the ferries – the Vikingline ferry from Stockholm passed by – that is really relaxing!

Sitting here, only thinking about the new pictures, images and feelings to translate in my textiles or to paint or just drawing.

The day ended with a great dinner at a (me well-known place) The Hardrock Café Helsinki.

With a lot of new ideas and energy I arrived late at night back at Hauho, curious how to start the next day.