We entered Finland and still felt that pleasant familiarity with the Nordic (no longer technically Scandinavian) architecture, though it was starting to transition to a different style from what we had been accustomed.
Helsinki also lived up to our expectations of modern Finnish quirky design and we found a free art gallery tucked away in gritty back street.
Though there was an overall Nordic feel to the city, we welcomed seeing Russian influences, both in modern art and older buildings.
Helsinki also lived up to our expectations of modern Finnish quirky design and we found a free art gallery tucked away in gritty back street.
Undeniably, the best thing about Helsinki was the overall feel of the city as a place to live. This was evident everyday we were there with a Cat Video Festival and a very well attended flea market organised through social media and completely free.
Later in our stay we helped a couple of people from the British Council erect a rollercoaster garden for an outdoor design exhibition (they kindly mentioned us on their website). The wooden planters were constructed but we had to piece them together, with a few held up over 4m in the air.
Though our stay in Finland was too short, it gave us the ideal transition between sadly departing Scandinavia but excitedly entering Russia.
Recipe - Gluten flour sausage (selten) by Pinja from Finland
(preheat oven to 150 C)
1. Start with 1 part water to 3 part gluten flour and put them in separate bowls; the water in one bowl (wet) and the flour in another (dry)
2. In the wet bowl add: boiling water with stock cubes, tabasco, tomato puree, liquid smoke or bbq sauce, soy sauce (you can play around with any of these flavourings, or any new ones)
3. In the dry bowl add: gluten flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder (optional to add chickpea flour for more 'crunch')
4. Mix the two bowls of ingredients together until it had a doughy consistency
5. Roll giant fat sausage in aluminium foil
6. Cook for 1.5 - 2 hrs in a 150 C oven.
You can then cut this giant sausage into slices, e.g. for sandwiches, pizza; or into chunks to then put in other dishes, e.g. stir fry, spaghetti bolognese.
