Helsinki and Stockholm

I don’t have much time, but I thought I’d mention Helsinki and Stockholm briefly. We hit these cities right after Iceland, spending two days in each. We had a good time, but the most notable experience by far was the beer.

We happened to be in Helsinki during the annual “Great Beers. Small Breweries” festival. We tried a number of Finnish, Swedish and Estonian beers at our Finish friends recommendations. Notable among our sampling was the “sahti,” an ancient style of beer dating back to the year 500. It’s fermented from wild yeast and tends to be sweeter with tasting notes of cloves and banana.

Here is a list of the beers (and the breweries) we tried at the festival:

• Severin Extra IPA – Panimoravintola Plevna
• Arde’s Legbuster (Barley Wine) – Saimaan Juomatehdas
• Lammin Sahti – Lammin Sahti
• Pihtla olut (Sahti) – Taako Viron Saarenmaalta
• Mufloni CCCCC IPA – Panimoravintola Beer Hunters
• Mufloni Cornes a Pois (Belgian) – Panimoravintola Beer Hunters
• Prykmestar SavuKataja – Vakka-Suomen Panimo
• Prykmestar LuomuPils – Vakka-Suomen Panimo
• Prykmestar Double IPA – Vakka-Suomen Panimo
• HunajaBock (Honeybock) – Vakka-Suomen Panimo

In Stockholm we visited Akkurat at the recommendation of cicerone Tom Gustafson. Akkurat is the top Lambic bar in the world, with a massive cellar and an unbeatable selection. It took us a few rounds to befriend the bartender, but after that, he introduced us to some incredible beers.

Here is what we drank at Akkurat:

• De Ranke Saison
• Westemalle Dubbel
• Veckans Cantillonn
• Dragets Kanal Double IPA
• GrandCru Rodenbach
• Oppigards Single Hop Pale Ale
• Oppigards India Tribute IPA
• Erdinger Wheat

Home again Home again…. sorta.

We are back in Prague and stuffed full of yummy summer salads and produce. Prague is the closest thing we have to home right now and there are many things about it that feel homey, but I am itching to be settled.  As we were flying home from Stockholm, I realized the next time we are on a plane it will be to South Korea, it will be going “home.”  Will South Korea ever feel like home?  Right now I am missing summer evenings on the porch, yelling “KITTIES” at dinner, the O School craziness, cooking in my kitchen, and Monday music in the park.  It feels like now that the major portions of our travels are over, and we should be going home. Home is Chicago, home is e-block, home is the hood.  But, I need to get used to the idea of home away from home, which will be Korea.

Ok, enough of the current thought process; lets talk about our travels.  As far as I am concerned our itinerary was perfect.  Ireland was full of family, friends, and warm welcoming Irish culture.  Iceland was the earth in its rawest, purest form.  Finland was an experience. Here is our conversation when we got of the plane:

Me: “So, were in Finland! … Do you know anything about Finland?”
Davo: “Nope!”
Me: “Neither do I.”
Davo: “Sweet so, where are we staying?”
Me: “I dunno!”

In Finland we went to a “Great Beers, Small Breweries” festival.  We were really excited about it, and then we realized that we knew nothing about the beers or brewers there, and the brochure was in Finish which meant… we had to make friends.  Davo saw a man swirl his beer around and then take a huge whiff, and he decided those were the people we should make friends with.  I agreed.  We made great friends that night, drank great beer, talked about Finish culture and learned all about “Lapland” (that is where Santa really lives apparently) and how people think about things in Finland.  It was perfect.  We ate fresh produce from the market, ate Salmon, and explored the city and culture that we knew nothing about.  Turns out Finland is pretty cool, and even though Davo nicknamed Helsinki “Hell-stinky,” it was not stinky or hellish. It was pretty fun to explore a place that you know nothing about and did not research before.  We did not take too many pictures in Helsinki… oops.  And we forgot to bring our camera to the beer fest 😦

Salmon salad made with ingredients from the fresh market. At this point I was pining away for fresh produce and we got it here!

A church in Helsinki that is apparently the symbol of the city.

Stockholm was surprisingly very different than Helsinki.  In fact, I would say that you would have no clue that they were so closely linked historically unless someone told you.  The city was much larger and situated on a cluster of islands so, it is very watery.  We drank at Akkurat which was apparently beer heaven (Davo can tell you more about that because it is more his thing), walked a lot, took a boat ride to an Island, ate Swedish ice-cream and basically chilled.  We had traveled at this point so we took it easy and partied hardy at night 🙂

We went on a boat to a island just outside the city. We got to see the city from the water and eat ice cream. Davo got cardamon flavored ice cream… yum.

I realize that this post is getting long so I am going to save Iceland for later this week when I am inspired.  But here are some good ones in the mean time… Also we will get some pictures of Ireland up later.

Sunset at 1am in the Westfjords.

Our waterfall that we played in while hiking. We saw only two people while hiking near here for about 4 hours. Life was rough…

Svartifoss… one of the many breathtaking waterfalls… we had to share this one with others though

Hello glacier and very blue ice.

We almost ran out of gas here… that might have been an issue. We called the parts that looked like this “the moon.”

Reykvavik might have been a little bit artsy. We will post more about this 🙂

Looking forward to talking more about Iceland because it honestly might be the coolest place I have ever been.  Kolkata, India has my heart and always will be my favorite place on earth but I think Iceland takes the cake in coolness points. Ta-ta for now!