Teitur

Not to imply anything untoward about the good inhabitants of the neighborhood (such as myself) I am still quite sure that this neighborhood has the highest number of hairdressers and hospitals per capita in Finland :D

It also has quite a high ratio of parks and seaside vs. concrete, but this is countered a bit by a couple of quite large streets which run through it. This means though that it is excellently connected to the rest of the city by bus and tram apart from being in walking distance of the city center. Apartments are quite expensive however as can be expected.

The neighborhood is mostly residential but most corners and larger streets have cafés, restaurants and local pubs, small stores and smaller services (such as hairdressers) scattered around them. It has a couple of cultural centers, a library, two quite large marinas and a full range of sports facilities -including two arenas, many fields, an Ice hockey stadium, facilities for watersports, indoors halls, gyms and two swimming pools! It is also home to the Finnish National Opera.

There are two hotels at the edge of the neighborhood, The Scandic Continental and The Crowne Plaza. There is also a sportshostel at the Olympic Stadium.

As can be seen on this map of the Design District project of Helsinki, most of the project partners are in Punavuori. These include not only the Design Museum and the Design Forum, both at the edges of the neighborhood, but also a large number of shops and galleries full of the best Finnish and international design as well as interestingly designed hipster’s bars and trendy restaurants -including a poppy one Michelin star restaurant. Other attractions include for example a very good wine bar and Helsinki’s biggest gay bar.

Many of the streets still have quite a “backstreet” feel to them so you’ll also find sex-shops and champagne clubs. This jostles nicely with all the antique shops also in the area :D

Though you can get quite a good view from the Linnanmaki Amusement Park I’d say that the Olympic Tower provides the best panorama view of Helsinki. The view over the central bay and it’s villas is really quite nice.

A ride up costs some 2 euros. The tower doesn’t accommodate large groups though. So if traveling with a large group I’d suggest breaking it into smaller groups of up to 15-20 people.

The stadium it self has a cafeteria style “café” and a hostel. It’s halls are also used for a number of activities ranging from popular sports to dance and martial arts classes.

Helsinki is quite a green city with many parks and among it’s most popular ones is the Kaivopuisto around Ullanlinna hill (Ullanlinnanmäki). It is an old park, with the restaurant and nightclub Kaivohuone dating to 1830 and the small observatory on top of the hill to 1926. It is popular all year round with picnics and park-life in summer and sleighing and snow fights in winter. The height of Kaivopuisto’s popularity is still on the students day celebrations of Vappu on May the first. The whole park (of several hectares) will then become filled with the student’s picnics and flow with sparkling wine. During the summer there are also always at least several concerts and other events in the park.

The small neighborhood named after the park mostly consists of the old villas of the Russian nobility of the 1800’s. Many of these are now the residences of foreign ambassadors to Finland. It was also here that the Finnish statesman and war hero C. G. Mannerheim lived and his residence now houses The Mannerheim Museum

The neighborhood is also home to the city’s catholic cathedral, St. Henry’s Cathedral. The park and neighborhood belong to Ullanlinna district in southern Helsinki along with Eira, Kaartinkaupunki, Punavuori, Munkkisaari, the islands and Ullanlinna proper and as Kaivopuisto neighborhood is quite small many think it is, or think of it as, a part of Ullanlinna.

This used to be THE market square in Helsinki and like many other such squares around the world still suffers from a lack of a better name than that. These days of course it isn’t the only one in town any more nor is it helpful in this globalized world to talk in such unspecific terms but to many this is still “the” market square in town and holds a special place in their hearts. My siblings for example talk with much love of the real-cream ice-cream they used to sell here long after they’d stopped selling it in other places in Finland (though sadly they seem to have stopped selling it now) and for all who consider Suomenlinna as home this is of course your doorstep as the ferry there leaves from here.

Basically I’m not sure this is worth your time.. It’s a rather strange vax museum presenting something sellable mainly.. I found it interesting but nothing comparable to the real museums such as the National Museum, The (National) Culture House, the local museums, such as Árbæjarsafn, Settlement Exhibition or Glaumbær or the archeological sites / archeological reconstructions such as Stöng or Eiríksstaðir...

Like most places on the northern hemisphere Iceland is most visited in late summer when it is the warmest. Apart from the relatively good weather visiting during the summer has a few other advantages such as that outdoors museums (such as Árbæjarsafn), the summer hotels (i.e. Edda Hotels) and the central highland will be open. Due to how close Iceland is to the arctic circle you’ll also have an endless amount of daylight to do your exploring in. ^{1^}

The closeness to the arctic circle also makes the northern lights quite common in Iceland. These you can theoretically see anywhere, the city included, but your chances will be much higher on clear and frosty winter nights, far away from the city’s light pollution. A new and rather pretty source of this light pollution, Yoko Ono’s Peace Tower, can however be seen in the city instead during winter (and on a few other occasions).

The arctic circle does not intersect Iceland proper though. It only intersects the island of Grímsey just north of Iceland. Getting there is relatively painless though, as a ferry goes there every other day from Dalvík just north of Akureyri, “Iceland’s capital of the north”.

Some specific festivities could also be of interest: On the 17th of June Iceland celebrates it’s Independence day, with family oriented festivites all around the country and as with other holidays; downtown Reykjavík becoming totally swamped by people. Those other holidays include amongst others Gay Pride, Women’s Day, May Day, and the excellent Reykjavík Culture Night. In spring there is another excellent festival; the Reykjavík Arts Festival and in winter there are the Airwaves, Jazz, RIFF festivals amongst others. The rather extravagant new-years celebrations are also certainly worth seeing ;-)

The only time which I really can’t recommend for a visit is the first weekend of August. This is a three day weekend called “merchants weekend” or “verslunarmannahelgi” set up by merchants and the service industry as their own “May Day”. All roads, hostels and parking places will fill up on this national exodus towards somewhere unembarrassing to get stone drunk and on the other hand away from the drunks..!

1 – Because of this seasonal difference there is no summer and winter time in Iceland and Iceland is in fact always on GMT (Universal Standard) though we’re actually one belt west. Noon and midnight are therefore at 1 o’ clock in most parts of the country and not at 12. The famous midnight sun is therefore the twilight at one^

The newly renovated National Museum of Iceland is a museum of the highest quality. The permanent exhibition The Making of a Nation is presented in very accessible, interesting and involving way making use of both good design and varied media.

In addition to the permanent exhibition there are also one to three other exhibitions in the house. One will be on the ground level in a special exhibition space accessible freely and separately from the main exhibition. Here one often finds exhibitions from the National Photography Museum, a sub-museum of the National Museum. On the 2nd floor, halfway through the permanent exhibition there is also another gallery. That one usually hosts exhibitions of items from the National Museum’s main collection. At that point one will also find an exhibition of new items, a hands on area for kids and a rest area including a reading room.

At the ground level you’ll also find the nice museum store, with a wide range of Icelandic design with connections to Iceland and Icelandic heritage.

Last but not least the Kaffitár Café there is, like other Kaffitár cafés, a top class café!

The Museum is situated at the edge of both 101 and the University complex

Though most of what English-speakers call Danish pastry is in fact German, the Danish do have an excellent pastry and bread-making tradition.

One specialty is the open sandwich or smørrebrød, which is what Jómfrúin specializes in. When served at a sandwich-bar such a dish is usually a whole meal often having whole pieces of fish or meat on top of the bread. Others may have several slices of salmon, roast beef, eggs and/or different filling salads with potatoes, beans and mayonnaise. Sometimes the toppings are served to the side as well.

This food is usually really good and it certainly is at Jómfrúin.

Jómfrúin also serves hot dishes during lunchtime including a number of good fresh fishdishes, meatballs, hash and eggs, beefsteak and an excellent steak roast :-)

And all Danish food is of course best with some good cold beer!

In summer the restaurant also opens up to the nice paved square behind the building and on Saturdays afternoons in summer (from 15-17 hours) they hold small (free) jazz concerts there for diners :-)

After becoming enamored with Italian café culture founders Guðný Guðjónsdóttir og Guðmundur Baldvinsson founded Mokka in 1958. With it’s founding it became the first café in Iceland to introduce the new Italian coffee-making, where each cup is prepared separately with the use of an espresso machine (and not for example in a _Moka Express _ coffe-pot)

Though I do not know whether the café uses Mocha Arabica beans, I do know that it makes both the best chocolate and Swiss Mocha in town and some really excellent waffles!

It also has exhibitions on it’s walls and a cozy though sometimes crowded atmosphere. In summer a table or two will also be set out onto the street.

^{Súfistinn and Kaffitár chocolate and mocha preparations usually match the high standard set by Mokka. Others are usually not comparable.}