We only had a couple of days to spend in Helsinki, so most of our time there was just snapshots of the city.

I would say that there are other cities we’ve enjoyed more, but Helsinki is definitely a nice place.

Some of the highlights from our time include the food we ate.

All over Finland, I have found the salmon to be absolutely amazing, and pretty much unlike any salmon I’ve ever had anywhere else. This is probably due to both the Finnish having a culture and long history of preparing salmon, and also from the simple fact that it’s likely being served the same day it’s caught (or at least being served without any freezing), which always makes a big difference when it comes to fish.

I also had the very best cup of hot chocolate I’ve ever had, which was at a bar/café/restaurant. The restaurant was called Iguana, but the hot chocolate was ordered at the café next door, and (unfortunately) I don’t remember the name of it…(But Carrie does – it was Robert’s Coffee.) But it’s next door to Iguana, and across from Vapiano (Helsinki’s not that big).

I’m not sure how they made that hot chocolate, but I wish I knew.

One other highlight from Helsinki was getting to spend some time catching up with my friend Annika. I met Annika 10 years ago when I was an exchange student in Germany. She and her husband took their lunch hour to come and take us out to lunch. It was really nice to see them… a great couple that we’d love to spend more time with if they didn’t live halfway across the world.

I’ll let Carrie talk about the geographical highlights. Overall, I enjoyed our couple of days in the city of Helsinki.