The walk to the grocery store turned out to be much longer than expected. We deserved a treat😉 We stopped at City Market Square. Adam had vanilla and I had mint chocolate- mmmmm!  

  

 

We decided it was time to get out of the apartment for a little while, so we headed to the grocery store. We packed a lunch for the road and headed out. We stopped at a lovely park on a lake on the way. We had smoked white fish with butter and cucumber on crusty baguettes, cucumber slices, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and crunchy chips. All washed down with a wonderful Finnish beer, Karhu (bear in Finnish). What a nice picnic!   

  

Simple and tasty.  

 

Good morning! It’s sunny and warm here in Vaasa, 60*F ☺️ What a perfect day for breakfast on the terrace… Birds singing, sun warming, loveliness! 

I had an apple, strawberries, lingonberry rye bread with butter, and great coffee. All good, but I especially enjoyed the sweet/savory lingonberry rye bread. It has a dense crumb yet it’s moist, tender, and flavorful. I hope I can figure out a way to bring a few loaves home!  

      

 

Our friendly exchange partners, Yvonne and Björn picked us up at the Vaasa train station. After a quick drive, we arrived at their comfortable and stylish home. They showed us around a bit then served the most amazing Finnish meal. We had cheese, tomatoes grown in Yvonne’s home village, smoked reindeer, moose sausage, smoked white fish, smoked fish spread, butter, fresh rye bread, strawberries, and vanilla-raspberry crumbles. All served with champagne! Everything was delicious, fresh, local, and served with love. 

After dinner we went to the local brewery, Bocks. It is AWESOME! It was so cool I forgot to take pictures 😊 Don’t worry, we will be going back… Regularly. Many thanks to Yvonne and Björn for such a warm welcome to their lovely home! 

   
 

P.S. The picture above was taken just five minutes from our new home, at 1:30 am… That’s right, the Finnish sun never really sets in summer!!! Gulf of Bohemia/Baltic Sea. 

This morning we enjoyed a piano concert at Temppeliaukio Kirkko (Rock Church) then we went to Kiasma Museum of Modern Art… We’re so cultured😉

 

 
Now we’re headed to Vaasa! We had a quick lunch on the go- can’t miss our train! More continental breakfast fare: cheese sandwich, cucumbers, and red bell peppers. We stopped by a market and grabbed chips and a delicious soda, Pommac. It tastes like mildly sweet, grape, apple, pear soda. Yum!  

       

Not good. Not bad. Just edible. The watermelon was the best thing on the plate.  The eggs had weird crunchy bits in them- bits of dehydrated egg that didn’t get hydrated? The mini frankfurters weren’t bad, but the meatballs were terrible. The weird bread thing was a crispy bread wrapped around gooey rice… Strange. But hey, it was all free and I fixed another lunch with the other things on offer. I’m grateful. 😉

 

Another Helsinki brewery! We had delightful American Pale Ale style beers, a potato wedge basket with chorizo and bratwurst sausages, and an elk burger! The burger was really good- like a gamey Whopper😁 

  

  

 

Brew trail brewery number two- Teerenpeli. I had the lingonberry cider and Adam had the IPA. Both were excellent.  

 

We were walking around Helsinki and we happened upon a wonderful brew pub! We shared a beer flight and a pretzel with obatzda cheese spread. Yum!!!