Wirklich kaum zu glauben, dass heute tatsächlich die letzte Arbeitswoche hier im hohen Norden begonnen hat - meiner Kollegin ging's ebenso.

Wie ein anderer Kollege heute meinte: November ist der richtige Zeitpunkt, um die unwirtliche Gegen hier zu verlassen.

Und tatsächlich am Freitag war der erste Tag, an dem's fast von morgens bis abends durchregnete, am samstagabends dann der erste Nebel, der London Konkurrenz machen hätten könnte.

Und dunkel wird's, wenn's grad kein schöner Tag ist, tatsächlich jetzt schon sehr früh.

Wirklich DIE Jahreszeit für Sauna, heiße Schokolade und ein feines Buch - oder ein Riesenpulla im Café Esplanadi.

Jetzt sind sie also beinah um, die 14 Wochen. In einer Woche ist es tatsächlich so weit und ich werde meinem dieswöchigen Besuch aus der Heimat in eben diese folgen.

Davor gab's aber noch einen Stadtrundgang mit den Mädels, Imbiss bei Stockmann und danach ein Besuch im Nationalmuseum.

Today we set over to the other side of the Baltic See - let's see what we'll see over there.

... which at this time of the year is not to difficult to get.

Today has been the darkest and wettest day throughout my whole stay. The sun hasn't really come out and it seemed to rain forever.
Which makes quite a difference. Because despite the changeover to winter time last weekend, it's not been to bad this week. Wednesday was fine: It rained a bit in the morning, but the sun cam out later on and we had a nice walk under blue sky down to Kamppi.

Apparently November is the worst month: The lovely brightly coloured leaves from the October trees have already gone and the December Christmas magic and pikku joulou has not yet set in.

Solution? Cinema & sauna!

So the people here don't rent, they buy flats and houses. And apparently one is expected to do so at a certain age. A colleague said that the renting market was not really developed over here.
Public housing is looked down upon.

Interesting. How different. Back home everyone seems to be quite eager to be getting into a Gemeindebau ;-)

An afternoon & evening out with colleagues. After a mini Waterloo at Kamppi's bowling place - well, actually I came in first from the back end - we hat a nice dinner at Pure Bistrot - a fairly new place at the Kauppatori.

Their website is truly a bit gross, but the food was really nice: smashed pumpkins, lamb & couscous, toffee, lingon berry and caramelized topping.

... or timewarp at the Kaurismäki bar.

Only now, that my Northern European Exposure is slowly coming to it's end, I'm starting to discover the really cool places to hang out in H'ki.

Ok, I should have probably studied the Lonely Planet more thoroughly, but hey, you don't want to hang out all by yourself, do you?

I also had a glimps at the Orion (Film) Theater.

And I still have to check out the smoke sauna - an urban culture that's almost vanished, the karaoke bar, the bars in Kallio, and ...

... well, I guess I've got to come back.

In Norway, I've discoverd has a solid version of "dulce de leche": caramelized brown goat cheese and sweet flat bread called lefse. and smoked rendeer.

But look for yourselves: