When Helsinki Freezes Over

After last year’s successful trip to the German Christmas markets, we decided to do it all over again, but in a new country – Finland!  We found an amazing deal to Helsinki through British Airways that we couldn’t pass up.  Karen and Laura, and our friends, Michelle and John, also came with us on our weekend getaway.

We all wore our Christmas sweaters.  Some were uglier than others... and David's infamous, fur-trimmed vest made its annual appearance!

The deal included roundtrip airfare and a two-night stay at Hotel Kamp in the heart of Helsinki.  After a late Friday night arrival (1 AM local time), we started off Saturday morning by walking a few short steps from the hotel to Senate Square to begin shopping at the city’s main Christmas market.

Helsinki Cathedral overlooking Senate Square

We had breakfast of glogi (Finnish mulled wine) and pastries like star cake and chocolate and raspberry swirled breads at one of the tents in the market. 

For a savory finish to our meal, David and I split a potato dog.  Oh my gravy.  This hot dog was the best of both worlds – a hot dog rolled in tater tots and deep fried, topped with creamy garlic mayo.  We loved every last bite.

To keep warm, we walked from the outdoor Christmas market to the indoor Hakaniemi Market Hall.  We knew it would be cold in Finland, but Saturday felt extra chilly in the low 20’s with a bit of wind, but no snow.  I don’t think we would’ve minded the cold as much if there had been some snow on the ground!

Hakaniemi Hall was a lot like Budapest’s Central Market, where vendors sell fresh produce, meats, and breads on the ground floor and souvenirs on the first floor above.  Laura purchased a pair of sheep skin insulators for her boots, which she highly recommended, as it felt like she was walking on carpet and they kept her feet extra warm.  Michelle, John, David, and I had our second breakfast of apple-filled donuts and coffee/tea.  Karen and Laura had salmon on toast and rice porridge.

Then we made our way past the botanical gardens, main train station, and outdoor ice rink, where Santa was teaching the younger children how to skate.  We stopped at Vltava, a Czech restaurant, for lunch.  David warmed up with a bowl of goulash and potato/bacon dumplings, while Laura, Karen, and I opted for the soup and local bread, and John had a platter of sausages with cabbage.  Michelle kept it healthy with a salmon salad.

We were stuffed!  So we continued walking west to the Rock Church, a modern Lutheran Church carved from rock with a copper dome.  We warmed up inside for a few minutes, and then went shopping.

David was on the lookout for a stein.  We did find a few nice ones outside Rock Church but the price tag on them was actually the price the souvenir store bought them at. When David found out the mark-up was 150%, he just couldn’t do it, and so he returned back to London empty-handed.

On the way back to the hotel for some naps before dinner, we stopped at Stockmann, the largest department store in Finland.  Stockmann had their own Christmas market outside the building, complete with a nativity scene, children visiting Santa, and fire jugglers.

Later that night, we tried to get reservations at Juuri for Finnish tapas (or sapas as they are called locally).  But we probably shouldn’t have waited until Saturday at 6:00 to try and get reservations at one of Helsinki’s most popular restaurants.  As you can guess, they were fully booked.  But it worked out perfectly for us, because the hotel recommended Savotta down the street instead.

That meal was probably the best part of the trip.  It was more of an experience than just dinner.  The restaurant is meant to look like a logger’s camp and all of the menus and tableware are made out of wood.  Our waitress was amazing and made some great recommendations.  She was really knowledgeable about all of the food and drinks. 

Enjoying glogi in logger’s tin mugs

We ordered the sampler platter to start, which came with all different kinds of fish, beet salad, reindeer tongue, bear salami, shaved pork, cheese, and karjalanpiirakka (rice-filled pastries).  The karjalanpiirakka was my favourite.  We had tried it earlier in the day at the market but it was served cold there.  At Savotta, it was served freshly-baked and warm. 

I couldn’t bring myself to try the reindeer tongue.  And I made David ask our waitress about the bear before anyone tried it.  She explained that there are only a few licenses given out each year in Finland to hunt bear.  So basically every man in each village goes after just one or two bears.  I felt bad for the brown bears, imagining a village full of drunken Finnish men chasing after one cornered bear.  So I couldn’t bring myself to eat the bear, either.  Everyone else really enjoyed it, though!

Karen and I ordered the lamb with potatoes and roasted vegetables.  It came out on an enormous wooden platter. 

Karen is probably thinking, “How the heck are we going to eat all of this?!”  John and David helped…

Michelle ordered fish, and Laura, John, and David all had the reindeer steak over barley with lingonberry gravy.  I wouldn’t try the tongue, but I did have a bite of reindeer steak.  And I must admit, that was the best dish of the night!  

Sorry Rudolph

To cap off the evening, we tried all three desserts along with the local vodka, brandy, and moonshine. 

When David asked, “So what do you mean by moonshine?” our waitress replied, “Oh, it’s really moonshine.”  David and John were brave enough to try it, and they didn’t go blind – yay!

On Sunday, we woke up to a winter wonderland.  It had snowed overnight!  David called it a Christmas miracle!

We had breakfast at Karl Fazer’s, a café run by the Finnish candy-maker.  

The chocolate nativity at Karl Fazer Cafe

So basically we had sweets for breakfast.  David and I shared the jelly-filled donut, buttered bun, raspberry strudel, and apple pie covered in meringue.  (I don’t know how we do it, either.  But hey, it’s the holidays.  Our stomachs expanded quite a bit in Texas, so they could somehow fit in all of that rich food!)

After breakfast, we walked along the snow-covered Esplanade to the harbour to view Uspenski Cathedral.  

This turtle does not look amused to have me on its back.  Or maybe it's just cold because it lives next to the Baltic Sea and wishes it was in the Maldives, instead. ;)

The cathedral is a 19th century Orthodox church that overlooks the city.

From there, we did our final souvenir shopping.  We didn’t come back to the UK with quite as many Christmas trinkets as last year, but we love our new Santa gnome door-stopper, gingerbread men hanging with care, and Viking ornament. 

This is our final blog of 2013, so before I Finnish (I couldn’t resist), David and I would like to wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Texas Trifecta

It had been three years since David and I last visited the Lone Star State together.  That’s too long!  So we were really excited to make a trip to Houston for Thanksgiving, then continue onto San Antonio for David’s grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary, and then work from our Austin offices for the last leg of our trip.

We flew into Houston the day before Thanksgiving with Laura.  We drove straight to the Woodlands to Larry’s house to meet up with Jeff, Amy, and Ross.  Larry’s girlfriend, Connie, also spent the Thanksgiving week with us.  And we got to see Granna and her husband, Robert, for the first time since our wedding five years ago!  They drove in from Amarillo to spend the holiday with her children and grandchildren.

After our reunion, our first food stop of the trip was Chuey’s for some jalapeno ranch and ‘Big As Your Face’ burritos!  Since we arrived before seven, we got to take advantage of the free nacho bar.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget the little things like unlimited chips and salsa / queso.  That is impossible to find in London.

Later that evening, David and I drove over to Katie and Dave’s new house.  It was new for us because we’d never been there, but they’ve lived in the house for about two years now.  The house is gorgeous, and the best part is they are building a custom-made pool in the backyard with a brand new outdoor grill station.  I can’t wait to spend our summer weekends lounging on the tanning shelf with my girlfriends while the guys grill up burgers and hot dogs and pizza for us!

Thursday was Turkey day, and we had a full house.  Denise and Lindsay came over from Kingwood with their two boys, and Connie’s daughter also stopped by with her husband and son.  We had a feast of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberries, corn casserole, stuffing, green bean casserole, cheesy rice with broccoli, and rolls.  For dessert, we had six different pies to choose from – pumpkin, cherry, pecan, chocolate mousse, key lime, and butterscotch.  I split a chocolate mousse and key lime with David and Jeff, and had a slice of butterscotch to myself. 

Ladies, this is what happens when you send your husband to the store for wine on Thanksgiving.  He comes back with one bottle, and before you can yell at him for grabbing just one bottle for 17 people, he pulls out the largest bottle of wine you've ever seen in your life.  

Denise found this 'House Divided' sign for the game on Thanksgiving.

Larry with the kids.

After watching the Macy’s parade and Texas smoke Texas Tech, the kids went for a dip in the hot tub.  I still wanted to try some pecan pie and as it was hours later, I thought it was acceptable to have a slice… in the hot tub.  But hot tubs and pie do not mix.  I definitely felt a little queasy later that night.

On Friday we had breakfast tacos and then watched Trapped in Paradise, a Nicolas Cage Christmas film I had never heard of, before saying goodbye to Larry and driving about four hours to San Antonio.  I had a car full of boys – David, Jeff, and Ross – and we stayed entertained by playing the alphabet game and stopping at DQ for some soft serve.

Saturday was Mama and Dada’s 60th wedding anniversary and everyone came into San Antonio to celebrate.

We started out the day at Lulu’s, a diner in downtown SA where Adam Richman from Man v Food took on the 3lb. cinnamon roll and gigantic chicken-fried steak covered in queso.  Even though I’d conquered a Man v Food challenge in the past, I knew this would be too much for me, so we split the cinnamon roll nine ways with our group.  And even then, we had leftovers to bring back and share with the rest of the family!

While we were taking this picture, Karen was saying, "Hurry!  This thing is really heavy!!"  And notice how we didn't only order the cinnamon roll, but Karen's got fried okra on her plate and I have a breakfast taco.  We needed some saltiness to balance out all of the sweetness...

And you would think a giant anything wouldn’t taste as good as normal-sized, but actually the cinnamon roll was delicious!  Lulu’s begins making them from scratch at 5:00 every morning and they are done rising and baking by 8:00.  Right before being served, the cinnamon rolls are heated up and drenched in frosting.  There was no lack of frosting on these bad boys.  And the best part – 3lbs. of tasty cinnamon roll only set us back $9! 

Worth every penny!

Before going shopping for even more American food and Xmas presents to bring back to London, we stopped by Anna and Mauricio’s house for a visit.  Meike and Felipe were there as well with their new baby, Max.  What a cutie!  I can’t believe that my friends are moms now, and Anna is about to have a little girl!  But I’m not the only one that thinks it’s weird… they do, too!  It was so nice to see the nursery and the baby.  Valentina even kicked for David and me!

I love that V is going to be born just a few months after Max so they can be best friends just like us!

On Saturday night, the anniversary party for Mama and Dada was held at their favourite local Tex-Mex restaurant.  There were 37 of us there to celebrate – four children, fifteen grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren (plus spouses)!

Amazingly, between three dozen people, we couldn't find a decent camera to take a pic (David and I were kicking ourselves for leaving ours back in London).

On Sunday morning, we made our way to Austin, the final city in our Texas trifecta, and had breakfast at Kerbey Lane with Terri and her boyfriend.  S’mores pancakes?  Yes, please.

Once David and I moved out of Austin, almost all of our siblings decided to move into Austin.  Elizabeth, Jeff, Amy, and Ross moved there to attend UT.  Amy has since graduated and now works for the Central TX Food Bank.  Elizabeth is in her first semester, while Jeff and Ross have just a couple years left.

On Saturday, Ross and Amy invited us to their apartment to watch the Texas / Baylor game and exchange Xmas presents.  Ross dressed up as Santa, and with the mini-tree and roaring TV fireplace, it was a cosy afternoon.  Somehow, we did feel warmer with the 'fireplace' on in the background.

It was so nice to just be able to call up my sister to hang out.  We treated her and Jeff to Player’s on Sunday night, our favourite burger spot near campus.  We also got to see Elizabeth’s dorm room in Dobie – which was also my first dorm.  I felt so old when we walked in and Elizabeth introduced us to her RA.  I told her, “I used to live here, too!”  And the RA said, “Oh yeah?  What year?”  “Umm…. it was a decade ago.”  But the place hasn’t changed much in 10 years.  There are still just two elevators for 20+ floors and thousands of students, and large closets but small bathrooms. 

Throughout the week, we ate our way through Austin and caught up with colleagues at work.  I was finally able to meet the local Services Finance team after only ever talking to them on the phone.  David gave me a tour of Volusion’s new office space, which was really modern and fun.  And we caught up with all of our old friends.

Saturday morning, we had a White Elephant Gift Exchange with our old Sunday School class.  While we were shopping on the drag with Elizabeth earlier in the week, we found this amazing pint glass at Urban Outfitters and I knew we needed it for our gift exchange, especially since it was with our Christian Sunday School class.  

David was hesitant, but I told him that even though our friends all have kids now, they haven’t lost their sense of humor.  And if they didn’t find it funny, then we just needed to find new friends.  Luckily everyone thought it was hilarious and the cup was actually stolen twice!

The Sylestine's living room was decorated so nicely for the Christmas party.

Unfortunately David's Walking Dead book was stolen and my 'smart' luggage tags were not...

Brad loved Jen's 'Hot to Trot' nightgown so much, he wore it around for the rest of the party.  Jen does not look amused...

It was so much fun to see everyone and hang out just like old times.  Only difference now is there are half a dozen children running around in the background.  The kids are adorable, and I actually got really upset leaving on Saturday afternoon saying goodbye to them.  I was a blubbering mess, thinking how they only ever hang out with us through Skype and don’t really know us (but thank goodness for technology)!  I eventually pulled myself together… which was probably due to the Hey Cupcake David treated me to.

Our last hoorah in Austin was the Volusion Holiday party at the UT stadium on Saturday night.  Vick from David’s London office had won a contest and flew into Texas to celebrate with us, so there were two employees at the party this year to represent the UK.

We had a great time hanging out with friends and family during this trip to Texas.  It was nice to be able to see almost everyone, as usually we’re only in Austin for a short amount of time.  This time around, it helped that we had ten days across three cities.  Until next time, this image of Jeremy and David in front of the Sylestine’s fireplace will help remind us of the good times we had in Texas… or it may just haunt my dreams!

What is he looking at??

Disneyland Paris

As if being Santa and one of his elves wasn’t enough to get us into the holiday spirit, we decided to continue our early celebration of Christmas by visiting Disneyland Paris this past weekend.  Disney definitely hooked us with their Enchanted Christmas TV advertisements.  Well played, Disney.  Well played.

After work on Friday, we took the Eurostar to France and checked into the Disneyland Hotel, just steps from the park’s entrance.  As we were only going to be in town for a couple of days, we wanted to make sure we didn’t need to worry about shuttles so we stayed close.  Disneyland Paris is much more compact than the other Disney properties, so we were able to walk from our hotel to the Magic Kingdom, Disney Studios, and the Village.

Our hotel / entrance to Disneyland Park

That evening we kept warm by buying some festive Mickey and Minnie ears at the Wonderful World of Disney.  Then we had a late dinner at Annette’s, an American 1950’s style diner where the waitresses serve up burgers, hot dogs, and milk shakes on their roller-skates.  David had the cheese dog and I had a hot fudge sundae.  I know that we’re going back to the states in three days for Thanksgiving and we can get all of that there, but we couldn’t resist.

Saturday morning we woke up early to take advantage of extended park hours for Disney hotel guests.  We had the Magic Kingdom to ourselves from 8-10, and rode Space Mountain four times before trying out Buzz Lightyear’s Lazer Blast, the Orbitron, and then moving into Fantasyland.  There, we rode Casey Jr. (or Carl’s Junior as David called him) through the fairy-tale countryside, spun around on the tea cups, and flew on Dumbo.  (We definitely felt a little awkward just the two of us on the kiddo rides, but it’s Disney – perfect for all ages.  Right, right??) 

So empty at 8:00 in the morning!

At 10:00 when the Studio opened, we rushed over and got in line for Tower of Terror.  After dropping into the Twilight Zone, we visited the Armageddon lot to take part in the special effects show.  David loves Armageddon and has probably seen the movie 100 times.  He was quoting all of the lines while in line waiting for the show to begin.

Everything was in French, with English sometimes thrown in.  Good thing David is more fluent than me!

David with the Armadillo

Later, we swam through the EAC with Crush, met Aerosmith on the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, and rode Andy’s favourite toy car, RC Racer, in Toy Story Playland.  

Then we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to tour Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, defeat the Death Star on Star Tours, discover ancient ruins on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, and meet some spooks at the Haunted Mansion.

And of course we rode Thunder Mountain, too!

And in between all of the rides, we found time to hang out with some old friends.

Pooh in his plaid holiday outfit

Our hotel hosts a character breakfast every morning, but we missed breakfast on Saturday because we were taking advantage of the park’s extended hours.  So on Sunday, we made time to eat with Geppetto and Pluto.

Disney is known for its wide variety of food options, so of course, we ate a lot.  We had lunch of soup and spaetzle on Saturday at King Ludwig’s Castle, and later that night, we had dinner at the California Grill overlooking Main Street USA.  On Sunday, we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  It turned out to be lunch with a show because the ride broke down shortly after we were seated.  After about 15 minutes, one of the pirate operators had to climb into the water and start pushing the boats along the broken track.  That ride has had a lot of bad luck lately.  Just a couple of weeks before our visit, a little boy fell into the water and had to be hospitalized when he was trapped by an oncoming boat.  This time, they ended up lowering a ramp into the water from the Blue Lagoon and the people on the boats had to disembark into the restaurant! 

Enjoying some creme brulee after the action was over.

We caught some real shows at the park as well.  There were a couple of parades, one featuring Santa and snow that I thought was real, until we headed to Frontierland and I realized it wasn’t snowing there…  tricky Santa!  The newest thing for winter is the Disney Dreams of Christmas water and light show at the castle.  It featured the characters and songs from Frozen, Disney’s newest animated film. 

David and I felt like little kids again running around Disneyland Paris.  Disney really is the happiest place on earth!  To see all of the pictures from our trip, click here.