Weekend full of fun in Helsinki, Finland

From May 16-19 we visited Helsinki, the capital of our neighbour country in north - Finland. With one weekend, we managed to do a lot - spent some nice time with Erik's sister's family (I did some shopping with Helen while Erik and Kert looked after little beautiful girls Emily and Anna; we had a nice pizza dinner, watched the funniest-film-ever "Notting Hill"), visited the SeaLife waterworld, had fun in Linnanmäki together with our Finnish friends, went to sauna and had a great late dinner at Minna's place. A wonderful weekend indeed :).

Helsinki is very close to Tallinn. It's about 100 km's across the sea, so there are 2 main options to go to Helsinki: a boat or a plane (and an helicopter, too); or then drive through Russia to Helsinki which takes 10 times more :). We used the boat which is the most common; and it was 1,5 hours trip.

Photo: The Main Cathedral in Helsinki. This is the only sightseeing we did in Helsinki. As both I and Erik have been to Helsinki more than we can count in our ten fingers, then sightseeing wasn't really necessary.

Photo: I and Kert in front of the Main Cathedral in Aleksanterikatu.

Photo: On Friday, we spent a lot of time with Emily and Anna. They are fun to be with :). Always make us laugh!

SEALIFE WORLD

On Saturday morning, we headed to Linnanmäki Amusement Park, but before it was opened, we had time to visit Sealife WaterWorld. It's one of the 23 centres across the world which aims give the possibility to experience the wonders of underwater miracles by creating as natural as possible living environments for the creatures of the exhibition. It was indeed a nice journey to underwater world!

Photo: Sealife World building

Photo: Some colourful fish :)

Photo: I and Erik in Sealife WaterWorld.

Photo: I and Kert in IceAge section in Sealife WaterWorld.

LINNANMÄKI AMUSEMENT PARK

Already last Autumn, I and my Finnish penpal Minna made a plan, that as soon as Spring arrives and Linnanmäki Amusement Park opens, and it's suitably warm weather again, we'll visit Linnanmäki with our families to have a fun Saturday. Three things of those came true:

1. Spring arrived

2. Linnanmäki opened

3. We visited it

BUT the weather didn't get warm... It was prrrr...... sooooo..... cold! But, as we live in nordic countries, we are used to such cold weather, and had fun despite of the cold hands and everything else...

Linnanmäki is a very popular Amusement Park both among Finns as well as Estonians. It's opened since 27 May 1950, and each year, they add some new attractions.

Photo: The postcard bought from Linnanmäki. It's an Amusement Park both for children and adults - everyone can find something there.

Photo: Our group in Linnanmäki: Aleksi (Minna's friend's son), my Finnish penpal Minna, Minna's husband Tomi, I, Erik and Kert.

Photo: Minna and Tomi in the attraction called SALAMA which is a brand new attraction - added for this summer. It was great!!! We all tried it twice.

Photo: Attraction called KIRNU - it was added to the Park in 2007, and it's the scariest of all! We shouted the whole time of fear while going down headfirst. It was AWFUL! But we enjoyed it a lot (it was 4 of us who did it: Kert and Erik, I and Tomi), and did it even twice :). When you look carefully the photo, you can see Erik's scared face!

Photo taken by Minna.

Photo: My first nightmare: RAKETTI. It's the thing which goes up with a veeerrry quick speed. I absolutely hate it! But I just couldn't help, I had to try it again... Tomi, Minna and Aleksi passed it.

Photo taken by Minna.

Photo: Attraction called KIEPI. Ruffles your guts... As it was in the end of the day, I decided to pass it, too, so only Erik and Kert participated in it.

Photo: The last ride (as one could get wet and it was deadly cold, so the only chance to experience it, was in the very end of our day, before sauna...) called VONKAPUTOUS.

Photo: Kert, Aleksi, Minna and Tomi in PIKAJUNA.

Photo: We have arrived to Minna's place. She lives in a nice small town called Riihimäki. Here you can see me, Minna and her cat Tane (one of three) before we were going to the sauna to heat ourselves up after such a cold, but enjoyable, day in Linnanmäki!