Rauma day 3 to Espoo day 1
Breakfast at the hotel, walk to the bus station, bus to Turku, walk to the train station, train to Helsinki, bust to the Radisson Blu Espoo. All in all a fairly boring day but we are starting to dislike Finnish buses. On our trip to Rauma the driver missed a few turns – the locals were laughing and told us it’s rare. On the way back to Turku, the toilet on the bus was locked and the driver said she didn’t know why / couldn’t open it.
Anyway, our plan for Espoo is to relax. We’ve been doing a ton of walking and my wife had her fall a few days ago so it’s time to take it easy and Espoo is, apparently, a popular spot for Finns to take it easy. Our hotel, the Raddison Blu Espoo was a pretty sweet deal at 67.50 euros a night including the pool, the spa, and breakfast. At our hotel in Helsinki the sauna was 20 euros, there was no pool, and the price was about double.
So we had some excitement getting our bus from Helsinki Central train station. When I asked the hotel for the name of the bus stop, they gave me the address instead. We missed our stop, the driver spoke zero English, and my wife ended up yelling from the middle of the bus, “Where’s Onaranta 2? Where’s Radisson Blu?” Someone on the bus said we had passed our stop so we got of, backtracked a bit, and found the hotel.
After checking in we stole some fruit from some conference people near our room and had a litle snack. My wife unpacked. I relaxed. We learned that the hotel has no gym but for 10 euros you can visit one next door. $15 for one visit – I pay $50 a month for my boxing gym in Seoul. I used to pay $30 / month for a small weight lifting gym near my house. I can use my university gym for free.
And the pool was closed for cleaning but should reopen the following day.
Then we signed out the hotel bikes, rode around for a bit, and stopped at a supermarket . I bought a tuna fish sandwich and some snacks, including a Finnish rice pie with pumpkin and a piece of bread with tomato sauce and vegetables in it (that was a pleasant surprise since I bought it for its looks and didn’t know what it would contain). My wife got what we thought was skim milk. Now we think it might be 0% fat buttermilk. Not delicious.
We then went to the sauna which was kind of interesting but I’ll take a Korean style sauna or jimjilbang any day. Here we have just the hot room (the men’s one has room for 4 people). When I entered the three guys already there started laughing, hopefully because I hit my head on the low ceiling as I climbed the stairs and sat down.
Finally we watched an episode of House and then went to bed. My wife was a bit cold so I had to go ask the front desk to do something. 23 is the max temperature so I asked for an extra blanket and watched a show about some Irish cops. 40 minutes later tha show ended and still no blanket so I went back out and got that taken care of. Then bed.
Espoo day 2 – cycling and relaxing
Today, our first full day in Espoo, was the first day that really felt like a vacation.
My wife got back from her jog at 6:30 and we went to breakfast. She talked about the mongoose-looking thing that was hopping around on two legs. It had a short tail and was pretty big – maybe 50-70 cm tall she says. Any clue what it might have been?
After breakfast, I wanted to nap but my wife forced me to go on a bike ride. We rode to a beach I can’t pronounce: Munkkiniemi. The dark clouds and chilly air (I could see my breath) didn’t discourage her but the rain storm when we got to the beach did. When it stopped, we rode back to the hotel, stopping for a few minutes at some open air museum that has its own beach and some old buildings that we didn’t pay (or have time) to enter.
Despite the poor beach weather, it was a fun bike ride and we did manage a quick picnic on the beach before the rain started. It was far too cold for me to swim but two old ladies were in the water and there was a lifeguard on duty.
Some of you may remember that I was impressed by the space in Helsinki. Well it’s even less crowded in Espoo. It may have been partly because of the weather but we saw a handful of people on the beach, two swimming in the water, and one rowing. If I were looking for a peaceful place to kayak, Finland would be way up high on the list. Sadly, kayaking is something I talk about doing way more than I actually do it.
We got the bikes back exactly on time (4 hour maximum) and then I finally got my nap. Then we went just outside the hotel to the water so my wife could tan (and I could write this). It was peaceful except for the construction noise coming from next to the hotel.
Then we signed out the bikes again (the hotel has only 4 but the demand hasn’t been terrible) and rode to the Tapiola shopping center. We found a few sales and bought some clothes, but more interestingly, we found a Loving Hut.
Loving Hut is a vegan franchise that has spread all over the world. Each one has different food though – really what they have in common is the name and the vegan food. And according to them “cooking with love.” I think there may be a religious thing in common too but I haven’t really investigated that.
We’ve been to a few in Seoul so when we say signs for one in Finland we figured we’d better try it. The sign was in Finnish but even when translated by a friendly local the directions were horrible. We asked about 10 people before someone had heard of the place, more of a hut than any Loving Hut I’ve been to – just a little trailer with some outdoor tables. The food wasn’t cheap but it was good. The owner is Chinese and the food is vegan Chinese I’d say.
Then we rode back to the hotel where I fooled around on the internet for a bit before going to bed.
All in all it was a good day. We were active, we relaxed, we saw some of Espoo. What really made it good was riding bikes. Finland isn’t crowded so cycling is much more relaxing here than it was in Tokyo. I was reminded of how much fun I had riding my bike as a kid. Plus the bikes helped us cover more ground than and take a break from walking.