Off there with work soon for 3-4 days.
Won’t have much free time, but maybe a bit

Is it an expensive place to stay?
Interesting things to do?
Owt else?

(already sorted for accommodation)
(no pushbikes will be harmed in the making of this visit)

Helsinki is a lovely city and I’ve spent a bit of time there as my wife is Finnish. What are you interested in? There’s good art museums, some excellent modern architecture, lots of good design if you want to buy stuff, the harbour and islands are nice (if it’s a nice day I’d strongly recommend a ferry trip to Suomennlina Fort which is on one of the islands in the harbour and is a UNESCO world heritage site). There’s some nice countryside near Helsinki and some good restaurants in the city. Finland invented the sauna so you should definitely try and have a real Finnish sauna while you are there.

It’s a bit expensive now that the pound has tanked against the euro, mostly for alcohol in bars or shops.

Never spent more than a day there on the several work related visits.
The pizza shops have beer pumps on the counters!
One place we found did a “meal deal” which was any pizza and a stein of beer for €8!
Do what the Finns do and drink a lot, combine that with watching the very pretty ladies strolling about!

Joke:

2 Finns in a bar.
Finn 1: “Cheers!”
Finn 2: “Did we come here to drink, or to talk?”

Not far from the truth, IME!! If I said I could remember drinking Russian champagne from a woman’s shoe in a cellar in Turku, I’d be a liar – but I was reliably informed about it afterwards.

For a bit of culture the Temppeliaukio Church is quite impressive (sort-of built underground), and I really like the Sibelius monument.

Make sure you try some Fazer chocolate whilst you are there!

The Fazer cafe/restaurant is worth a visit for probably the most impressive array of cakes and buns I’ve ever seen!

thanks for the above !

Fazer cafe then – where’s that ?!!

Agree with all of the above, been a few times for work and think Helsinki is a great city with friendly people. Go running if no bike, you can run in wooded parks from the centre of the city to the outskirts. Even ran on frozen sea one day, thought I was being clever but car then passed me.
In fact Finland is a great country, if you learn a bit about it’s history, listen to a little sibelius and know who Parvo Nurmi is you’ll make good friends. The women are very friendly, while the chaps can seem a bit miserable, they are not once they know you.

Fazer cafe then – where’s that ?!!

Right in the city centre on one of the main shopping streets.

http://maps.google.se/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=s&hl=sv&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=fazer+cafe+helsinki&fb=1&split=1&gl=se&ei=4t0KSqSwEsyS_Qb14IihCw&sa=X&oi=local_group&resnum=1&ct=image

http://www.fazergroup.com/templates/Fazer_CountryStartPage.aspx?id=33083&epslanguage=EN

Defo go see the fort, there will be some live music somewhere the Finns love their music.

Go for a stroll down by the harbour, the railway station has some great architecture. Its only a small city so you can walk all over or the trams are great.

The girls are just gorgeous but dont tell my missus who is a Svenska.

If it was hockey season I would say go see Jokerit the second best team in Finland, Jokipojat being the best.

Ta,
one further question – plugs: same as, for example, french ones ??

When you going scaredypants, I’m going on Friday morning with work, out there till Tuesday.

I’m stopping in Espoo. What’s the best way of getting between the airport and Espoo and then between Espoo and the Fair Centre (conference centre)?

Thanks, will deffo check out the Fazer afe

I’m going Friday & back Tuesday too – ECCMID by any chance ?

It’s a bit twee, but the Lappi Restaurant clicky is a good place to eat with plenty of Northern European specialities. Drinks at the top of the Torni is nice and the ice hockey in the stadium is furious – definitely worth going if you can get tickets.

Watch out for those Finns though – I had by far the worst hangover I ever had in Helsinki. So bad it made me cry. Shudder.

M

Scaredypants – Yes I’m off to ECCMID, 10:25am flight outta Manchester in the morning.

Are you a delegate or an exhibitor?

We are exhibiting – come say hello, George & Rachel on the Infection 2009 stand.