Helsinki- as sweet as a strawberry cocktail!

Helsinki, 8 degrees

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to host an Italian couple who had won a competition through VisitFinland's website and spent a complementary week in Finland. My office's and therefore my part was to function as a hostess during a dinner and some after dinner cocktails. The evening started out at the couple's hotel, Hotel Glo Kluuvi, which is one of the nicest design hotels in Helsinki.

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It turned out the couple came from Bolzano, Northern Italy, so I did fine with my Milanese accent, hehe. The couple praised the hotel. I must say, even according to me, they had received such a nice price. First a couple of days in Helsinki and then they headed up to Lapland for a week.

This year, as many of you have certainly noticed it's a uncommonly warm late fall. Last year this time we had tons of snow, but this year, we're still having plus degrees and snow is nowhere to be seen. Even in Lapland they have had to cancel some of the skiing competitions due to the lack of snow. I'm hoping for a white Christmas though, so let's see if the snow will reach us in time.

If you want to learn more about why to visit Finland in general, you can see the pdf presentation designed by VisitFinland, it's superb! Did you learn something new about Finland?

Back to the hosting...we had dinner at the legendary restaurant Kolme Kruunua (three crownes) in the Kruunuhaka district. The restaurant is actually conveniently located on the street that bears my name!

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The couple tried some traditional Finnish dishes like reindeer, Baltic herrings, salmon soup and I on the other hand tried some duck breast with port wine as raspberry sauce and risotto. Yummy!

After dinner we headed to one of Helsinki nicest cocktail lounges, A21 that is. There we had a so called Suomi (Finland) menu with three cocktails, all representing the Finnish nature at its best. I even had a champagne cocktail with strawberry after that, loved it!

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In the end, we had a great time together and I hope to meet again this sweet Italian couple. Hosting is nice when you get to meet such nice people and explore the wonderful city of Helsinki with them!

What is your favorite cocktail?

What's your opinion?

  1. I'd love to visit Finland!! I'm italian too and the northest place I've been to is London:)

    Great blog, maybe follow each other's? It would be great!
    Kiss:*

    http://tati-loves-pearls.blogspot.com

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  2. Thanks for sharing a piece of your amazing city with me, I've always wondered whats it like.

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  3. Tatiana, welcome as a reader! Sure let's follow each other!
    Thank you for your comments!

    xxx
    E

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@elisabeth.rundlof