Nordic travel fair

I have been unexpectedly busy these weeks... but I actually did write last week and almost finished my post but my internet connection went off and my text disappeared mysteriously. It didn't even autosave =_= I was so annoyed that day that I didn't start writing my post again hence this got delayed alot.

Anyway, as you know I visited Matka2017 (Nordic travel fair) on friday(20th) and saturday(21st) with my friends (on friday with Anniina and on saturday with Annina :P ).

On friday we headed up first straight to South-Korea's booth and in there picked up couple brochures and talked to one presenter a bit. She was friendly and got some travel tips too~
Then we just went around to see what everyone had to offer.

I actually honestly don't remember much that left really amazing impression because I felt the fair was much more smaller than last year. And last year was smaller than year before... so I feel like rather than evolving and becoming bigger this travel fair is getting smaller every year <_<

Well anyway, I went on saturday again with my friend even if I felt like I went through most of sections on friday and didn't really find but couple interesting things. Surprisingly on saturday I talked with lot more presenters and found more stuff to bring home than on friday. Strange huh? Maybe most memorable thing was that I won a gift card to furnishing store and actually got to choose one piece of furniture! Like I never win anything and now I won a big prize xD But I gifted my prize to my grandmom, I got to choose only specific things which I didn't really need and thought my grandmom would need it. So I send photos to my grandmom and she loved the furniture and next time she visits our home she picks it up~

But let's continue~ So I got more out of saturday than friday. Still, my mom's one sentence what she said to me can summarize my travel fair experience all up: "is that all?". She said that to me when I came home on friday. I had only small bag with couple brochures when couple previous years I arrived home with big heavy bag full of stuff.

So a message to organizers: try and make it more bigger again next year, return to golden age of travel fairs~ Please? :D Also, again this year I would have hoped Great Britain would be there which hasn't been there for couple years now and couple other countries like Germany and Ireland would have been great. I know Ireland had like golf tourism booth in there but I would have actually liked Ireland's booth as a country, not some specific area of tourism.
Also from Asia section I hoped to see Singapore (was disappointed again). And I would like to see New Zealand someday, it's one of my dream destinations but I haven't seen it represented in our travel fair.

All in all, I was a bit disappointed again this year like last year. I had fun with my friends but my afterfeels is that I ask myself what I got out from it and can't answer.

Here's couple photos:

I can't promise when next post is up because I'll be super busy meeting with friends this and next week and preparing my trip to Korea. I'll may be posting after my trip next time. (I'll be in Korea from 18th feb to 4th march). I'll hope everything is going to be ok because there has been a strike warning for some airport staff so it means flights might be cancelled or delayed. Currently the warning has been given only to specific airlines (lucky Finnair isn't among them) but security check might be badly crowded as some staff will be away because of the strike...
So wish me and my friend luck and that we get to Korea on time~

Sightseeing and other events

Hi everyone :)

I'll start my post from last week's thursday, I went to watch korean movie Train to Busan with my friends. There was this movie festival in Helsinki where our biggest movie distributor company showed movies they don't normally take to their program. And there was Train to Busan which was box hit in Korea even though it's a zombie movie :,D I don't normally like horror at all but it was ok because it was more on the action side than scary horror.

On Saturday I went to Linda's birthday and had fun time there~ Linda had baked cheesecake for the first time and it was delicious! If I would try the same I would propably burn it xD

Then on Sunday and Monday I met with my korean friend who I know from one online app, he was visiting Finland for couple days before continuing his trip to Sweden. I enjoyed going around Helsinki even though it was a bit tiring because we walked alot lol. First we visited Suomenlinna (fortress of Finland). I haven't visited there for the longest time so it was nice for me too to see if it has changed or not. It actually had a bit, there were alot of construction work going on. I didn't remember that it was sunday so museums were all closed in the morning or either opening very late.. so a little disappointment but anyways we enjoyed going around and exploring.

After arriving back to mainland in Helsinki, we went to Senaatintori (Senate Square) and after my friend was done taking photos there we were so hungry we went to eat. It's a shame there was only either veeeeery expensive finnish restaurants or asian restaurants near... or mcdonalds lol. We decided to go to one japanese restaurant and ate kind of fried rice dish. I'm horrible host lmao I took an asian person to eat asian food in Finland when I should have introduced our food culture xD but we were so hungry xD

After eating big lunch at Momotoko we went to rest a little to Esplanade park. Coincidentally there happened to be food festival.. but we had just eaten lol so we just looked around and sat on a bench.

Then we were wondering where we should go next and decided to go to Sibelius monument. My friend wanted to visit there, I guess it's very popular among asians because almost every asian knows it. It's not so popular among finnish people because it's just ordinary park for us where just happens to be a big monument :P

We were starting to get a bit tired but still went to Temppeliaukio church xD After it we just sat down in one bar in Kamppi, just talked awhile and then I had to leave. My friend stayed in Kamppi.

Next day we met up again and we wanted to visit Seurasaari but it had just been closed last week :,( bad luck.. so we just walked around Hakaniemi and visited Hakaniemi old market (Hakaniemen kauppahalli). Then we just walked around Helsinki center until my friend had to go check-in to Silja Line for his trip to Stockholm. I said bye to him at the terminal. Bye the way, before going to terminal we had lunch at Kauppatori where my friend tasted finnish food but it was soooo expensive for like a plate of couple potatos and little piece of salmon. So if you have foreign friends coming to visit seriously, search restaurants in Helsinki beforehand xD I did a mistake of not searching and we ended up eating expensive lunch. (They have high prices in Kauppatori because there is so many tourists).

Anyway, I had busy monday because right after saying bye to my friend I had to hurry home because I had my korean language lessons in the evening. It was funny, after I said to my friend I study korean and have been trying to study by myself for 4 years, he started speaking more and more korean with me and now he sends me messages only in korean xD much stress though because I'm very slow writing in korean and he writes so faaaast and I'm like slow dooooown xD but he always waits patiently my answer if he asks me something because I usually have to check one or two words from translator.. because even though I know the word, I usually mess up writing it so I have to be sure I'm not writing it wrong... or the sentence might get totally different meaning xD At least now I get to train my korean skills :D

This weekend

Yesterday I met up with Annina and went to autumn market to Tikkurila. It was a big market event and we had nice time just walking around. We also discovered a new cafe; Kahvi Charlotta which was right opposite of dixi. They have one cafe in Kamppi apparently and they will be opening third to esplanade. I liked interior design of this cafe and they make coffee from fresh beans which was totally pleasant surprise~ And customer service was excellent, I'm totally recommending this place :) Also, their carrot cake was yummy :P

Recommending~

So what are the things I have been enjoying these couple weeks?
Well, one is a korean action drama that started last week: The K2. It tells a story of an ex-soldier Kim Jae Ha (played by Ji Chang Wook) who ends up being a bodyguard to one Assemblyman's wife and his illegitimate daughter. Je Ha couldn't care less of anything at first because of his dark past but he has his own reasons which eventually makes him agree to work for Assemblyan's wife. He gets codename K2 and that's why this drama's name is K2. 4 episodes have been aired and it has been very action packed with interesting characters. I'm totally hooked. I'm also recommending The K2's first OST song, it's addictive especially from the chorus:

Also cosmetics I have been liking:

Lancome Hydra Zen neurocalm. This was very moisturizing face cream and it has pleasant texture. I got this with discount but I know it's normally quite pricy. Anyway, I liked this because it spreads well even though it at first seem heavy (it really isn't). And it made my face feel so soft! Repurchasing it if it appears on sale sometime. You can get it almost from everywhere where they sell high-end brands.

The Face Shop x Kakao melting color lip creamer. This has become one of my utmost favorite lipsticks! It's very creamy and hydrating without being too much if you know what I mean. It has very pretty, light peach color which shade is 12. Plus packaging is very cute! You can get this for example in ibuybeauty.


Next post is up in about 2 weeks. This week I'm going to Helsinki zoo free event on tuesday and on friday to Linnanmäki amusement park light carnival (it officially starts on Saturday but I got invitation to private event :P ).