I'm a Coachella music festival-aholic so when I missed this year's Coachella due to being in…read moreFinland, I decided to treat myself to some Flow Festival tickets instead. I went both Saturday and Sunday. Was OK. I'm trying hard not to compare it to Coachella, which is in the sunny desert in Indio, CA and has a whole bunch of loud Americans, but it's hard not to. The vibe is completely different. Again, this is Finland, so a bit silent during some of the acts. I felt like a crazy person cheering for Feist as everyone else around me were just nodding their heads to the music and clapping politely. Every loud cheer invoked at least one bewildered look from somebody.. like "who is this loud obnoxious person?". LOL It was pretty easy to navigate through the place. The "Black Tent" had a black tent, literally. Nokia blue tent had a blue tent, etc. They also had big balloons with the name of the place above areas like WC so was easy to find them even later at night. I loved seeing Feist, Bjork, The War on Drugs, St Vincent, Ane Brun and other bands but wasn't too impressed by the line-up. It seemed like last year, much bigger bands were touring so that line-up was kick-ass and would have been much more bang for my buck. Also, the crowd control was non-existent. Seemed like they just sold as many tickets as possible without a thought to how many people can fit and what's comfortable. Sunday was the worst whereas Saturday was pretty empty comparatively. As for the food: The Vegemesta stand had AMAZING veggie burgers. By amazing, I mean probably in the top 3 veggie burgers I've ever tasted in my entire lifetime. I literally had a mouthgasm eating it. Later, on Sunday (when there seemed to be 3x the people there were on Saturday), the line to get one was ridiculous so I tried the Shanghai Cowboy (Mexican food - go figure. Wouldn't have guessed by the name. lol) which was alright - I had the cheese party plate. My friends had sushi at Kabuki which they loved. All in all, it was enjoyable but if you're like me and love crazy rambunctious music festivals, don't get your expectations too high. Flow Festival holds true to their name - it's just a zen experience really. Wow. Long review. Hats off to you if you read it all ;)

Great museum. I spent hours here and could have spent hours more. The exhibits are varied and…read moreinteresting, with a lot of interactive aspects that allow you to fully engage with the museum. My only complaint, and it is a minor one, is that their audio tour (which is free) is a little uneven; some rooms have nothing or only play music, some rooms have way too many things to scan with narrations that go on for far too long. This place is really cool, though, and if you like history/natural history/artifacts/etc. it's definitely worth a visit.

Luonnontieteellinen museo is the Natural History Museum. An hour minimum here, probably closer to…read moretwo. Lots of taxidermy animals, jarred fish, shells, skeletons, dioramas. The museum is clearly aiming for kids to enjoy as well, with a lot of the items available for touching. Most of the captions in Finnish, but their free wifi let Google Translate do some interesting translations for me. Don't miss the view from the balcony. [Review 10061 overall, 1646 of 2018.]

The contemporary architecture is worth a short look. Walk both below the ceiling sculpture and walk…read moreabove to get multiple views of the hanging sculpture and enjoy views from the glass enclosed stairs. The Song Trees Sculpture outside is very interesting with its combination of pianos on their side, a pike fish and wooded log piles.

Very informative bartender. Friendly place. A Jem well hidden. Sound like an English bar. Very good…read morebeer.

Nice small bar with good selection of drinks and a small sunny terrace.read more

This triangle shaped park in the Kamppi Design District in Helsinki is a cool park! There's lots of…read morethings to see and do in this urban park that has a twin sister park right next door, separated by a traffic circle. Lastenlehdon is the larger of the two parks, which houses a playground, public restrooms, some landscaping and sculptures, and a big open space. The park was pretty frozen when I went, with the open spaces filled with ice and snow. There's a big, wide open space that would accommodate a baseball or soccer game, if it's not frozen. The park is safe, and rather well lit. There's plenty of places to sit, and the sidewalks were heavily tread to do away with the ice. The playground seems to be utilized during the day by a local school, as it was full of children wearing bright yellow reflective vests. Parking seems like it could be pretty challenging around here, but it is serviced by the public buses, and the taxi stand in the corner of the park.

The novelty of the place is why I'm giving this place 4 stars. Our colleague told us it was 90's…read morenight, but to our surprise the venue had different rooms with different themes. Loved the place because it seemed like a no frills and easy going place. People danced like no one was watching and each room was packed even during the holiday season when everyone was out of town.

Kaarle is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest night clubs in Helsinki (so the natives…read moresay). It is located in an old building to give a vintage touch to the environment. The entrance is free but the coat check cost around 3€ by cash, and 3.30€ by credit/debit card. The dance floor upstairs is not very huge but big enough to accommodate a few dozens. However, like any other clubs in Helsinki, the dance floor is invaded by drunks after 23:45. They love to hold their drinks on dance floor so watch out for them. Pushing is like a competition as intoxicated fellas have no clue what they are doing once they are drunk enough. Then, there is a significant presence of desperate dudes giving attention to ugly ladies covered in makeup, wonder bras and skimpy clothing (take these ingredients out of the equation and you will see a redundant pile of horrifying protoplasm in reality). So you have probably 45 minutes to enjoy your dance movies. The music is usually quite appalling. Same tracks again and again, and for some reason they play some appalling salsa tracks. Perhaps someone should tell the DJ (if he is really a DJ) that salsa music is not a club music. But hey, most of the dance floor is drunk so who cares. The only positive side of this club is free entrance, as the entry free in other clubs cost around 8€ - 10€ which doesn't include coat check fee.