Chapter 2: A letter to the future

By the time you read this I will probably be in a meditation course in the middle of nowhere.
I'm going to use Blogger's schedule feature for first time. This post will be magically published the day I want without me having to press any button. Sounds like sending a letter to the future, creepy stuff.

Anyway, I will be 10 days without any contact with the civilization, in fact, I need to leave my iPhone, Mac, music, watch, books and any other kind of "entertainment" in a safety box before I start the course... I know that sounds like I'm about to enter in a prison, but believe me, it is not that bad.
Actually, it is going to be very nice to take a break from all that stuff for a while... I really need an Internet detox for example :-) There will be no coffee, no talking and no physical contact with anybody... A bit like working in office full of developers in Finland, except for the coffee of course.

So, while I'm sitting and saying ooooooohmmmmm you can look at all these awesome pics I made in Bangalore.

Ready? Now, I encourage you to take this Internet detox with me, at least for a day.
Go out with your friends instead of chatting with them in WhatsApp, shout stuff out of your car window instead of posting it on Twitter, invite your mom for a coffee instead of commenting the cute cat picture she put on Facebook.

See you in a while, be happy!!

What am I doing here?

Yesterday, I woke up in New Delhi.
I don’t know how this even happened… but here I am, alone in India, doing the craziest thing I have ever done in my life (besides moving to Finland). Yaay!

I am not sure how much I will be able to write about my adventures, considering that Internet connection is not something India is known for, but I promise I’ll do my best! Especially because my mom made me swear that I will post lots of pictures and I cannot let her down.

Chapter one: 

BREAK FAST

I got from Delhi to Bangalore without too much hassle.
I was taught that Delhi airport was a big beautiful mess but without the beautiful part. Hence, I was ready to get lost and confused… against all odds I survived pretty well. As a matter of fact, switching terminals was not as bad as in Charles de Gaulle (sorry Paris but your airport sucks).

Relaxing Delhi airport

Getting to the hotel

My hotel in Bangalore was out from an Indian horror movie, but in a funny way.
The neighborhood was not what I would call a walk friendly area, unless you enjoy walking in between cars, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, dogs and cows. I also had the impression that I was the only foreigner those people have seen in years, which can be pretty intimidating on your first day in India. Note to self: never book a cheap hotel in any Indian suburb that lacks sidewalks and has plenty of (rather curious) local men.

Lovely view from my room

I made the mistake to go for a walk, which ended up being more like and obstacle race instead of a walk. I wanted to capture the street chaos with my camera but I was terribly afraid that someone or something will run over me while I was taking the picture. I just got a few shots of traffic-free areas.

30 min were more than enough to prove myself brave.
Once I got to the hotel after my quick "walk" I realized one thing: in order to survive in India until July I had to escape from that place. So, I booked a nicer hotel for a couple of nights in the city center. The hotel is conveniently called Escape Hotel, exactly what I was looking for... especially after getting a complimentary Break Fast coupon, thank you very much.

Fortunately, I got to the other hotel in one piece.
Now I can see some sort of sidewalks on the streets, that already makes me so happy!

Namaste! 

Nice places in Helsinki: Street Gastro

I couldn't believe it when I saw it... Gourmet sandwiches on the streets of Helsinki!!

Street food culture is something pretty normal in other cities, but still rather exotic around here (asides from Restaurant Day). It is always a nice surprise when you find a food truck, but it is even nicer when they actually have good food. These guys just made my day.

The sandwich was so delicious (I think they even make their own bread!) that I totally forgot to take any pictures of it... you just have to go there to see it with your own eyes.

That's what you should do:
1. Go here.
2. Grab a Street Gastro sandwich.
3. Take a seat on the stairs of Senaatintori (Senate Square). Unless it is winter or winter-winter, in that case jump directly to step number 5.
4. Have a laugh watching the tourists posing for a picture in front of the Cathedral and/or taking photos with their iPads, which I always find hilarious.
5. Go home happy and check out more nice places in Helsinki.

Cannot believe it is over

90% of the snow is gone.
I thought this day will never come, but I can finally say that winter is over.
Let's all take a moment to jump a bit and cry of happiness.

me jumping on the frozen sea

It has been such a long and dark winter that a sunny +8 ºC day totally feels like summer.
Now I understand why all the Nordic tourists that travel to Spain in winter are happily walking around with sandals (and socks, unfortunately) while the Spaniards are wearing scarves and gloves.

I have probably become one of them already, because as soon as the thermometer goes above zero, it feels so wrong to wear a winter-winter coat, even though it is still cold as hell outside.  
There is some mysterious force that makes me wear a spring jacket and leave the gloves/hat at home. It's not because I'm warm... I think it is more of a subconscious act of rebelliousness against winter.

And it seems to work.
I believe that when mr. Winter sees everybody wearing spring clothes, he finally gets it. It takes a while but eventually he decides to go somewhere else and leave poor Finland in peace for a few months.

Here goes my contribution:

Me wearing spring clothes on top of that 10% of snow that hasn't melted yet. Which I call luska.
I could not find any Finnish name for this crap, not even in my awesome Finnish snow guide *, so I just made up my own word by combining lumi (snow) + paska (shit). 

Bye bye winter, bye bye luska!
We had great moments together this year... but now it is time for you to fuck off. Thanks.

* They do have loska - which I believe it is a combination of lumi (snow) + roska (rubbish) - but since loska is made out of melted snow, it did not work in this case. 

Nice places in Helsinki: Fafa's

I can pretty much summarize Fafa's in 3 words: Best falafel ever.

There are not many places in Helsinki where you can grab something (good) to eat after work, without actually needing to sit in a proper restaurant. That is why I love Fafa's.
And that is why I think there should be a Fafa's in every neighborhood in Helsinki (even Konala deserves one).

They are specialized in falafel, but also serve chicken pitas, kebabs and salads.
A very nice alternative to fast food. This is more like good food made fast... with fresh ingredients, organic chickpeas and homemade pita bread. You are gonna love it. 

There are two tiny Fafa's in Helsinki, one in the center and the other in Kallio (where I happen to live, yaay!).  So, whenever you find yourself really hungry but oh so lazy to go to the store, you definitely must give this place a try.

Finnish snow guide

I just learned that Finnish language have more words to describe different kinds of snow than the Eskimos. After a bit of investigation I found out that there are actually over 40 words for snow (and you still wonder why I don't speak Finnish yet...).

I even found a blog specially dedicated to collect and document all the words for snow and ice in Finnish (over 120 words so far!).

Just for fun, I randomly picked up some of them and made my own snow guide. 

Conclusion:
1. Winter is long, very long.
2. There was not much to do in winter, Finns had 6 months every year to come up with snow words.
3. Life is too short to learn Finnish. 

Despite of the linguistic mess regarding the word "snow", I have something to thank Finnish people:
I really appreciate that you did not have the energy to come up with all kinds of random verbs for "snowing". You only need one verb: sataa (to rain), and then you can say sataa lunta, which means 'it is raining snow' and can be used for nearly anything falling from the sky.

For example, if there is räntä instead of lunta, I can happily say it is raining räntä and stay indoors for the rest of the day (räntä sucks).

Spring is (not) here

21st of March.
Spring officially started.
And this is how Helsinki looks like in our very first "spring" day.

I know it does not look so springy...
but hey thanks to this we were able to beat few records this year:

The darkest winter in 25 years

Helsinki has seen about 50 hours of sunlight since the beginning of December. Yaay!

The coldest March in 50 years

Yes, I can tell you, it is March and it is cold.

Walking path on the Baltic Sea

.... and it does not end here. We were able to walk on top of the sea for several months in a row!
You cannot say that from many countries, can you? 

Finland, I'm so proud of you.

Wanna know more about Finnish weather?
Check the truth about Finnish weather.

Bread Revolution

We had quite a few revolutions in this blog last year: food in Finland, happiness... there has even been a small knit graffiti revolution.

Today, the rebel inside me is screaming for real bread.

from the Helsinki sourdough bread revolution

Bread culture in Finland is a bit different than in Southern Europe.
There are very few bakeries in Helsinki, most of the people buys their bread from the supermarket. In addition to this, bread production is quite monopolized, hence there is not much space for artisan bakers.

That is why I decided to devote the first revolution of the year to sourdough bread.

"Sourdough bread relies on natural bacteria to rise as opposed to commercial yeast. Handled with care and passion, the resulting loaf is a celebration of the work done by arable farmers and the baker. Deep crust, rich creamy aerated crumb enhanced by the complexity brought by long fermentation time, sourdough bread is the true expression of the grain, its soil and environment." (from the Helsinki sourdough bread revolution)

Finns are the kings of rye bread, which is by the way delicious, but as I said artisan bread is hard to find in here.

Or well, it was hard to find until I met Jerome at Open Kitchen, the guy who started the Helsinki sourdough bread revolution. He is using traditional French baking techniques to make the most amazing bread I have ever eaten.

I wish that Jerome gets to open a bakery some day so that smell of freshly-baked bread covers the streets of Helsinki. Meanwhile, you can follow his bread adventure in here. 

I will myself join the revolution by trying to make sourdough bread at home some day... at least I got this book and I have some french sourdough starter waiting for me in the fridge.

I just need a couple of free days to get started. Wish me luck! 

Nice places in Helsinki: Best Coffee places

I started to write a Helsinki coffee guide long time ago.
For the last 2 months I have been unsuccessfully trying to finish it... while hoping that someone else would write one.

Kalle finally did it... and honestly, it is much better than the one I was writing.
Since I'm a lazy bastard I will surrender and share his guide about the Best Coffee in Helsinki.
I hope you can forgive me some day.

Coffee from Sävy

All the places Kalle mentions have amazing (real!) coffee and it is extremely hard to say which is the best. I would just like to add Gran Delicato to the list, which is one of my favorites. 
My absolute favorite though is Kahvila Sävy.

Why? simply because it is just around the corner from my apartment, I go there (almost) every morning to get my cappuccino before heading to work. The coffee is awesome and they always welcome you with a smile. Moreover, one of the baristas is a big Totoro fan. I cannot ask for more.

Kahvila Sävy (from Best Coffee in Helsinki)

Kahvila Sävy (from Best Coffee in Helsinki)

Super thanks to Kalle for making Helsinki a better place!... as well as for saving my life with his great coffee a couple of times when we were in Open Kitchen.

(No wonder he recently won the Finnish Barista Champion 2013!)

More nice places in Helsinki here.

My last hours as a 28 years old

I spent my last hours of being 28 years old making myself a chocolate cake (while listening the Barcelona vs Milan soccer game).

The cake is in the oven now, so I decided to get a glass of wine and write a couple of lines.

First of all, let me repeat how great this year was... I need to say it once more: it was great, thanks.

happy me at the age of 3 in my grandparents' awesome swimming pool

Damn. 29 sounds like a scary number.
I am starting to realize that very soon I will have exactly 1 year to do all the things I wanted to do before turning 30:

1. Learn Finnish 
2. Travel to India
3. See the Aurora Borealis 
4. Go to a cooking school 
5. Buy a longboard and skate to work everyday
6. Get over my fear of driving
7. Go to the Gelato University 
8. Participate in some volunteer program 
9. Eat at a Michelin start restaurant  
10. Visit Southern Italy
11. Stand up on a surf board for more than 10 seconds
12. Finish my last painting 
13. Take a sommelier course 
14. Travel to Japan and/or New York
15. Ride a pink bike 

Oh my...why do I always leave everything to the last minute year?

Well, I work best under pressure so let's make it happen, 365 days are a lot of days...
Let's try to cross off all the items on this list!
(except for the number 1... I'm sorry but I can already tell you that life is too short to learn Finnish)

Cake is ready, Barcelona lost the soccer game... and I still have a couple of minutes left before I become 29. I'm gonna start the countdown by listening to this song as loud as I can.
Sorry dear neighbors, this is the last time. I promise.



Tonight,
we are young
so let's set the world on fire
we can burn brighter
than the sun.

Arabic cuisine in a hair salon

Just to prove that everything is possible during Restaurant Day... my yesterday's lunch was Arabic, from a pop-up restaurant inside a hair salon in Uudenmaankatu,16. Cool.

Now you can start getting ready for the next Restaurant Day, which will be the 18th of May and it is going to be awesome... specially because all the "lovely" snow will be gone by then.

More cool stuff in Barcelona

A couple of new finds to add to the Cool stuff in Barcelona collection.

La Clandestina

Baixada de Viladecols, 2
www.teterialaclandestina.wordpress.com

A real "teteria" in the heart of the Gotic Quarter.
Great relaxing place after a long I-have-to-see-everything day in the city.
Nice and quiet, with an amazing tea selection, fresh smoothies, lassis and free Wi-Fi.
I cannot really ask for more.

Oh yes, I can. They have the best Chai tea I have ever tried in Barcelona. Go.

 

 Pepa Tomate

Plaça de la Revolució nº17
www.pepatomate.com

If you want to go a bit more fancy than the basic tapas you should try this place located in Gràcia, one of my favorite districts in Barcelona.

Original (yet traditional) tapas and sandwiches made with fresh market ingredients.
A bit on the pricey side but totally worth the visit. The patatas bravas are a must try.

Did you know that they also make their own wine and cava?

If you liked this...
check out other cool stuff in Barcelona.