In July, the seeds of poplar trees in the parks snow down upon Helsinki. My younger son says he and his friends make poplar balls and play snowball wars with them (poppelipallosota, poplar ball war). They (the seeds, not my son and his friends) twirl in the air stirred by passing cars: snowing in July, it is magic.
My friend Rebecca, an English girl who discovered her spiritual home is Finland, introduced me to another fabulous Helsinki cafe today: Kahvila Taikalamppu, Café Magic Lantern. See the sewing machine on the table? The proprietress sits there and sews the wall hangings, except while we were there, she decided to sit outside in the sun and read a book instead. Rebecca is a wonderfully gifted singer-songwriter, she played me some of her songs . When we left the cafe, we passed a window with a white cat sitting inside it. Her eyes were one green, one blue.
3 comments:
The hominess of these cafes reminds me of ones in northern California, opened by hippies moving "back to the land" years ago. I guess in Finland it's the pleasant side of having to band together against the nasty climate?
Or is it all part of some Brothers Grimm-style scheme to lure innocents to the forest?
hey anna mr, i truly had not given finland much thought until your wee travel blog, but now it seems the hippest place to be! nmj
Aha, I can feel the Red Riding Hood train of thought catching up with me here, Kurt...but the weather has been utterly glorious all summer, we are up to +25 C (you must do your own conversions, I cannot open a new tab on my dad's computer, it is awful) and more, in fact we need more rain! But of course, it'll all be doom, gloom, and darkness, all too soon, too soon...
Helsinki is the New Prague, which of course was the New Paris...or something. Make sure you coincide your visit to when I am here too, though, nmj!
Post a Comment