In June, on spur of the moment, we decided to visit Turku, the oldest city in Finland. I’ve never been to Turku (and a lot of other places in Finland!) but have heard quite a bit of the city. It used to be the capital before it was moved to Helsinki. Nowadays, it’s an important port city for the country due to its close proximity to Sweden. In fact, it’s very popular to take an overnight cruise ride to Stockholm from Turku. Naturally, the city also has one of the most number of Swedish speaking people compared to other places in Finland. Note that Swedish is the second national language of Finland and every child studies the language at least for six years in their education period.
Aura River, flowing through the city of Turku
On the weekend that we happened to visit Turku, we found out that the Medieval Festival was happening. Just the right time to get to know Finland – err, maybe not, considering everything was in Finnish. Anyway, we visited the festival and had a nice stroll through the market and tried the various so-called traditional cuisine.
Turku’s river flowed through the centre and along the riverbank, there is a strip of shops, cafes and restaurants. It might seem common in other European cities but there are not many places in Finland that I know of, which have such lifestyle, not even in Helsinki. I wasted no time checking out which cafe to visit and found on Tripadvisor that it’s recommended to lunch at Mami.
The place was packed and the terrace dining area was full, fortunately we managed to find a table indoor and ordered our set lunch. Food was good and the atmosphere was elegant. We had wanted to have dessert, but the service seemed a bit slow and none of the waiters approached us so we decided to skip it for tea later.
In the evening, I wanted to check out this French restaurant, Le Porc that was highly recommended on Tripadvisor but lo and behold, when we arrived, we found out that it’s no longer in business. Urggh .. so off we went to try to find food at almost 9PM, where most kitchens are almost closing. Fortunately we found Vaakahuoneen Pavijonki, which was next to the river, and although service was bad, the food was pretty good (or maybe we’re just hungry).
My “accidental” dinner – butter fish with fries. So simple but so yummy!
The next day, we headed to the Turku Castle for a visit. Some of the Medieval Festival activities are held in the castle so there are a number of people, plus a wedding that was being held there. Due to the festival, there are free guides available to bring us for a tour and an elegant lady, Helena came and offered to bring us around. Thanks to her, we had a chance to learn a traditional Finnish dance as well as listen to a shepherd girl played self-made flutes.
Before we left Turku, we visited Tinta, a wine place that is along the riverside. We initially sat at the terrace but it started to drizzle so we moved indoor, which was a really cozy atmosphere with bottles of wines on shelves against the wall and two barrels served as table near to the counter. We took the table next to the door and while having our drinks and dessert, we watched people passed us by.
Choc cake with coffee while watching people passes by @ Tinta, Turku
Blue Eyes suggested that we drive further to Naantali, one of the oldest towns in Finland. It’s also a popular tourist attraction due to the beautiful islands surrounding the town. It is also home to Moomin World theme park. Moomin is a popular Finnish cartoon based on old folks stories. We arrived to Naantali in the late afternoon and had a nice walk along its coast. It’s indeed a quaint little town with beautiful houses up on its hill. Numerous cafes and ravintola (Finnish word for restaurant) are found along the coast. And of course many boats and yachts docking at the jetty.
Summer brings many boats to Naantali
Naantali is quite good for a weekend getaway. Not too big but there are enough activities to keep people occupied. It’s also calm enough to just sit in the cafe and simply enjoy the scenic view around.
