Finland & Estonia

Office excursion!
As a thank you for our work contribution, my boss decided we would all go to see some architecture abroad. This took us to Helsinki and Tallinn.

Of course we did not want to miss out on the fun part, so we organized a few things around the architecture! First for example, we invaded the airport duty free to purchase some alcoholic drinks. This can become a difficult task, asking 12 people what they want to drink! Second, we hired a car to drive to our cottage destination…… where is the fun you ask?..... we had a rough idea, where to find the cottage in the big, dark Finish countryside....... We knew it was on a lake….. very funny, right?..... so the trip itself was a bit of an adventure. Third, we shared the sauna in our cottage….. 12 people in a room meant to accommodate 6 persons. This was hot, wet, squezzy and with a low oxygen level. The fresh lake below the cottage helped to vitalize our brains and changed our slow motion into quick movements….. believe me, it was veeeeeeery cold!

The aim on the second morning was to leave the cottage at 8 am…… Which you probably can guess…… we did not even come close to this time! The hang-over of some people made us leave at the early hour 10 am. Because we also forgot to buy some coffee….. after 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of vodka, 1 bottle of rum, many beers and different kinds of juices...... forgetting coffee is a tragedy……. we desperately needed to stop by a roadhouse to get some of this precious dark liquid. After that infiltration we all were much better capable to focus on architecture!

We arrived Helsinki at 13 pm…… just to realize that the first of our group needed to leave at 16 pm for the ferry boat. So there was no time for many different architectural impressions, but we just focused on the Steven Holl museum of contemporary art! WOW! Wonderful, impressive….. I am missing the right words. The museum itself is a piece of art and not just a functional building! We spend a lot of time there. I took… as usual….. millions of pictures from the same curves and walls – few actually from people…. My brother would be very bored watching these!!!


After a bigggggg dinner at a fancy restaurant (praise to Dainis - he paid!) we headed towards the ferry terminal. And we had to drop our car at a station near by. If you are not organized, this can be a major task….. finding the right place without a map and due to be back in time for the ferry boat. Vilnis had exactly 30 minutes until departure. But since the Latvians are very spontaneous, none really doubt, he would not make it…. Except maybe a German girl, being a bit stressed out!

Tallinn is a dream of a city! Beautiful and very medieval. We walked the old part and finally found a nice tavern to satisfy our hunger for food and dancing! It actually looked very Bavarian….


Following day was architecture again. We visited the Estonian museum of contemporary art and the occupation museum. Very nice and of course I took again many pictures of new stones….

After a medieval meal, where some of us ordered half a pig, we left Tallinn in the evening with the bus to Riga! I was exhausted…. But happy, that I had …thanks to Dainis generosity…..this great opportunity!