My Trip to Helsinki Part Two - What I Eat In A Day While Traveling and Vegan Finds

Now coming to part two and bit about the trip itself as well showing you what I typically eat while traveling. 
One difference this time is that I'm writing from home instead on the plane or coach like I used to when traveling and posting for my blog. I want to train my brain while being less on the phone enjoying the time I was with my sister. But we both collected key facts we noticed throughout our stay which I'd like to mention and list later.

My coach to Berlin was at around 8 am my lovely boyfriend took me there then headed off to Berlin Tegel. A new airport for me it's bigger than Schönefeld but has nice options such as Coffee Fellows where I met my sister for a coffee before we got on the plane. At the airport we noticed many Japanese signs but speaking about that later again. It took us 2 hours then another 40 minutes with the train to Helsinki. The hotel is perfectly located and you need about 10-15 minutes to get there from the main station. We arrived at like half past 5 and had a bit time to go to one of the the local malls around the corner called Kamppi. Inside you have all the important stores such as Lidl, Alepa and K-Supermarket but also clothing stores and others like The Body Shop, GameStop, Levi's, Indiska, Vero Moda, Mango, Flying Tiger and many more. We got dinner at Hesburger as I read they have a vegan option too. It was very pricey(nearly 6€) and came with a patty made from oats and beans. There wasn't any cheese or mayo sauce(just tell them to leave it out and you want to have it vegan). The taste was alright and didn't taste much like meat(which is actually positive to me) but too pricey. Wouldn't buy it again. Still nice to know when you have no other choice around.

On Saturday 

we had breakfast(got coffee, a bread roll, fresh fruit and overnight oats) then had a look at one building which has a museum and a cinema inside. It was only 5 minutes away from us. It looked so cool with the art and then all the popcorn and illustrations on the walls. There was also one huge wall with so many different candies. One part all vegan labelled! we both got a bag(I literally got one candy from everything haha) You pay about around 2€ for 150 grams. You can see it on my Instagram within the highlights!

About 2 minutes next to it we found a Moomin store. After entering a huge group of Japanese people came in and that was the moment where again I noticed that Japan and Finland are somehow closely connected. Did you know about that? 

We walked further to the Töölö Bay lake and through the park. There was a homeless guy playing drums on a trash bin. He looked so happy it has warmed up my heart <3 At the water were so many ducks and goose one old man fed them and talked to them in Finish :D We went further to Töölö which is located up north from Kamppi and had coffee there at "Picnic" which seems to be a popular chain there. We walked further through Töölö, found a bag of vegan cinnamon buns from Fazer in a supermarket and had a few of them at our hotel then we explored the malls again. For dinner I had baby carrots, mini tomatoes and the best bread on earth dipped in really tasty vegan cashew cream cheese(Cashewlevite) from the brand ILO.

On Sunday 
I had a similar breakfast but tried the fresh porridge too. We decided to go more south along the Baltic Sea. The view was beautiful, the air fresh and crisp. It was pretty quiet. Maybe because we were lucky and had Sunday. Walking along the whole coast up to east we found a cool café with a second hand shop inside. It was more like a private thing with limited spots I guess where a few young people had their racks selling their own things. The café had many vegan options but decided to go to Espresso House across the street which is another famous chain in Scandinavia. There I got a purple blueberry Frapino(yes purple!!!) Made with coconut milk and you have three vegan flavor options besides the coffee range all possibly made with almond milk and vegan cream on top(best cream I've ever had my sister agreed). 

Afterwards found a very cool, probably the best thrift store called UGG. I didn't take anything with me in lack of luggage space but I can reeaallly recommend it to anyone as the prices are true second hand prices like how they should be! And you have a real experience as the gems are hidden there. I found this beautiful jacket here which I will already miss a bit :( 

In the evening we had vegan burgers as Bun2Bun. Its one of the most known burger places in town I've heard. Not gonna lie I was a bit surprised as it is located directly in the Kamppi mall on the food market with a tiny booth only. I expected an own small location. You have a couple of burger to choose from. My sister got The Cheese burger I went for BBQ & Cheddar and shared their new vegan nuggets. The nuggets were good my sister liked them too. The burger was, well it was okay. If you're into vegan fast food you'll probably like it. I liked the different sauces and the burger wasn't dry at all. But I noticed I'm just not a fan of that 'real' meat taste and fast food overall. I never liked meat, no matter if animal or plant-based. Same with fast food. I normally only have it when traveling and being in company. So this was a really eye-opening experience. The burgers were made with the Beyond Meat patty whereto I admit expected more too but it had that slightly weird aftertaste. My sister liked it and she said it tastes pretty real for the fact it's plant-based. But like I said, I'm done with heavy meat alternatives and would stick to other options in future :) I recommend this place if you love burgers tho! Definitely better than Hesburger. 

On Monday
(same breakfast just didn't have any bread but two bowls of overnight oats instead :D) which was our last day we went to the north-east area firstly stepped into the botanical garden. Well, we wanted to. Finding out the place was closed(like many others) which was surprising. I know that many cafés are closed on Mondays(within Germany too) but not public places. The outer garden was open tho and really beautiful. There was a house I think it was a university embellished with owls and surrounded by trees. It really reminded me of Harry Potter 💜

A but further we entered the Kallion Kirkko which is a pretty church in the Kallio District. We sat down inside and heard the organ playing for a while peacefully. On the way down to south we've found another cool vintage shop and also an old music store with lots of vintage band tees and records it was super cool! Just forgot the name of these D: After another coffee later to warm up again at Espresso House we stumbled across the Helsinki Cathedral which seems to be quite famous. I loved the green, with stars embellished domes. 

We had a late lunch at Vapiano(they have vegan options everywhere) I got creamy avocado pasta with vegan cheese on top. Then went back to Forum which is another mall directly to Kamppi and bought a few last essentials and presents for friends. I also had a vegan toffee ice cream before bed which I wanted to try since forever. Was SO good!

Our return day was Tuesday already, very early so had to wake up like 4 am. The journey back was as smooth as the arrival. Not much to say except that I felt very safely all the time I also found a really interesting and inspiring read in a magazine on the plane. I left Berlin at half past 1 after I had coffee and an Acai Sunshine Bowl at Coffee Fellows. On the coach I was snacking on all the candy in the bag I got in Helsinki while reading the latest chapter of Plunderer - Die Sternenjäger which is a reeaallly good manga!

Now the list of the things we noticed while staying in Finland:

- Finish has so many long and difficult words and most of them end with "i"

- There are maaany Japanese people around(what I loved)

- Espresso house

- It's pretty expensive there

- Many people have reflectors on their clothes

- The weather is very changeable
- You can only pay with card at many places(It seems Germany is really behind about that)

- The streets are very clean, no dog poop around

- The people are very friendly and calm, don't speak much

- The Finish women mostly have very sleep and blonde hair

- The door locks are integrated in the handle(haven't seen that before yet)

- the one market was playing metal music inside :D in general they play really cool music

- the traffic lights blink green before it turns red again
- There are slot machines at the entry of supermarkets and kiosks. Like when you paid your groceries you can go there and waste your small money

My favorite things about the whole trip were definitely seeing my sister again as well staying at Hotel Helka. You can find the whole post and review here. It wasn't located too central but also not too far out so just perfectly to have all the important places around! I can highly recommend it to anyone who wants to feel welcomed putting importance into vegan options, good WiFi or if you're a business person planning on meeting in a group.  

Overall we mostly literally walked through the whole city and its areas while admiring its beauty. I guess that's what I(or everyone in general) does but I love walking for miles and being the observer which I am already. 
Helsinki is a beautiful city but somehow something was missing. I only spotted two or three really eye-catching people on the street with a brave, confident and different style. I think that is what I really missed. Like inspiration when it comes to fashion which I always find when I am in cities like London or NYC. So this trip has showed me that I can't fall in love with every city in a deep way. And my love for London(even though I accepted the fact that I probably won't move there as it's too busy and expensive) is actually real.

Below are a few last pictures I took in the supermarkets:

I took this vegan Strawberry chocolate from Lidl back home with me. We don't have that flavor in my country but the brand is SO good!

Huge choice of vegan cheese/cream cheese etc.(this was only the cheesy part there were SO many other options such as meat substitutes, yoghurt, milk alternatives, ready to eat cakes, freshly baked apricot croissants and blueberry muffins etc.):

And this beer here which looked so good! It even had pentacles on the sides engraved into the glass. I didn't buy it as I don't really drink beer anymore. Would've only bought it because of the bottle.

If you have any questions feel free to leave them down below! I'm happy to share my experiences with you and thank you if you read until here. It means a lot to me!

💜