eight hours in helsinki

And the Scandinavian adventure continues!

Every time we go to Sweden, I try to plan a mini-trip to see a little more of Europe and since my best friend, Nora, was in Helsinki for Christmas, I thought it would be fun to visit her in Finland for the day! We used the same boat company as we took to go to Tallinn last year, and one boat-rocked-sleep later, we awoke to sun (SUN!) in Helsinki.

Fresh of the boat, we met Nora and her mom, Annelies, at the station and walked along the harbor in search of coffee.

We stopped at a little cafe and as the sun rose, things started to get quite pretty.

Properly fueled with incredible Nordic coffee (seriously, why is coffee just SO MUCH BETTER in Scandinavia?!), we made our way to downtown.

#f*ckingtourists

I’m just in love with Helsinki’s cute little architectural surprises, like this little chimney-holding frog! So adorable.

Eventually, we made our way to an outdoor Christmas market on the docks that was as cute as can be.

Greetings from Helsinki!

My dad bought some local treats:

Fried squid and anchovies! Mmmmmmm 😛

A few fried fish later, we found ourselves in another adorable Christmas market! God, I love Europe around the holidays.

I mean, come on…could this BE any more picturesque?

Friends in Finland ☺

Ready for a little throwback Thursday?

Norabanana and I at the painfully awkward age of thirteen (I think?)

Nora and I met when we were ten years old and both living in Nepal with our families, so it was appropriate that we stopped for lunch at a fantastic Nepalese restaurant downtown. Here’s to 17 years of friendship Nora-bahini! (And here’s to having literally NO flattering photos of us together! #fail)