Summer weather has been here for the last one week. There was even a summer storm here today! We were so happy to watch the branches swaying in the wind while big rain drops fell. And there was the smell of wet earth! It had been so long since I came across that smell. No matter where I am, the sudden summer showers on hot summer days is such a pleasure!
Last week, we got fresh Finnish strawberries. Like Finnish summer, Finnish berries are a treat to look forward to!
finnish strawberries
I have never frozen them. Hopefully, this year I will freeze strawberries and blueberries. And also make jam. With some from this batch of strawberries, we made strawberry milkshake with vanilla ice cream. Yum!
strawberry milkshake
It was refreshing to drink instead of hot black tea (my everyday tea).
We usually eat plain yoghurt everyday either with cooked rice (a very South Indian thing!) or butter milk or lassi or raita, etc. When temperature goes higher, the first lunch/dinner option we think of is yoghurt rice. It is cooked rice with salt, plain yoghurt, grated ginger, finely chopped green chillies and tempered spices (whole mustard, cumin and asafoetida). This is the basic variety. Variations include using turmeric for yellow color, adding grated cucumber, chopped fruits (my mom adds cucumbers, grapes and pomegranate), toasted peanuts and cashewnuts.
Curd rice/ Yoghurt rice
In the above picture is the basic yoghurt rice (also called curd rice). Yoghurt rice with different variations was part of menu over half of last week!
These days are perfect to go for walks at night. I had my camera with me during one of those walks and captured a few beautiful night sky sceneries. Here is one of them.
Summer night
Gorgeous, isn’t it? Reminds me of a postcard TH got from his friend in Lapland!
Opposite the Florence train station is the Santa Maria Novella church.
Santa Maria Novella
We walked towards the Duomo. We didn’t go into the Duomo or Uffizi gallery in Florence because we had so little time!
Duomo
We strolled through the streets around the Duomo, did some window shopping, walked on the Ponte Vecchio and stopped for dinner at Piazza della Signoria. The food was okay but it was a great place for people-watching and monument-watching!
Piazza della Signoria
On day 2, we walked through some more streets and found this!
Dollar building art
It is an artwork installation by a local street artist, Vaclav Pisvejc. He put hundreds of US dollar bills on this abandoned building!
We again walked through the streets surrounding the Duomo and ended up at the other bridge. We got a good view of the famous bridge – Ponte Vecchio.
Ponte Vecchio
On the bridge there were the locks that eternal lovers put (before throwing away the keys in river Arno below) and a statue that looks like it is about to jump off.
Locks on the bridge
From there we walked all the way to Ponte Vecchio. At a little store near the bridge, we got postcards for family and posted them. On our return walk from Ponte Vecchio to Piazza della Signoria, we stopped to admire the beautiful statues and see the WIPs of talented portrait artists near the Uffizi gallery.
StatuesStatueStatue
For lunch, we had the freshest mozzarella and tomatoes on focaccia!
Focaccia
In the evening, we went to visit San Lorenzo market. There were lots of leather, scarves, clothes and souvenirs. We spotted the Mercato centrale and popped in to see. The building from the outside reminded me of a farmer’s market and I was expecting more like a kauppahalli you know, selling fresh produce and all but this is how it looks inside! There were more restaurants than fresh produce shops.
Food market
Look what caught my eye! A very interesting dining table 🙂
TableTable
There was fresh pasta displayed at one of the restaurants.
Fresh pastaFresh pasta
Although delicious looking, we didn’t eat there as it was too early for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening walking, then had dinner and relaxed with a huge gelato at the steps of Duomo for sometime.
We had a very early flight the next morning. And then, we were back in Finland! It was an awesome but very short trip and it went by at super speed!
Last week, we were in Italy for a couple of days. We flew to Florence and also visited Pisa. This post is part 1 of our trip.
We were taking an afternoon flight, so we went before lunch to Helsinki airport. We had lunch at the sports bar/restaurant in Terminal 2 – O’Learys. They used to have a veg burger option but not anymore. The only veg option was Quesedillas. Since we both are quite fond of quesedillas, we went ahead and ordered it. It looked quite promising!
Quesdillas
4 quarters of quesedillas on a bed of iceberg lettuce with some salsa, cream and avocado mash. The stuffing in the quesedilla was small bits of onion, tomato and cheese. You know how it is said that airport/airplane food sucks – this one fits the bill perfectly! Sure it was edible, but it didn’t taste like ‘real’ quesedillas.
After lunch, we browsed the duty free shops and bought some Finnish chocolates for someone we will be meeting in Florence. The airport was buzzing with activity – holiday season. Our flight was fully booked. We haven’t traveled in Lufthansa for nearly 2 years. So the moment I got in the flight I was surprised by the super slim seats. I had to take a quick photo!
Flight seats
But, they were comfortable enough for our short flight. We had a 1 hour layover in Frankfurt. On the connecting flight, for the first time ever for me, our flight was diverted to Bologna since it was quite windy at Florence. After two tries of landing at Florence Peretola airport (Amerigo Vespucci airport), the pilot said we will be flying to Bologna (which sounded like Poland or something, partly because of his strong Italian accent and partly because of my nauseous self). Only when we landed and I saw Bologna written on one of the buildings, I realised where we were! We waited for an hour to get our check-in baggage and to get on a bus to Florence. We were dropped off at Florence airport and then took a taxi to our hotel. That was the only little adventure (if it can be classified as one!) we had, rest of the trip was normal.
On day 1, we had tickets to climb up the Leaning tower of Pisa. So, we took a train at about 8 in the morning from Florence to Pisa. The journey was about 1 hour 15 minutes. We could take tickets at a kiosk or ticket vending machine or at ticket office. It was a regional train which means tickets once bought have a validity of upto 2 months and can be used on any regional train in that route. But before we got into the train, we have to validate it at a machine near the platform. When you insert the ticket, it punches the date onto your ticket. Here is ours:
Train ticket
On our way to Pisa, no conductor came to check our ticket but there were 4 of them on our return train from Pisa. The journey was pretty scenic. There were lots of sunflowers and small vineyards.
Sunflowers
We were at the Leaning tower by 10 am and there were already so many people! Before we climbed up the tower, we had to put everything – including purse/handbags in a cloakroom nearby. Cameras/water bottles were allowed. Felt strange to leave everything but once we got climbing the stairs, it seemed like the right decision!
Base of the leaning towerInside the leaning tower
There are about 300 steps on a spiral stairway to reach the top. The total time of the visit is about 30 minutes. We had to take a couple of breaks near the windows. I am so glad we chose to go up! The views were beautiful and feeling of standing on top of the leaning tower is simply wonderful 🙂
Bell
There were huge bells on the top.
View from leaning towerView from leaning towerLeaning tower
There was some construction work going on at one end of the cathedral. There were lots of people taking the customary photo – reaching out or holding or pushing or eating the leaning tower. We had lots of laughs looking at all the other posers with their hands & legs stretched out until they got the shot right! We also took the customary photo with TH pushing or ready to hold the tower. You decide! 😉
Pushing or Holding?
Then there was the fallen angel!
Fallen angelBaptistryCathedral and tower
We went into the Cathedral but didn’t go into the Baptistry. Then, we bought some postcards and magnets as souvenirs from Pisa. We walked around the train station for a little while, had lunch and took a return train to Florence.
More about our remaining trip will be in my next post, Italy – Florence.
After days of rainy, cold weather in June, the sun has come up strong and shining! It’s 25ºC and above since Sunday. Good news is it is going to continue this way for the rest of the week 🙂
Also, over the weekend, we got some ripe and juicy mangoes from our local ethnic store. We are not really fond of the all year round available supermarket mangoes but we keep an eye out for the ethnic store ones! The mangoes were gone as soon as they came! With one mango, TH made mango milkshake. We had the others as cut fruit.
It had been so long since I drank mango milkshake. Over the last year, it had always been mango lassi at Indian/Nepalese restaurants or home-made lassi with tinned mango pulp (which is no where near to the fresh mango taste but works when you haven’t had it in months aka desperate).
Fresh Mango Pulp
For the milkshake, TH used only one very ripe & fresh mango, a teaspoon of sugar and a cup of milk. It was enough for two people. Adding ice cream to milkshakes is not a habit so we really have to try & remember to add it! But we like it without the ice cream, so it doesn’t really matter.
Fresh Mango Pulp
TH blended and kept the milkshake in the refrigerator until dinner time. We had it after dinner. It was delicious!
Mango Milkshake
After I drank about half the glass, I realised that a photo was missing and quickly took the one above. Hence, the not so pretty picture!
Crafty Spell 