Café Strindberg is a very centrally located traditional coffeehouse at the corner of Pohjois-Esplanadi and Mikonkatu, on the same block as Kämp Galleria.
The first floor hosts a café that serves all the special coffees, sweet and salty pastries, cakes and soups you need to get yourself going again in a shopping spree. The big windows open to the Esplanadi park, and you can spend your time watching the people passing by.
During spring, summer and autumn, Strindberg has a patio on Pohjois-Esplanadi, and when the temperature rises over zero and the first rays of sunlight hit the ground, people are sitting there in freezing weather and still enjoying themselves.
The second floor has a restaurant and a poshy bar with comfy leather chairs and table service. On Kämp Galleria, Strindberg operates Desk, a mix between a restaurant and cafe, serving lunch and light snacks.
Café Strindberg, Pohjoisesplanadi 33, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 681 2030
Stockmann department store is by far the best shopping experience in Finland. Their main store on Aleksanterinkatu has eight floors full of goodies.
The first floor hosts the large parfumerie, magazines, candies and big readymade meal counters. The second, third and fourth floor are filled with fashion for everybody, fifth contains housewares, linens and so on. The sixth floor has a good restaurant and large sports store. The electronics and music is to be found at the basement. Smaller special boutiques, cafes and such are spread around the building.
The basement delicatessen is a fine place to find Finnish specialties, such as rye bread, reindeer and game, among a wide selection of fine foods.
The service in Stockmann is ready to go lengths, do not be afraid to ask the clerks. There is also a worldwide shipping service on the 7th floor, should you buy something that is too big for your suitcase.
www.stockmann.com, Aleksanterinkatu 52, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 1211
The avid developers of WordPress have released yet another version of the blogging software. This time the release only minor, but they have changed so many files that I’m really reluctant to upgrade, as I’ve fiddled with some of the files to get Nomagid.com working perfectly for my needs.
I almost missed the upgrade, as for some reason the Dashboard in the WordPress admin pages didn’t show that article. Maybe that bug has been fixed in 1.5.1…
Maybe I should try to refactor my changes into plugins, but the current plugin architecture seems to be a bit blurry to me… And some changes are not even doable with plugins. Dang.
Oh well, better continue pondering and maybe even do something in the near future.
Trader Joe’s is not your basic neighbourhood grocery store — instead, they specialise in foods that are not easily available in normal stores. Normal food is carried, too.
If you have any dietary requirements, this shop is an excellent place to buy your hotel room refreshments and snacks. They have a wide variety of gluten free, low fat, kosher, sodium free and organic products among others.
Their website has a lot of information about their selection and you can find helpful hints, too. The staff seemed to be extremely glad to help.
www.traderjoes.com, 5700 Christie Avenue, Emeryville, CA, USA, +1 510 658 8091
Powell Street Plaza is one of the four shopping centers in Emeryville. It makes me wonder how on earth one can fit four profitable shopping centers in a town with population of 7,000? On the other hand, Emeryville has 20,000 workers, so maybe the owners have done their math.
Anyhow, this particular shopping center has a central parking area and surrounding shops. So no idyllic strolling around with your family, as in Bay Street Shops area.
The shops, especially those selling fashion, are a little bit lower in commercial pecking order than the stores on Bay Street. There are still some perks, such as Tower Records, Circuit City and Trader Joe’s. There are a few restaurants and Burger King in the area, too.
Powell Street Plaza, 5753 Christie Avenue, Emeryville, CA, USA
My site is frequently visited by people who find it using search engines. To better understand the dynamics of the used search phrases, I’ve used ShortStat to see the most frequently used strings.
This approach has one flaw: I don’t a decent visibility on the trends — the phrases tend to change over the time and if some phrases are dominating the result set, the newcomers may not have even a possibility to enter to the list.
To elaborate the problem, “Shortstat” is one of the most frequently used search strings to find the site, thanks to several small improvements that I’ve made. But most people find the site using terms related to travelling, such as “harald+turku” and “taco bell in shanghai”.
I’ve solved the problem by adding yet another view in ShortStat for showing recently used search terms. Follow these simple instructions to get it working on your site:
- First, you have to alter your ShortStat database to include a timestamp column in the search terms table. Open a connection to your database, either using mysql command line client or a web interface, and issue the following command:
alter table si_shortstat_searchterms add ts timestamp(14);
This adds a column that automatically updates itself to the current date and time when the row is inserted or updated.
- Add the following line to the configuration.php:
$SI_display['timeformat'] = 'H:i';
- Add the contents of shortstat_recent_search_terms.txt file at the end of functions.php in your ShortStat install directory.
- Add the following code snippet to desired location at index.php in your ShortStat directory:
<div class="module">
<h3>Recent Search Strings <span>When</span></h3>
<div><?php echo SI_getRecentKeywords(); ?></div>
</div>
Now you should have a working system. You have to wait patiently until there has been enough search string entries to get the table filled with correct dates.
Steve Madden designs fancy, colourful shoes, bags and garments for her. There are a handful of items for him, too, but they are in so tiny minority that let’s not discuss them here.
You either love or hate the design, these items are not for everyone. It is also a blessing as you do not encounter that many people wearing the same shoes or bags as you do…
The shop in Emeryville is located on Bay Street, an European style shopping area. The store is quite small, but hosts a good variety of shoes and other stuff. The prices are okay, too.
www.stevemadden.com, 5636 Bay Street, Emeryville, CA, USA, +1 510 601 0342
Gymboree provides clothes for children from infants up to seven years old. The garments are very colourful and the selection is good. Everything is not just baby blue and baby pink, but the whole spectum of colours is used. Excellent!
However, the prices are quite steep compared to the design and the brand. You may get better deals in Baby GAP across the street. This depends, of course, on the sales events and clearances.
The staff is helpful, as usual in the States.
www.gymboree.com, 5677 Bay Street, Emeryville, CA, USA, +1 510 985 1402
