Helsinki downtown has two fish restaurants, Fishmarket and Havis. I have visited them both and cannot really say which one is better — both shine in different areas.

Havis has excellent location near the old market hall. Ask to get a street view table to enjoy watching people passing by while savouring the food. You can also dine outside when the weather is nice, but the patio has no views whatsoever.

There is only fish, seafood and vegetarian dishes available. The food is good and the portions are largish. The service is very snappy, we did not have to wait too long for anything, and even the bill was handled promptly.

Consider reserving a table beforehand, as Havis was fully booked also during a quiet Sunday evening.

www.royalravintolat.com, Eteläranta 16, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 6869 5660

I was woken up quite harshly an hour ago: the fire alarm of hotel began beeping and then monotonic voice told to leave the room and go the nearest fire exit (and not to use the elevator).

As I’m still jetlagged, I was going to wake up soon anyway, so I was not that tired to get up, put clothes on and pick a number of items with me: mobile phone, camera, extra lens, laptop, Palm, passport, iPod, and wallet.

I know that in emergency you should just leave everything behind and hurry out, but I’ve learned from several fire alarms in my previous office that it’s better to have the most frequently needed stuff and good set of clothes — if you have to wait outside for an hour or more, you don’t get cold and still can get in touch with people or continue working. And I usually have at least half of this stuff packed in a Marimekko shoulder bag, so collecting the stuff takes less than a minute.

Sleepy people were slowly emerging from the rooms to the corridor and lazily walking to the exit. No panic or hurry was seen. After descending the eight floors to the street, we packed to the hotel lobby. Soon the fire bridage arrived with two trucks and started to figure out the situation.

I took a couple of pictures of the trucks, but it was so dark that the exposure time was almost a second, and thus I didn’t feel to take an extensive set of images. I also refrained from photographing hotel guests, as some of them were in nightgowns or pyjamas.

After a few minutes, we were allowed to go back to the rooms. Fire alarm stopped chiming a couple of minutes later, but I couldn’t catch any sleep anymore.

Keramiikkapaja Anubis is really, really weird craftshop. Their specialty is ceramics, and somehow they tend to make a sort of scary. Check the picture to get a picture.

If you are fan of such things, a goth maybe, you’ll find a lot of stuff to purchase here. In the other case, there are still a lot of items that fit to the concept of “normal” ceramic item.

The store is located on hill in Iittala glass village, in a green hut.

Keramiikkapaja Anubis, Lasikeskus, Iittala, Finland, +358 3 676 5049

Iittala glass village hosts, surprisingly enough, also a chocolate factory with a shop. Kultasuklaa (”Golden Chocolate”) manufactures and sells several kinds of chocolate, including also some flavours, such as strawberry.

The manufacturing process can be seen from Monday to Friday through a glass wall in the shop.

Kultasuklaa has also an extensive collection of chocolate figures and they can print logos onto chocolate!

www.kultasuklaa.fi, Lasimäki, Iittala, Finland, +358 3 656 911, kultasuklaa@kultasuklaa.fi

I’m writing this once again in an aeroplane, this time the carrier is United and we are over Greenland.

I’m travelling in business to California for the third time this year. After this trip I’ll have a few weeks holiday and travel in Finland; maybe visit an European destination on a long weekend… That’s yet to be seen.

United has either begun charging for alcoholic beverages, or then I haven’t paid that much attention to this before… It’s sad that the carriers can’t get their act together without using such annoying tricks. Operational excellency and thus efficiency is the key, not cutting random items.

As we are now rambling in the foods & drinks category, let me complain about the tasteless American style meal. I understand that meals in the air are bland, as they have to satisfy different tastes, but this meal was a real flop: no taste of anything, just a collection of different ingredients cooked in fat. The chicken tasted just chicken, the potatoes tasted just potatoes and the peas, well, just like peas. No spices, no taste, no harmony. At least United is wise enough to keep their mouth shut about the meals — I once got so bad meal when flying with Air France that I still get angry; and they say that they are ambassadors of French cuisine!

The other royal PITA in flying to USA is the constant checks and the queues. I understand the security checks, there were fortunately only one at Helsinki and another in Frankfurt, as I went to have a quick eat in McDonald’s, but then I have to queue to get a sticker to my passport, and after that walk one meter to the end to another queue that exchanges my perfectly ok boarding pass to a new one with the same seat and everything. Of course, I was asked several questions that everybody answers similarly. What’s the point?

I asked to have a seat at the back of the plane where there are only two seats next to the window. The seat next to me was empty until a German guy appeared from somewhere and told me that he had been asked to move here… Too bad that they didn’t usher him to the other empty seats in my row — but I had an aisle seat, so the window might lured him.

Iittala, one of the best known Finnish design house, has a factory in Iittala, a small town north from Hämeenlinna. And not just the factory, but a host of other services, such as a factory shop.

If you have not visited yet in any Finnish design factory store, consider to do it. You can find world famous glassworks in decent prices. The stores sell also normal tableware and kitchen utensils, so they serve dual purpose.

The shop in Iittala is a middle sized factory shop. They stock all major series in all available colours — and some leftovers from series that are no longer made. The place is not dirt cheap, but you can make real finds with bargains or buying second quality stuff — usually you can find a few items that do not seemingly have any mistakes.

www.iittala.com, Iittala, Finland, +358 204 39 3512, shop.iittala@iittala.com

Naivistit Iittalassa is an annual naivistic art exhibition held in Iittala during summer months… In an old school, as most of the art exhibitions in the Finnish countryside.

The art on the walls is hilarious and makes you smile. All works of art are on sale, so you can purchase a permanent source of joy to your walls. If you are visiting from abroad, remember that you cannot take the piece of art with you instantly — but have to wait until the exhibition is over.

www.htk.fi/kalvola/naivistit, Vanha Puukoulu, Iittala, Finland, +358 3 672 2355

This text is being written in Air Dolomiti plane from Grenoble to Munich.

I’ve spent two past days in Grenoble in business matters. Now I’m writing this in Air Dolomiti regional jet that is late and I’m unsure whether I can meet the next flight or not. Well, time will tell…

I flied in through Copenhagen with SAS. The plane from Helsinki was shock full and I got upgraded to business class. I was travelling in one of the cheapest ticket class that doesn’t even contain in-flight meal. The three course menu was nice perk with a silver card. I should get a gold card during this year, I’ve been travelling so intensively to USA — hopefully I get more free lunches.

The seat for the next leg to Grenoble was in fifth row. I knew that it wouldn’t be a business seat, but I was surprised to hear that it really is the first row of the cheapest of the cheap class — only toilet is free of charge. Fortunately I had some Pepsi Max and chocolate with me, so the flight was tolerable.

One has to take an airport bus from the Lyon airport. The bus was already leaving and a French gentleman was complaining about something in the ticket office without any indications of leaving. Fortunately the clerk asked for people going to Grenoble and I and a few others got the tickets and caught the bus in the very last minute.

Grenoble was hot and humid on Tuesday. I toured around the city and visited some shops that I missed last time. The sales season was coming and a number of shops was closed for organising the sales. Funny.

Wednesday was spent in working, but I get one hour to shop — didn’t find anything for myself, but Aapo will get a nice looking smart collar shirt. That was a real bargain, only 3.15e. I don’t know how the shop can stay in business with those prices.

It rained a few times rather heavily on Wednesday. When it rains, it pours in Grenoble. Thus I had to spend the rest of the evening in hotel, reading a good book. Not that bad choice.

Thursday was (and still is) a combined working and travelling day. After lunch I headed back to the airport, caught the airport bus almost in the last minute — had to wait a couple of minutes in the bus stop. I got lift from a coworker to a bus stop outside the downtown. We’d failed, If we had tried to meet the bus at the bus station.

The Lyon airport is surprisingly good place to work, expect that there is no WLAN connection. GPRS takes partially care of that, but it’s too expensive in the long run for checking mails and too slow for surfing the web — did I already mention being too expensive?

Air Dolomiti is my first experience in Italian carriers. So far, the image has been positive. The service is nice and fast, and the food was more like a small cake from a delicatessen than the normal ugly flight fare. Hopefully they can land this bird early enough, so I will have time to catch the flight to Helsinki. Or otherwise I’ll be sleeping in Munich.

German effiency saves the day
I’m writing this on my the plane to Helsinki.

Munich airport is prepared to take care of late flights. There were two vans waiting for people with tight connections. A polite airport official took our boarding passes and gave back the passenger receipt — thus we just went through the gate. I and a German man going to Bremen jumped on a van and we were first driven to the Bremen plane; in less than two minutes. I could be accustomed to this service in normal flights, too.

After dropping the first passanger, the van sped to the terminal and to the gate of the Helsinki flight. I entered the tube using a service elevator and was the second person to board the plane — the first guy was probably had similar journey. The rest of the people joined us a few minutes later and now the plane is really full — no business seat this time.

The only downside of the adventure is that I couldn’t buy Lindt premium dark chocolate (one in golden wrappings) in inexpensive price from the airport. Well, I can do it next Saturday when I’m returning from the States.