Place Victor Hugo is a real oasis in the middle of the buildings and narrow streets in the very center of Grenoble. The big fountain in the middle of the square is a refreshing sight during hot days. As there is always somebody on the square, it’s a pleasant spot to sit down on a bench and just watch other people hurrying around you.

The square is surrounded with nice small boutiques selling fashion, accessories and children clothes, to pick a few. There are also a couple bars on the square and other stalls to buy snacks, drinks and ice cream.

Place Victor Hugo, Grenoble, France

I’m currently in Grenoble, and writing this entry on a bad sofabed in an apartment hotel. Soon, I’ll go downstairs to access the wlan there and post this.

I arrived already on Sunday. The trip was rough, and I do hope that I don’t get similar treatment on my way back. The start was nice, I get the boarding pass quite fast — I’ve been able to use business class check-in for some years, as I’ve got gold or silver level card in my pocket — and the security check was a breeze. The flight was 20 minutes late, but I had almost two hours for the transit in Frankfurt, so it wasn’t a problem. I spent some time doing window shopping at the airport and then stayed the rest of the waiting time in SAS lounge, writing the previous entry and reading emails.

The flight was eventless. In Frankfurt, I changed the terminal and went to Lufthansa lounge nearby the gate. These lounges have been uplifted, much to my delight, and now they offer a wide variety of snacks and drinks. There is no smoke anymore and the place looks cleaner in general.

The plane to Lyon was also twenty minutes late, but I learned that on the gate. The time fortunately flied, as I was reading Jan Guillou’s novel and soon I was sitting on the plane. Then the captain informed that we have to get out of the plane, as there is some technical issue and they are not allowed to take off. Almost immediately after sitting again near to the gate, we were informed that the flight is cancelled and the next flight leaves three and half hours later.

I got a seat on that plane, and then remembered about the new EU regulations about denied seats and cancelled flights. Lufthansa didn’t have leaflets on the gates, so I had to queue for fifteen minutes in front of the transit desk to get a meal voucher and the regulations. As the whole flight was cancelled, I didn’t get compensations — if I would have been dropped out due to overbooking, I could have earned something.

I spent the meal voucher in a bad sushi place and then tried to get to Lufthansa lounge. The nearest lounge was in different terminal and after passport control, but to my amazement I could get there without troubles. Furthermore, I could get out, too.

Finally, the I was flying towards Lyon. I was afraid of loosing my checked-in bag, as I didn’t get a new baggage sticker, but fortunately the bag had found its way to Lyon.

The bus to Grenoble had left ten minutes earlier, so I had to wait 50 minutes to catch the last bus, hop in a taxi and be at the hotel at one o’clock on Monday morning. The apartment hotel has sofabeds instead of real beds, so I had first to open the sofa to get a bed, and then spend the night (and the following nights, too) on an uncomfortable bed. My search for a good hotel in Grenoble needs to continue.

I’m leaving Grenoble on Friday, and I do hope that I can get back to Finland without hiccups.

Ivana Helsinki is the brainchild of one of the hottest young Finnish fashion designer, Paola Suhonen. She has been able to turn a traditional and boring Nanso around to be one of the coolest hots in the Finnish fashion circles.

The store located in Uudenmaankatu, a street renown for hip bars and art galleries, shows a glimpse of Paola’s own design world. The garments portray the innocence of the 70s, and most of the stuff is based on themes such as camping. The clothes are really chic, but you have to have the courage to wear them with a pride.

www.ivanahelsinki.com, Uudenmaankatu 15, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 622 4422

Myymälä2 is a really strange shop, especially in Helsinki. Located in a basement on a more quiet part of a renown bar and art street, the shop is an tantalising mixture of a contemporary art gallery and a fashion shop.

Expect to find the unexpectable. The garments and the items sold here may be really unique, as they could be handmade by some artisan and sold by a commission in the shop.

The gallery portion hosts exhibitions from artists that you have probably never heard of, but who could be the next stars.

www.myymala2.com, Uudenmaankatu 23, Helsinki, Finland, +358 50 4040 3667

info@myymala2.com

Updated May 9, 2007: The restaurant has moved to Hotel Glo on Kluuvinkatu.

La Cocina is a premium Spanish restaurant in the Palace hotel complex on the seabank next to the old Market Square and other poshy stuff in Helsinki. The window tables have a magnificent view towards the sea and Suomenlinna fortress.

The dark chocolate brown walls, the red glass dividers and the wooden floor create a subdued atmosphere for enjoying your company and the food. The menu has a lot of influences from Catalonian and Basque traditional foods.

Talking of the food, this restaurant is clearly the best place for savouring a few tapas (or pintxos, as they are called in Basque). The portions are tiny but really really delicious. The main courses are not bad choices either and the fine dining continues all the way to the marvellous desserts and coffee.

www.palace.fi, Eteläranta 10, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 1345 6749

I’ve been living for too long in a semi-poshy area, as I’ve forgotten the real faces of Finland. The inhabitants in Lauttasaari and Tapiola areas are well-doing middleclass families, young singles with good income or already retired couples that have enough money to spend. They all have at least one thing common: they are not bitter with their situation and they usually look forward to the future.

Otaniemi, my first touch to the only metropolis of Finland, is a little bit different on the money scale, as most of the inhabitants are poor students. On the other hand, they have huge expectations from the future and are in general very nice and forward-looking people.

This is not the case in all suburbs around Helsinki. As the regular readers already know, we’ve sold our flat a few weeks ago and now we are on a vendetta for getting rid of the junk that has been collected during the years. They were certain boxes that have never been opened after they were sealed in Otaniemi, six years ago.

Anyhow, we went to one of the biggest flea markets in the Helsinki area — in Vantaa, to be exact. The experience was nice overall, we got rid of the junk and got paid on the process — but I was really struck how bitter most of native Finns looked like.

There were a sizable amount of people with foreign origins there, too, but most of them were happy to chat a few words, share a smile and laugh to my bad jokes while trying to convey some business. But the Finns, oh boy.

Some of them looked like that they had eaten a whole basket of bitter fruits and kept the smile at the bay, all times.

I do hope that I never end to a situation, a sort of personal cul-de-sac, that would bend me to so bitter. I also wish that my personality is not such that I end up being bitter as an old fart, even if I’m doing really well. Better try to be positive, no matter the costs…

If you need more room for all the stuff that you have bought from Turku and Finland in general, Laukku-Rasti is an excellent store to buy more luggage.

The store is located on Kauppiaskatu, a couple of blocks away from the Turku’s market square. They stock all the major brands available in Finland; Samsonite is the favourite here.

Apart from luggage, the store offers also other bags and travel accessories, such as umbrellas.

Laukku-Rasti, Kauppiaskatu 4, Turku, Finland, +358 2 233 3119

If you are searching for good quality branded childrenwear, go to Lastenpuoti Olivia ja Oskari in Turku’s Kauppiaskatu. The store is located only a couple of blocks from the market square.

The selection caters for both boys and girls, and the boys’ section is surprisingly big. Usually boys have less than half of clothes compared to girls. Here they carry a wide variety of toddler clothing for him, including Lego clothes — an object of desire for every small man.

The girls’ section is not bad either. There are clothes from, for example, DKNY, and the selection is at least as good as with the boys.

Lastenpuoti Olivia ja Oskari, Kauppiaskatu 4, Turku, Finland, +358 2 469 1660