Midsummer in Helsinki

This year I spent Midsummer fest in Helsinki. It has been a special weekend in many sense; nightless nights, summer sun, good food, drinks and most importantly the pleasure of good company. The icing on the cake was my friend's Midsummer wedding, which I will write a post a bit latter. 

The traditional Finnish Midsummer is usually spent in summer cottage, mökki. The place can be a basic summer cottage without a running water or electricity or a modern holiday home with three bedrooms and the latest gadgets. Regardless which option you choose, there is also two additional requirements most Finns have for their summer mökki. These are sauna and some type of water element for swimming (read skinny dipping). 

Since I wasn't able to escape the city this Midsummer, which is the ideal option to most of the Finns around this time of the year, I was lucky to stay in Scandic Paasi hotel in Helsinki. 

Scandic Paasi Superior Plus room (c)

Scandic Paasi hotel Superior Plus room (c)

Scandic Paasi hotel Face Stockholm bath vitalisizing soap and moisturizer (c)

Scandic Hotel Paasi Superior Plus room (c)

As you can see yourself, the room was fantastic. We stayed here for two nights and we were upgraded to a 6th floor superior plus room straight away (nice). Our room was spacious and bright with an interesting yet clam decor, polished with a mixture of blue, turquoise, black and white colours. 

Hotel itself located in a great place, very close to the city centre in Hakaniemi. Breakfast was phenomenal; there was a lot to choose from and everything was nicely placed and freshly made. The staff was super friendly and they were offering fun extras such as city bikes, roller blades, Nordic walking sticks and umbrellas for anyone wanting to experience the Finnish way of going out and about - I thought that was brilliant :D

I need a new pair of boots. Preferably black ones as my old black pair has started to look really tired.

Bless them, they have been repaired, reheeled and zipper fixed so many times and after six years they are still wearable -but I don't know for how long. And I don't want the old ladies to give up on me at a wrong moment.

I took my other pair of black riding boots to a shoe repair shop a few weeks back because the zip was broken in the other one. Unfortunately, the cobbler told me repairing was not worth it this time as the sole of the shoes were in a bad condition too. He said that it is a shame as the leather of the boots was in a superb condition and on the outside he would have never guessed that the shoes needed repairing. So one new zipper, new sole (in the outside bottom of the shoe) and  new heels would have ended up costing me at least as much as a new pair boots. Annoying. So I just asked him to bin the pair.

A pair of black leather boots

(c)