Day 1: Visiting Suomenlinna Island via Helsinki..

Actually this time I went to Helsinki not as a tourist. So I didn't look for any details. Also it was not the right time to explore!

So cold! felt like -5 deg or less...Ha ha ha..

And before booking the ticket, I was looking for the best price (I meant the low) not thought anything about their free time. Ha ha ha.. See how selfish I am .. I got the good ticket from wednesday to sunday. Also I thought I could go out on weekdays by myself and spend time on saturday with them..

But, more surprises waited for me... They took off and spent each and every minute with me.. Imagine no phone calls .. no interent.. no disturbance at all.. just we were three of us sharing something always.. hmmmm.. very good experience! I liked that..

"You know I always wanted this kind of effort from my family.. everyone receives thousands of phone call a day.. always they are busy in talking.. sometime i had to talk with that person otherwise it would be impolite. many visitors and many visiting... Honestly I never spent quality time with them.

Will try to change next time of my visit".

Okay.. Lets come back .. So Nasim and Abul had already lot of plans. So we started like this..

We went to one island (visiting castle) via helsinki city centre.

This is the main railway station..

On the way to get the ferry to island..

this is the only photo we all three together! I like it a lot.

Cathedral.. No offense the only building I liked in Helsinki...

please do not misjudge .. there are good things coming up!!!!

oh.. there it goes.. beautiful ship was right in front of us..

"Silja line".. goes (daily) to Saint petersburg..

I started enquiring about this. It is my dream to travel in ship. Also other good information I got is I do not need visa to visit St.Petersburg.. hmmmm... I started liking more Finland. And I started giving plans ..

Ha ha ha..

We have good plans now.. Lets see how it goes after two years.

now, we go to the Island..

we were already there. Almost no one was there.. Of course that makes some sense!!! It was too cold to go out..

in the following picture you see small huts.. could you guess what is it???

Okay.. Do not think a lot.. those are nice toilets! I liked the idea!

I liked the view of the castle in this angle!

We spent less time but had lot of fun.. Abul was all the time distributing food and water and made us so comfortable!!

On our way back we could see the "Viking Line" to Sweden.. it is very beautiful.. right???

May be one day I would own my own boat!!! why not??? who knows!!

In that case, I swear you are anytime welcome to travel with me!

So after our visit, we needed warm place.. we were in the shopping mall already with food court..

I had an opportunity to choose our food!!! that made me more happy..

my choice was to "Chinese"..

Poor Nasim and Abulfaz were so tired!!! ( and those balloons are mine- that was an offer!) ..

After good chinese food we went to explore some places inside the shopping mall..

That was enough cold out for that day!!!

As soon as we reached home Abul made a nice coffee and Nasim prepared great dinner (spicy again) and we started talking.. Specially me .. that everyone knows!!!

So that is for first day!

I give you news about next exciting part later!!

Best mini vacation: visiting Nasim and Abulfazl: Trip to Finland

Now it is my turn to take some effort to visit my friends! and it was my first experience to visit one of Nordic countries.

After Nasim left Porto I missed her so much. So I wanted to use the opportunity of traveling from Germany to spend some days with her and her husband Abulfazl.

When Nasim and Abulfazl stayed in Porto I didnt talk with them at all. After Abulfazl left I came to know her. Then we become good friends. After I came to know about him.. So this trip was good to spend some time with both of them.

So startin my vacation, I arrived Helsinki at mid night. Both were in the station waiting for me.

We went home and Nasim prepared the "spicy Pizza" (delicious) for me..

Also they surprised me with the snacks.. they bought whatever I like. believe me even the juice, milk and chocolate what i exactly drink and eat.. the same brand..

and i specially liked the "warning sign".. but it didn't scare me at all!

I am saying all these just to share you how good friends I have. Sorry I started with food. Will come soon our events!!!

until then kisses

11/11/11 : Special day : Special dinner for Special people

I proposed this dinner for my (our) special guest "Manel". He traveled to Dortmund from Porto to check on me.. But still I treated him good. .. I am kidding.. okay??

It is always a good feeling if someone took effort to travel and spend some time with us.. to be grateful and make it special i wanted to invite some of my friends here for the dinner too to have fun with.

so our dinner started with starter with some fresh wines..

Here I should mention about "Eric" (french guy).. He is my assistant cook... As I found he is a great cook..

He did lot of work more than me..

Merci beaucoup Eric!!

and Sudhir.. he helps me too.. Sudhir is a good criticizer.. I always consider his comments!! worth considering!

starter still...

after starter with good break we had a real dinner .. All these photo courtesy to Mahadev!

बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद Mahadev..

and in the conversation we learnt something important on this day from Eric.

Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day) is observed on 11 November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918; hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice ("at the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 a.m.).

after that Manel gave us a good idea to raise toast at 11.11 (pm) hours for the remembrance of end of world war I.

on 11/11/11 at 11.11 pm we did toast for the end of world war I.

So we really felt special after that.

Okay. So here I am ending this with saying Special thanks to everyone.

Obrigadissima Manel for visitng!