Cookie travels

The other day I was anxious of buying the express bus tickets before the weekend coz of the Midsummer holiday. So yesterday despite my ‘not so perfect’ condition, I decided to go to the bus station. I was finally able to purchase the bus tickets needed for my family’s visit here. There will be four adults and an infant traveling from Helsinki airport (Helsinki-Vantaa lentoasema) to Pori and return.

In order for us to enjoy a maximum amount of discount, the lady selling the bus tickets suggested that 3 adults will follow the 25% discount for persons traveling in a group of three. By the way, in order to enjoy this discount at least one adult is present in the group and this group ticket must be purchased in advance from a bus station and not on buses. Then she pointed out that for pensioners, those over 65 yrs old they also get a discount. So we placed dad in this category. As for me, I have to enjoy 10% discount for a round trip journey. A passenger is allowed only one type of discount so better choose the best discount applicable in order to get great savings. Bus tickets are valid for 30 days, the lady added, so we can enjoy many bus trips from Pori to Helsinki and vice versa. The total amount paid for four adults (infant is free) was 99 Euros from Helsinki to Pori and another 99 Euros for their return journey to airport, while mine alone costs 70 Euros for a return trip. Just imagine the discount when traveling in a group of three.

I think, you can also buy these tickets online but with the questions I have to ask before purchasing the tickets, a personal visit is better for me. Besides, the bus station is just a few minutes walk from our flat. For more information about timetables, tickets and prices, routes and bus stops, or contacting customer service, you can visit www.expressbus.fi. On the other hand, if you want more information regarding different kinds of bus ticket products or travel cards, you can visit www.matkahuolto.fi. These websites have English version.

I had been blogging about posting some photos of Yyteri in my recent post ‘spring - another family trip to Yyteri.’ So after successfully uploading them, I would like to share here some of the shots taken from my own lens. The photos might not be that bright coz it was a bit cloudy when we visited this place. And in early spring, this season still showed evidence of winter darkness. Somehow this will give you an idea of how Yyteri looks like during spring. Deserted? Enjoy the photos:

the sand and dunes of Yyteri beach, read about it here

leaving footprints on the fine sand as we trudged the dunes of Yyteri

after crossing the fine sand and dunes, a signboard welcoming visitors to Yyteri

enjoying a game of soccer or say kicking the soccer ball?

I know that spring is just over and summer is here, referring to Finland’s season. But this one’s part of the many travel stories I want to post before they fade in my memory so please bear with me…

To start with, if I forgot my travel buddy – my digital camera – last year during our first family trip to Yyteri, this second time around, I made sure that our outing here is captured through the lens. I brought my camera this time so I will be posting photos as soon as I upload them.

If I make a comparison between then and now, the scene last autumn (or end of summer) and this spring was somewhat the same. There were few people strolling along the beach side. I could count them. The weather was also similar, still chilly and windy, and the sea was icy cold. This time though we had an added activity aside from the usual picking of cute white shells and building sand castles with bare hands. We brought a soccer ball so we had fun playing family soccer, kicking the ball and running after it.

As we started to feel the chilly wind coming thru our bodies, we then decided to leave the place. And we were hungry as well. It was about 2pm. After our short trip to this beach, we went back to the city to enjoy a pizza buffet treat to celebrate in advance hubby’s birthday. I posted one photo there and more photos coming up here at cookietravels…

Our first family trip to Yyteri was towards the end of summer last year, August to be exact if my memory was right. It was not our intention to visit it that time so my camera was left in the house. The whole family was driving to Rauma to see hubby’s new work place and on our way back we decided to drop by this famous beach in Pori coz it was still bright at seven in the evening that time. We were amazed by the vast sand dunes that covered the beach. At first I thought we went to the wrong place. It was a matter of crossing the sand dunes before we could see the beach. I felt it was a long walk from the parking area then going up the hilly sand dunes before the sea was in sight. Excitedly the kids ran towards the sea but then it was for their viewing only. The water was cold and the weather was chilly. Dare to take a plunge? Instead, the kids just made sand castles with their bare hands, picked up sea shells, and ran around the dunes. I know the kids have been missing our trips to the beach when we were still in Thailand but here it was just too windy and cold. It was on this day too that we touched part of the Baltic Sea for first time. Too bad there was no ceremony. Haha. Aside from us, there were few people who were around strolling and enjoying the fresh sea side air. We couldn’t stay too long now…brrr and dinner? It was an indication for us to go home.

Despite the holiday, our side trip in Turku, Finland was not bad after all coz as I list down the sights explored, there were quite a number of them that I was surprised. Somehow had it been a more prepared trip, I could have seen more of the inside and not just the outer view. More so as I was doing some posts about Turku, I realized that I missed the Sibelius Museum and Ett Hem Cultural Museum nearbythe Turku Cathedral, including the Great Old Square and the Brinkkala Mansion where the Christmas Peace declaration is read every year which is located near the Tuomiokirkkosilta (Cathedral Bridge). The point is I was already in that area but I still missed it. Actually I was on ‘the other side of the river’ enjoying the glass-building Turku City Library that’s why I didn’t pass those. Maybe someday our family might come back to Tukru.

With the exception of Turku Castle, the rest of the sights in the downtown area were explored on foot. So here are some sights in Turku that we were able to see: Turku Cathedral, Turku City Theatre, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Paavo Nurmi Stadium, Turku Castle, Turku Art Museum, Turku City Main Library, the market place, the bridges along Aura River (link to the five bridges along Aura River), and we also passed by the Forum Marinum on our way from the port to downtown area and back to port. I also took photos of buildings and houses depicting the architecture in this city. I will be posting in the weeks ahead each of these sights so keep visiting.

Turku, aside from being the oldest city in Finland, can also be described as a city with five bridges along the Aura River. Why is this so? Because as it is located on the river banks of Aura River (Aurajoki), its land stretches on both sides of the river, hence, as you take a walk along the banks of Aurajoki in downtown Turku you can see five bridges connecting the eastern and western side of Turku. The eastern side is popularly referred as “this side of the river” whilst the western side as “the other side of the river”.

Let me take you to a walk along Aura River. Our stroll starts on “this side of the river”, the eastern side of the Tuomiokirkkosilta (Cathedral Bridge) where the Turku Cathedral, Sibelius Museum and Ett Hem Cultural Museum are located. On this side of the river, we can also see the Great Old Square and the Brinkkala Mansion where the Christmas Peace declaration is read annually. As we reach the next block, we will find the Aboa Vetus and Ars Nova, which is a museum about old Turku. As we continue our stroll, the next bridge we will pass by is the Aurasilta (Aura Bridge), where we can see the Paavo Nurmi sculpture done by artist Wäinö Aaltonen. Up ahead is the Teatterisilta (Teatteri Bridge) with the Turku City Theatre beside it. Next is the Myllysilta (Mylly Bridge) where Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art is situated. The last bridge is the Martinsilta (Martin Bridge) where we can see a lot of ships and sailboats. This indicates that it’s now the sea that stretches ahead. From here we can take a free ride to ‘the other side of the river’ in one of Turku’s familiar attractions, the river ferry, Föri.

a Föri carrying pedestrians and bicycles across the Aura River © Wikipedia.org

If we start our stroll on “the other side of the river” from the Cathedral Bridge towards Martinsilta, we will pass by the Main Library, the Pharmacy Museum with the Tourist Information beside it, the Forum Marinum, and the Turku Castle. Restaurants and cafes are on this side too. You can dine at Aurora, famous for its steak, or Sergio’s, for Italian food, or enjoy the best coffee on the riverbank at Café Art. We have now completed our virtual walk along Aura River and have familiarized ourselves with the five bridges along it. So how would you find the walk if its the actual one?

Continued from May Day in Turku –part 2

As we moved around downtown area, taking pictures of different sights, we noticed that most people wear white cruiser captain caps. Because of this, the kids were so excited to have one. It would as well be a nice souvenir of our trip here. We went to the market square to see if we can find this cap. Unfortunately we couldn’t find one in the shops.

I was surprised to see different nationalities and tourists here in Turku, and some foreign sellers who can speak Finnish. You can see the internationality of the people here perhaps because of the sea port. It was a different scenario in Pori.

The market place was crowded because of the holiday. There was even one pizza shop lined with people waiting to get in. They are running out of seats eh. The pizza here must be delicious. Later in the afternoon we ordered pizza from this shop for take away. We plan to munch this nice smelling pizza in our ship liner, Viking Lines, as we start our cruise to Stockholm. We now bid goodbye to downtown Turku and drove back to Viking Lines port for another travel experience.

Continued from May Day in Turku –part1

Our first stop in Turku was the Viking Lines port for our trip to Stockholm. We already programmed the address of the port in the GPS so we easily found it. We parked the car here and walked to the nearby Turku Castle. It was closed during this public holiday so we just walked around the castle and took some photos. After this we drove to the city, found another parking area beside the Aura River near the Myllysilta (bridge) and parked here. Since we don’t have a map and an exact street address (for the GPS) of a place we want to go, hubby was hesitant driving around this unfamiliar place. So we just parked the car and walked around the city.

To be continued…

It was May Day (1st of May) when we went to Turku, Finland. Our road travel went well. At least my daughter did not experience the nausea and stomach pain she went through when we went to Tampere last Easter. It took us a little over 2 hours drive from Pori where we left early in the morning so we can spend the whole day in this city while waiting for our departure time to Stockholm which was in the evening. This was our first trip to Turku.

Because this family getaway was not really planned (it was a sudden decision) it slipped from our mind that offices were closed during this public holiday especially the Tourist Information where I was planning to visit to get a copy of Turku travel map and some advice for a one day visit here. I had a brochure of Turku though but it was not so much helpful for us coz the sights where the kids wanted to visit are to be traveled by ferry or are closed due to the holiday.

To be continued…