Hello,

We (2 adults) will be visiting Helsinki for the first time in March. Would like advice about restaurants. Want to try authentic, everyday Finnish food, have read that there is a meat pie that is good, and that sausage is a favorite. Can anyone recommend places to eat these things (where real Finns eat)? We will be near the train station. We would like to see how Finns use technology, the cell phone and public internet access. Suggestions for how to do that?

We are also interested one meal in a nicer restaraunt, again somewhere real Finns go, that has Finnish food.

We are very interested in architecture and would love a walking archetecture tour or other tour about Finnish design. Have searched on the web, but only tour we've been able to find is the guided tour of the city. Any ideas about where we might look for such a tour?

We are curious about what Finns wear! How cold will it be? Do we need boots? We'd like to blend in if we can.

Thanks for any and all ideas!

I don;t know about Helsinki - only stayed there one day in mid September and the temps were around 50 during the day. In St Pet it was in the 40's and everyone was wearing winter coats. Assume that March would still be extremely cold that far north.

I am afraid your info on Finnish diet is a bit outdated. Meat pies used to be a popular snack in 1960s and 70s, and I think you would have some difficulties trying to find those today. And sausages are mainly a summer thing. People barbeque sausages as an evening snack in their summer cottages. They go well with an after-sauna beer.

You can safely go into any restaurant and be in a place where Finns eat. There are no such places as tourist restaurants, a restaurant would die in a week if it would rely solely on tourists. It is a bit hard to recommend restaurants, they seem to come and go. OK, some: Zetor (a tractor restaurant) serves very Finnish food. Kosmos is a classic where nothing has changed in 60 years, Elite is another. Lasipalatsi is a good, reasonably priced one. Then there are many good fish restaurants, and very good Russian restaurants. And two that serve typical food from Lapland: Lappi, and another one on Bulevardi (I forget the name). You have plenty to choose from. There are about 20 restaurants that serve a special Helsinki menu. That changes as the year goes by, always according to seasons. For example right now is a fish roe and blini season.

I don´t know how you could see how Finns use technology. By watching people? Public internet access is a little hard to find since almost everybody has their own computers both at home and at work/school. Public libraries have internet access for people who don´t have a computer.

There is a tourist office on Esplanadi, and they have a special map for people who want to do an architectural walking tour. Three styles you could concentrate on: neo classical (whole area around Senate Square), jugend (Eira and Kruununhaka districts), and modern (here and there).

Clothes? Boots are a good idea. You don´t necessarily need them but it could still snow, or that nasty sleet might fall. A windbreaker, hat, scarf, gloves, sweater.

A little more: You can never know about temperatures. Right now it is +2C. This has been a strange winter, even the sea around Helsinki is open.

More restaurants. On Suomenlinna island there are two good ones: Panimoravintola (Brewery Restaurant, they brew their own beer) when you eat with your own money, Walhalla when company pays

I am so forgetful. National romantic style: railway station, National theatre and National museum. And Seurasaari island is full of old peasant houses from all over Finland.

Alas, dear fam,

The Finns have entered the 21st century along with the rest of us.

Smoked reindeer tongue is almost unique to Finland.

Wow! Thank you so much for all the great information. We will not disgrace ourselves by asking for meat pies and sausages! We are very interested in visiting Suomenlinna/sveaborg, but were unsure that it would be open in early March. Sounds like it is, great!

famdann, Suomenlinna is not some building that is open or closed. There are hundreds of people living on those islands, there are shops, a school, a naval military academy and so on. A regular ferry goes from the market place to Suomenlinna. It runs like a bus, and costs the same as a city bus. The stop is at the far left end of the market place. The tourist ferry leaves from the center of the market place, and costs more.