Travel

Riga Airport

Bern, Helsinki, Switzerland, Travel

In transit between Helsinki and Bern. Grey day outside. Riga has a small but functional airport. Found a nice cafe with a spare power socket. Free wifi but it keeps showing adverts every second minute.

Air Baltic seem like the Ryanair of Northern Europe. Sneaky charges for checking in and a couple of staff who have horrible customer service skills. Can’t forget that horrible woman in at the check-in in Vilnius airport that I dealt with a couple of years ago. It was by far the worst checkin experience I have had so far.

 

Norwegian airlines now offers direct weekend flights between Helsinki and Dublin all year round. #aerlingus #norwegian #helsinki #dublin

Dublin, Finland, Helsinki, Ireland, Travel

I was searching for a flight home yesterday and was surprised when hipmunk found a direct flight between Helsinki and Dublin. When I saw it was offered by Norwegian Airlines, I headed to kayak.com as they offer a tool for looking up direct flights from any airport. In addition to the usual Aer Lingus schedule (Saturday and Tuesday), I saw that Norwegian offer direct flights on Friday and Monday which is much more sensible for a weekend break. I personally prefer this schedule and have already booked an extra trip with Norwegian. I wonder why the schedule planning team in Aer Lingus couldn’t have offered what the city break consumer wanted on the Dublin- Helsinki route?

The Wild Atlantic Drive

Achill, Ireland, Locations, Travel

Nice idea to develop this route along the west coast of Ireland. The Irish Times is going to have someone travel the route and write about it every day.

Take the existing coastal road up and down the western seaboard between Derry and Cork, a route of some 1,400km, develop it, package it and market it to visitors – from abroad and other parts of Ireland. The trick is to do it by taking what is there already – remote and wild beauty, coupled with people who in the main are warm and friendly and have a vibrant culture and history – and draw people into it without compromising it.

Restaurant Day

Finland, Food, Helsinki, Travel

This sounds really cool but unfortunately, I’m not going to be in Finland this weekend!

Restaurant Day is a one-day carnival in favor of restaurant and food culture.

On Restaurant Day anyone can set up a restaurant, café or a bar for a day. It can be anywhere: at your home, at the office, on a street corner, in your garden or inner courtyard, at a park, or on the beach – only your imagination is the limit.

The quirkier the concept of your restaurant is, the better it attracts people. However oddities aren’t necessary. Good food and drinks at a nice place are enough – the most important is to create a restaurant that you’d like to visit yourself. After all, the idea of Restaurant Day is to have fun, share different restaurant experiences with other people and enjoy the our living environment together.

Restaurant Day originated in Helsinki, Finland, and it’s happens four times a year, about every three months.

On the first Restaurant Day on the 21st of May 2011 almost 40 restaurants opened in 13 different towns. On the second Restaurant Day on the 21st of August 2011 about 200 restaurants opened in 30 different cities in four different countries. On the third Restaurant Day on the 19th of November 2011 over 300 restaurants opened in over 40 different towns. On the fourth Restaurant Day nearly 300 restaurants opened in almost 50 different towns in 12 different countries.

More information here.