Movies, candies and books

What about a nice movie this Sunday night? But there is nothing good on tv? Well, why not rent a movie the old traditional way and go get a DVD?

Filmtown is a nice place for that. Here you can not only get your favorite movie but also everything else that belongs to a great movie night like candies and ice cream. And for those of you how are not really into movies after all they lately started selling books as well.

Should you be a real movie freak then get their membership card for 7 € a year and get discounts on every movie you rent.

Filmtown can be found at several locations in and around town. To find the closest one to you check out their website.

The mobile sauna

Sauna belongs to Finland like water, trees and rocks. Every house has one. But who says that a sauna has to always stay in one place? Why not for a ride in a sauna?

Rent e.g. thiss small blue sauna. It is pulled by a minivan that functions as a kind of dressing room at the same time. And prices are quite reasonable – especially for bigger groups. You can get this one for 150 € per day or 250 € for the whole weekend.

Have a nice sauna trip!

Everything for cycling in Helsinki

At Narinkka Square the Bycicle Center (Pyöräkeskus) is open again for the summer. Cyclist find everything they need here for exploring Helsinki by bike.

Not only can you can park your bike conveniently for a walk through the center. You can also get it fixed at the same time. Kampin Suutari takes care of quick bike maintenance such as lubrication, mending punctures and changing tires. Or just borrow all necessary tools for free and do the repair by yourself.

And for those who don’t own a bike there is of course also the possibility to rent one from Greenbikes. Prices start from 20 € for half a day.

For more information and special biking events check out the Pyöräkeskus website and Facebook page.

The tandem experience

One way to explore Helsinki is of course by bike. If you want to cycle around the city with your partner or a friend and you don’t have your own bike you should consider renting a tandem. The restaurant and bar Iguana on Mannerheimintie rents them out during the summer. 

For 15 Euros you get the tandem for three hours. If you pay 30 Euros you can use it the whole day. It has to be returned latest at 10 p.m. That gives you lots of time for a big tour around the center and the seaside. 

But be careful. Even though Helsinki is trying to make the city more bike friendly and making new cycling paths you should still always keep an eye on the cars. If you happen to cycle in a street without a cycling path it is recommendable to rater cycle on the walkway than on the street. Most Finnish car drivers are not used to bikes on the street and don’t think they belong there. 

Still a ride with the tandem through Helsinki can be a very nice experience. Just don’t forget to carry a helmet!

Moving to Helsinki IV

During the last days I gave you some information about what to consider when moving to Helsinki. With those small hints you should be better prepared and ready to take a look at the recent offers on the market. But where should you search for places?

Links

Here are two really useful websites where you should be able to find a lot of offers and where you hopefully will find your new home.

http://asunnot.oikotie.fi/vuokrapalvelu

http://www.jokakoti.fi/vuokra-asunnot

And here is one more maybe quite interesting website for you. You should know that the biggest landlord here is the City of Helsinki itself. They offer apartments for reasonable rental prices. Find out more about how to apply to those under the following link:

http://www.hel.fi/hki/helsinki/en/Services/Housing+and+the+environment/Housing

Moving to Helsinki II

And here comes part two of useful information for finding a place in Helsinki:

Rent or buy:

In Finland it is very common to live in your own place. In contrast to most other countries and especially bigger cities renting is quite exceptional here.  But since I assume most of you interested in this topic are from abroad and are probably not planning on staying in Finland for ever I will focus on the rental market. The information here might still in most cases also apply for buying apartments.

Size:

Yes, size matters. Especially when it comes to living space. I guess the most challenging thing in Helsinki might be, to find a place where you want to live alone. Of course there are those small one room apartments but most likely they are very expensive compared to what you would pay if you live in a bigger place together. So if you come here as a student and are not planning on staying at university housing consider sharing an apartment with one or two classmates.

To be continued...

Moving to Helsinki I

Ok, the last days you had to read a lot about the weather here. Sorry for that! But now something useful. I want to open a new service category for you. Over the next days I will provide a bit of information to people who are planning to move to Helsinki or are already living here and searching for a new place to stay. Knowing where to find the apartments is one thing. But I think it is also quite useful to have some basic information about the apartment market in this city. That’s why I listed down some things you should know. Today I'll start with :

 

the price level

First of all you have to arrange yourself with the fact that Helsinki is probably one of the most expensive cities in Europe or even the world. There are so many rankings for the most expensive cities in the world that all come to different conclusions but let me tell you that Helsinki is quite often among the top 10. For an apartment in the center with one bedroom you pay an average rent of around 900 € per month. In Berlin you could probably get three bedrooms for that price. But also the living expenses are a bit higher here. It is quite obvious when you go out since especially the prices for alcohol are quite high. But also at the supermarket you will see a difference (especially with foreign products like cheese from the Netherlands). You’ll find a pretty good overview over the general price level here.

Stay tuned for more!