This year I decided to celebrate my birthday in my old hometown Turku. This is the city where both me and hubby went to Uni and where we met and eventually fell in love and married. I also lived here for a few years as a child.
Wine and room service
Old prison grounds and restaurant boats
Saturday morning started out with a nice hotel breakfast after which we headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was Kakolanmäki that used to house Turku prison from 1858 to 2007. In 2015 construction of apartments in the old prison buildings started. You can reach the area with a funicular, which is the first outdoor inclined elevator in a Finnish city. After taking the funicular up the hill we walked around the entire area and stopped by to check out Hotel Kakola housed in the old county jail. Then we headed back down the hill and continued walking along the Aura River. After the clock hit noon, we decided to visit one of the numerous Restaurant boats for a refreshing drink. The next stop was for afternoon coffee and some cake at Fazer café by the market square. This beautiful café is housed in an old renaissance revival house from 1856 that used to be a pharmacy. Then it was time to head back to the hotel to prepare for an early dinner.
Delicious tapas
Due to restaurant restrictions, we had to have an early dinner at 3:30 pm. Before dinner, we stopped at my old alma mater where I started school as a child for a pre-dinner drink. The school has since been turned into a brewery bar and restaurant. I had reserved a table at di Trevi for dinner. After exploring the menu for a while we decided to order four Tapas each and share one more tapas. We also ordered a bottle of cava to accompany our tapas. The tapas we ordered were: Jamón Serrano, Manchego cheese, Patatas Bravas (to share), deep-fried corn arancini and jalapeno mayonnaise, deep-fried halloumi and rhubarb jam, beef tartar, mini hamburger, grilled scampi marinated with chili and garlic, and ceviche. The food was excellent, and the service was super friendly. The atmosphere in the restaurant was nice, and I would recommend this restaurant to anyone wanting to have some tapas in Turku. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to read and watch Netflix. After a good night’s sleep, it was time for another breakfast and then we headed back home.
I had a great birthday especially considering the restrictions. Now it is time to see what this year will bring with it. This upcoming weekend we will celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary so a post on that will be coming up next.
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