I travelled to Vaasa and a friend joined me from Oulu in July. It was supposed to be the last trip to visit 30 cafes listed in the Iltalehti. The plan was to stay in Vaasa for two nights and three days to visit Rawkaa, one night two days near Pori to visit Café Petras and stay one night two days in Tampere on our way back home. Tampere is a good location for both of us to go back to the places where we live.
On the first day of the trip, a friend and I met up each other at Seinäjoki where we had to change the train to Vaasa. It was already evening just before 18:00 when we arrived at Vaasa. Everything is nearby in Vaasa city centre. Our hotel was about 5 min-walk from the station. We had pre-ordered take away sushi and tempura from a restaurant in the same block as the hotel. Looking at the website, I thought this must be a good place to get Japanese food. My instinct was right (again!). Though we thought it was in the same block as the hotel, but it was in the same shopping centre where our hotel was. We enjoyed the warm tempura and nice sushi in our hotel room.
Next day, we went to the café and realised it was closed for summer holiday. Shocking, but we immediately agreed to travel to Vaasa again in August. My friend had joined me several trips to visit cafes and she said she would like to join the final trip of those.
Even though we couldn’t make it to one of my main purposes for visiting Vaasa, we enjoyed the city and the surrounding. And we liked the idea to come here again next month.
We visited one of the UNESCO world heritage sites in Finland, Kvarken archipelago taking a summer bus organized by Visit Vaasa. We were picked up at one of the pick-up points in the city centre, and bus was comfortable. I had wanted to visit this archipelago for long time. I thought it was fascinating that the archipelago has been continuously rising from the sea. According to the UNESCO website, “Since the last retreat of the ice from the High Coast 9,600 years ago, the uplift has been in the order of 285 m which is the highest known ”rebound”. ” This natural heritage consists of Kvarken and High Coast of Sweden. We enjoyed the view of the special archipelago from the observation tower Saltkaret in Svedjehamn.
In the same island there was a nice café/restaurant, Salteriet. We heard from a friend that salmon soup at the café was a-must. And we were glad that we tasted it. We shared the soup and pulla-pudding as dinner time was approaching and we wanted to taste both. Both salmon soup and pulla-pudding were great!
On the third day, we enjoyed lunch and took a bus to Pori to visit one of the 30 cafes featured in the Iltalehti article.
On 20 August, I took an early morning train from Helsinki to Vaasa. A friend joined me travelling from Oulu.
I had been anxious until I saw the café was open even though I had asked the café if they would be open on their regular opening hours. I didn’t see it’d be an option to visit Vaasa again only to have coffee at the café.
Rawkaa was also in the compact city centre which was only 1-2 minutes from our hotel. It was open and we had colourful pieces of raw cake. I chose strawberry & lime cake, and my friend chose mint chocolate.
It was quiet in the café. Having visited all 30 cafes listed in the Iltalehti, I was happy.
After visiting the café, the first thing in Vaasa this time, we walked to the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art where we saw the most impressive photo exhibitions I had ever seen. We hadn’t known what to expect at the museum, but recommended by friends, we thought it would be a good idea to visit there. The photographer, Erik Johansson seems to be creative, indeed. I recommend you to at least to have a look at this website, and if there was a chance, you should go to see his works.
In the evening, we had great dinner at the Restaurant Hejm. Previous time, we had lunch and agreed to have dinner there when we would come back to Vaasa. My friend offered my mocktail to celebrate the completion of my café trip.
Next morning, I took a train back to Helsinki, and later she took a train to Oulu.
Rawkaa
Pitkäkatu/Stora långgatan 34 65100 Vaasa/Vasa