roman.theater

now back to your travel tale from summer.  still in volterra, you have the chance to see roman theater from the altitude. this was a rubbish dump in medieval times. the view from via lungo le mura del mardorlo is great and superb.

when this get posted you're either too tired from your trip or you already deep in sleep.  either way, helsinki was nice in autumn but you're no longer eager to venture out and about in the afternoon or evening as it does get quite cold nowadays...

hotel.manta

this is a special exhibition by helsinki art museum  and will ends on 12 october, so this is in fact the last chance for you to pay a visit.
 the mermaid status stands in the market square but it has been transformed into a hotel room since mid august.  apparently the room is sold out every single night even though the guest can only check in at 6pm when the exhibition is closed at 5pm with one hour of cleaning.
you won't want to stay here, prior to the interior visit you told yourself you won't mind a night here in this cubical hotel but now that you see the statue actually stood in between the double bed, you wonder if you'll feel comfortable to sleep at the leg of the bronze mermaid statue. let alone the open visit where every visitor can basically touch every furniture except the bed and the statue.

cafe.old

cafe vanha in finnish or cafe old in english.  you're relief when you finally reached this place after the walk.  the walk is not long but the single digit temperature cause you some pain in your ears.  so when you finally back to the room temperature you finally able to feel relief from the pain and the numb cold hands.  you didn't bring your gloves, but you will surely bring them next week.  that said.  the interior of the cafe is quite nice. it still belongs to the university if you're not wrong.  you're happy with your cafe latte and the finnish apple pastry.  they filled you up before you continue to your next destination.

autumn.walk

it's just three week that you didn't step your foot here, the city is full of autumn colors.  the season is very distinct here in helsinki. the distinct blue sky is gone now and grey cloudy sky greeted you welcome as you arrived this afternoon. but there is no boredom when you have many shades of yellow, red, orange and brown to enjoy on.  the temperature also dropped to single digit and thankfully you picked up a winter coat this morning just before you left the house.  

it's not extremely cold but it's significantly cooled down, you decided to go for a brisk walk around the lake opposite you and walk towards the city center.

the brief walk in the park along the lake was not disappointed. it's full of colors, full of foliage and the air is crisps and fresh.  you took your time to appreciate the autumn scenes and not before long you've reached city center and the cafe that you want to check out this trip.

confluent.of.cuisine

you don't know how to call this post but it's basically everyone bring a dish kinda dinner gathering with the theme of nasi lemak.  however, as it gets nearly, the theme evolved with teochew feast and at the end the table is overflow with the confluent of both nasi lemak aroma and scent of teochew dishes and a hint of thai and hong kong.

 the food at the beginning, mostly prepared by the host

 the nasi lemak 2.0 along with roti jala

 the scent of teochew with the soy braised duck and the peanut

 and everything else including the ma-poh tofu, store bought roast duck, soy braised chicken

 a refreshing thai papaya salad

 the dinner also turned out to be a surprise birthday celebration for a dear friend who just had her birthday a day before the dinner

and let alone, endless flow of the wine supply... a number of you mingled till midnight and return home reluctantly.
this really reminds you of your time in hong kong where this sort of dinner gathering with wine were common occurrence. it's been a long while...

keeping this short as tomorrow you are bound for a business trip.

embrace.sisterhoods

 you'd a brunch appointment, so you arrived just before 11am.  the weather is so fine, too good to be true for october weather and let alone enjoying the indian summer in this big garden cum hotel restaurant is truly a bliss

 the flowers and plants change according to the season, it's definitely different from your last visit.

 the same rustic rusty chair but given the change in season, you feel the chair looks a little different now than in the peak summer

 different kind of flowers are in bloom

 you opt for indoor dining since it's after all not summer any more....

you're too carried away by the conversation, so most of the food are not pictured except this huge salad....
it's a good sharing, chatting in a very open and transparent forum.  it's long overdue but yet's it's better late than never in your opinion.  you walked out this place feeling relief, feel loved and encourage and wanting to change, change for the better of course.

prov 27:17 as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend

::volterra::

a well preserved medieval ramparts where "twilight" took the scene here. you're here for the volterra ad 1398 festival, though you experienced it without getting the admission ticket

the entire town is decorated, walking along the street, you feel that you're either in a film setting or you're teleported back to ad 1398

follow the horse signs and that lead you to another event site...

despite you didn't enter into the main site where the festival took place, you have a good glimpse and truly feel the atmosphere especially when the troop made an entrance to the communale. also they 're enough people dressed up in medieval costume walking around the whole city.

it's definitely festive and merry where tourists and locals mingle around.

personally volterra looks more real than san gimignano. this place has enough inhabitants and also the festival makes the city a bit real and lively.  not watching the 'twilight' yourself, ti's hard to tell or compare the scene in the movie against the actual setting.

florentine.beef.steak

you wanted to dine here a night before but they're full house. so you came back again a day after.  you didn't know if it's good but judging from the full house situation, this restaurant has to be something.  the bread was good

starters - your zucchini flowers with fish paste and his octopus

 and your florentine beef, total weight of more than 600g.

 that comes with white broad bean, meanwhile he has been craving for seafood so he got his share of shrimps

 but you're truly happy with your steak, olive oil rubbed, charred grilled to medium.  so fresh, and so yummy. it's a huge steak that he has to polished off for you but still you thoroughly enjoyed every single bites, the pure taste of beef.
this is something you cannot recreate at home, since it's down to the quality of the beef which is something hard to source in the lowland, so you're happy you had a taste of florentine's beef steak.

tuscan.balcony lunch

you stay put today as the weather forecaset to be rainny.  also you're tired from extensive sightseeing from a day before.

lunch at the balcony, it doesn't need to be expensive but it's precious to dine under the tuscan's sky. it's pleasant to sit out even on a cloudy day, and you don't need expensive food to be able to enjoy. just some crackers, tuscan pate, siena's panforter cake, monterspertoli's wine and snacks, you enjoyed it over the tuscany's landscape.

***
october is here! the season is changing and you're now suffering from sore throat which you're not sure if it's a flu or just your body is over heated.  you're not so enthusiastic to wake up either now that the sky is getting more grey each day.
***