Enter Kallio and let yourself be carried away by its overflowing creativity
Everything can change with a single gesture, we said. Dare to cross Pitkäsilta, the "long bridge" , 75 meters that once separated two ways of life : the one of the businesses of the center and the one of the workers of the north; that of the most affluent neighbors and the most defrauded; voters on the right and left. Architecture, unwittingly, as a dividing barrier . However, the gentrification has done his job, an incessant one since 2008 (they pointed out from Soitu): Kallio, despite showing reminiscences of a more decadent era (the 90s of sex shops and brothels that are still seen on streets like Pengerkatu ), today it has become the place to see interesting people and be seen. Examples of this almost accidental facelift ( what young creative resists a neighborhood with possibilities and cheap rents? ) is that shops like ** Geezers **, a temple of urban art that sells all kinds of material for creating graffiti, open their doors today on that same street of seafaring life and nightlife.
Called by the comfort of its location (so close to the hubbub of the city center and conveniently connected to it via tram 3) and the most affordable rents, creative young people became strong in the area and today, already settled, the difficult thing is to escape its charms. Despite the wind. Despite the cold. Despite the wildness of Finland. The interesting thing is on the other side of the bridge.
Pitkäsilta, the “Long Bridge”
FOLLOW THE AROMA OF FRESHLY MADE COFFEE
It is said, it is commented, that finns love coffee above all things . Consume, attention to the infographic International Coffee Organization , 12 kilos per year per head ( latest data recorded in 2015 ) . Enter Kallio and do you smell that? Yes, fresh, roasted, suggestive, hot... Your first cup of coffee is waiting for you at Good Life Coffee , the good life, the life that improves with a hot coffee and a respectful silence only broken by the musical selection of the moment (when we enter, 'Something to believe in' by The Offspring sounds). This espresso you are drinking comes from those coffee beans roasted by the coffee team at Good Life Coffee. It is a small place, very small (its three back tables; its spacious and comfortable main bench, perfect for sharing), but always full of freelancers who type unstoppably on their laptops while they sip their coffee without taking their eyes off the screen. .
Follow the aroma of freshly brewed coffee...
In Good Life Coffee you can get some pro-Kallio souvenir : How about a tote bag that reads 'Avoid Bad Life' ? Better a t-shirt with the emblem? Or maybe some house coffee? Do you prefer a chocolate bar made in Helsinki from Goodio Chocolate ?
PERFECT first stop
Right next to Good Life Coffee you can take a small (great) break to taste the delights of sandro , do you have brunch? This restaurant, the work of chef and businessman Richard McCormick , already has three stores in the city (the other two are in the central neighborhoods of Eira and Kamppi ) . Its success is more than understandable: cuisine inspired by African dishes, delicious, healthy, with a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes , careful with all the dietary restrictions that the diner may have and in a fun, colorful environment, where there is no shortage of falafel of ten or a seed bun with finnish butter which will become your vice (don't let it blind you: stay away from the bread and dive between the dishes of its buffet).
Saturday Vegetarian Brunch
Let's follow the route marked by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee (seriously, leave Sandro's bread) . This will inevitably lead us to bergga, another temple of caffeine. On the way to the street viides line 14 , we come across a building worthy of Gotham City: it is the Kallio Lutheran Church , in a romantic nationalist style from the beginning of the 19th century and an indisputable part of the most representative buildings on the Helsinki skyline.
Church of Kallio
But the smell of coffee calls us, and of cinnamon cakes and pastries... We are already in Bergga : there is more noise here than in Good Life Coffee; people get up empty-handed to sit down again with a piece of cake, a quiche or a sandwich to accompany their coffee and their constant typing (yes, they come to work here too; what a nice office, Bergga) . We asked for the manager. Absent. But a smiling face comes out of the busy kitchen to greet us on this cold but sunny day: “like Finnish women; hieratic and beautiful”. sip to coffee . Let's make our way to the next stop.
A sip of coffee and we move on to the next "scenario"
THE VINTAGE FINNISH
Let's climb the hill, let's cross the Bear Park by Kallio , so famous for hosting big parties and impromptu gatherings in the city's short summers; here, a kiosk (sadly closed in winter) is the makeshift center of the city's LGBTQ movement and the neighborhood's summer fun. In the agricolankatu street , which serves as a boundary to the park, we find two odes to the old with taste , two key stores in vintage fashion that invaded the city a decade ago to stay. On the one hand, hoochie mama jane with a wide selection of dresses and accessories for special occasions; on the other hand, advancing a little further along the same street, awaits us goose , who has been in the city for eleven years (although only one in his new location in Kallio); small but very complete, you can buy leather cowboy boots while the bowie graffiti from the wall watches over you.
VINYL AND PAPER
This really is vintage: go to Kallio to come back with a heavy bag full of new vinyl and second-hand books in English (or do you dare with Finnish?). Continue up the hill past Ansa's little shop; you will go through a maze of family buildings surrounded by private parks. Along the way you will find, of course, with cafes . It's time to break with Nordic design: Kahvila Taikalamppu awaits you with its rocking chairs, its colored fabrics and its "anarchy" in the arrangement of the furniture. It's good, after so many Eames chairs and rustic wooden tables, to bump into a bit of improvisation and chromatic madness . You feel a little more at home.
We continue ascending the hill to later descend it by the Fleminginkatu street and, after greeting the smug neighbors who groom themselves in the beauty salon of the same name like a scene of customs, you will find one of the great 'must' of the neighborhood: Ruple . It is not a store, it is not a cafeteria: it is everything at the same time and much more. From its walls, Rupla shouts at us “Art is an adventure that never ends” ; and this is how you feel when you come across a selection of the craziest vinyls, all of them brought to this point in the world through Obroni Import , a funky and African music distributor with bands like the White Eagles, Uncle Toye Ajagun, Camayenne Sofa...
rupla is everything
To this we add a small second-hand clothing store, with plaid flannel shirts, knitted jumpers, bell bottoms ... but also t-shirts and tote bags with the house's signature. Rupla also offers you an excellent coffee, roasted by the Finnish coffee experts of ** KeaKoffee ** and exhibitions and all kinds of events are organized in its premises that serve, among other things, to keep alive the community spirit that is breathed in the cold streets of Kallio. If you have been wanting second-hand, continue by Helsinginkatu and you will meet SOUL-Vintage . Give it time. Finding treasures among its hangers is an art and an ode to patience.
Rupla Art Gallery
Play a little literature and a lot of Finnish music . Follow Fleminginkatu and enter Divari Kaleva , a crazy bookstore / music store in which the alphabetical order is... a metaphor . Here you come to pass the time, for the right book or vinyl to appear before your eyes without you almost trying, and to wander between shelves without paying attention to the clock. Bonnie Tyler, Elvis Presley, Sting, Village People, compilations with names as hackneyed as Summer Love. .. and Finnish pop and folklore gems like Raita Karpo, Kullervo Linna, Kirka... The ultimate souvenir is coming.
THE BROOCH: THE MARKET
Let's close the circle, return to the starting point and, before crossing the bridge, let's stop at the Kallio market, Hakaniemi Market Hall , cute, renovated, clean, and full of Finnish products to complete your basket of unbeatable souvenirs. Just one recommendation: don't leave without trying a runebergintorttu, a typical cake made from almonds and crowned by the omnipresent raspberries, family of the unavoidable berries or 'berries' (Seriously, if you travel to Finland and don't eat any blueberry, blackberry, lingonberry, cloudberry, raspberry, cranberry... you haven't been to Finland). Normally, these sweet bites are filled with alcohol (normal, in these latitudes) but you will also find the abstemious version in any of the bakeries and pastry shops on the market.
Hakaniemi Market Hall
Hakaniemi is, of course, salmon paradise . fishmongers like Marja Natti they proudly display large and appetizing pieces; You can also buy Finnish gourmet delicacies at stalls like Parhiala (liqueurs, chocolates, candies, coffees...) or have a coffee (how strange) in coquettish corners like the one in S. Engström . In summer the market takes to the streets and its stalls populate the surroundings of Hakaniemi, showing the goodness of the producers from the surroundings of Helsinki.
It's time to say goodbye. The music is playing at its sweetest and about to fade to black to say goodbye to Kallio. Where better than in the cradle of vinyl, black and white , a shop (located opposite the market) who has been putting the soundtrack to the city for 33 years . This really is a refuge in which to spend hours, forget about the clock and enter a spiral (that of the vinyl groove) of rhythms from yesterday and today. Here there are special boxes, second-hand albums, hard-to-find first editions and a music-loving atmosphere that is hard to leave. Like Kallio, warm against the dictatorship of the thermometer; surprising and alive in every corner . Everything can change when crossing a bridge.
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The market goes outside in summer