Helsinki 2026
Table of Contents
Nordhealth has offices in Helsinki, so when the opportunity came up to combine a work trip with a few days of exploring the city, Margarida and I jumped on it. Five days in the Finnish capital in the dead of winter. We booked the flights in early January, still shaking off what had been an absolutely brutal flu.
Getting There
The flight from Lisbon was long. Around five hours. We didn’t manage to get seats together, so Margarida and I ended up trying a Bluetooth mesh chat app to message each other across the cabin, which made me unreasonably happy in a nerdy way.
We landed at about 22:30 local time. After the Uber to Hotel Helka we were starving and the options were slim. Most of Helsinki was asleep. But we found a savior in the night: Ristorante Mirella, a short walk from the hotel. We thought we’d been coaxed into a bar with misleading information, but no, the service was a good step above average, the staff were genuinely kind, and even the drunk guests were joyful and giving us recommendations. I had a pizza nduja, Margarida had a porcini risotto with parmesan and a martini. We would’ve preferred something quintessentially Finnish for our first meal, but for what it was, it lifted our spirits completely.
We tried lonkero back at the hotel. The original grapefruit flavor and a cranberry one. It’s a Finnish institution. A gin-based long drink that dates back to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, originally created by the state alcohol company Alko to serve the influx of foreign visitors. Refreshing, uncomplicated, and dangerously easy to drink.
Work Days
For the working portion of the trip we moved to Hotel Jugend, which was closer to the office. The library lounge there was beautiful. All dark wood and soft lighting, the kind of space that makes you want to sit down and actually focus.
Meeting my Nordhealth colleagues in person was the highlight. These are people I’d been collaborating with through screens for months, and putting faces to names in a real room is always worth the trip. One of the nights we had a site launch coming in hot, so I ended up at my laptop until two in the morning crunching code. Not glamorous, but satisfying in that particular way where you and the team just push through it together.
While I worked, Margarida went solo and found Restaurant Kannas, where she had a fillet sirloin of reindeer. I was jealous.
Walking Helsinki
The non-work days belonged to the city.
Helsinki in January is cold, bright, and covered in snow. We walked everywhere. The city is compact enough that you can cover most of the center on foot, and the snow made everything feel quieter and more deliberate.
We started at Senate Square and the Helsinki Cathedral, that massive white neoclassical church that dominates the skyline. The views from the top of the steps, out over the square and the Alexander II statue, were stunning in the winter light. From there we walked down to Kauppatori, the market square by the harbor, and then up the snow-covered stairs to Uspenski Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe. The red brick against the white snow was something.
We passed by the Elias Lönnrot statue, now buried in snow. Lönnrot compiled the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, from oral folk poetry. The statue felt appropriately solemn under a blanket of white. We walked through Esplanade Park, past St. John’s Church, and found the “Fact & Fable” statues along the way.
The Food
Finnish food surprised me.
At Cafe Engel, right on Senate Square, Margarida had chocolate marble cake and I had apple cake with vanilla custard, washed down with Finnish apple ciders that tasted like champagne. But the real discovery was the Karelian pirogi, a traditional rye-crusted pastry filled with rice porridge, served with egg butter. Delicious. One of those things where you immediately understand why it’s survived centuries.
Restaurant Sea Horse was the quintessential Helsinki experience. A legendary spot that’s been open since 1934. I had sautéed reindeer with lingonberries and mashed potato. My first proper reindeer dish. It was rich, gamey, tender, everything you want from a Nordic staple. For dessert they brought out leipäjuusto, Finnish “squeaky cheese,” a baked cheese that actually squeaks against your teeth when you bite into it. Served warm with cloudberry jam. Unforgettable.
We also found Cafe Succes and had a semla, the Scandinavian cardamom bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. A tradition I know well from my years in Sweden, but no less enjoyable for it.
RAGU
The best meal of the trip was Restaurant RAGU.
Four courses. First: rainbow trout served sushi-style with delicate toppings. Then a moose ragu with polenta and red kale, rich and deeply savory, the kind of dish that makes you close your eyes for a second. The main was whitefish with a potato cake, roasted carrot, carrot cream, and hollandaise. And to close: a deconstructed piña colada with coconut vanilla ice cream, fresh pineapple, and cookie crumble. Every plate was beautiful and every bite was considered. RAGU earned its reputation.
Earlier that evening we’d stopped by Henry’s Distillery for gluten-free beers. Margarida’s eternal quest. And they delivered.
The Art
We spent a morning at Ateneum, Finland’s national art museum. Two pieces stuck with me. One was Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s The Horn of the Huntsman (Metsämiehen torvi) from 1911, a painting rooted in Finnish mythology and the Kalevala tradition. Bold strokes, deep forest tones, the kind of national romantic work that makes you understand why Finland holds its folklore so close. The other was a detail from Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. Seeing Klimt’s goldleaf work up close, the texture and precision of it, is a different experience than any reproduction can offer.
Heading Home
We flew back through Copenhagen, because of course we did. Margarida grabbed Mikkeller at the airport. At this point it’s a tradition. The woman cannot pass through CPH without a Mikkeller in hand, and I respect the commitment deeply.
Five days wasn’t enough. Helsinki has a quiet confidence to it, a city that doesn’t shout for your attention but rewards you for paying it. The architecture, the food, the culture, the snow. We barely scratched the surface. Next time we’ll stay longer.