MyData 2016 conference is held in Helsinki, capital of Finland. Many of the conference speakers and guests has informed us of their plans to stay in Helsinki a bit longer. This is why we combined this small Visitors Guide for you. We encourage you to explore and experience the unique modern city with over half a million residents.
10% From Vegan Foodkiosk co-operative
Show your conference badge and get 10% discount on your buyins from the beautiful food kiosk owned by hundreds of Helsinki city dwellers in co-operative. Kiosk serves delicious veganized versions of hot dogs, pies, tacos, ice cream, and more. Has coffee and some sweets. A small vegan kiosk is just behind the National Museum of Finland and very close to MyData 2016 Bistro spot (see evening programme). The location is central, but not noisy and there is a nice small park to sit down and enjoy your food. Here you can try popular vegan food in Finland: Vihis (a vegan pie) and pulled oat, a new Finnish vegan “meat” made of oats. Pros: Pulled oat! , Grill food and vegan sweets in one place, Friendly staff
Suomenlinna maritime fortress
Picture by Jussi Hellsten / VisitHelsinki
The fortress was founded in 1748 as a maritime fortress and a base for the Archipelago Fleet. It is now one of the Unesco World Heritage sites. Suomenlinna is a popular sight and some people even live on the island all year round. It is not uncommon to see people having a picnic with a view.
You can get there by The Helsinki City Transport ferry and there is no entrance fee.
http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en/visitor/
Nice cafeterias
Picture from the Cafe Siili website
Summer Cafe Siili is a nice trendy cafe located in Käpylä district, it’s open until the August 30th. Fun fact: the cafe is run by Jyri Engeström (founder of micro blogging platform Jaiku that Google bought) and his wife Caterina Fake (founder of Flickr). More info: http://kahvilasiili.com/
Johan & Nyström coffee and tea heaven, http://johanochnystrom.se/en/about-us/our-places/helsinki
Cozy cafe to hang out and have refreshments or lunch, IPI Kulmakuppila, http://ipikulmakuppila.fi/en
Helsinki coffee roastery, http://www.helsinginkahvipaahtimo.com/en
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
Picture by Comma Image Oy / VisitHelsinki
Situated in the heart of Helsinki, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma is a must place to visit for someone into arts. Kiasma is a lively cultural centre and meeting place and it hosts several exhibitions yearly. At the moment the exhibitions are Boa by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, Conversation pieces by the Finnish visual artist Jani Ruscica and Happy Happy by the Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa.
Seurasaari open air museum
Luckily for you, the Finnish historical re-enactment societies will host an Iron age (it’s the viking age in Finland) market on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of September in Helsinki, more specifically in Pukkisaari, right next to Seurasaari Open Air Museum. There will be some swordfighting shows, handicrafts to buy and a chance to meet many historical enthusiasts in Iron age costumes. More info: http://www.sommelo.fi/english and http://www.kansallismuseo.fi/en/seurasaari-openairmuseum
Finnish National Museum
Finnish National Museum in central Helsinki hosts some interesting iron age artefacts such as weapons, jewellery and other such items in their permanent collection. More info: http://www.kansallismuseo.fi/en/nationalmuseum
Some of those findings have been made commercially sold products by Kalevala koru, more info: http://www.kalevalakoru.fi/en/jewelry/the-classic-collection
Day trip to Tallinn
From Helsinki it is easy to take a day trip to Estonia. The ferries leave in the morning, come back in the evening and the cost might be as low as 20 euros per person. The reason I make this suggestion is that Estonian maritime museum opens a huge exhibition about Vikings made by the Swedish History Museum in August. They even have a full size Viking long boat! More info here: http://lennusadam.eu/en/exhibitions/coming
For street art and trendy places to eat there is a place called Telliskivi loomelinnak, more info here: http://telliskivi.eu/en