Riittalicious: Travel The World / Joensuu, Part 2

It was a fun weekend in Joensuu and it was very nice to see my friends! Also the weather was the best possible (meaning no rain). Joensuu has the small town feel and you see a lot of old people and families. But since it has a university, there are also younger people and foreigners. My first impression was that the people in Joensuu dress up better than the people in Kuopio.

Oh, and forget what I posted earlier about getting traditional food at Karjalantalo restaurant because it is no longer there! The restaurant is now called Kerubi and it serves regurlar burgers etc. So much for getting information online ahead of time...

But because one picture tells more than thousand words, here's pictures from the trip.

On the bus ride to Joensuu. Jinx was there too and he loved to look out the bus window.

First thing Saturday morning we checked out the downtown Joensuu. Here's me with my friend. This is the shopping street of Joensuu. It is only for pedestrians. We did pop in few stores and that was enough for me to find a new winter coat. I will show pictures of it later on. It is very awesome!

This old yellow building used to be an old movie theatre.

This little store sells tons of different kind of coffee, teas and chocolates. It smells so yummy in there!

This is the market place in Joensuu. It is bit crappy because the market hall they have is pretty ugly.

By the side of the market place is this statue of wolf in a suit sitting on a park bench. He was looking so handsome that I sat next to him for a while. He did talk much though...

Then on one walking street you had these funny things on the street. This one had a little tile that had pictures of the savory rice pastry things (karjalanpiirakka) that I told you about on my previous post.

And this one has a skull and a cell phone.

Then we walked to this arts and crafts area where they had local craft makers selling their handmade things like socks, hats, bags, decorations, glass ware, jewelry, just anything you can imagine! I think I have to go back there before Christmas for little Christmas present shopping.

The arts area had really pretty looking old buildings. They even had forging mill there (the red brick building) but it was closed on Saturdays.

The old barn looking buildings had a Polish doll exhibition. It was pretty cool.

Next we walked along side the River Pielisjoki which goes right through Joensuu. There are pretty park areas right by the river.

There is also an island called Ilosaari. It is a little island with a lagoon where you can go swimming and enjoying the sun summer time. Joensuu also hosts a rock festival called Ilosaari rock every summer. It has been sold out many times in a row. The festival isn't held at the little island anymore because it is, well, too little.

Here's the city hall of Joensuu. It is designed by Eliel Saarinen. He is also famous of designing the train station in Helsinki. You can see the similarities between the train station and the city hall.

Next we got to see some forest machines because my friend's boyfriend designs the head part of the machines. Here's me in the huge machine. I don't think I will ever become the driver of one of these.