Last Wednesday we decided to escape school and go on an extempore road trip to Turku. There is a bit of a rivalry between Turku and Tampere and I’ve had some terrible experiences there… But it being this year’s culture capital I decided to set prejudice aside. And really, how bad could it be with Riikka our personal Turku native as our guide 
Our first stop was at one of the cities most notable landmarks, Turku Cathedral. We checked out the a free exhibition, “Viimeinen Ehtoollinen” (The Last Supper), which had art by Franchine LeClercq, Pauno Pohjolainen and Andy Warhol.
Gorgeous church organs @ Turku Cathedral.
Our next stop was at the Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova museum. The museum houses a modern art gallery (Ars Nova) and an interesting history museum/archeological dig site of medieval Turku (Aboa Vetus). Lucky for us we had student cards and a CityShoppari-card so entrance was only 5,00€ (8,00€).
Ulla Jokisalo’s Guises of Play exhibition made an impression with some creepy photos and collages using fairytale themes and the medieval ruins were really cool! Well worth the visit 
After exploring medieval Turku we went back above ground and walked around the center of town wondering where to eat. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, otherwise it would have been nice to have a picnic by the river. In the end we opted for lunch @ Cafe Brahe a well known establishment with three cafes. They’re known for their H-U-G-E pastries which look delicious:)
I went for a chicken and sun dried tomato salad with Parmesan flakes, croutons and Caesar salad dressing. The salad was fresh and crunchy. The chicken was a little bit tough but the huge dollop of sun dried tomatoes made up for that
After the salad we had to have coffee and at least try one of the pastries. Again we used the CityShoppari-card to get a 2 for 1 deal on Cafe Brahe lattes. We decided to test the carrot cake and it turned out to be delicious! <3 Moist, flavorful and everything a carrot cake should be. Definitely worth the money!
Feeling a little naughty for skipping school we ended up making up for it in Turku as our next stop was Riikka’s old hangout, Panimoravintola Koulu (Brewery restaurant School). And true to its name the restaurant and brewery is housed in an old school house. The whole decor, atmosphere and even smell screams old school house and it was just the perfect place to sit down with a glass of beer (or cider), read the paper and chat for a few hours 
I opted for their unfiltered lager Lehtori, whilst Riikka went for the cranberry cider and Satu ordered the black currant cider, all products of the brewery. The beer was OK. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good either, a bit of a let down. Satu’s cider was really fun. To be honest it tasted like homemade black currant juice which was not a bad thing at all. Riikka’s cranberry cider however was by far the best. It tasted like a very nice lambic, not so much like a cider and I really do like lambics <3 Can’t wait to go back to try out more of their stuff!
All in all a fun trip. Turku is officially Bacon and Friends approved!
-Laura
