A Weekend In Turku: Friday

In case you missed the first post in this series, we're spending a weekend in Finland's oldest city, Turku.

It's so easy to figure out what to do with yourself on a free day in Turku. Just pick up or download a copy of the Turku Treasure Map from the website of local design studio, Polkka Jam, and you'll have at your fingertips a guide to all the best places in the local cultural scene. This is exactly what we did on this rainy Friday in Turku and just look at the hidden gems we discovered...

turku treasure map

We started our day at at the 8raita Record Store (Yliopistonkatu 11b, 8raita.fi) for a favourite travel pastime: CD shopping. 8raita has three floors of new and used CDs and vinyl, which seems very popular in Finland as every music store we visited had a huge record selection.

8raita turku record store cds

cd shopping turku 8raita

Next door you have the Baobab Kids & lifestyle shop (Yliopistonkatu 11, baobabkids.com), which we didn't spend any time in but looked so cute through the window nonetheless. They sell clothing, toys and gifts from Finnish and Scandinavian brands.

baobab kids lifestyle turku

The streets of Turku offer so much in the way of interesting shops, galleries and just general interest. We wandered around for a bit before lunch.

leather heaven turku

turku art gallery

One of our stops was the Turku Cathedral (Tuomiokirkonkatu1, turunseurakunnat.fi), considered the national shrine of Finland. We were lucky that beautiful, haunting organ music was playing as we checked out the architecture inside.

turku cathedral

turku cathedral organ

After working up an appetite, it was time for a delicious Finnish lunch at Mami (Linnankatu 3, mami.fi). A note on restaurants in Turku: many of them are quite busy and book up in advance so be sure to reserve a table as soon as you know you want to dine at one. You certainly won't be disappointed by the food.

mami turku salad

My huge, delicious salmon salad and their own label beer at Mami.

fish mami turku finland

After lunch it was time to do some shopping. Turku is the perfect place to locate locally made clothing, jewellery, accessories and other handmade items. We first crossed the river to find Joutomaa (Kellonsoittajankatu 8, joutomaassa.blogspot.com) , which sells purses, accessories, jewellery and items for the home, as well as the artwork of the talented Reetta Isotupa-Siltanen, who creates these cool mixed-media pieces. We had the pleasure of speaking with her and bought a few cute pieces from her shop.

reetta isotupa-siltanen turku artist

The artist, Reetta Isotupa-Siltanen with some of her pieces in Turku.

Next we headed to the fabulous Televisio Lifestyle Store (Hämeenkatu 32 inner courtyard, televisioon.fi), which is packed with clothes, shoes, jewellery, bags, gifts and items for the home from Finland's top designers.

televisio lifestyle turku

After already making several purchases in Finland, including a beautiful new coat from the Design District in Helsinki, I was determined not to spend too much more money, however I just could not resist these coats created in Helsinki by Tauko (taukovaatteet.com) from recycled materials:

tauko coats helsinki finland

Each coat is completely one of a kind and I was lucky that some of them didn't fit because I was having a hard time choosing just one! Luckily my first choice fit like it was made for me and John and I decided we had to take it with us.

tauko coat turku televisio

On our way out of the shop, we encountered another cute dog in a hair salon window...must be a thing in Finland!

groove turku dog

turku groove televisio shops

boutique minne turku finland

I don't wear much vintage clothing but we did poke around in this cool shop, Boutique Minne (Kaskenkatu 2, boutiqueminne.com), which features both old and new creations. They also make theatre and dance costumes, wedding gowns and party dresses.

After finally exhausting ourselves, it was time for a rest and a drink at Bar4 (Kristiinankatu 4, bar4.fi), which has an incredible cocktail menu. We relaxed here for a couple of hours thinking about what we would get up to the next day...

bar4 cocktail turku finland

What's your favourite establishment in Turku?

 Many thanks to Turku Touring and the Radisson Blu Marina Palace Hotel for hosting us.

This post is part of the Dream Euro Trip October Europe blog carnival - if you're interested in other European destinations, check it out!

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Turku – or Åbo in Swedish – is a really nice town to take a walk in. We visited last summer arriving with the ferry from Stockholm early in the morning. It was interesting to see how the town started to wake up when we were walking around 🙂

10 years ago

Food looks so appetizing ..

10 years ago

I love the coat you bought! Also love that it sounds like everyone in Turku makes it so easy to explore – wouldn’t it be nice if all cities did the same?

Admin
10 years ago
Reply to  Emily in Chile

Thanks so much! I love it too – picked up two new ones in Finland and have been loving them this autumn =)

Reetta Isotupa-Siltanen
10 years ago

Thank you so much Andrea and John! It was so nice to see you! 🙂 Happy traveling!

10 years ago

This looks like such a cool town! That cathedral looks gorgeous, and from what I can see of the jacket you bought, it’s awesome!

Admin
10 years ago
Reply to  Ali

Thanks so much, Ali! =) I wish I got more photos of the outside of the cathedral as it’s just as interesting and beautiful outside as inside.

Thank you for working with Straigh To The Point.