Despite a late start to the weekend, I still managed to arrive in Oporto at a decent enough time to bask in the warm sun. Admittedly it wasn’t as warm as I was expecting, with a weekend temperature of just below 20 degrees for most of the weekend, but at least there was no rain and quite a bit of sunshine.

Oporto is a Portuguese coastal town located north of the better known city of Lisbon. It is the home of Port wine, a sweeter variety of wine fortified with brandy and you can find a number of its makers on the southern bank of the river that splits Oporto. Portuguese wine is very good quality and I was lucky enough to catch them celebrating it on their river. Numerous stalls lined the banks of both sides of the river, giving samplings of red, white and rose wines as well crackers with sardines, bread and even chorizo at one of them. It only cost a single euro for a tasting glass and unlimited quantities of good quality wines.

The river is an essential part of Oporto life, with many of the buildings and streets towering around it. Numerous bridges separate the two banks giving easy access to most of the land, but the city centre and the two shores are easy enough to walk around if you are willing to tackle some hefty hills. There are plenty of churches around and it’s just amazing looking at the old buildings, some brightly coloured reds, whites and yellows as well as how a number of houses had been tiled on the outside, something you really don’t see on modern houses these days. Many of the houses hang Portuguese and even the odd Brazilian one showing how proud they are of their country.

Oporto has a good number of buses along the north bank of the river and there is even an old rickety tram to take you along the shore. There aren’t any ferry services across the river but you can take a river cruise for almost an hour at €10. I really liked the friendliness of the Portuguese people even though many did not speak English very well (or at all) but one thing that bugged me was the amount of smoking that went on, especially in restaurants and even in the middle of shopping centres as they walked around.

Fish plays a major part of the classic diet, and the Oporto speciality is a tripe dish that I did not give a go over real Portuguese BBQ chicken to which Nando’s does not quite match. Coffee is just as popular everywhere there, with the espresso apparently the standard one to have with one of the many Portuguese sweet breads or tarts.

Though a shorter visit than I expected, Oporto has much to offer and was a very enjoyable though exhausting weekend. More pictures can be seen here.

Oulu Finland is a very nice Finnish town, and the largest one in Northern Finland. It is closer to the Artic Circle than Helsinki, and at this time of year, has the Midnight Sun (effectively 24 hour sunlight). Admittedly it’s not extremely bright all day long, but it certainly never gets dark and the sunset lasts a very long time. The hotel has three layers of curtains so you can attempt to get some sleep.

Oulu has amazing bikeways that allow people to cycle or rollerblade any part of town. Our hotel for the conference was located by the river and main market square, a central hub of this city. Locals and tourists alike hang around the number of restaurants, pubs, stalls in this square soaking up the warm sunshine and the lively atmosphere. Amazingly the weather was stunning for all of the conference, and it only got mildly chilly at “night time” when a cool breeze was blowing.

The coast of Finland is also not too far away, and there is even a sand beach and beach resort at which you can kite-surf at. It’s certainly not a beach that has waves but the water was mild enough to take a bit of a swim in.

Finnish people are very friendly and helpful, even though some of them do not speak much English. Most of the ones I talked to spoke English very well. Long hair and beards are popular with men and the many heavy metal t-shirts worn by the youth really make you understand why Lordi represented Finland in this year’s Eurovision. At the conference we even had a unique opportunity to listen to, what I imagine as, the only shouting choir in the world. They actually make an amazing vocal group and their intensity is obvious from the vocals and the faces they make during their performance.

I had a fantastic time in Finland, both at the conference, and during what little free time I had to look around the city. The lush green fields and fresh country air also made quite the change from working in the middle of London. You can see more pictures from Oulu here.

This will be a short one – I’m in my hotel at Oulu, Finland after a huge journey – thanks to Finnair for being late in leaving Heathrow an hour late and though I managed to catch my connecting flight from Helsinki to Oulu, my luggage didn’t quite make it with me. Hope it comes soon! On towards checking out the city and the conference.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for travelling for this weekend, especially since starting a new project and not quite getting over the jetlag I had from Australia. Since I had tickets booked for Stockholm before I had left for my most recent trip, I thought I’d better not waste it, so Friday I headed to the airport to get onto a plane to visit Stockholm in Sweden. The forecast for this weekend was cold temperatures and generally very wet, and according to a Swedish workmate of mine, is very typical for Sweden. For a lot of the weekend it was pretty cold, and rained a fair amount but there were a few hours of warm sunshine and that certainly didn’t stop the locals from getting out and about.

Stockholm’s Arlanda airport is a great example of what the Swedes do so well – design. It is surprisingly modern, with polished wood floors and clean cut interiors and lots of frosted glass and bright metal trimmings making everything appear spacious. It seems that the airport caters for late flights, which I’m thankful for considering we arrived at the early hour of 2am thanks to delays at Heathrow, and there was a bus waiting to drop us off into the middle of the city centre.

Stockholm is very walkable, and as long as it’s not pouring down, can be quite pleasant to walk around in. There are plenty of pedestrian and biking paths and lots of parks and open spaces worth checking out. There are also a ridiculous number of museums to keep you occupied though we didn’t bother checking them all out. One museum definitely worth visiting is the Vasa museum, containing one of the most famous vessels the Swedes have ever created. It is, in some ways, quite funny to find a country celebrating an endeavour to build a massive ship that, when it finally set out on its first voyage, capsized and sunk into the harbour before it had even completed! As entertaining as the story is, I highly recommend the visit to it.

It is worth visiting the city hall as well, home of where the Nobel Laureates celebrate each year. Our guide spoke English extremely well and entertained us quite easily for the 45 minutes as he talked us through each of the rooms. The city hall also has a tower that is worth climbing before you get to the tour as it gives you a great view of Stockholm from above.

Food need not be expensive in Sweden, though a number of the restaurants cater for the higher end of the market. A number of pubs and cafes serve food at moderate prices, though be wary of the cost of a drink with a pint of Guiness, for example costing 60 Swedish Kroners or about £4.5! Overall I had a great weekend and I came away thinking how nice and modern the city was, and Swedish people being very friendly and approachable.