Turku Synagogue Vigil

I was out walking my dog last night (Thursday the 30th of January) and noticed an unusually large amount of people at the Synagogue.  I mean a massive group of people and there was a street blocked off and a couple police cars nearby and so many flowers!

This group of people were not rowdy in the slightest.  There was a calmness in the air and the energy was simply peaceful.  I did hear a bit of solemn singing when I walked by and figured perhaps it was a very late night funeral.

I immediately snapped a couple photos in the dark (so the quality is obviously not so clear or great) and texted a couple friends asking what was up.
Neither of them had the answer so I reached out to my Canadian bestie who is Jewish and asked her what could possibly happen on a Thursday evening around 7pm that would cause such a large group of people to hang out around a Synagogue and hang flowers on the fences.

She suggested:

• Remembrance Day of the Holocaust (which was the previous Monday)
• Funeral
• Bar or Bat Mitzvah

I thought it was weird for the last two options to be held so late at night on a school night as well but figured okay - perhaps it is so.

I also decided to do a bit of research on the Turku Synagogue and was amazed to see there are only 2 of them in all of Finland.
There was the Vyborg Synagogue but that was bombed and completely destroyed on November 30, 1939.
So this leaves us with only the Turku Synagogue (opened in 1912) and the Helsinki Synagogue (opened in 1906).
Then this morning I received a text from one of my local friends who did not know the answer last night but did this morning.

It was a peaceful vigil from the locals in support of the Synagogue because some people decided to vandalize their doors in red paint on Monday. (Article found here from YLE).

I decided during my afternoon dog walk to go over and take a look as so many others had been doing and not only were the flowers beautiful but the feelings of positivity, strength and love from a community full of support for their fellow person.

All photos taken on 31.1.2020

So thank you Turku for showing me - a relatively newcomer to this city - what support and love is for a fellow human being and more importantly for showing the haters that they will not and cannot win.

LAFA

That's So Finnish: Thursday Pea Soup & Pancakes

Every Thursday - there is the tradition of having split pea soup and pancakes (oven-baked or Dutch style) with strawberry jam and whipped cream.

I work in a restaurant that whips up their own pancake batter the night before and the baking of pancakes begins first thing in the morning!

Most places have lactose-free pancakes but dairy-free or gluten-free may be trickier to find if the restaurant is not prepared.
It doesn't hurt to ask in advance from a restaurant if they can cater to your needs!

So pea soup typically has bits of ground beef in it but a lot of places also uses leftover pork - to reduce waste of food.  So if you do not eat pork - you may want to inquire what meat the restaurant had used that Thursday!

To enjoy it - it is served with chopped raw onion and lots of mustard!

I personally don't have the raw onions (obviously for this blog post sake I took some and ate it!) but I do love a good, spicy mustard! And if I happen to have this soup at home - I will add chilli flakes and grated cheese! My Finnish friends think I am odd but I find it extra tasty!
This soup is cheap to make (be sure to soak your peas overnight beforehand), it is filling and can be vegan/vegetarian friendly without the meat being used.
This soup will also clear your insides up - you'll be farting constantly after having this soup!

I have had pancakes with other flavoured jam and it just tastes weird after a few years of living here! And I noticed I get a lot of odd looks from friends too! 😄

According to this site, This is Finland - it was traditional to eat pea soup and pancakes on a Thursday to prep the body for fasting on Fridays.

Thankfully most restaurants carry other meal options for those that are not into pea soup!

I actually recall reading about a Finnish person or group of Finns in New York who embraced the "Restaurant Day" culture and served pea soup!

You may also notice in my photo that there is carrots in it (or maybe not as I think it is buried under the mustard)!  THIS IS NOT STANDARD. The head boss likes it and it helps to fill the customers tummies as well and so far, customers are enjoying it!

Thanks for reading and happy pea soup & pancakes Thursdays!
LAFA

LAFA Important Info: Long Distance Transportation in Finland

Ah yes - transportation.
If you do not have a car - then how does one go about transporting themselves and their belongings across Finland or beyond?

Personally, I travel every weekend to and from Turku to Jyväskylä via Onnibus.
It is worth noting they - like most companies - have an app for that and it makes it much easier to show your E-ticket instead of printing out your e-mail confirmation or digging through your e-mail for it.
It is significantly cheaper than travelling via VR Train (and yes they have an app "VR Matkalla") and Onnibus has double-decker style buses as well!
However if you plan to travel with your pet - then they now have the Onnibus Flex option which is only a single level bus and pet-friendly.
Larger pets need to pay an extra 5€ you need to sit with your pet near the back of the bus so people with allergies can sit up front.  Pets cannot sit on the actual seat but must be on the floor or in your lap.
Guide dogs for the visually impaired or blind always travel for free but your ticket must be booked 36 hours in advance so they can accommodate a space for your dog.
Seniors (65+ years of age) qualify for a discount - which is a fairly new thing to the Onnibus site.

So with the Onnibus Flex - you are able to take 2 pieces of luggage with you - to store in the compartment below, along with your carry-on, they accept bicycles as well!, pets, have free WiFi and have a cash-payment option available too.  You cannot reserve specific seats with Onnibus Flex.

With the double-decker style buses - you only get 1 piece of luggage to store away, no bicycles or pets allowed, free WiFi is included, there is limited mobility access, you can reserve specific seats and power sockets beneath your seats.

When booking tickets via Onnibus - book in advance for a cheaper price and you can reserve the seat where you wish to sit.
Booking a seat with more leg space costs 2€ more but can be well worth it if you have long legs or want more space in general!

Yes, there is a toilet on board but it is quite small and cramped - but hey! At least there is one!

Drivers are quite polite and friendly - just be sure to be at your stop on time with your ticket ready to show them.

A lot of people sell their unused E-tickets on Facebook in second-hand items / used items groups on Facebook - so you can always post in your local FB group to inquire if anyone has a ticket to get rid of!
YOU CANNOT GET A REFUND OR CANCEL YOUR ONNIBUS TICKETS - so be sure to TRIPLE check your booking before confirming your payment!

There is no alcohol allowed to be consumed on an Onnibus (but people often do it anyway sneakily) and no smoking either - so no E-cigarettes, weed or regular cigarettes are allowed to be used during your travel on the bus.

Another way to get cheaper tickets - is to book your ticket via Matkahuolto (yep they have an app too!).
The only catch is that you cannot reserve a specific seat when buying your ticket through Matkahuolto!
When using a Matkahuolto ticket - be prepared to provide identification as your name is on the ticket and the driver may want confirmation of who you are.

In terms of savings - my weekly weekend trips on Onni bus cost minimum 12€ per direction and can even skyrocket to 24€ per direction if I buy very last minute!
Whereas I can easily book my trip via Matkahuolto for a maximum of 16-20€ round trip - assuming I do not wait until the very last possible moment to purchase my tickets.

So what I do - is I book my seats through Matkahuolto and I use both apps - and check what seats are available to sit in via Onnibus' app.
To do this - you simply pretend as if you are buying a ticket but do not go through with the purchase - and you "change the seat" and see what is available before boarding.
This helps you to avoid playing musical chairs or "Onnibus Seat Bingo" as I call it! Because of course if you are in someone else's seat you need to move and find elsewhere to sit.
This does not apply to Onnibus Flex because you cannot reserve specific seats.

It USED to be that children travelled for free (of a very young age) but that is no longer the case.  So be sure to book your child(ren) a seat accordingly when planning your trips!
Also worth noting - since you cannot book specific seats via Matkahuolto or on Onnibus Flex - it is wiser to book tickets for family members travelling with you via Onnibus' website so you can be sure you are sitting together throughout the whole duration of your travels.

Here are FAQs on Onnibus' website!

Of course there are a few airports in Finland - if that fits your budget!
You can find the full list of airports available in Finland here.

For local travellers - every city also has taxis you can call and order one - they tend to be more expensive late at night and on weekends of course.  Many people bike - yes even in the winter - or walk!

Uber seems to only operate in Helsinki currently.

Every city has buses for local transportation and the companies typically accept cash, e-tickets via their app or an electronic bus card.
And on special occasions - bus rides may be free for example if you wear an elf hat closer to Christmas!  Just keep an eye out for their offers on their official websites or Facebook pages!

And of course there is ride sharing via various Facebook groups, friends and family here!  Or if you have a valid drivers license - you can rent a car!

It is worth following or liking your preferred transportation method's Facebook page or website or even Twitter handle because if there should be a delay or cancellation - they typically list it on social media!

Thanks for reading!
LAFA

Hi there!

Hi there,

Thanks for coming here to read my blog!
I am trying my best to update this as frequently as possible and it's funny how after living here for over ten years - that everyday new things for a visitor or an expat freshly moving here - is perfectly normal life for me now.

It will take me awhile to adjust in my mind to remember to write in this as if I was a newbie but I will do my best!

It has taken me five years to decide to start this project up again because you see - this blog "Learning About Finland" was my life when I first moved to Finland (specifically central Finland) because I did not know anyone and was expecting my first child with my (now ex) husband.
Once my youngest was about 6 months old, my blog got hacked and silly me for not having proper security measurements in place...I could not get it back.
I don't want to dig up the past because its happened and done and should stay in the past.  But I am very happy to be blogging again and more importantly adding a twist to my blog - interviewing real people and businesses each month - which was my goal for the previous blog before it got hacked to bits and pieces.

I initially moved here in 2009 because my other half had come to do his phD here in Finland and been here ever since.

My hobbies include writing in my bullet journal (you can follow here on Instagram), doing handicrafts, blogging, cooking and baking (you can follow here on Instagram for my account strictly dedicated to breads and salads) and also travelling regularly between two cities to help care for my three kids.

I have found the best way to find friends in Finland is to immerse myself into groups with activities - so I created a craft group in Turku which allowed me not only to make friends but also gives me an oppourtunity to work on my handicraft projects (of which I have far too many) and a board and card game group as well  - also based in Turku!

The great thing about these kind of groups - whether they are specific for certain topics or events or not - is that you will surely find someone to connect with that has been in your shoes!

And I am hoping that sharing my personal experiences - whether it be reviewing a café, shop or restaurant - or simply writing about a particular situation that occurred to me - will help you with what you need!

Welcome and feel free to follow via Facebook as well!

Of course it goes without saying - please feel free to share my posts - photos are my own (unless otherwise noted) and taken with my trusty little iPhone.

Dominique

LAFA Interviews: Bokachá

I have lived in Turku, Finland for a little over a year and only recently did I discover that there is a new Vietnamese coffee shop & bubble tea location downtown!

Located at Brahenkatu 5 - they are easily accessible and have quickly become a huge favourite among my friends and we even meet there for our Crafty in Turku nights!

I have been there on numerous occasions and decided when pursuing the idea of interviewing local business owners that they (if they were willing!) had to be first on my list and luckily for me - they agreed to do a sit-down interview one evening!

I arrived in the evening ready with the list of questions on my phone and also pen and paper (I am a bit old school perhaps!) and quickly ordered a Peach Tea with Apple Boba served cold.
I was very fortunate enough to also sample their Coconut Mango Crepe cake and got settled in with Uyen Le - one of the owners of Bokachá!

The business is run by 2 friends who met in the International Business Bachelor Program in Rauma in 2014 and while Uyen moved to Turku in 2016, her colleague Trinh Nguyen had moved to Turku the year prior.

Both owners are from Vietnam and are used to drinking bubble tea 3-4x a day which is considered perfectly normal in Vietnam and while living in Finland - there was nowhere to have Bubble Tea - other than one shop in Helsinki.
According to Uyen - the Helsinki location did not provide the preferred taste as to what she was used to and since there is a large Vietnamese community - it made sense to try and open up a shop that could offer authentic bubble teas and Vietnamese coffee!

They chose Turku because it is not a huge city like Helsinki but it also isn't very small either.  They both love living here in Turku and don't want to move anytime soon!

Tell me about the products you have and what your plans are for the customers in Turku!
We serve Vietnamese coffee with coffee beans imported from Vietnam, bubble teas of course and crepe cakes along with some other desserts like cheesecake.
Almost everyday we are making a new flavour of crepe cakes and they take approximately four hours to make per cake!
We are hoping to give  Finns and everyone else a real authentic taste of Vietnamese coffee and bubble tea culture. It is a great way to explore new things and about 70% of our customers are trying something totally new and they have a chance to experience Vietnamese culture.

For a first time customer - both to your location and never having tried bubble tea or Vietnamese coffee before - what would you recommend?
Our coffee beans are imported from Vietnam and they are Robusta - a dark coffee bean which has a more smokey flavour, compared to the typical Arabica beans mostly found in majority of the European coffee shops.
In Vietnam bubble tea and coffee shops are typically blended together - there is no separation like there can be in the coffee shops in Finland at least.
You can find a whole street in Vietnam full of bubble tea/Vietnamese coffee shops everywhere!

For a tea we would recommend a Bokachá milky tea or the Taro milky tea.
For the Vietnamese coffee we have a Coconut Coffee or the Vietnamese Latte and with the fruit teas we can also recommend the Summer or Special Tropical Teas.
For  a truly Vietnamese experience we have the Café Phin which is the Vietnamese drip coffee and it takes time to prepare and enjoy - and due to this we cannot offer it as a take-away item.

Do you plan to expand your company as a franchise elsewhere in Finland or even within Turku?
Currently not now. If we were to win the lottery then we would love to open a shop in Tampere as we find it has the fastest growing rate in Finland and not too large.  We are also familiar with the area!

What has the general response been to your products and location since opening?
It is fairly black and white! Mainly people enjoy the products and we have many customers advising us that they heard of us from their friends or Instagram posts - either our own or from a friend or family member!
Often customers will come in and if there is a language barrier (as we don't really speak Finnish) - they will simply show us the photo on their phone of what they would like and we have had one elderly customer come in with her order written on a slip of paper from a friend who knew what she had to try!

Was it difficult setting up Bokachá and gain customers?

Yes it was extremely difficult.
We had started discussing the possibility of opening up a Vietnamese cafe back in 2018 and it took until Mid-November 2019 before we finally opened!
To establish a company we had to fill in so much paperwork by hand because we did not have OmaPosti to do things electronically.
Many forms were to be re-done because they were very specific with how they had to be filled and we used Google Translator (Finnish to English) to translate these documents and also sought advice from our Finnish friends too.
Due to paperwork alone we had to wait approximately 1.5-2 years before we could open.
With the banking side of things - we needed a business account in order to run our business and in order to have a business account - you had to have a business...!

Something that others might not know either is that we were students here on a studying visa and we did not have ANY Kela benefits! So we are both on student visas and  had to prove that we had 7K€ in our bank accounts.
Once we graduate then we are granted a "Job-Seeking visa" which is only good for one year and if you do not have a job - you are to go back to your native country.
Once you have graduated from a Finnish university then you are only expected to have approximately 2K€ in your account and a job.

To gain customers we promoted a lot via social media like Instagram and Facebook.


What do you want your customers (both new and returning) to know about your company?
That we are a Vietnamese-style coffee shop and in Vietnam coffee and tea shops are fused together.
We source as much of our resources locally as possible and the items we are not able to get here - we order from within the EU.

Living in the country known for their coffee drinking habits  - do you find most Finnish customers are enjoying Vietnamese-style coffee or are they preferring the bubble tea alternatives instead?
Yes it seems more and more customers are coming back and not just for the bubble teas.  They also often bring their friends back with them.

What are the PROS and CONS, or challenges of having a uniquely based expat business in Finland?
The pros is being able to introduce Vietnamese culture to the customers and we are offering something special that many customers have not tried before.  It is a unique look and perspective because having bubble tea in Vietnam is like having Starbucks (or some other popular coffee) anywhere else in the world.  You will always see someone in Vietnam carrying a bubble tea cup just like you see someone with a Starbucks cup elsewhere!

Another pro is that we are able to encourage customers to try different toppings in their drinks and not just serve them coffee.
This encourages conversation and education while explaining the different options we have.

There are not many cons other than setting up the business was difficult, the language barrier occasionally can happen as we do not speak Finnish - primarily with much older customers - but it has been quite alright so far.

Do you feel you mainly get customers that who know the type of product you have already and are happy to finally have access to it locally - or moreso customers that are completely new to the Vietnamese coffee and bubble tea concept and want to try something new?
We actually get a lot of exchange students and other expats that are so happy to find a bubble tea shop and Vietnamese coffee in Turku.

Would you say that Bokachá's products are targeted to a specific group or type of customers or a specific age group?
Well, originally we were aiming to target people between 16-35 years old but we have noticed we are getting people of all ages from as young as 11 to elderly customers.

In Vietnam on average for bubble tea - young children start drinking it around 5 years old and Vietnamese coffee around 15 or 16 years old.

What advice would you give to another expat entrepreneur hoping to open up their own small business in Turku?
Have a really great business plan that can work and even if you are not so fluent in Finnish - just GO FOR IT.

Anything else you would like to add about yourselves or your business?
We use fresh real tea, ingredients and fruit juices in all of our teas and we do import our coffee beans directly from Vietnam.

You can enjoy bubble teas hot or cold because the boba's do not melt.  They are made from tapioca and other than the cheese topping and taro milk tea - most of the teas can be made vegan.

The company name BOKACHÁ is a blended word of both Chinese and Vietnamese language meaning:

BO (bubble) KA (coffee) CHÁ (tea in Chinese)

They are not a franchise of any kind and completely a local business in Turku!

They do not serve any alcohol and do plan to change the menu according to season and have different special offers.
Also! They have a loyalty stamp card that you can ask for at the cash register - 10 stamps = 1 free medium sized drink (but excludes special drinks).

I inquired where they saw themselves in the next year and within the next five years and was advised they wish to be more stable within their first year of business and hopefully within the next five years there would be one more location in Turku while possibly having one also in Tampere.

So if you are in the city of Turku and looking for something delicious to try in a peaceful atmosphere among friends - look no further than BOKACHÁ!

Much thanks to Bokachá for giving me time for the interview, permission to take photos and the deep insight of what it is like to be an expat opening and running a business in Finland!


Learning About Finland Again

If you are interested in being featured in my blog - you can reach me via:
learningaboutfinland (a) gmail.com