In Food: Have a burger at Sävel in Helsinki, Finland

In short: good, friendly service, order at the bar, British pub vibe, great sekection of ales and beer, with recommendations for every meal on the menu, and the burgers have just the right mix of substance and sogginess, accompanied by done seriously hot chillie fries. A good place for a simply good burger in Heldinki! Check out their site here: http://www.kallionsavel.fi/

In Places: Fabian Hotel in Helsinki, Finland

I'm going to expand my reviews to hotels as well, as they play an important role in my appreciation of places. This is the latest one, but I'll also try to add past nice ones in Paris, Brussels, and Lisbon, Portugal, that I stayed at. Today, Hotel Fabian (http://m.hotelfabian.fi/en/index.html).

Location: the hotel is a little off centre, but everything in Helsinki is walking distance. Cab ride to the bus station the next morning was about 15 euro. 

Service: very friendly, they helped us with navigating the airco in the room, booked our restaurant, and were all smiles. 

Room: roomy, comfortable matras, quiet (On the 4th floor and ignoring the stormy weather), good bathroom facilities, free wifi. 

Breakfast: according my French girlfriend, the breakfast was the best of all hotels so far. I wouldn't go that far, but it was all organic, ranged from lots of cheeses, charcuterie, and salmon to choose from, to plenty of sweet options, from croissants and cakes to fruit salads and different types of cereal. The smoothies and coffees to go were a nice surprise. 

Clearly, my passion lies with food, which I don't choose at every hotel as an option, but in terms of overal comfort I would give this hotel an 8/10. 

In Places: Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

It's hard to describe places in the short amount of words that I allow myself to write for this blog. I had 1 day in LA last Saturday and since I don't have a car or drive one, I started my journey on foot at Union Station heading towards Los Feliz, which I heard was interesting. It takes ca. 15 minutes of walking to get to Sunset Boulevard, passing through El Pueblo, an interesting, but highly touristic Mexican hotspot.

The nice if not magical thing about this street and perhaps LA is the random places you encounter on your journey. Everything is spread apart and I understand why people think it's a car city, though in fact I see LA best travelled by foot, bike, and/or metro (a subway or bus, which goes everywhere and frequently). 

Along this journey under roughly 33 degrees Celcius (ca. 91.5 Fahrenheit), I encountered many little "villages", featuring a flea market with a live reggae band, a farmers' market with the biggest strawberries I've ever seen, vegan places such as the one serving the aforementioned smoothie, bookstores, vintage/secondhand stores, and I even got to see the Hollywood sign as Los Feliz lies at the foot of the Hollywood hills.

My activity tracker told me that I walked 20km that day (ca. 15 miles), it was exhausting but pretty much an amazing experience. I'm so happy to have done it on foot, because I would've missed many of the small touches in a car, metro, or even by bike.

In places: Christies Auction-house, Amsterdam

Note: not all things I write here are favourites, just things I want to remember.

What is there to remember about Christies, Amsterdam? Not much to be honest, not even worth a picture. It's outside of Amsterdam-centre, in a nice neighbourhood, close to the museum-quarter (of course). It's burgundy flags welcome you from a distance and when you walk in, you are confronted with some art-work. The receptionists look like female flight-attendants. There's art-brochures in the waiting-area and that's about it.

I was met in a tiny office on the ground floor, in contrast to any majestic expectations you may have had. It's important to remember that Christies is only a mediator and not a curator of art.