The market is one of the best ways to discover the culture of the city you are visiting. In this case I visited Hakaniemi in early November and it was packed with people and great little shops and food stalls.

I eventually succumbed to the temptation of a small and expensive but tasty portion of deep-fried sardines. Bread hollowed out and filled with salmon or sardines is a Finnish invention. So are crepes with strawberry jam. Clothing stalls tempted me with its array of warm clothing, from socks to hats.

Caution that all the food is quite expensive, at least relative to where I just came from, eastern Europe. Market is open Mondays to Saturdays, plus first Sundays of each month.

This was one of the places that I saw the most of Finnish culture. They give you a taste of their traditional Muikku (small bread crumbed fish) with plenty of other stalls to choose from. Reindeer sausage even, if you can stomach it. There are plenty of arts and crafts on display - pay special attention to their woodwork and ask about the history involved in it. The whole thing is in a good location and worth the walk around.

A great place to kill a couple of hours, great smells & tastes in the air. Seems to be on everyday, everyone very friendly, everyone seemed to speak english, certainly didn't appear to be touristy.....lots of locals shopping there. Catch the tram from near the central station or walk (approx 20 mins) & explore on the way.

we ended up in Helsinki during the annual Baltic Herring Festival- the oldest recurring festival in Helsinki- loads of food and handmade crafts along with a panoply of various marinated herring. what unexpected fun- if you are headed to Helsinki in the first part of October don't miss this event.