Yesterday I walked around in the residential area Kallio or Berghäll as it is called in Swedish. It is an area in Helsinki, a little oustide the very centre. I have visited a couple of cafés and bars there before, and travelled through it a bunch of times to get to the Aalto arts campus in Arabia, but this was the first time I really explored Kallio. I do not know why I have not done it earlier. Kallio has a lot to offer. It is a former workers district,with interesting architecture, bars and music, ethnic restaurants and small shops of all sorts. In tourist guides it is often compared to Kreuzberg in Berlin. In Kallio you are guaranteed to find both alcoholics and hipsters. Kallio is infamous for its public drunkenness (drunks wandering the streets in daytime) and sex shops, but those phenomena live side by side with old grannies, families with small children, vintage stores and trendy organic cafes. It is an odd mix.
