#JollaLoveDay Retrospective: Sailfish, Fried Fish And A Visit To The Nokia Store

Well it doesn’t feel long ago that we made our very first visit to Finland’s wonderful capital, Helsinki for what will be remembered as a fantastic, historic day getting the chance to meet the amazing Jolla Sailors and be a part of the buzz that was #JollaLoveDay.

The day of the launch itself was held at the very contemporary Klaus K Hotel in Helsinki and was all you could hope for with some great moments and I am still buzzing (and will continue to do so) even a week after the event!

Klaus K: Where It All Kicked Off On #JollaLoveDay

Jolla were the perfect hosts and had set up the ideal space for the launch party to take place with a nice balance of community ‘evangelists’ and some more heavyweight media types all being present to enjoy and share in the celebrations.

We also felt very privileged to have our very own Q&A session with Jolla and generally just to meet and hang out with these great guys and gals who work so hard behind the scenes and of course the other community guys who we shared the experience with.

Q&A with Jolla: JollaLoveDay

The day after the night before, we decided to try and take in some of the sights before leaving Helsinki later that afternoon.

We started by heading down to the harbour to try and find some nice local delicacies to try for lunch.

After a walk through the various market stalls selling smoked/fresh fish, reindeer coats and various other Finnish specialities, we found a nice place to park and decided to fittingly – as all good sailors do – go with some fried vendace served with potatoes and vegetables and some salmon and potato soup (the Finn’s love their fish and we could see why!)… no Sailfish on the menu here!

Fried Vendace Served with Garlic Sauce

After refuelling and enjoying some more of the sights, I remembered that I quite wanted to take a look at the main flagship Nokia Store in Helsinki as part of keeping in line with my blog matters.

It didn’t take long before Nokia maps on my N9 had homed in on the store and we were chatting with an enthusiastic sales guy.

Nokia Flagship Store: Helsinki

I felt like I was on some kind of covert mission and immediately started talking about Jolla to see what his reaction would be – he certainly knew a lot about Jolla and really liked what he had seen (although I don’t think he’d seen the latest developments from the launch party).   When asked whether he thought Nokia might partner up with Jolla and Sailfish, he smiled and said he didn’t know for sure but I could tell from his expression that he would love to see it happen.  ;-)

One thing that struck me about Helsinki was just how lovely the people were – the two times we required some directions, the kind people on both occasions went out of their way to help and even in one case became our tour guide!   There were also bikes everywhere which was so nice to see, and the tram system made for a lovely quiet, non invasive atmosphere (very unlike the London buses!).

Helsinki: Warm, Friendly People

Of all the experiences we had in the short time during our stay, it has to be said that meeting Jolla and seeing the fruits of their hard work after all these months was the cherry on the icing.   Like I said, I am still buzzing and will continue to do so for a long time to come so thank you Jolla once again for all your warmth, kindness and hospitality. :-)

Me And Marc

Thanks as always to all of our lovely readers (and writers) who kindly contribute here and provide such important feedback which helps propel Jolla forward at a rate of knots – you are all a big part of the tribe and really are the ones that make this story so remarkable.

Sail On…

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jollatides

Latest posts by jollatides (see all)

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