Finland

Helsinki hit me with this cool, almost silver light I hadn't seen anywhere else. It was a summer visit but the sky kept cycling through these heavy dramatic clouds that made every building look more serious than it probably is. The harbour was the first thing I walked to — there were gulls everywhere, ferry boats loading and unloading, and that long neoclassical and Russian Orthodox skyline sitting quietly behind it all.

Suomenlinna was the day I didn't expect to love. You take a short ferry from the market square and suddenly you're on a sea fortress that's been there since the 1700s, all stone walls and rusted cannon and long wooden bridges connecting the islands. It felt genuinely old in a way that city museums can't fake. The signage is in Finnish and Swedish both, which reminded me that this country has two official languages and takes that seriously.

The food ended up being better than I expected — I had fried shrimp somewhere near the harbour and a sizzling Korean-style dish at a place that felt very local. The ice cream by the waterfront, watching a seagull circle overhead while the red facades of the South Harbour buildings reflected in the grey water, was one of those small moments that you keep coming back to.