Tove 100 in Helsinki

Trippa Helsinki was published earlier this year for iOS and has already had an excellent reception. Just like the rest of our Trippa guides though, Helsinki is undergoing the process of being converted ready to be published for Android.

This year Finland celebrates the birth of one of their most celebrated artists, Tove Jansson who alongside being a key figure in Finnish visual art during the post-war golden age of modernism, she also created the Moomins. There are events taking place around the globe to celebrate the birth of Jansson, but we've taken a look at some of the biggest taking place in Helsinki this year.

Ateneum Art Museum, 14 March – 7 September 2014: Hosting a major centenary exhibition, Ateneum Art Museum will be exhibiting pieces of Jansson’s work which span her impressive career as an artist, illustrator, political caricaturist, author and creator of the Moomin characters and stories.  For more details of the exhibition which will be taking place this year, take a look at the Ateneum Art Museum website

Arabia, June 2014: Finnish ceramics company Arabia had it’s own Moomin dishes created in the 1950’s.  It’s safe to say that pretty much every Finnish family have their own favourite mugs or bowls with Moomin characters displayed.

To celebrate the centenary, Arabia is selling a limited edition series featuring illustrations from the book, The Dangerous Journey.  The Arabia Museum will also present an exhibition by Finnish design brands Fiskars and Iittala presenting Moomin products over the years.  Follow this link for more details about the exhibition and The Arabia Museum.

Porvoo Art Factory, 7 July – 31 August 2014: The exhibition “Tove and the Archipelago” will explore the importance of the islands in Tove’s literary output.  

Helsinki Book Fair, 24-27 October 2014: Moomin Characters and publishers will appear at a special Tove Jansson stand.

If all of this has rekindled your love for the Finnish characters, or you’re planning a trip to Helsinki anytime soon.  Make sure you download Trippa Helsinki for iOS before you go, featuring the best hotels, sights, shops, restaurants and nightlife spots the Finnish capital has to offer.

Image © Moomin Characters™

Craft Beer Rising

It's been a long time coming but we've finally published Trippa London for iOS and Android.  To celebrate the launch of our biggest and proudest project to date we had a beer or two.  If you're going to be in the English capital this weekend and fancy a pint, why not take a look at Craft Beer Rising, London's top Craft Beer Festival.

Every foodie adventurer and beer fan in town will jump at the line-up at the unbeatable Craft Beer Rising festival. It brings heady highlights of beer culture with some 60 breweries and over 200 beers, quality street food, and DJ sets by legendary Mr Scruff, Reverend and The Makers - (just ahead of their UK live tour and new album) celebrating their new collaboration ale with Thornbridge Brewery – Horse Meat Disco, Pete Paphides (BBC6 Music) and more. Immerse yourself in the craft beer revolution: Craft Beer Rising is named by the Financial Times as one of just five events which are ‘the UK’s hottest tickets of 2014’ – and that’s alongside landmark cultural events at the Tate and Glyndebourne.
Craft Beer Rising on 21-23 February 2014 in East London’s Brick Lane is again all set to welcome a new generation of curious craft beer fans and a refreshing, balanced male and female mix. This so positively reflects the profile of the surging 7.8 million craft beer drinkers in the UK. The original big brother of all urban beer & music festivals serves up so many taste discoveries to entertain you in one place at the atmospheric Old Truman Brewery in East London. These are tickets to be snapped up fast; last year’s festival was a sell-out. www.craftbeerrising.co.uk
Six spacious rooms will buzz with breweries, beers, food and music, all with a convivial party ambience.

• New this year - amongst the established and experimental names in British brewing, are discovery beers from USA Belgium, New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain. [Please see page 2].
  
• Fascinating beer talks, taste matching and experimentation will keep you thinking whilst drinking. Melissa Cole tantalizes with Three Courses in Beer. [Plus special sessions for Trade day 21 February include the Innovation Hunter’s panel debate on Beer Innovation].
  
• Feed on hearty cook-ups, British charcuterie, meat and burgers with a twist – be treated by a new flavour creation for Craft Beer Rising - and inventive veg eats.
  
• Rendezvous at the Craft Beer Rising bar and try the new limited edition festival beer,- an American white ale with a hint of chamomile and lavender This year’s collaboration is with Brewhouse & Kitchen’s The White Swan brewpub in Portsmouth.
  
• Before the festival, grab a free Craft Beer Rising magazine in pubs and bars around London for insider tips on the most happening places to drink throughout the year and choice beers for 2014. 
  

If this has made you thirsty and fancy going along to Craft Beer Rising 2014, you can buy tickets from their website here.  

If you do make the trip to London this weekend, don't forget to download Trippa London for iOS or Android.  

Sonar Festival 2014

Rapidly getting a name as one of the most important electronic music events in the world, Sonar festival is the globe spanning festival putting on some of the biggest and most exciting electronic artists today.  The main Sonar event takes place in Barcelona every June, while additional events this year are taking place in Cape Town in December, Tokyo in April and simultaneously in Reykjavik and Stockholm at the end of this week.

The first event took place in 1994, the whole format and content of Sonar are completely unique, with each location showcasing the best international names combined with the hottest local acts.

The Stockholm event will be taking place at The Brewery Conference Center Stockholm, right by Stockholm’s City Hall.  The Reykjavik one will be taking place in Harpa, probably one of Europe's most unique concert venues.  It's down by the harbour in Reykjavik city centre, the hall will be split into five different stages (one of which will be the underground car park, creating an almost certainly classic experience.

Performing across both cities this week include Bonobo, James Holden, Jon Hopkins and Daphni along with over 40 other acts from around the world.

Sonar Stockholm has now sold out but tickets for Sonar Reykjavik are still available.  These start at €109 for a three day pass, or more for a full travel package from a number of different countries in Europe.  If you can't make it to Reykjavik but still fancy joining in with the Sonar experience, there are still tickets available for Sonar Barcelona.

If reading this has made you want to go to any of the Sónar dates, make sure you download one of our guides first, Trippa Reykjavik, Trippa Stockholm or Trippa Barcelona.  Featuring the best sights, restaurants, shops and hotels for you to enjoy while you’re not at the festival itself.

Photo via: Sónar

Berlinale 2014

Since the start of the year we've been working hard on Trippa Paris, the next release we have lined up.  As well as that though we've been working hard on getting all of our existing Trippa guides released on Android devices.  We launched a couple last month, but were working hard over the weekend to get Trippa Berlin for Android launched, which it did this morning.  To celebrate this launch of one of our most popular guides at the moment we're taking a look at the Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale.

Founded in 1951 in West Germany, Berlinale is now in its 64th year.  Around 400 films will be shown with many competing for the Golden Bear award, the highest available accolade. Over 300,000 tickets will be sold and almost 200,000 industry professionals and journalists will be in attendance.  

Films being shown at Berlinale are divided up into seven different categories:

"Competition – Feature length films yet to be released outside of their country of origin.  Films in this category compete for several prizes, including the top Golden Bear.

Panorama – New independent and arthouse films that deal with “controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles”.

Forum – Experimental and documentary films from around the world with a particular emphasis on screening works by younger filmmakers. No awards are given for films in the Forum category

Generation – A mixture of short and feature-length films aimed at different categories of under 18s.

Perspektive Deutsches Kino – A wide variety of German films, with an emphasis on highlighting current trends in German cinema.

Berlinale Shorts – Domestic and international short films, especially those that demonstrate innovative approaches to filmmaking.

Retrospective – Classic films previously shown at the Berlinale, with films collated from the Competition, Forum, Panorama and Generation categories."

If you would like to see more information about the festival and an overview of the films that are going to be shown, take a look at the Berlinale Website.  You can only purchase tickets for screenings three days in advance at the theaters, but online pre-sales are available from today.

If you fancy the sound of Berlinale or just taking a trip to Berlin, you should download Trippa Berlin for iOS or Trippa Berlin for Android before you make your way.  It has all of the best sights, hotels, shops bars and restaurants the capital of Germany has to offer.

Six Nations Rugby In Cardiff

Rugby fans will already be well aware, but this weekend the Six Nations kicks off in Cardiff. It's Wales v Italy at the Millennium Stadium. If you're coming from anywhere else inside Wales, from Italy or even from England, Scotland Ireland or France for the game, you'll want to know what's best to get up to in the Welsh capital before and after the big game. We've put together a couple of tips for you.

Eat

Everyone needs to eat, the best place to get a bite to eat before the game would probably be one of the many bars that serves food in the city. Cosy Club is an excellent venue right in the heart of Cardiff which would probably be your best bet. If however you don't have a ticket and want somewhere you can get some food, a few drinks and watch the game try Buffalo Bar on the other side of town.

After the game there's only one place to go - Chippy Lane. This street full of almost exclusively chip and kebab shops is the best place to get some food at 1 in the morning.

Nightlife

If you want a few pre- or post- game drinks then you should head to Womanby Street. Running parallel to the Stadium, you won't be disappointed by the selection of bars. Urban Tap House serves a selection of fine Welsh and International craft beers while the City Arms, Clwb Ifor Bach and the Moon Club are all good spots to spend a few hours.

Once you’ve had a few drinks and you’re looking for more of a nightclub vibe, head across to Mill Lane or up St Mary’s Street for the biggest (but probably most expensive) venues in the city.  

Shopping

If you're actually not that bothered about the sport but wanted to come along to Cardiff, you might want to check out Cardiffs top shopping options. St Davids was the largest shopping centre to open in Europe in 2009 and stays as one of the country's top shopping spots. More designer names than we could possibly mention.

If you're more a fan of the niche, try one of the legendary arcades around Cardiff. Full of boutique stores selling quality goods, you won't be disappointed

That’s just a small selection of what you could get up to in Cardiff this weekend, for full details of the best shopping destinations, nightlife spots, places to eat and sights to see download Trippa Cardiff for iPhone here and Android devices here.

Henrik Vibskov at Helsinki's Design Museum

Trippa Helsinki was published late last week, it’s the best free guide to Helsinki city available for iPhone and we can’t wait for you to download it and let us know what you think.  To celebrate the launch of our latest guide we’re taking a look at an exhibition which is happening in one of the 20+ sights we’ve included in the guide.

The main exhibition at the Design Museum this Spring, Henrik Vibskov shows us his creative process and allows us to exlore his brilliant world.  A true pioneer of the Danish fashion Industry this Vibskov exhibition is a must see for anyone interested in fashion and design.

Originating from the Danish Countryside, Vibskov graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2001, since then he has created over 20 collections, becoming one of the most important Nordic fashion designers the world round.  Designing both men's and women's clothes, he also creates collections of playfully styled, fashionable accessories.  Vibskov is also known for his visual art installations which frequently act as the sets for his own and other designers fashion shows.

Curator of Design Museum, Suvi Saloniemi commented on the exhibition to say “Our aim is to bring the unique world of Henrik Vibskov to be studied by the public,”she adds. “We want to delve inside the head of this designer. Sometimes we display only the results of a designer’s work, but with Vibskov we will show the endless abundance of his ideas and the machinery of his creativity. The exhibition is above all a celebration of creativity and creative thinking.

The exhibition will focus mainly on Vibskovs latest solo work and exhibition "Neck Plus Ultra" which has been on tour in Paris and Copenhagen during 2013.  You will also have the opportunity to see an installation piece which was used at the Paris Fashion Week earlier in the month.

The exhibition opens it’s doors on the 24th of January and runs until the 11th of May. Entry is charged at the standard Design Museum rate of €10.  This will also get you entry to the other temporary exhibition running at the same time, Shop Show which is aimed to educate people on the long term effects of their consumer habits.  For more information about the show and for directions, take a look at the Design Museum website here.

If you’re thinking about taking a trip to the Finnish Capital, you can download our guide fromiTunes today.  If you’re thinking about taking a trip somewhere else then why not take a look at one of our other guides like Trippa Cardiff, Trippa Berlin,Trippa Stockholm, Trippa Barcelona or Trippa Oslo.

Top Five Paris Sights

Our guide to Helsinki is almost ready to be published (it's been submitted to Apple and they just need to publish it now) and Trippa London is pretty much there as well.  We announced last week that we'll be covering Paris next, with Trippa Paris being launched in a couple of months time!  As we always do when announcing a new destination we're going to take a look at the top five sights that city has to offer.

Eiffel Tower

The most iconic building in all of Paris, the Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889.  It's the tallest man made structure in Paris and gives an excellent view across the whole of the city.  Our recommendation would be to visit at night when the tower is illuminated.

Arc de Triomphe

Sat at the end of the Champs-Élysées, the Arch of Triumph was built as a tribute to the the soldiers that died in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars.  You can walk around the base to see engravings and sculptures or climb to the viewing platform and look down one of the most famous streets in the world.

Notre Dame

Probably the most famous Church buildings in the world (this probably has a lot to do with the Victor Hugo novel and Disney film about a certain Hunchback who lived here.) You can walk through the cathedral building and see the fantastic stained windows and 7,374 pipe organ or climb to the top of the stairs to come face to face with the city's scariest gargoyles.

Basilica du Sacré Cœur

Found at the highest point in the city (butte Montmartre) this 100 year old building has pletny to see inside.  Photographs are prohibitted though with militant security checking on you as you walk around.  You can pay €6 to climb to the top of the tower for the best view back across Paris, or just stand at the top of the steps for not a bad look back.

Moulin Rouge

Founded in 1889, this cabaret house close to Montmartre is the spiritual birthplace of the can-can dance and the setting for the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film of the same name.  You'll find it easily, just look for the red windmill on the roof.

Those were our top five favourite sights in Paris, keep your eyes peeled for the launch of this which will be in the next month or two.  In the mean time if you’re off on a little trip away then why not take a look at one of our other smart city guides like Trippa Cardiff, Trippa Berlin,Trippa Stockholm, Trippa Barcelona or Trippa Oslo.