an unexpected pori trip

As I've been ill (but okay now!) coming from 2017 to 2018, I didn't manage to get any kind of reflective new year's posts or hopeful/inspiring 2018 goal posts done. To be honest, I didn't feel like it anyway as I can sum up it like this: 2017 left me feeling quite 'meh' and I only hope 2018 will be better! Which is why my first post of the year is this one that I hope the coming year will be like, too: a little trip to a little city that was a little bit lovely.

I visited Pori at the end of last year for uni, as one of my modules was held there, and was able to have a sort of weekend break. My days were full of seminars and lectures, but luckily I had enough time for a few museums and some sightseeing. Pori is a small city in Finland, mostly known for it's jazz festival, Pori Jazz (which is the oldest or one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe). It feels more like a summer city and was quite empty in November/December, which makes me want to revisit and maybe check out some of that sweet jazz.

My favourite in Pori was the Juselius mausoleum and the cemetery it was in, but there were other cool sites to see as well. The old and new town halls as well as the Central Pori Church all looked pretty. And I visited the Pori Art Museum which had some interesting works by Yoko Ono and Ana Torfs to name a couple, and the Satakunta Museum which had a lovely little exhibition on 1917 and the Finnish Civil War to commemorate the 100 years of Independence of Finland. (Maybe lovely isn't the word to describe an exhibition on war, its impact and other crap, but I really enjoyed it.)

I don't think I would've visited Pori if it weren't for uni, but now I am really glad to have visited. And, as I said, liked it enough to want to see it again! Sometimes the places that aren't on the top of your travel list and trips you don't really plan turn out to be quite wonderful. Have any of you been to Pori (I doubt it, haha!) or done unexpected/unplanned trips that surprised you in a good way?

Happy 2018!