This is just Finntastic.
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2006
1
23
80
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Helsinki,
Finland
Monday, December 18, 2006
Ouch! I look at a price tag. This leg is going to be a tough one. We'd already found out that the dollar fainted this week, making the rate around 75 Euro cents for each dollar. Now we find that the prices in Euros are higher for most things than the prices in dollars would be back home. Ok, time to retreat to our old tactics.
We headed to a grocery store and bought some sandwiches, rasins, crackers, and cheese. Here was our midday feast. When we sat down to plan our day, I felt the call of nature, and set out to find a bathroom. Easier said than done, I'm afraid, because every bathroom I found had a coin-operated lock on the door, and they wanted one Euro to let you in. That's $1.35 per leak, people. I can't spend that on a drink, much less getting rid of a drink. Pressing on, I found a bathroom on the 4th floor of a department store that I could use for free, once I'd wandered, bumlike, through the piles of merchandise far beyond my means.
Cierra and I both sprang for the Helsinki card, which used up nearly our entire budget for the day, but did allow us to see most of the museums here, got us a bus tour, and a ferry to the island fortress that our friends told us was a must see.
Helsinki Expert's bus tour was very well done, but the fact that we had eaten nothing but airline food for hours struck our stomachs mere minutes after the tour bus began rolling us through the quiet streets. There were plenty of very nice European buildings, and a few really interesting ones like the Church in the Rock, a quarry-like place of worship with a brass ceiling made of thousands of strands of brass wire. I just spent the whole time thinking about turkey. Or hamburgers. Finally, the tour was over, and we ran in the cold rain that had started to fall to the ferry terminal, where we scarfed down our lunch.
Of to the island fortress of Suomenlinna, "The Gibraltar of the North", a brilliantly designed and inpenetrable fortress... that fell to a seige of a few weeks with little violence. This was the incident that separated what is now Finland from Sweden (it was a part of Russia for around a hundred years, until just before the Soviet Union formed.) Well, the island is very interesting, with lots of pretty fortifications, and courtyards, but the southerly wind was whipping right off the Gulf of Finland, so you'll excuse us if we don't have that much to report about the island. We walked to the museum, saw the exhibits, used the free restrooms (Yay!), and walked back to the ferry.
Once we finished visiting several other Museums, it was time to call our hosts for the night, Penny and Mikko. The pay phone eats our first Euro and gives Cierra just enough time to say hi to Penny and start asking how to find them before it abruptly hangs up. We put 2 Euro in it this time, and get enough time for complete directions and just get the pleasantries cut off. Deciding that it's not worth pumping another Euro into the thing so we can apologize for hanging up again, we set out to find them. Still stewing over the stupid phone, my nose starts running like a faucet from the cold wind we've been up against all day. Then we strap on our heavy packs and board a tram to make the journey. I'm trying to read a map and make out where to get off. Meanwhile, the tram is trying to get rid of me every time we take a curve. The back end keeps whipping around, and with all the extra weight on my back, I can barely hang on. The third time I almost flew out the door, I'd had enough. Dropping my pack on the floor, I was ready to be done with the maps, the packs, the cold, but especially done with Finland.
It seems that whenever we get in too much trouble on this trip, we meet someone great who helps us out, and this time those people were Penny and Mikko. We knock on the door, and Penny opens it, a tall, fair-skinned girl with close cropped hair except for one tight braid that falls well below the shoulders. We're about to ask where we can cook the bag of tasteless pasta that we bought for dinner, when she tells us that they're hosting a dinner party, and we're invited.
The next few hours were spent getting to know a great group of people. We found that in Finland, we're actually considered tan! Dinner was spaghetti with the most delicious meatballs I think we'd ever had, and once we'd eaten, the exhaustion of our plane troubles and travel set in big time. The following day was Finland's Independence Day, and a liquor was gotten out, distributed, and drinking songs begun. This is around the time that I actually began to see double, and soon Cierra and I had to excuse ourselves to sleep in our hosts' bedroom while the party went on in the next room.
In the morning, we only had a few minutes to share with our hosts before they had to leave to play Frisbee Golf (You're doing what in this weather?) and we had to leave for the last few sights we wanted to visit, a contemporary art museum, and a flower garden. The day went quickly, and soon it was time to load up and catch the bus to the airport once again. Finland had little time to make an impression, but we got a picture of a clean place with a proud history, dark winters, and thanks to our hosts here, considerate and thoughtful people.
From here, it's just a 4 hour plane ride to Barcelona....
