portaling | Entries tagged with !finland

Yesterday was a pretty long day, all things considered. Though it was long in the good way, at least! We woke up before noon (again) and decided that we would go and see Turun linna, or the Turku castle. It was actually situated on the same street our hotel is on, though it was a bit of a walk; we completely left the tourist district behind on our quest to find Turun linna. Unfortunately, this also meant that we left all of the restaurants behind as well -- so we didn't get to eat lunch until after we finished touring. When we found the castle, it appeared around a bend kind of out of nowhere. While it doesn't look like a traditional castle like one might see in the German countryside, it is pretty grand for a place that was once a fortified solider's camp on an island.

We were pretty much the only people around at first when we got there; we walked inside and were greeted kindly by the people that guard the building, nice men and women in red vests and period clothing. We explored the castle by sections: starting with the Medieval parts, moving onto the Renaissance, and then eventually ending up in the special exhibits and museum section of the castle. The place was actually burned down three different times -- and also bombed during World War II, which almost completely destroyed the castle itself. There's been some reconstruction since then, of course; we didn't just wander around in a pile of rubble. The doorways were almost entirely made for people the height of Aave and I, so Zae had to duck a little when we went through them. The fireplaces were huge enough to stand in, and almost all the windows had seats that you could jump into and look outside. We explored dungeons (though we didn't get to go inside of them, which I thought was a little disappointing) and the king and queen's salons and rooms, as well as the prison (which we did get to go inside and it was so fun). A lot of the ceilings were vaulted, so I spent an ungodly amount of time staring at the ceiling, going vaults vaults vaults vaults... My art history teacher would be proud. After rolling around the castle and taking pictures surreptitiously while the guards weren't looking, we decided to return home. The day was extremely cold, so the walk back wasn't as much fun as it could have been. Also it was getting dark. So we went and got pizza close to the hotel and lounged around for the rest of the night. Aave spent the night, so we watched LPs of Haunting Ground and giggled as girls are wont to do at sleepovers.

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Today, we didn't feel like doing much of anything. Outside of the cathedral and castle, a lot of things in Turku are meant to be viewed in the summer. Some things are even closed for the season, but that's okay, because we wanted this trip to be mostly social in nature by this point, anyway. Aave went to school, and Zae and I decided to go on a hunt for a McDonald's because that is what reasonable people do in a country that's filled with Hesburgers. The only one we found was practically out of town -- we had to walk a long way to get to it -- and by the time we got there it was getting dark. Really, that was about all we've done all day; tomorrow we're going shopping for our last souvenirs and then staying up all night, since we have to leave the hotel at 4:30am to get to the train station to get back to Helsinki. At least we'll get to sleep on the plane!

Yesterday was uneventful as well; not because we wanted it to be (we didn't) but because when we woke up, all we could see out of our window was a solid wall of white. That's right -- a white-out! We're in a hotel room facing the river, and we couldn't see the buildings across from us. The river isn't very wide, so we were a little hesitant to go outside until we could actually see properly. When we did, it was freezing; the wind was blowing the snow everywhere, so the little bits stung your face. We wandered into a restaurant that supposedly served Irish food, but really, I had a cheeseburger and Zae had chicken fingers. We did happen to try their flavored mayonnaise, though -- turns out that mayo is a Finnish specialty or something. It's on almost every burger, or comes as a side for dipping. There are so many different flavors that I've kind of lost track - the specialty mayo at the Irish restaurant and the BBQ mayo I had tonight come to mind - but the most important thing is that it tastes way better than any stuff we could get at home. Who would've thought?

After we ate lunch, we decided to retire back to our hotel and wait out the worst of the weather. When in Finland, do as the Finns do -- well, almost no one was out on the street, so it seemed rather sensible. To pass the time, Aave came over, and we all played really silly computer games because we couldn't go exploring like we wanted to. By dinner the snow had stopped, so we wandered around until we found Rico's, an Italian-like place that served really good pasta (trust me, the chicken pepper-cheese sauce was excellent). While sipping drinks and eating our various meals, we finally figured out the secret to getting the check quickly: you ask for it with your dessert. Unfortunately, this also has the added side effect of the waitress or waiter demanding payment immediately after you receive the bill, forcing you to dig through your wallet and produce the right amount of change before you can eat your ice cream. We finished off the night by giggling over another silly computer game, before Aave had to catch the bus and go home. Zae and I still haven't figured out the bus system yet, so we kind of awkwardly wave as she leaves. We were going to go visit her house, but Aave has ten cats which makes my presence in the house a little hard. I suppose I could stand outside while Zae wanders around, but I might get a little cold, and also a little lonely. For those not in the know: another of my myriad of allergies is to cats. It's not severe enough to cause me to die or anything [we think] but with ten cats I would probably have some sort of hive reaction.

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TODAY was bright and sunny; we got out of bed before noon (this is an important thing; we rarely do because we're just so exhausted) and rounded up Aave before heading off to the Turku Cathedral. This cathedral is extremely pretty -- I am a big fan of old architecture, especially of churches, so this trip was very exciting for me. Started in the 13th century, but finally completed somewhere around the 17th, it's a beautiful building with a vaulted ceiling and clerestory windows. I couldn't quite figure out what the columns and ceiling were made of -- it looked like painted brick, I think, with some sort of plaster over them -- but it was pretty nonetheless. We saw lots of famous Finnish and Swedish people, though none of us knew who they were (not even Aave, who said that she couldn't make out Old Swedish to save her life). The altar piece was beautiful; I'll put up pictures later, but trust me when I say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Yes, I am a slight bit of an art history nerd.

After we went to the church, we decided to hit up the market square, which is filled with different shops -- including our friend the Stockmann! Aave got a really pretty sunhat, while I finally got a change purse to put all of my Euros in (as I was painfully stuffing them into a pocket of my purse before). Zae kept looking for a real, Finnish purse; finally we found one at another store. It's very pretty -- red leather, made by a Finnish designer -- so we all came out of our shopping adventure happy with our purchases. My own coin purse is actually by a Finnish design brand, as well: Marimekko, which sells fabric that my personal fashion sense was going wild for. If only we had stores like this in the United States! I would make so many pretty dresses and skirts. For dinner, we had a restaurant remarkably similar to Chili's. It was actually named Red Hot Chili's as well, surprise surprise. I had a bacon burger with -- you guessed it -- more mayonnaise! The waiter was really interested in why we were in Finland in the first place. Apparently they don't get many tourists in the southern part of Finland in the winter time, especially people from America. But really, who wants to freeze their butts off in Lapland? Come on.

Tomorrow we are (hopefully) going to the Turku Castle, which is a little bit away from us, but it's on the same street as our hotel! There will be pictures. Perhaps another picture post tomorrow, with more than last time. It just takes me a long time to upload them, so that's why there were so few.

OKAY HERE WE GO.

Day 5 opened onto a lot of snow. Really, the people of Helsinki are snow experts: they scoop it up and then dump it into dump trucks, which carry it away. We watched this giggling for a little while on our way to go see the Temppeliaukio Kirkko, or the church in the rock. This is literally built straight into the rock; it was constructed in the 1960s, and holds services regularly. The ceiling is a dome that sticks out of the rock, so when we first came across it, it almost looked like the top of a snowy mountain! You can climb on the rock that the church is built out of (though not on the dome, because of the glass), so we wandered around on the top of a church that day. We couldn't find the actual entrance -- instead, we found a back entrance, which was locked. We were going to walk around the church and try to find the real entrance when lo, a person who worked there walked out of the door! He politely let us in the back entrance (the "personel entrance" he called it) and there we stood, on the inside of the Temppeliaukio Kirkko, right beside the altar. I assume that he doesn't do that for everyone; we just happened to be lucky enough, or simply looked lost enough.

After that, it was getting dark, so we decided to head to dinner. On our last full day in Helsinki we wanted something uniquely Finnish -- so we were going to try this restaurant made out of glass in Esplanadi, a park near our hotel. To our (great) surprise, almost everything in their menu contained either pine nuts, pesto (which, in European countries, usually has pine nuts in it), or just "nuts." It's safe to say that we didn't eat there. For those of you who don't quite get the reference to why we didn't eat there, it's not that we don't like nuts. I have a deathly tree nut allergy, so everywhere we go has to be checked and double checked in case of places like this, which just put "nut sauce" once in English and then wrote it every other time in Finnish. The second restaurant we tried was another Finnish restaurant -- but unfortunately, people in Helsinki really like to take your bags and store them before you go into the dining area. Since we have our passports (as well as our money!) in there, we decided not to go to that restaurant, either.

Our final destination: McDonalds! (Again.) We got chicken nuggets, and tried the different, Finnish sauces that they had available. Zae tried "McFeast" (which tasted a lot like ranch but not really) while I tried "Curry" (which tasted like...well, curry). I also had a McFlurry with some sort of European equivalent of M&Ms in it, which was really good. However, we might need to inform them that a "big ice cream" in their country is actually a "really small ice cream" in America. Because we both giggled over that fact like dorks.

Unfortunately for me, my forgetful mind got the best of me. I left my Oberlin sweatshirt in the McDonalds, and when we came back for it, it was gone. The people that worked there hadn't seen it either. So somewhere around Helsinki, someone must be keeping it warm with my favorite hoodie. I hope they weren't disappointed; the only thing I had in my pockets was a mechanical pencil. Oh well, I'll just get a new one when I get back. They still sell them in the bookstore.

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Day 6 was actually a travel day -- we got up early (for once) and packed our bags, headed for the train station. What was once hard to find was now really simple; what made today hard was the fact that Helsinki's skies had finally seen fit to rain down on us with...well, rain. Snow rain, actually -- it came pouring as we dragged our bags to the train station. After a little snafu with the ticketing counter (they assumed that Zae and I weren't traveling together, but instead that Zae and a complete stranger were) we settled into the train and off we went! Turku is about two hours away from Helsinki by train, right on the southern coast of Finland. It's a slightly smaller town than Helsinki, with a little less to see and do. But that's okay, because really the main reason we decided to come here was to meet our friend Aave, a Finnish native who happens to live in Turku. Of course, we're going to do some sight-seeing too; but the first day, Aave met us at the train station (with a sign that read O3O) and helped us drag our bags for the ten minute walk to our hotel. The Radisson Blu looks out over the river -- and we have a river-side view, out of which we can see a huge hill with a windmill on top -- and we rested for a bit before dinner. Aave took us to Harald, a Viking restaurant that served so many different menu items that it took us forever to decide what to get! Finally, Zae and I settled on the Archer's Pot, which was deer and elk along with potatoes, vegetables, lingonberries and something called "sea-buckthorn," a kind of fruit that...is. Well, when I say it tastes distinctly like sea-buckthorn and nothing else, you get the idea. We finished our meal with a serving of Finnish crepes, which unlike the French ones, have nothing inside of them -- they were still ridiculously delicious, and we all left extremely full. We hung out for a little bit more, and then Aave went home; she has to take the bus out of town to get there, so she left a little early. Zae skyped her mom; I skyped my boyfriend (hi Rob) and then we both went to sleep.

We haven't done anything yet today; we both woke up ridiculously late (as did Aave) and neither of us are feeling particularly tip-top shape. I'm thinking that the cold is starting to get to me; I'll be happy to be home in South Carolina soon, where it's warm. Today is a lazy day, but if we go out, I'll write more about it.

After we both got up rather late -- apparently yesterday tired us out more than we had imagined -- we decided that today would be the day of cheap eats and lots of wandering. Our first order of business: Finnish McDonald's! Since yesterday's dinner was so expensive, we unanimously agreed that this was pretty much all we could afford. Neither of us know how to ask for "no pickles and onions, please!" so we had to scrape off the lettuce (or pickles and onions, depending on the sandwich). It was delicious! Much better than American McDonalds, if I do say so. Though we weren't quite up for trying the Finnish "El Maco Jr." or "Jalapeño Burger," and sadly the Finnish McFlurry is made with Toblerone. Which, while delicious, would also kill me a la nut allergy. So we stuck with what we knew best.

After lunch, we wandered away from the shopping area of Helsinki, towards the Finnish National Cathedral. It's an impressive structure that we first thought was some kind of government building -- our American architecture sensibilities betrayed us! Just because it's white marble does not a government building make. We couldn't get inside today, but we peered in through the windows, and it was truly beautiful. My only regret is not being able to get pictures. After we snooped around the cathedral for awhile (and climbed up a HUGE amount of steps to get there), we wandered away from where we had ever gone before, into the more residential and business areas of Helsinki. We got pictures of the Helsinki National Archives (which I had to read Latin to decipher, thank you Mrs. Tate) as well as the beautiful Lithuanian Embassy. We wandered down some roads littered with beautiful apartment buildings that looked more like works of art than anything people should be living in. Finally, we arrived at the bay again; we wandered around it until we found ourselves back at the Suomenlinna ferry stop -- somewhere that we actually knew! Then we made a quick detour to do some shopping; Zae bought her dad a cute shot glass, while I made my token item Big Purchase and bought a hand-made hat. There were some very pretty fur-lined ones, but in the interest of not getting scolded on my return to Oberlin, I settled with a hand-made fleece hat. Besides, fur gets itchy, and all of the hats looked like something I'd wear on a Finnish hunting trip.

We watched a Rubik's Cube installation light show after that, and it's very pretty -- a youtube video of it can be found here but I'm not sure if it's got sound or not, my computer is acting funny. It is really awesome! The light show is fun to enjoy, even if we were wondering why in the world there's a giant Rubik's Cube in the middle of the square....

Tonight, we decided to eat good ol' Tex Mex, which is really kind of horrible when you come from South Carolina and have been spoiled by Anita's for your entire life. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly what we were expecting; I had to get a meal that didn't have meat in it (because the meat was marinated in some sort of nut sauce) and Zae's burrito was more bean than beef, which was odd. It was pretty good, but I think I'll wait to have real Mexican food when I get home. Well, realish. Now we're just taking baths and sitting back; we're going to try to get to bed early today, so that we can have breakfast before our big excursion tomorrow. We're a little too scared to try using the trams -- we can't make sense of the map, and it has no street names on it -- so we're going to walk to Temppeliaukion kirkko, or the Rock Church. If we have time, we'll try and find the Sibelius monument, but the walk might take a little while...if we don't get lost!

Pictures forthcoming in another post. I don't want to kill anyone's slow web browser by overloading it in this one.

Today was really long, and I am really tired! So it might be a little short (it might not, it all depends on how rambly I get). Today, Zae and I decided that it would be a splendid idea to go to Suomenlinna, because it was no longer snowing and seemed rather bright outside. Of course, what we didn't know was that with good sunshine also came a ridiculously COLD day -- it was, at its lowest 12 degrees Fahrenheit. Being from South Carolina, I was pretty sure that I was going to die. Zae's from Minnesota, so she handled it a little better than I did. But we were both pretty frozen.

The boat ride to Suomenlinna is approximately 15 minutes, through a bay which holds both small boats and large cruise liners, as well as boat restaurants. At this time of year, it's just cold enough that the ice is thin on the water; it shows up in large patches that you can see out of the windows on the ferry. Since it snowed yesterday, there's still a ton of it sitting around on the island. There was a pretty brisk breeze, as well. We wandered around (and through the museum, which was in Finnish) before finally sitting down for some delicious lunch in a teeny tiny cafe.

Today's Special: Reindeer Cheese Soup!
OF COURSE WE TRIED IT for those of you going WELL DID YOU? It was pretty delicious, though as a cheese lover I can honestly say that it might have been a little better without so much...well, cheese. Then again, I suppose that's the entire point of the cheese soup. The reindeer was good, but overpowered by the STRONG WILL OF CHEESE.

After lunch, we wandered through the snow and wind to go find some places to take pictures. While we were eating, a huge fog had rolled in off of the sea -- the islands were completely covered in it. You couldn't even see the end of long bridges any more, or the actual sea itself. We were encased in a wall of fog. But to make up for it, we roamed through empty places that were probably of some historical significance -- mostly we took pictures of icicles in the dark and slipped on a bunch of ice (don't worry, we're fine). As soon as we couldn't stand the cold any more, we decided to head back to the mainland.

Tonight, we finally found our authentic Finnish restaurant, a tourist place that serves remarkably good food. We ordered whitefish -- assuming that, like in America, the fish would come served in properly sliced slivers. We were wrong. The fish still had scales and their fins attached; thankfully there were no heads, so I would've run screaming out the door. As it was, I apologized to every single little fish I ate, even as i pulled it's vertebra out so I could get at the meat. At least, until Zae found a pregnant fish. That was when all hope was lost -- there was not much more fish eating after that occurrence. We finished off the night with blueberry pie, a tiny little circle of pie not much bigger than a golf ball. It was pretty delicious! And at least the blueberries didn't have faces at some point in their lives. That made me feel a whole lot better about it.

But now, it's bed time. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to upload my favorite pictures of the trip so far, so look forward to that. Right now it's just too late, and we've got to get up early to figure out the tram system. Wish us luck!

After a sleepless night (which entailed Zae finally sleeping at around 5ish, with me passing out around 6:30am) we woke up around noon. Thankfully, we didn't have anything planned for that day -- because it snowed. And a good deal of it was sitting around on the streets when we finally decided to wander outside. Today, we decided to be serious shoppers.

Starting, of course, with the Moomin Store. Moomins are these troll-like creatures that actually kind of look like hippos. And they are the most adorable creatures in the world; Zae and I spent a good deal of time wandering through the tiny store, looking for things to buy. Both of us are entirely enamored with them. She got a scarf, while I got the ever stylish purse. I am totally validated in this purchase.

After wandering through endless shopping malls, which varied from the strange shops called "Your Face" to normal American stores like H&M, we finally decided to head back to the hotel to regroup for dinner. It turns out that when they go out, Finnish people don't really want to eat Finnish-themed food. So we attempted to find a place to eat that was rather tourist-like; turns out that you have to have a reservation a day in advance. We made that for tomorrow -- hopefully bear is going to be good! Tonight we just had a restaurant that served really strange burgers. Lamb-bacon burger with cheese sauce and onions anyone?

The only funny thing about traveling around Finland is that everyone seems to mistake me for being authentically Finnish. Not Rachel, however. If they are going to speak to us in Finnish (or Russian), they direct their comments to me; if they are going to speak English, they generally speak to Rachel. We swear that it's because we are now living in the Land of the Blonde Haired People, so it's almost like coming home for me -- Rachel's hair sticks out a little bit like a sore thumb. I honestly have no idea why they keep thinking I'm Finnish (or even Russian). It's a little bit of a mystery. But then again, it's also hilarious -- the only Finnish words I know are "hei" (hello), "tervetuloa" (welcome) and "kiitos" (thank you).

Hei, tervetuloa, kiitos!

It's almost 1am, and in the spirit of getting to bed early so that we can go to Suomelinna tomorrow morning I am planning on uploading all of my pictures tomorrow. There aren't that many -- a lot of them are kind of dark! But stay tuned, I suppose. It'll be a blast.

PS: Because I know you read these now: Hi Rob. Talk to you soon. ♥

Forgoing all common sense and settling on a more relaxing morning schedule, Zae and I woke up when the sun rises. While some may think that's quite early, it's actually about 10am -- and even when the sun's up, it's cloudy enough that you think it might be the early morning. We investigated the free breakfast, and lo and behold, there was raw salmon on the breakfast menu. I wasn't quite adventurous enough to try it -- after the debacle with sushi over fall break I think I've had enough raw fish -- but Zae loves sashimi and gave it a try. She said it was good; I'll have to take her word for it.

After a delicious breakfast of yogurt, salami, cheese and croissants, we set off on our merry way. We were still pretty tired from the day before, so we decided to stick close to the hotel. What actually happened was that we walked in a series of squares; the entire city is very organized, so it's hard to get lost if you know how to orient yourself. One of the things we set out to do was find some food. Yes, we had just eaten only an hour or so before. But hey, I get hungry easily.

Things we learned:
• Finns love Tex-Mex. And not "Mexican," where the title is as dubious as the food set before you. No, they actually adore the cuisine that Texas is famous for. And if they're not a Mexican restaurant, or even a Tex-Mex restaurant, they generally serve some sort of Tex-Mex option.
• The people who said that menus would be in English? They lied. Most of the menus had English titles -- "Burrito" and "Grilled Steak" come to mind -- with Finnish descriptions. If we were lucky, it even had a Russian translation for all of our tourism needs. I only know one word in Russian: русский, which means "Russian." So we were a little strapped for information.
• Hesburger, a Finnish burger chain that's a lot like McDonald's (only with better fries), serves their hamburgers smothered in Mayonnaise. And I'm not saying "smothered" as in the pathetic "one dollop that comes on a sandwich at Panera." No, this was literally dripping down the sides of my burger. Delicious, but a little strange.

But BEFORE delicious Hesburger (where we also found out that a small in Finland = kids' size in America), we decided to do some shopping and give our tired minds a rest. We went into Stockmann, a gigantic department store only a few blocks from our hotel. Anything that you could imagine was in there -- from ornate clocks to kids' skis to an entire set of Moomin dishware to all the scarves I could possibly imagine wearing. Needless to say, we were in heaven -- and the top floor had a money exchange place, which was awesome. We both needed some more cash after last night's expensive hotel dinner. The place was designed to keep you there for hours. They not only had a deli inside the store, but also a Ben & Jerry's, a bakery, a place to sit down and eat, a coffee shop, a pharmacy, and three different restaurants.

By the time we left Stockmann and Hesburger, it was already getting dark -- 3pm, a very strange time to be wandering around in the twilight. We went back to the room to regroup and start planning tomorrow (really, I just took an hour nap while Zae read). Since we had a rather late lunch, we decided to have a late dinner -- sensible, right? People do that?

No.

You guys, it's Epiphany. Every decent-looking restaurant was either closed entirely or had closed at around 6pm, leaving us almost no place to get food that wasn't processed or some sort of variation on American fast food. If Hesburger is the Finnish equivalent of McDonald's, then Southern Fried Chicken is the equivalent of KFC. It was pretty good -- not what we were looking for, but the other place we were investigating had an ominous-looking bouncer at the door that neither of us was willing to attempt getting past. So, chicken it was! All in all, a very uninspiring day. Tomorrow it's supposedly going to snow, so we're planning on going to the art museum, and maybe to the MoominShop and also another huge department store a little farther away. Though if it's sunny, we might be going to Suomenlinna. It all depends on the weather (and of course, on when we get up).

At least I managed to wrap my scarf in the popular Helsinki style.
( picture under here. )

I am extremely tired, so I'm going to try and do as much as possible in a short amount of time judging by my recollections. Needless to say, we're here now -- after a few mishaps, which I will go into in detail a little later. Let's just separate these by airport, shall we?

Minneapolis
( departing approx. 3:30pm, January 4 )
When they said that the airport security line was going to be short? They lied. We waited for almost forty-five minutes to get through security, which was a pain in the butt. The flight they had us on for Chicago didn't actually give us seats on the plane, either. So for the first time that I can remember, we had to watch the screen for our name to appear in the "cleared" list. THANKFULLY we appeared rather quickly, and got our seats -- but we didn't get to sit together. Oh well, at least it was only around an hour.

Chicago
( departing approx. 7:30pm, January 4 )
Two of our wacky mishaps actually happened within one airport. First of all, to get to the international terminal of the Chicago O'Hare airport, you must exit security, walk to a train, ride said train all the way across the airport, and then go through security again. On the other side of the international security line, there is almost no food. Sure, there's a bar -- not very helpful when you're 19 and a little dehydrated -- and there's also some snack places. I settled for some Doritos and a few M&Ms (a very tasty meal, if I do say so myself). Getting to the terminal was actually the problem; we had no idea where we were going, and finally had to ask a security guard if she could direct us to where we needed to go. This airport either needs better signage for the international terminal, or we are just blind!

The next mishap was a wee bit harrowing, at least for us. We took Swiss Airlines across the ocean -- flying into Helsinki was an impossibility, as apparently no international airlines fly directly into the city from the United States. Or at least, they don't if you want it to be within a reasonable price range. So to Zurich it was. Unfortunately for us -- and this is mere speculation -- one of the flight attendants simply didn't like us. Maybe it was the way we looked: Aperture Science t-shirt and respectable white blouse, that gave us away as being really easy to con. She approached us and told us that our carry-ons were "too bulky" -- a lie if I've ever heard one, as mine is under the standard flight requirements and Zae's wasn't much bigger. She also snagged a man's next to us, and toted all three of the carry-ons to the back of the plane, where we were told that we'd meet up with them in Helsinki. Needless to say, two teenagers toting around laptops, a few books each, armloads of medication, one Scalemate, and a pair of earrings in addition to their purses looked a little silly. But even though I'm still kind of irritated that they took our luggage -- mind you, when we got into the plane the overhead compartments were huge and would've provided ample room for our tiny carry-ons -- I'm glad that I made the decision to save the laptop. By the time we picked the bags up in Helsinki, they were soaked!

Swiss Airlines: Chicago to Zurich
There's not much to report here, other than that the flight was long (seven hours!) and also there were some interesting movies in the companion screen that sits in the front of your seat. I just wish that the person in front of me hadn't leaned their seat back so far that they were practically sitting in my lasagna. But the swiss chocolate definitely made up for it, and thankfully the lady that stole our luggage wasn't actually aboard the flight.

I sat aisle. Zae sat middle. (I think I lucked out.)

Zurich
( departing approx. 3:00pm, January 5 )

Couldn't buy anything in this airport, as apparently Switzerland doesn't take the Euro and that's all we had. So, my stomach grumbling, we sat and waited for our flight to arrive. It was a very stylish airport -- we got to explore a lot of it, because we had to leave the airport, get a new set of tickets, and then check back in. Thankfully the Swiss know how to handle security; they told me exactly what to take out of my bag (or my lack of one, thanks to the Chicago debacle) and the lady even asked about my reading material.

(For those who want to know, I'm reading the series A Song of Ice and Fire on this trip. I'm currently on Feast for Crows. It was in my arms for the entirely of our travels through Europe, until we reclaimed our bags.)

FINALLY we got on our Blue 1 flight, where there were so many Finnish people that it was pretty obvious where we were going. If you've never heard the Finnish language spoken, let's just say that it's very complex. I personally have no idea what anyone is saying -- it just sounds like a lot of eloquent letters being thrown at me. But thankfully a lot of people here in Finland seem to speak English -- if you can get them to talk in the first place. They're very quiet around other people. We found that out when we landed in...

HELSINKI
SO. We had a vague idea that we needed to reach the city center to get to our hotel -- the Hotel GLO, which is this very posh place close to the train station. Zae and I decided to opt out of the more expensive airport hotel shuttle -- which would've taken us right there -- and decided to take the local bus instead. Cheaper, and we'd be able to walk from the train station right to the hotel. Right? No. Each of us picked a direction to set out from the train station, after we arrived by bus, and each of us were wrong. Eventually, we had to hire a cab to take us to our hotel, which as it turns out, was only about three blocks away and would've been a very easy walk. Had we known where we were going, of course. Mostly we just wandered around in the cold (it's really cold), wondering where the hell we were going and why in the world Finns don't label their streets with names.

But we're here now. I am lounging on my (single) bed, contemplating some food or maybe a shower -- possibly both, if I have the time. Which I do; I'm on vacation now! Technically Winter Term, but it's all a vacation to me. Let's just hope that the small bit of sunlight we get tomorrow will be worth it. I haven't seen the city of Helsinki by day yet -- Finland gets dark around 5pm, and doesn't get light again until around 10am the next morning. So we'll see. (Aave called it the Land of Dark and Silence. Since she lives here, she's probably right.)

( CLICK HERE FOR THE PICTURE )

In the effort of being a GOOD BLOGGER and also in the effort of keeping some sort of chronicle of my journey, I'm going to make a short pre-trip blog to tell everyone what's up (hi mom). Even though we leave today, I actually left for Minnesota on Monday, to meet up with Zae and hang out before officially making the puddle jump. After realizing that I left my hairbrush at home -- not a major issue, as it could've been my passport or something -- and after a quick journey to the Mall of America and several Monk episodes, we feel like we're decently ready to go. So, hats packed (all six of them, I'll take a picture later), we will leave in about two hours for the airport.

Am I nervous? Kind of. I haven't made a long flight since junior year of high school, almost four years ago. And I still remember the horrible sleepless night of the Newark -> Glasgow flight fiasco, which was hideous. There was no sleep that night. Just a lot of watching the map with the little plane on it move slowly across the ocean. It...pretty much sucked! But hopefully this trip will go smoothly.

We're departing MSP at approximately 3pm, making one stop in the United States, jumping the ocean, landing in Zurich, and then finally arriving at our destination of Helsinki sometime tomorrow. The time difference is approximately 8 hours from CST (7 from Oberlin). This time tomorrow I will be somewhere in the FUTURE.

Now I must take a shower and start getting ready. Gotta make sure that I have everything before we leave! More tomorrow, when I'm sleep deprived and horribly cranky. That'll be a fun one. (But I'll be in Finland so that totally makes up for said crankiness!)