No Chevy Chase though involved here. Well its been a month since I came back from my trip I better write a journal before I forget all of it XD No real proper full report here.I`ll just put down what I can remember.
I flew out of Seattle via Icelandic air Monday Aug 13th and I wouldnt make them my first choice.They don`t feed you automatically on international flights unlike many other airlines I`ve flown.At least though they offer seat back tablets to watch movies unlike a certain Canadian Airline ( WestJet ) I flew at the end of my trip who rented those to you.
I flew to Reykjavik,Iceland to switch planes. Our flight out of Seattle was delayed well over an hour and despite assurances to the contrary by the airline we landed with a need to dash to the other gate to get connecting flights. AND I had to go through customs first! But to their credit they held the flight long enough even though it was to take off roughly when I landed at Reykjavik.It helped customs was really fast. And like several of my other flights we took buses from the gate to the actual airline.I noticed that a lot and I assume its because airports are getting over crowded and the actual airplane isnt always at the gate to directly board. The flights to Reykjavik and then to Helsinki were uneventful.I wasnt able to sleep on them though so by the time I landed I was fairly tired. But it was Tuesday and I had travel ahead of me so no sleep for me anytime soon.I met a Finish roo friend of mine at the airport and he drove me to Joensuu in a borrowed car of a friend of his.I met her briefly when we returned to Helsinki and she seemed rather nice.
So anyway a 4 plus hour drive to Joensuu with stop for food and gas at a gas station .I tried some finish food at a restaurant they had there.I think it was some fried covered meat with veggies and potatoes.It was tasty enough especially considering where I ate it. Lots of trees in Finland. I mean LOTS! Pine as far as you can see. I put up with a drive to eastern Finland because I wanted to see the countryside.If i go again (which I`d like to ) I want to see northern and western Finland as well. We ended up staying at an old hotel in downtown Joensuu.I was ok if plain and a bit outdated.I had my first experience with something I never saw before even in my trips overseas. A blanket equivalent of a pillow case. I slept on it for this night because I was too tired to figure it out.But I now know that in Finland people put their blankets in large pillowcase things.The reason is to keep the blanket from getting all tangled up .It makes sense I suppose but was very odd to me. Anyway on Wed we looked around the town a bit. IWe ate at a Hesburger a local chain that is pretty good. .Did you know there are kmarts in Finland? well they arent the american chain though its a series of grocery/other goods stores called K-citymarket.I think there was also s-marts which no I saw no Ash working there. Oh and btw, burger King serves beer at Finish locations.That was different.
We drove another hour to Kolifreetime a camping ground near the Koli national park. We spent Wed,Thursday and friday nights there and left for Helsinki on Saturday.While in Koli we looked around and hiked some.All I have to say on hiking is..I`m not in good aerobic shape XD
In Helsinki besides enjoying the pleasant temperatures I experienced the whole trip ( 60-70`s F ) I saw some museums (like the and national monuments.we met
one day and ate at a nice Italian place.That was fun to see another Finish online friend.I hope to run into him again someday. Ialso ate at a TacoBell over there.I have seen lots of American companies on my travels this year (Chile,Argentina,Finland,Iceland,Germany,UK,Canada )but it does strike me as weird sometimes. They marketed it as " if you never try youll never know" in English combined with "live mas" in Spanish and of course all the Finish and Swedish you see everywhere there so it was a jumble of languages which youre not use to eating in the USA.Anyway the Taco Bells there have more of a meal approach then value items.So you pick an entree and the protein (they had beef,pork,chicken and veggie options ) and a side (spicy chips or fries) and a drink which had free refills which is a given in the USA but rare outside of it. oh also we stayed in a work colleges place of my Roo friends while in Helsinki and I had 2 observations.One is there was a lot of mosquitos around so I dont understand why places dont have screens for their windows especially if they dont have air conditioning ! And also Finish people have cupboards above the sink that drain their wet dishes into it.I had never heard of that before.It`s a pretty good idea actually.
Public transport is great in Helsinki.I bought a multiday pass and took the subway,bus,light rail trolleys , a ferry to Suomenlinna on my last day (wed) and a real train to the airport. I highly recommend using it .So I had donuts twice at a chain called Arnolds that was good. I went to a few Moomin shops while looking around (moomins are like a series of books and comics feature horse/hippo looking like creatures)bought fancy expensive chocolate covered liquorice by Lakrids at a department store. Ate at a pizza buffet place called Rax which was pretty crappy actually and dont recommend it even as an all you can eat place . On Monday or Tuesday we took a bus to Porvoo which is near by and walked around the city proper. It was very nice.I had some local homemade ice cream and bought a print of a fox painting and saw a small old fashioned toy store which was fun to look around in. I highly recommend looking around there if you have the chance.
While looking around a big bookstore in Helsinki I found a hard cover book called Ahistunu pupu which is all about a cute bunny guy who has severe anxiety issues. http://ahistunupupu.tumblr.com/ I think I want to get some art of him sometime. also anyone know if there are translated strips ? the google translate just translates the stuff on the page not in the strips. Anyway like I said earlier the last day I was there Wed aug 22 I went to the island fortress suomenlinna.It really has no purpose now as a defense but a long time ago it was a place with many canons posted to defend Helsinki. I spent several hours there and you could probably spend a full day there if you wanted to. I flew an Easy Jet discount flight from Helsinki to Berlin for EF around 9pm. I`ll leave off here and do another journal for EF and a final one of UK/Canada.
