Hey Now Helsinki.

Hello Helsinki, at least that was what I said when I got off the plane. I don't know what it is but in Scandinavia so far, there has been an absolute breath taker waiting in line at the baggage carousel. It's the perfect way to welcome someone to the city that's for sure.

So I found myself in Finland, not knowing what to expect. Having been to Stockholm and finding out that the sun doesn't hardly ever set, I knew I was in for long days. That was all fine and good for me as I had to fit a lot into the two days that I was going to be visiting. This time out though, I had no guide to show me around. My friend Kirsi, was supposed to have been there, but after I had planned my trip, she was sent out to a work trip in West Africa. She was nice enough to leave the keys to her apartment with a friend and he met me at the train station when I arrived and set me about on my way. She had an amazing apartment too.

After I got settled in I did a quick tour of the city. It's small enough that you can literally walk around it in an hour. Suited me just fine and I got to take some good pictures without the hustle and bustle of a tourist crowd. Now Steph if you're reading this, this is akin to your story about borrowing your friend's digi-cam. After I got home and settled in for bed, I wanted to put some clothes away into a proper cabinet instead of having it bunched up in my backpack. I opened the bedside cabinet and happened to find a small plastic bag... The contents of which were pleasurable... Again, in case this is read by my friend, and in all likelyhood it will, let's just say, "you go girl, at least you know how to have fun with yourself". I always thought she was so prim and proper. I even refer to her as the definition of a lady. Oh how I should have known. :P

So the next day, I set about going to Hartwell Arena to visit the home rink of my favourite Finnish hockey team, Jokerit (team logo above). I thought I'd go and pick up a souvenir from their team store for my brother as one of his favourite players is from Helsinki and played for that club before going to play in North America. To my shock and dismay, the arena was closed and the shop barren. I called the number for the store that I had been given in town. I nice sounding girl named Riikka answered and I explained that I was a crazy Canadian on a hockey sojourn and was looking for something to bring back to my brother. She told me to come into the arena office and she would see what she could do.

I got buzzed into the arena and made my way down to the office. I was greeted by a lovely girl who tried her hardest to find someone and something to give to me to take home from the hockey club. In the end though, her efforts were for naught. I was disappointed so I setted for the next best thing. If I couldn't get something from the hockey team, I'd just take one of their employees instead. So I asked her if she had plans for later, and she didn't so I had myself a date. Long and short of it, is that we met up had a nice walk about the city and then made dinner at my friend's place. We started up a movie and then got called out to a park to chill out with some more of her friends and have a few drinks in the open air.

The night or morning ended off at about 4AM. My flight for Amsterdam left at 9:30AM... So at 6 I made my way back to Kirsi's to shower up and tidy up her apartment before I left. I was aiming to be back at the train station at 7:30 to catch the shuttle to the airport. Things ended up taking a little longer and I ended up missing that one and reset my aim for the 7:50 shuttle. I ended up missing that one as well and was a little concerned because the next one departed at 8:10 and wouldn't arrive at the airport until 8:45 leaving me a grand 45 minutes before scheduled take off time.

By the grace of God, I made it onto the plane. I promptly fell asleep a short time after take off and splet pretty much the whole flight over. I woke up in time to catch the landing as opposed to my arrival in London when I realized we were landing when the thump of the wheels woke me. A train and tram trip later I arrived at the hostel and that's where I will leave you. There will be plenty of stories to fill the next blog whenever that happens to get written.

Happy in the high times or happy in the high times,

Indie