After our stay in Hungary, we decided to go on a whirlwind, 6-week-long trip to 4 countries: Finland, Amsterdam, Germany, and Poland. We could only stay for a few more weeks in the EU, so we had to hit all of the schools we missed in the spring. We packed up our bags, said goodbye to our sweet apartment in Budapest, and boarded a sweet (free-WiFi, free drinks, free food) Norwegian Airlines flight to Helsinki. I had never had any interest in the Scandinavian countries before I had met Billy. Finland, Norway, Denmark...they were all really cold places where people ate jellied fish and had ruddy cheeks. My interest in Finland piqued when I met Billy's mom, Donna. Her dad was 100% Finnish and the little town where she lived, Rockland, MI, is a Finn town. Since having Des and knowing that part of his makeup is Finnish, I became more and more interested in visiting.
Most every listing we saw for Helsinki had advertised that it had a sauna in the building. The two listings we ended up picking (because of price concerns) did not. Maybe my experience in Helsinki would have been better if I was able to soak up the heat in a sauna, but I couldn't do it anyway since I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the time.
Most every listing we saw for Helsinki had advertised that it had a sauna in the building. The two listings we ended up picking (because of price concerns) did not. Maybe my experience in Helsinki would have been better if I was able to soak up the heat in a sauna, but I couldn't do it anyway since I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the time.
When we got there, the owners of the apartment we stayed in told us that this was the warmest September they had ever experienced. We were lucky in that it wasn't cold and it was bright and sunny for our 1-week stay. I, however, stayed mostly in the apartment because I was 8 weeks pregnant, peeing all the time, wanting to puke (I can still feel my stomach churn when I think of the smell of the spinach we had in the fridge. Spinach, for crying out loud), and being exhausted.
However, I did make it out twice: once to go downtown and have a VERY EXPENSIVE chai latte (my first since we left St. Louis...totally worth the $7 price tag) and another time to go to Töölönlahti Bay, Finland.
However, I did make it out twice: once to go downtown and have a VERY EXPENSIVE chai latte (my first since we left St. Louis...totally worth the $7 price tag) and another time to go to Töölönlahti Bay, Finland.
This was my favorite part of the trip...the walk around the bay was absolutely beautiful. After spending a very hot summer in Budapest, I reveled in the cool, green shade of the walk. Des and Billy even went native and swam in the freezing bay, like other Finns were doing. I took a nap and sunbathed on the rocky shore while they frolicked like crazy fools in the water.
Helsinki was really clean and the people were pleasant. Everyone pretty much spoke English. The language is really hard to read (one of those European languages, along with Hungarian, that is not Indo-European in origin).
However, I'm not sure if it was because we were out during the day and people were working or if we didn't go to the more happening parts of the city, but it's pretty quiet there. Anyhow, my dream is to one day go to Finland with the kids (before they figure out we're lying to them about Santa Claus) and go stay in one of those glass igloos and sleep under the Northern lights, as close to the North Pole as we'd ever get.