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Published: August 6th 2007
Holly loses the braids...
And this is what happens when hair has been braided for six weeks and is finally set free...Well that´s it for our Asian section of the trip. After a quick one night stop over in Beijing we jumped straight to the gateway to Europe, Helsinki Finland. Helsinki was supposed to be our place for a bit of deserved R&R from our whirlwind asia trip. However we found out it's probably not the best place for this. See it's midsummer and yeah, the sun doesn't really set. Even at 11pm at night there is still adequate light to walk around, like pre-dusk. We set the alarm for 1:30am and there were still no stars!
Helsinki is a pretty little city. The city architecture is quite amazing, with so many buildings interesting enough to stop and admire. We spent the first day doing some light sight-seeing and saw most of the main sights in Helsinki, this included a half-day trip to the historical island fort of Suomenlinna. We also wandered through the gorgeous cobblestoned market square by the ferry wharf where all you could smell were the fresh strawberry stalls. We bought a litra of strawberries and half a litra of cherries that were so tasty!!! There were also some amazing reindeer goods like bottle openers but we wern´t
We have arrived in Europe!!!
Well Helsinki, Finland actually... sure enough of the customs regulations to buy any. We also managed to fit in a trip to a doctor to get a diagnosis for my pink eye. Apparently congunctivitis but not like any I´ve had or seen before (Lew read up that it appears to be a Viral form of it, instead of bacteria). I´m using the drops that were prescribed anyway... we will see what happens.
Day 2 was purely catch up. I got rid of my braids (which probably took at least 3 times longer than putting them in) and we were able to find an internet cafe to relax in. Finished off with a few beers in our room before packing for our early start this morning.
Unfortunately Helsinki was just a quick stopover and we didn't really have enough time to see more of Finland. We would have loved to get up to Lapland and check out Santa´s place and the northern lights.
We are now headed to London for a quick 1 night stop (staying in the airport as we have to check in at about 4am) before flying to Turkey then boating it to Greece. We have started to think
The Cathedral - Helsinki
This was an impressive cathedral near the main port in Helsinki. It´s a main blip on the Helsinki skyline... about all the food to look forward to in Europe which is pretty exciting. From a turkish kebab in Turkey to authentic pasta in Italy. Yum, can't wait.
Talk later.
Cheers,
Lew and Holly (good to finally be up to date)
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