Finland - Helsinki

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7-31-07
It indeed was a very interesting night! I had put the ear plugs in and slept pretty good for a couple hours and then around 4, I awoke to the snoring. My ear plugs had fallen out and the extreme tiredness that I felt when I first went to bed was absent. I knew sleeping would be difficult. I got up and decided to walk around the ship for awhile. As I walked down stairs to the main shopping area a lady that was sitting on a bench said something to me. I went over to her and talked to her for a bit while pretty much still asleep. She obviously wanted to talk. She said her son was staying with someone from Helsinki and they were on their way to pick him up. He had been there for a couple weeks now and she said that was too long for a little boy. Not sure how old the child was. She had four kids and I think was taking care of them without any male help, although I am not sure of that. As I talked to her I got the impression that she was a very intelligent lady, but maybe not the most grounded person. Often the people who have problems with social situations are the most intelligent. There is something about their mind that is a little different and therefore they are able to think differently. She was an IT lady and had a bluetooth keyboard like I do. This was the only person on this trip that had a keyboard like mine. Another lady walked by and said something to the lady I was talking to. She talked about how much she liked her blouse and then went on to ask her if she could buy it from her. She had someone else to talk to now so I left. I guess I should assume when walking around the ship at 4 in the morning I am going to run into people that most people would not consider anywhere close to mainstream. She did say one thing that I found interesting. She said that the Scandinavian countries are becoming more and more like the US. I have said that for awhile that all of Europe is going to be more and more like the US, but most of them will flat out deny and generally disagree with that comment to the death. Scandinavian Countries are just a little closer to that happening than are the other European Countries. I think the old stuff will always be there to see, but as we lose our old people, the stuff they used to do will be lost forever as the new kids are not doing it. They are too busy watching American shows like OC and listening to Britney Spears. Our music and movies are all over the place and every McDonalds I have come across has always been busy and there are McDonalds on every corner. Burger King is a big player as well. Some Subways can be found in the more touristy areas. Most Europeans will tell you however that this hypothesis is way wrong.

Also, they talk about us Americans as only being interested in money. Well the Europeans are not any different in that regard either. I just got an email from Aer Lingus my flight to Dublin, which said if I booked my flight after August 6, 2006 (so all flights) I have to pay 5 euros for any baggage weighing more than 6 kg (essentially all luggage as my backpack is pretty light and weighs 11 kg). They say if I pay online it is 5 euros, but if I pay at airport it is 7 or 8 euros. This must have been a fine print item as I did not see this cost stated anywhere else before. I might take all my heavy objects out and put them in my pockets and carry one bag just to mess with them. I really think this is a crock of crap. I have no way to pay online as I do not have a credit card as it expired, the end of July and I do not want to send the new one in the mail. So I have to pay the higher fee at the airport. This is more about principal than anything. I do not like how they hid the fee. I wish they had stated the fee plainly in the beginning and I would had paid it and not thought a thing about it. Also in Krakow the crap they pulled about having to pay to take the pictures in the church at the bottom of the mine after already paying the admission fee. I didn't pay and took pictures anyway as did most people. Europeans chase the money just like we do and embrace our culture and will become more and more like US in years to come. I like it the way they are now and hope they do not change but they will.

Man what a change in the situation on this train. First of all never travel in Europe in July and August. There are so many people traveling this time of year the hostels and trains are all full. I would have liked to have gotten here a month earlier in March or even February. Going to Italy in May turned out to be a great move as I can't imagine what it would be like this time of year.

I was sitting on the train and about 10 kids not over the age of 8 came on the bus. They are on a biking trip, which is quite cool seeing them all carrying there backpacks and helmets around, but man are they noisy. I am thinking this is going to be a long two hours to Wels, where I have to get on another train to Pram, where I am staying tonight. Then the kids moved back to a car just behind the car I am in. I said thank God as I did not want to deal with that much noise right now. Then 3 ladys asked if they could sit by me. I indicated sure, but they did not say anything. I noticed they all had hearing aids and then saw them using sign language. In a matter of a minute I went to all kinds of noise to sitting by 3 deaf kids. Man can things change in a hurry.

Ok back to the boat. I went down stairs and was thirsty, but did not see anywhere to buy something. I really craved milk. I asked the lady at the information desk if there was anyplace to get some milk. She said just a second and went back to her room or office and brought back a small glass of milk. I thought that was very nice. I asked her if there was a place to type and she suggested I sit at the nearby restaurant and type there so I did. I saw people walk by occasionally and most of them were a little weird or drunk or just strange or maybe were in a room with snorers? The oldest roomate of mine I saw walking around. He too did not speak English well and I just indicated no sleep with hand gestures and made a snoring sound. He smiled and I could tell that was his problem too. He had went to bed earlier so maybe he got some sleep? I typed for about 1 hour and then decided to call it a night and try to go back to sleep. It was about 6 in the morning by now.

I got back and the Arabic looking guy said the young Russian guy, who spoke no English, but kept trying to talk to me, is weird. He said he has something wrong with him. He said he keeps going in and out and is smoking all the time. The Arabic's guy English was not perfect, but it was not bad, so I took a little bit of what he said with a grain of salt because when your vocabulary is limited you can not describe the situation as accurately. Based on the Russian guys behavior, I tended to believe the Arabic guy. I was tempted just to forget sleeping anymore, but instead decided to lay down again. The boat was not scheduled to land until 9:30 so I had some time to sleep if possible and I heard I could stay on the ship for part of the day as well if I so desired. Anyway I laid back down.

About 30 minutes later the chain smoking Russian arrived back in the cabin. He indeed reeked of smoke. What is up with this guy? He needs one of those shirts that says, “Beware Russian Tourist.” I was just hoping he would just leave, but I did not get the feeling that was going to happen. He went into the bathroom and I heard the shower running. This guy was about 60 pounds heavier than me although that might be an exaggeration as he was pretty fat and muscle is heavier than fat, which is what I am comprised of 😊. I am not kidding hear I am serious about all that. The point of all this is, I do not think he could even fit in that shower as it is very compact. The showering was very short so he must not have actually showered. He came back out and laid down and was still. Ok I am going to try and sleep a little uncertain about what this guy sleeping below me was all about. The guy I had seen when I was typing about 4 in the morning never came back to the room.

I actually was able to doze off for a couple hours and then woke. I didn't think I could sleep anymore and it was getting close to the time when the boat landed, so I got my gear out and headed to the exit glad to get out of there with my life and not being molested or anything too weird happening. It was an interesting night, but one I am glad to put in my rearview mirror. A few minutes later an announcement was made, the boat was landing soon. I got in the line to get off the ship.

After we landed, I headed out to a damp morning in Helsinki. My most important task this day was to get some cash as this was the last valid day for my credit card/ATM. I walked around Helsinki, not overly impressed by what I was seeing, but I had not seen much. I went back to that question I frequently ask of myself, "Am I really in Helsinki, Finland?"

Man it is a good thing this trip is about to end as I am limping to the finish line in several respects. First of all my shoes are coming apart. The soles are now allowing small rocks through the heel portion of the shoe as I am a heel striker and that part of the shoe wears the quickest. Of course water molecules enter the sole like a BMW on the German Autobahn. They enter fast. My keyboard appears to have had a stroke as the bottom right portion of the keyboard no longer works. I have no delete key, no down arrow, no right arrow, no backslash and no right space bar, but the left space bar does still work. I have to therefore change my right hand position on the keyboard to make things work. There could be a lot bigger problems to come home with. Having only these problems leaves me a happy traveler.

I walked to an ATM to see about getting cash and tried to withdraw 1,500 euros, which I assumed would not work and I had assumed right as it did not work. The most you could withdraw was 400 euros. I went to the tourist information office and they were very helpful and told me where a Forex(money exchange place) was located and a bank. From there I went to the bank and they said I could not withdraw that much money from them, but only a lesser amount and the fees would be very high. I got a little worried at this point as I could have done this in Stockholm, but decided to wait to save money. Man what would I do without money. I guess I would have to figure out a way to have some wired from the states. I went back to near the tourist information place and decided to walk into a Money Exchange Group owned by Western Union to exchange some cash so I could get breakfast and see about getting money withdrawn. I got the cash exchanged and he mentioned I could come back and get the euros that I now have exchanged back into Krowns if I needed to and they would not charge me to do so. I told him there was no reason I would need to do that as I would be spending only euros on the rest of the trip. He kind of laughed. He said the most I could withdraw from them is $400 and I had to pay a lot in commission. I then walked to the train station to talk to the Forex place there about exchanging money. They were very helpful and said they do not charge any commission for me to wirthdraw money. It would be like a ATM withdrawal, where the only fee is my bank charges. I asked how much I could withdraw and he said € 550. I told him I needed about € 1,500. He said there are 3 Forex places in town and showed me where they were at. I did not know my limit from my bank and just hoped I could withdraw money from all those places or I was going to have to be very thrifty the next 15 days.

I walked towards the next place and had a little trouble finding it. It had been misting/raining since I got off the boat. I jumped into another Western Union money exchange place as I was going to get directions as I was getting tired of getting wet. I told the lady I had done some business with this company earlier this morning, but I could not do anymore business with them and ask her where the nearby Forex is. She said she would not tell me as they are a competitor. I reemphasized that I have done business with her company, but they no longer could help me out and I am going to find this Forex with or without her help. I told her is she does not help me I am just going to be a little wetter when I do find it. She said no she will not tell me. I was livid and wanted to just ring this chicks neck. I told her the other Western Union told me where Forex was at. She said which office? I decided not to tell her thinking the other people in the store that did help me out might get in trouble. Man I was mad. I told her the only thing is happening hear is I am going to be a lot wetter when I do find the Forex and I will never do any business with Western Union again because of her. She was no longer talking to me. I had gotten a lot louder with her. This is the maddest I have been on this whole trip. I walked out of the store into the rain and looked around some more. I walked in one direction and did not find it then walked back past the store with this lady that I wanted to strangle. I was hoping someone would be walking in there as I was going to tell them that the rates or much better at the Forex than you will get here, but no one was going in at the time. I finally did find the Forex albeit a little wetter than I would have been if that lady would have told me where the place was at. There was some scaffolding around the building making it a little harder to see, but I had just walked right past it. I should have seen it the first time. I got another € 550 there as well. As I walked to the final Forex store, which is close to the store I had exchanged the krowns upon first arriving in Helsinki, and remembered the guy saying I could return the money if I had the receipt. I still had every dime as I wanted to get this money situation figured out before doing anything else including eating. I decided to walk into that store and get my money back just as a matter of principle as I would have only gotten another € 0.50 back had I exchanged it at a Forex. I walked into the store and told the people that I wanted my money back. Here's the money, here's the receipt, now give me the Krown's back. He said I can not do that. I said, “what do you mean you can not do it?” I repeated what he said. He said no that is if you exchange money somewhere else and then bring it here we can do it. I told him that is not what he said. I knew I was not going to get my money back and told him I did not really care about the € 0. 50 more I would have gotten at the Forex, the lady working at the other Western Union down the street by herself is what has gotten me mad. She made me walk in the rain looking for the Forex and I explained to them everything I had said to her and she still made me walk in the rain. I told the guy I really do not have anything against him it was the lady in that store that has really angered me. He didn't have much to say and I felt myself getting mad again and said some things about how Forex is a lot better place to exchange money. I think I expected a little more sympathy or something that made me mad too but they seemed to think it was ok for this lady to throw me out in the street on the rain. At least that was my take on the matter. I finally just left.

I am not sure if this event was a low-point in the trip or what? I knew I probably only had 3 quality hours of sleep and I was wet, and I have been on the road for 4 months now. Those things I suspected were starting to wear on me. Maybe I am not going to want to continue these travels for a whole year. I know however when I go back to work that is the end of it for a long time. I have to keep going, but I want it to get back to how it was when I first started. I want to feel like a kid at Christmas about everyday like it was at the beginning. Was the stuff I have been seeing lately not that great? I just was not energized lately like I had been the first 3 months of this trip. As I always do in life, I just keep on keeping on. Lets just see what happens. What ever happens it is a great educational experience. I suspect some home cooking will reenergize me. I miss fresh vegetables out of the garden. Ok back to the story!

I went to the 3rd Forex and withdrew the final € 550. I had € 1,650 that should do it. I have all my major expenses taken care of. As long as I do not get robbed I can do that.

This was a pretty miserable day. I walked to a Wayne's coffee to have a chai tea and a muffin. That was breakfast. They had computers there for internet access and I spent about 1 hour sending out emails.

I was wanting to try and do a little site seeing even with the bad rain. My shoes were squeaking, because of the water entering the soles. Fortunately or unfortunately however you view it the soles were so porous that the water would quickly leave the soles and the squeaking would stop. In Bern, Switzerland this noise was the loudest and everybody looked at me when I walked by. I am still hoping to make it home with these soles and still with a little soul of my own, as these are a little disturbing to ones inner sanctity. Maybe I was losing my patience because of the shoes.

I walked to the Helsinki cathedral and the outside was quite impressive, but the interior was not very great. I am becoming a church snob these days as I saw the great ones of Italy and actually France and Spain have very cool ones as well. This one was very simple on the interior. I then walked down to the water's edge against the howling northeaster. Actually I have no idea what direction the wind was coming from, but it was definitely coming. I felt happy that I had the weight of the backpack grounding me. I saw Asian tourist being blown over. They went down with camera still focused on the view finder. Ok I am joking about blowing tourist over and shouldn't say that about the Asian tourist either. They are very respectful people. They are probably making fun of the American's as being loud fat people. We all have our issues.

When walking down to the white-capping waters edge I saw a church on the rock, which I thought to be the one the tourist office said is a must see. It was indeed pretty cool and the inside was decent, but nothing to write home about although I guess I am doing just that.

From the church I walked back towards the train station, where there is a library nearby with free internet access. I thought I would check this out and see if it is indeed free. Something that you can not use in my warped mind is not free. All these places that advertise free internet, but they only have one or two computer terminals in my mind is not free. I take issue with that and have expressed this logic to several hostels. It also really perturbs me that these hostels do not have a sign in sheet and do not restrict usage to like 30 minutes. I believe in fairness. I find myself really nervous and hurried when people are waiting on me to use the computer. Not sure if other people hurry are not when others are waiting. I think most probably do, but I have seen people stay on there for hours while others are waiting. I state my opinion a lot more now days than I use to. Not sure if that is a good thing but I do. I do not kill myself worrying about what other people think either. Be nice, treat people fairly and try to laugh as much as possible. Also keep in mind that often when people get upset and/or irritable, remember they may just be lacking sleep or had something bad happen in their life, so do not be too hard on them.

Well at this library they had about 10 computers and about 15 people there using them. However this was fine as they had a 30 minute time limit and a bar code card that kept track of your time. It was a quite good system actually. I only had to wait about 10 minutes and then I was on the computer for 30 minutes. I saw one guy walk up quickly and slide his card into the reader that I do not think waited at all. I think he was a local cheating the system, but not sure.

After checking emails I went to the train station and got on the subway to go to the couchsurfers meeting point. I was just going to go to the meeting point to type and just wait.

At the Hessburger meeting point I had a shake and a coffee and got quite a bit of typing done. At times I feel like I am getting caught up then two days pass with nothing typed. Maybe I am being way too detailed with what I write. I guess it is my perfectionist qualities rearing their ugly heads as they so often do. Why do I feel bad if I do not do things exactly how I think they should be done? I always felt bad when even the smallest things did not work out exactly right on my projects. I am sitting in a train station in Reid, Austria near Pram and it is 9:00 AM in the morning and there is an older guy drinking a draft beer and smoking a cigarette. I guess he probably read somewhere where coffee is bad for you so he drinks beer instead. There is so much out there to read. I say exercise moderation in what you do and things will be fine. Man I am one to say exercise moderation and then take a trip like this. The beer drinking man just left and he looks very normal even though I think drinking beer that early in the morning is not normal. That would be a good name for a movie Beer and Cigarettes. You think the folks that brought us the movie Coffee and Cigarettes would object to that?

My couchsurfing host had actually showed up about 15 minutes early and I had not been watching for them. At the meeting time I walked around and found them seated. There were two women and a man. The one woman was a friend of the couple. We jumped in the car and headed to there place. I had a beer at their place and just sat back to relax as it is always relaxing to have a place to stay. Up until the point of meeting the host or finding a hostel with vacancy I am never fully relaxed that I have a place to stay for the night. I had that now. On their profile they noted that they have a sauna in the house and they asked me if I wanted to Sauna. This is something I had never done, but a few times so I said sure I would try it. I thought too that the intense sweating might help me finally topple this cold that I have not been able to fully get rid of. I was very close, but not quite there. The sauna had to heat up for about 15 minutes and I ask them some questions on how to use it. I ask them if you are normally naked when in the sauna and they said why sure, as if that was a no brainer as if there was no other way. That's cool and I went to the sauna, while they finished cooking supper. In a Sauna when you throw the water on the heater the whole room gets hot in a hurry. I got the room temperature up to about 65 deg. C. And that was enough for me. The couchsurfing host in Weisbaden, Germany said she has to condition herself for the Sauna and does not get it really hot the first few times she goes to the sauna. I was not going to be competitive and say I had it up to 90 deg. C. Which I hear some people get it up to. The sauna actually felt pretty good, but to me it seemed a little bit like a lazy way to work up a sweat, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and felt better afterwards. Everything that had happened that day kind of went away while in the sauna.

We had a Salmon supper with some potatoes that I really enjoyed and of course had some white wine as well. Everything was great. Afterwards worked on the computer for awhile and hit the hay. The bed room was kind of a little cramped, but I was not complaining. My biggest concern was that I would leave something there as there was not much room to put my stuff on the floor without it being near other objects. The night before, I had slept only 3 or 4 hours so on this night, come hell or high water, I was going to sleep. Good night from Helsinki, Finland! Yes that sounds weird, but yet very nice.

8-1-07
I did indeed sleep very well and got up refreshed and ready to see the island fort in Helsinki. My expectations for Helsinki had fell a little yesterday, but maybe it was just because I was tired.

I jumped on the nearby bus that took me to Itakus (sp) a central hub for two different subway lines and then got on the train to Helsinki proper. The public transportation tickets allow you to ride their buses, subways and boats, but you only had about an hour and 20 minutes to do so if you bought a single ticket. I think the purpose of the 20 minutes is such that you had a complete hour of traveling beginning once you got on the train as you never have to wait much longer than 20 minutes to get on a train. Of course I always waited for the train to be arriving before validating the ticket to maximize my time. I was planning on getting off the train and walking directly to the boat so I would not have to buy another ticket.

Once getting off the train I got turned around and was walking in the wrong direction and didn't make it to the boat until about 5 minutes after the ticket had expired, but the person there said it is ok. You can walk on pretty much any public transport in Helsinki without a ticket, but if you get checked and you do not have one then you pay a hefty fine which is commonly the case in Europe. The workers in Helsinki are very cool however and usually give you several minute leeway.

The boat ride to the fort was nothing very exciting. I got a couple nice pictures of downtown Helsinki from the boat. Again I do not find myself overly impressed by the City. It is just ok for me.

The ferry ride was only about 10 minutes and before I knew it I was getting off. I saw some geese which was nice and then walked to the tourist information office after taking a couple pictures of the church.

At the tourist information center I decided to watch the movie about the Island fort. This was one of the most secure forts in the world, only second to one other which I forget the name of. The fort was captured by the Russians when the water around the Island froze over. However the Russians did not maintain the fort and it was soon taken back by the Swedish I believe. I was glad I had paid for the movie as it was pretty informative. In the hay day of the fort there were lots of parties and cultural events like dancing and orchestras. It was just the place to be and to be seen there. I got the impression this place was for the celebrities at that time. There was a whole community that lived on the island fort at that time. There are still residents living there and several tourist related businesses. I spent about 4 hours on the island fortress. I sat for about 1.5 hours at a café and had a Café Latte and typed. I walked around the fort climbing around the rocks and mounds of dirt which protected the people manning the cannons and I assume helped hide the cannons. After doing this for about 30 minutes I started feeling bad, which was an effect I had felt before. It was too much caffeine. My stomach just felt unsettled and I felt a little weak and light headed. It felt like I had low blood sugar, but I know it was an effect of the caffeine. I went back to the café and got a bag of chips and ate the whole bag. I walked around slower for about an hour and started feeling a little better. I walked out to an adjacent island that is connected by bridge, but there wasn't much to see so I came back right away and waited in the ferry line. I had noticed near the boat dock there is a hostel on this island. That was surprising to me. While waiting for the next ferry I noticed a grocery store there as well with reasonable prices. I just assumed the prices there would be really expensive.

Man in Austria the wood is plentiful. When I hiked yesterday I saw lots of cords of wood and all the houses have wood piled up around them. The place I stayed had a contractor who heats a big tank of water and pumps it to houses for heating. The resident then has the water usage metered and pays accordingly. I have never heard of that before. Also the people I am staying with have a big oven in the middle of the room, which they build a fire inside and the heat radiates throughout the house. It is all quite impressive to me. Not sure how efficient it is, but if wood is abundant I guess it is economical. It is funny how Europeans like to talk about the politics in the US and about our big cars. The other day I was talking to a lady on the train that had never been to the US, but obviously did not like the US. I told her yea everybody in the US has huge cars that burn lots of gas and our houses are also huge to go along with our huge meals. I told her it was so awesome. I told her we had to have big stuff because we are all so fat. She seemed to think my exaggerations were funny and I think she realized that not all of her stereotypes were true. I told her too we are all arrogant and think we are better than the rest of the world. I think all my sarcasm made her actually like the US a little more. I think this is the strategy I am going to take from now on just go with the flow and exaggerate stereotypes. Most of the people that sit around criticizing other countries the most harshly have never been to those countries.

The ferry soon arrived with only about a 20 minute wait and after about 10 minutes I was back on the mainland. I had realized during the day that the church I had went to on the rock was not the church that the tourist information recommended seeing. I saw the church on the rock not the church in the rock. The church in the rock was the recommended one and was pretty far from the ferry. I had a significant walk to get to it and of course with the harbors around the City I was much more prone to getting lost on the way. I wanted to try and make it all the way back to my host without buying a new ticket. I hurried around and after about 30 minutes of getting lost and unlost I found the church. It was indeed very cool and there were several people actually sunbathing on the rock, which seemed a little disrespectful to me. I walked inside the church and it indeed was built in a rock except on one side of the rock there was an opening where you could see out to the sky. I was already late so I hurried to the subway stop and jumped on. The time on the ticket had expired, but I still hoped to get by with it on the bus. I made it to the bus stop and talked to a guy who had a unifrom on, who I thought was the bus driver, but found out he was just a security guard. A little later the actual bus driver stopped by and we talked for awhile. I thought the more we talked the better chance I would have getting by with the ticket that was expired now for about 40 minutes. We got on the bus and I asked him how far a walk it was to my stop and he said he used to walk it all the time, but indicated it would only take the bus a few minutes as it is just around the corner. I stayed there and continued talking to him as he mentioned he had been in New York one time. He took off sooner than I thought he was supposed to based on the schedule I had, but I never seem to interpret bus schedules right. Maybe I was just reading it wrong. I got off quickly and the ticket question had never come up.

I made it back to the couchsurfing host about 40 minutes later than I had said I would be there. I had run from the bus stop as I felt bad for being that late. The couchsurfer Paula from Canada was there and they were eating supper. They had barbecued and I just sat down and ate. Now this is living. Paula said she was too tired to go to the Rolling Stones concert so my host and I went. We were not actually going to the concert as we were just going to sit outside and listen to the muffled sound coming out of the outdoor stadium. My host's husband was actually at the concert. The concert was not that great since we were outside of the stadium. After the concert we took a taxi home as my host is able to take them free since she has an eye handicap.

Back at the house Paula was still up working on the computer, which to me seemed a little weird as she said she was too tired to go to the concert, but yet stayed up late. I know however first hand that for a couchsurfer the internet is invaluable so I kind of understood that as well. We went to bed soon as everyone was spent. The host husband had went out for a couple drinks after the concert and got back about the time we were just turning in. He said the concert was great.

Good night from Helsinki!

8-2-07
This was the first day I had to travel without the rail pass. I had a flight from Helsinki to Vienna. I was glad to leave the Scandinavian countries because of the cost and quite frankly was not that impressed with Helsinki. My favorite Scandinavian Citys were Bergen and Stockholm. Copenhagen and Oslo were ok too.

Man it is 10:30 in the morning and I am on my way to Munich and then to the Mad King's Castles when about 7 Italians sat down near me on the train. Man they talk a mile a minute. For me it takes a little patience to listen to them in this situation. I experienced a little too much of Salzburg last night for all this talking. I am tempted to see if I can find a different car as they are a little much right now. Like the Italians on the boat from Stavanger to Bergen they just do not shut up. Ok I am packing up and leaving this car. Be right back.

Ok I am back. I suspect you did not miss me. It is much quieter. Maybe Italian is not the language for me to learn. I just like it a little quiet sometimes especially now. Man the mountains are beautiful here. Austria is a beautiful country for sure.

Ok I rode with my host to the airport as they were on there way to Hungary for vacation and they dumped Paula off at the train station. At the airport they got checked in and I bought them a drink and talked for awhile and we said our goodbyes.

I had to wait until the afternoon before my flight so I went and found a place to sit down and typed in my journal. I typed for a long time and had a few beverages to help keep me alert and my fingers typing.

I heard some guys talking English and about music. They had lots of tatoos. I asked them where they were from and they said New York. I ask them if they new the Boss. They said not personally, but they enjoy his music. I told them I went to the Rolling Stones concert last night and then explained to them how I had really attended. They were in Helsinki to play a few gigs for about a week. They must be pretty good to come this far to play. They finished there meals and left.

Finally my flight time rolled around and I was airborne again. It had been a while since my last flight. I am not that fond of flying really but to get to the places I want to go I really have no other option.

The flight went smooth and I was on the ground in Berlin. It was weird as we were only a few hundred feet from where we went into the airport terminal, but a bus had to take us there. I assume for safety and terrorist reasons who knows these days. This was a very small airport and everyone walked across the tarmac to get to the airport building. This building had several shops including a duty free shop. I asked a worker, isn't the duty free shops like tax evasion and she did not understand why the government aloud these kind of places and I do not think had ever thought about it even.

They delayed our departure two times and we took off about 30 minutes late. The plane was probably about 0.5 full. It was quite comfortable and most people got the desired window seat. About 0.5 way through the flight, I asked the lady sitting in front of me if she was from Vienna as I wasn't sure of my directions. She said no, but her friend picking her up was familiar with Vienna. We talked for awhile and she was on vacation traveling alone. I told her about couchsurfing and she seemed interested in the site. After we talked for awhile longer she mentioned she lived near Salzburg, which I had mentioned was my next stop after Vienna. She mentioned staying with her while I was there. She said I would have to use her son’s room. She said she had 4 kids total. I told her I was not sure if I needed a place, but I would keep that in mind. We exchanged contact information and headed to the baggage claim. She called her friend and called my host to got directions for where I was going and said her friend would take me to the subway stop and from there it would be easy for me to get to my host place. I was really thankful for all the help she gave me. Her friend arrived and I hopped in with them and they dropped me off. I told Gertrude I would stay in touch with regards to Salzburg.

Man this is a little depressing as I am now in Munich and the Alps are gone. Man Austria is a nice area.

I followed the directions Anita had given me and arrived at Anita's about an hour later than expected. She is a very nice lady and very genuine. As I got to know her more I realized she is the real thing. She is not the type to hide anything and it was refreshing to meet a person like her in this crazy world, where everyone is trying to be dignified and/or sometimes sneaky. Anita fixed some pasta for supper. It seems like everywhere in Europe people like their Pasta. This was a very good pasta and she had a cream sauce that reminded me of pesto. It was very good. I really enjoyed the meal. Anita had her cousin staying with her as well and she was a very nice young lady as well. We talked for a long time and then went to bed. In her restroom I noticed a sign that said everyone needed to sit when they use the bathroom. I have seen this on several occasions in womens restrooms now. The couchsurfing host in Berlin had the same sign. Man I hope this does not catch on in America. I would rather stand to perform that task.

This was a travel day not much sightseeing. Good night from Vienna, Austria.

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Photos

Sunset over the Baltic Sea
A view over the Baltic Sea on my way to Helsinki

Church on The Rock
The most interesting thing about this church for me is that it was built on a big rock.

Helsinki Church
Every European City has a big Church. This one actually is not that great on the inside.

Helsinki Suomenlinna Fortress
This was a primetime fort back in the day.

Cruise Ship Entertainment
The cruise ship entertainment was quite good.

My Sleeping Accomodations
With the Eurail Pass this cruise was free for me but I had to sleep with 3 strangers. One quy was a chain smoking Russian that kept leaving the room to smoke. I slept maybe 3 hours.

Boat Dining
Not exactly a crusie ship but you can get a meal here.

Dry Dock in Fortress
This is an impressive facility for working on ships. They were way ahead of their time when they constructed this facility.

Tightroping Superman
Superman's 1/2 brother from his mom's second marriage.

Tightroping Superman
This guy, unlike his more famous 1/2 brother, can not leap a tall building in a single bound.

Church in the Rock
This church is built inside this rock.

Church in the Rock
Inside the Church in the rock.

Helsinki Airspace
Jetting out of Helsinki to Vienna.