Blogs from Uusimaa, Finland, Europe - page 35

Not writing this until St. Pete, because I never found time to find an internet cafe until now. No problem taking the morning train to Helsinki. We made it a leisurely morning. Amy went to a designer store for large fashions just down from our hotel, and then we hit the road. At the train station in Helsinki, the first thing we did was buy our train tickets to St. Petersburg. No problem. Caught the tram to our hotel. Made a slick move that slipped and took an extra five minutes to catch the tram (matters with heavy luggage). The hotel we booked (Hilton) was nice. On a small river (many in Helsinki) and close to town/tram line. Spent the rest of the day exploring Helsinki. A pretty town. Nice market by the water where the ... read more

Geo: 60.3741, 25.0154We drove 3 hours this morning before we reached Helsinki. Kosta took us on a driving tour of the city. We saw churches, a modern art monument to a Finnish composer, an underground rock church, harbour side markets and parliament house. Helsinki is on the coast and the port of full of many cruise boats and ships. Went to check into our hostel. We had twin share rooms and they were very spacious. Anita, Bridget and I walked into town. We browsed shops, market stalls- where we bought yummy cherries from. Checked out the restaurants for somewhere for all of us to have dinner, then it was cider time. We met the rest of the group and ate our last meal as 9 of us. Ate a great Finnish restaurant. I ordered salmon and ... read more

That's right!!! Winter is gone, summer is here, I've got 20ish days left in the Navy and things are starting to look good. Our training is all but finished, only some classroom sessions left to go. On one day last week I watched 3 episodes of LOST, which I have been waiting to catch up on since I finished at camp last year, so we haven't exactly been busy. But I'm not complaining about being bored at all, it gives me a chance to get things organised for when I get out of here. Two weekends ago (19st-21st) was Juhannus, basically a huge mid-summer holiday that they celebrate in the typical Finnish fashion. We went to Raumanmeren Juhannus, otherwise known as RMJ 2006 which is the biggest summer music festival here in Finland. I went with ... read more

Hello everyone, The first thing we learned about Finland is that they do not consider themselves to be part of Scandinavia. They do not have mountains and their language is completely different. They draw closer parallels to the Irish temperment. For example, they share an animosity toward authority--especially the police. They are suspicious of anyone trying to be better--people who wear a jacket and tie. The Finns are also suspicious of anyone who speaks Swedish. They learn Swedish in school, but then forget it as quickly as they can. Finland is a full member of the European Union--they also use euros. The group most affected by this union is the Finnish farmer. They lost their subsidies and as a result half have disappeared. By the way, Norway is still not a member of the EU, Sweden ... read more

Sing it with me....'the love boat, soon we'll be dah dah dah (obviously dont know the words).... okay there's a point to that beginning.... Last night we sailed across from sweden to finland on an extremely large overnight ferry, otherwise affectionately known as the love boat!!! Word is a couple of contiki rebels managed to find a bit of lovin.... however most witnesses reported back with an immense amount of self inflicted sickness....related to the excessive consumption of alcohol, not the swaying of the boat!! The evening started with a karaoke stint, with the aussies happy to clap along to the crazy sweds singing whatever it was that they were singing. For the record, those swedes go off! However, there came a time when the aussies were no longer happy to clap along, they wanted songs ... read more