Cruising Europe: Helsinki, Finland

While international travel leads to exciting places, the process of getting there is somewhat trying! Here I sit in Helsinki, bound and determined to finish (no pun intended!) this blog before I succumb to much desired sleep! When we are down to one sleep in the great countdown, I generally don’t do that very well! With the anticipation of adventure lingering, my mind races to possibilities, packing lists, to dos...and the sheer adrenaline level affords little sleep. Heading out on an overnight, international flight already tired and sleep deprived could, I suppose, work in your favour – it doesn’t! Planes were not designed for sleeping. Time zones mess you up! The land of the midnight sun messes with your head. It all comes together to provide blogging time at 7:30 pm on July 18^th or 2:30 am on July 19^th or whatever time it is!

While I can say nothing for the vessels provide by Finnair, their customer service more than makes up for the smallest seats, with the least amount of leg room I have ever experienced. From the moment we arrived at check-in and they saw that we had Mom and Dad both in wheelchairs (an unfortunate but very necessary consequence of their stage of life – my mother, initially not crazy about the idea, now admits that we could not have gotten here without it!) they were helpful and accommodating. We were whisked to the front of every line, given countless offers from Finnair representatives to assist with the wheelchairs. We didn`t need to respond to the pre-boarding call, they came to us with two people to assist with the wheelchairs and had us onboard before they made their first announcement! They have even forwarded our bags directly through to Budapest. Ooops, weren’t expecting that but oh well! Hope that all works out well. When the employee discovered that we were not prepared for that she offered that it was a great excuse to go shopping! She clearly doesn’t know me – these clothes have served me well for two days, what’s one more?!!! Following a long, painful but uneventful flight, we unfortunately had to navigate stairs directly onto the tarmac. Beginning to follow the other passengers to a waiting bus we were approached by a young girl who called us by name and directed us to a waiting private transport that brought us directly to the terminal door. When I say directly, I mean directly! I thought the driver meant to drive into the terminal when he went up onto the sidewalk in front of the door! Another representative with two wheelchairs was there to greet us and offered us a tour of the terminal to show us where we need to go in the morning, where to go in the morning to get wheelchairs and helpful tips like where to find the Otto (the local version of an ATM so we can easily obtain Euros), before bringing us directly to the stop for hotel shuttles and explaining the very convenient transit system in Helsinki! And all of this in perfect English with a delightful Finish lilt! We had noticed on the plane that Finnish is very pleasant to the ear. We have been humbled to admit that we doubt that someone travelling from Finland to Toronto would receive as great an accommodation as we have received. Travel is an important reminder in the value of welcome!

So here we are in Helsinki and the outskirts, geographically, reminds me very much of Newfoundland. Quite spread out with plenty of trees, they even have lupines growing along the sides of the road. David and I left Mom and Dad at the hotel to rest and headed out for some exploring. We have discovered that Helsinki has a wonderful network of walking / biking trails that is very easy to follow, that mall shopping in Helsinki is the same as it is anywhere else, and when you look closely to notice interesting little nuances that remind you that you are not in Kansas anymore! About the only fault I can find with the Finnish is they clearly have a preference for socks and sandals. I don’t mean some Finnish, it’s very common. I don’t mean middle-aged male Finnish; women here also commit the blatant fashion crime! Crazy fashion culture but still ugly!

Following a delicious meal that included some delicious local flavor – local lager (of course!), fried beetroot (delicious) and cloudberries (what they call bakeapples here) – we were back in our room for an early night in preparation for our early morning flight to Budapest. Apparently we are going to do that on very little sleep. Oh well, plenty of time for that when we get home.