Good food, salads and such. Sometimes hard to get service and you might have to wait a while, in my opinion though, the food is worth the wait.

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Back to Finland.  It's well below freezing and the rivers are icing over.

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This is a brief list of memorable occurrences from our trip to Finland.

October 4 - 8, 2008

1.  On the car ride to the airport, Michael continually gave his dad the wrong directions; he was anxious to fly.  Was it because it was his first time out of the country or because he was plagued by mono?

2.  Michael’s level of Finnish before the trip:  banaani, kiitos, Reima, Eija, Emmi, Niels, Helsinki, Turku, vesi and maito.

3.  Michael’s level of Finnish after the trip:  banaani, kiitos, Reima, Eija, Emmi, Niels, Helsinki, Turku, vesi, maito, Timo, Hesburger, el Maco Jr, Whisky Bar, moi, joo, ei, hot doggi, munkki, pulla, appelsiini, sauna, Otä tai Jätä (Deal or No Deal), Suomi Talent, juustohöylä (use the hoe line), Saara, Olli, Susanne, Meiju, Maikkeli, pizza americana and hämähäki.

4.  Immediately, Reima gives Michael the nickname, Maikkeli.

5.  “Babe, I’ve never seen hardwood floors in an airport.”

6.  South Finland’s scenery is reminiscent of Lost River, West Virginia.

7.  On the first night in Finland, Michael spent 17 hours in bed - jet lag or mono?

8.  “Babe, our room is really small.”

9.  “Who are those seniors in the sauna room?”

10.  Heinz Mexican ketchup is yucky.  Eija’s homemade mustard is yummy!

11.  Happy Juice on the bus ride to the reception and on Michael’s suit.

12.  Sunday afternoon in downtown Turku:  a walk from kauppatori (marketplace) to Tuomiokirkko (cathedral), to Hansa then up to Puolalanpuisto (park).

13.  Finnish kids playing in the park…Finnish teenagers guarding the statue in the park.

14.  There’s a buckeye tree in front of the art museum.

15.  Paljonko on yksi hampurilais ateria?  Vain neljätoista yhdeksan kymmenta markkaa.  Paljonko on kokonainen hampurilais ateria?  Vain neljätoista yhdeksan kymmenta markkaa.  Yksi hampurilainen plus pienet ranskalaiset plus pieni juoma.  Noin paljon ja nain vähän.  (The “MacDonald’s” commercial that Kelly still remembers from 12 years ago.  It was a big hit with our Finnish table mates at the reception.)

16.  Olli (a.k.a. Finnish Tom Brady) blames Michael for everything (gas prices, housing market, etc.)  In the meantime, Kelly gets accosted by a Finnish/Danish/English/French/Swedish speaking lady in a magenta ball gown.

17.  Kelly’s favorite Finnish food…is it pulla, karjalanpiirakat or omena leipos?

18.  The drunk Danish guy isn’t allowed to board his flight to Copenhagen.

19.  Michael’s spleen survived Finland.  Kelly’s foot is still broken or at least still sore and swollen.

20.  Kelly sleeps on a “cold air” mattress and must wear Michael’s socks to bed.

21.  Moomins!

22.  The floor in the Finnish shower is so warm.

23.  Bathroom stalls in public restrooms are like closets.

24.  Duty free chocolate!

25.  Reima whistles “If I only had a brain…”  Well, not really, but it’s what it kind of sounded like to us…

26.  Kelly denies having “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on her MP3 player and then realizes it’s the “fat Hawaiian guy song.”

27.  Cougar sighting in downtown Turku on Sunday afternoon.

28.  Michael has to help Kelly operate the sink in the main bathroom.  Its modern design was too baffling for the girl from Appalachia.

29.  Being in Finland is like being at home...

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Hesburger is Finland's signature fast food restaurant. The restaurants are located all over the country, especially in the big cities. It's a great place to stop and grab a quick bite while you're hanging out in town, and it's a nice alternative to McDonald's and other fast food joints. Hesburger even sells a variety of mayonnaise for your fries, so it's a truly European french fry eating experience! When you visit Finland, you must go to Hese (local nickname for Hesburger) and order a hampurilainen (hamburger) and ranskalaiset (french fries) with majoneesi (mayonnaise) or a pehmis (sundae).

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Yum! Pappagallo is located on the ground floor of Turku's shopping mall called Hansa. This lovely ice cream shop serves Italian-style gelato and a variety of coffee. It is by far Turku's best place to get ice cream, and it's quite conveniently located in Turku's city center (Aurakatu entrance of Hansa by Hemmingway's). It's a great place to treat yourself after a busy day of seeing Turku's lovely sights.

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The Holiday Inn Turku is a comfortable hotel within a few blocks of Turku's city center (kauppatori). The rooms were clean and functional but not too small, especially considering the size of typical European hotel rooms, and it's definitely worth the few extra euro to enjoy a complete Finnish breakfast buffet, where you can enjoy all of your favorite Finnish foods. Several bus stops are located right outside the hotel, including the bus stop to Naantali's Moomin World (Muuminmaailma). The staff was friendly and helpful, and overall, my stay at the Holiday Inn Turku was very nice!

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We took the train to Turku and once we arrived discovered that we had to get a bus a further 9kms to reach the campsite.  There is not a great deal in Turku itself, but the campsite was located on an island and we were able to go on some beautiful walks through the woods and onto the beaches.

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On thursday I left my hometown Tampere and headed to Turku. I spent the day Shopping and hanging around with my boyfriend Henri and his cousin Otto. In the evening we sat on a terrace on the Aurajoki riverbank. Otto lives in Turku so we slept the night in his place.

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Third day was our last day at Turku. We walked at city and visited some sights. The market place of Turku is certainly a place to go to, the same goes with Turku Castle. As for Turku Castle I think it really reminded me Kuressaare (EST) Castle. I dunno if they are still exhibited but during our visit there were the costumes of Lordi - the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 winning band for Finland. I have to admit that I really wouldn't like to wear that costume because it really does look heavy and probably stinks a lot too.
I also had a chance to visit a sailing vessel. I had serious problems with standing straight on it because for me it was all the time alist :D But it was still cool.
Then we got to know that somewhere near Turku is a farm that you can visit. And honestly I wouldn't reccomend it to anyone who has a little idea of countrylife because I have seen farms in much more better conditions than this one. It looks like it's all about the money and that they really don't do farming jobs there as much as they should. But I can be wrong of course. But for me the animals over ther looked really hungry.

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Very pleasant and lovely house-keeper and really great breakfast! We had all our breakfasts at our veranda and it was really lovely. The house is old but it's very comfortable and beautiful. We stayed there with 6 persons and everyone had space without a problem. There's also a sauna facility avaliable and kitchen.

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the first rain of the journey!!

July 28

As we board the ferry, I looked at a plan and we moved to a room marked as cinema which revealed to be a sleep-in... great. That was what we needed. We took place there in the corner of the room, putting our bags and Laura decided to sleep while on my side I wanted to go discover every corner of the 10-level ship and also the view on the Stockholm archipelago that was going to appear.

So I walked like a child visiting every corner and level of the ship from top to bottom and inside to outside. Discovering internet at the child play game level, buying some great inexpensive toblerone at the duty-free and finally sat outside to enjoy the view on the islands, the birds and the other ferry coming to Stockholm.

When I came back to the room later there was way more people who had put their quarter in every corner and Laura was asleep. I decided to get back to do some hiking on the boat for a while. Later I came back to get some sleep as well as I somewhat needed so and then I shortly met with my sleepy neighbour who simply said few things half asleep. I slept and later it's Laura who went away and finally when I woke up I started discussing with my neighbour who revealed to be finns girl on european interrailing trip and getting back home for few days (Rosa... whom we will be staying at in Tampere finally later).

We exchanged some food and I looked up over her things while she went away. Finally after the stop in Mariehamm, we felt asleep again for the rest of the journey. For a while though, also playing some paper game with Laura and the 12h ferry ride finally reached its goal as we went offshore in Turku. My first steps in Finland, some goodbye to Rosa and catching a bus to the center.

There we waited a little for someone to give the key of Laura's friend appartment where we walked to. We relaxed a bit, cooked and finally were too tired to move more so we relaxed and went to sleep more early instead as it was really needed for both of us. Especially for me as I started to feel slightly ill. My first impression of the city was that it looked like a german city, its not that old and seemed to have suffer from the war as many building are recent and rebuild... Laura couldnt tell me more about it.
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July 29

We woke up early and finally went out to do some grocery at the nearby market and going for a short walk stopping by the netcafé. We got back to the appartment and I really felt asleep directly rom tiredness and illness.

Its only later in the evening that we went out again to walk in the city that was having a music festival for the week-end and therefore we could enjoy the sight of many drunk young finns in the streets and along the river bank. We made a tour around the river the festival site and later we met with Laura's cousine shortly. We both went for a short drink on a terrass until it closed (quite early) and chilling in the main square before getting back to watch tv, cook and sleep.
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July 30

Laura was going away to her family so I stayed and relaxed for a while, slept some more, showered and watched the F1 GP on tv.

Later it was somewhat time that i move and I went out for a walk along the river walking until the harbour area but I got trapped by a huge thunderstorm that made all my clothes soak yet. So I couldnt bother anymore and I simply walked under the rain as I couldnt find any good shelter. I walked back to the appartment and put my clothing to dry and get some warm clothes to relax with the tv until Laura came back. Then its been some reading before getting to sleep.
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there really isnt too much for me to say about turku. instead of taking the ferry from stockholm to helsinki - which would have been 14 hours or so, i decided instead to head to turku and check for family records there.

i got in at eight in the morning, found a hostel, and headed out to see what i could find. unfortunately, i ended up getting into finland on the weekend, so all official buildings for this type of thing were closed. there was supposed to be one place open where i could find family records, but i walked over and it too was closed.

turku itself was alright, there were some parts of the city i really liked, but most of it was more industrial it seemed. instead of staying the night as i had planned, i checked out of the hostel and headed to helsinki that same day, hoping to have a better chance in the capital of finding records.

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