Well i finally made It to Finland, I left London early Saturday morning as I had a relatively early flight from stansted which is over an hour outside of London. It was my first time flying with the budget airline "Ryanair" not quite as bad as I had Imagined!
After a 3 hour flight I finally touched down In Tampere, Finland which is about 3 hours North of Helsinki. As we were landing on the run way all I could see were trees, looked like the airport was in the middle of nowhere and as it turned out it was!
I was greeted by Jonna and her mum, It was so great seeing her and this time in her home country! She quickly presented me with a bag full of goodies which included all the essential touristy thangs. From the airport we headed for her mum's house which was going to be the base for the next 2 weeks. Jonna's mum doesnt speak much english so It's been fun communicating with her. She has been wanting me to teach her so while Jonna has been at work her mum and I have made some trips to the supermarket and also some walks with the dog, Its amazing how much you can understand and speak when your in the situation.
Saturday afternoon I was meeting up with all the girls In Helsinki for a night out, of course It had been a little while since I had seen them so of course there was much to catch up on. We had such a fun night filled with lots of alcohol and ever more laughter, u cant beat good girlfriends.
On Sunday Jonna and I did all the touristy things in Helsinki which is the capital and largest city in Finland. It's in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 584,420 and the population of Finland is about 5 million.
From Tuesday I spent the next coupld of days with Kati and her son Jelani, we made a trip up to Turku which is the oldest city in Finland. The weather was amazing and we had a fab time just walking around the old city and having lunch on the Aura River.
Wednesday I had my first Sauna experience and I suppose I wasnt prepared for it at all, I had not realized that you actually strip off and sauna with anyone and everyone. It was quite awkward as I was with my friend Kati, her son Jelani and also her grandmother. As I wasnt mentally prepared for it my prude ass was sitting in the sauna with my towel on lol I needed time to prepare for it lol, maybe next time Kati heheh
Kati was such an amazing tour guide, she took me to Vanajan Linna which is an old castle that dates back to 1924, the rooms were so grand and the grounds were perfectly manicured.
:) It's totally fine you had the towel on!! Actually last night at the party everyone was wearing their bathing suits when they went to sauna so sometimes we do not strip off..hehehe. Actually I found out why the russians took over Vanajanlinna for a while. It was because the first owner sold the manor to the german dude (and this was actually the one who had the gun factory) and when Germany lost the World war 2, the stuff in Finland that belonged to germans were given to russians as Finland had to pay Russia the substitutes for starting the war between Russia and Finland.. which actually was started by Russians themself, but thats the other story! Also that Per Brahe, who had his statue in Turku actually established new cities e.g Hämeenlinna, so I was right after all. Heh!!
ReplyDeleteyo go girl, educating me on the History of Scandinavia. You were such an amazing tour guide!!! I think I need to steal some of your pics too!! Hey whats the plan Saturday, what time on friday will you be coming to Hammelinna? x
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