Last Day in Helsinki

Monday August 18th:

Today Jonna and I went to Helsinki! We took a bus this time to see some new things (instead of the same countryside that we saw via train). I saw Jonna's high school and we walked past some museums and an amusement park and the opera house. We saw a LOT! The weather was rather iffy though (definitely needed my jacket and long pants!) so we headed to Starbucks and also gave the Burger King in the train station a proper try. We walked through a wonderful park as well. Soon it was time to head to a mall where we were meeting Jenni because their favorite hockey team was making an appearance. It was the first day that tickets went on sale. I ate a cronut (it was fantastic) and bought lots of Finland souvenirs while Jonna and Jenni got autographs and pictures with the hockey team. We met with another friend (Janna?) and chatted in a coffee shop in the mall. They preferred speaking Finnish so I used the free wifi to help Stephan make his Latin 1 syllabus. We took the train home then it was crunch time! Packing is hard...especially when you've bought new things! I guessed as well as I could how heavy my suitcase was and packed a lot of the heavier stuff into my carry on bag. We went to sleep not nearly early enough!

Tuesday August 19th:

Bright & Early (4:30am) was wake up time! We were out the door by 5 so we could catch the bus around 5:20 to get to the airport. We finally made it and I got all checked in after saying good bye to Jonna. We're gonna try and see each other somewhere between Finland and Italy in the next few months. I bought some Finnish chocolate at the duty free shop and also some snacks because I wasn't really excited about plane food. I lucked out again with the plane! I had the window seat and there was an empty seat between me and the guy in the aisle! It was great :D I tried to sleep on the plane but it wasn't too easy. The announcements were in Finnish, Swedish, and English so that got old real fast. I did love the free piece of chocolate at the end though! The lady in customs asked to see my flight tickets back to the States after I told her I was only back in London for the day. I was so glad that I had printed them off and kept them in my carry on (the receipt from my email). She let me through (huzzah!) and it was off to London! (continued on next post)