Day 10
What with today being a bit of a boring travel day (I don't even get highway scenery out the window, but Greenland is decidedly NOT green) I figured I could share some of my random observations on this trip so far. I was a little unimpressed that my free airport shuttle got me to the airport 5 hours early. I was apparently the last person to leave. It did mean a few hours of waiting for the check in counter to open and then a leisurely lunch before the flight. Also, the Helsinki airport is a strange place. They have very little seating. I guess they expect you'll just camp out at a restaurant and wait it out there. And the bathrooms have birds and nature playing in the background. At first I thought it was some one's cell phone, but no.
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| Finlandia Hall |
This morning I went for a bit of a walk to Helsinki's Finlandia Hall. It's an event venue for lack of better terms. But quite striking compared to the other buildings of Helsinki. And it's built right on the side of a lovely little pond in the middle of the city. I did a little bit of a walk before I was off to the airport. I had to dodge a lot of bikes along the way! Sadly, I was up and about before anything opened. It seems like most of the stores are 10-6 for opening hours. Even the touristy stores. And I've found this to be fairly true of everywhere I've been on the trip. It's such a foreign idea compared to home but one that does make some sense. Especially when I'm the one working wonky hours so that we can have early and late openings.
I was also impressed with the street cleaners. As well as the crew collecting garbage from the sidewalks. I had thought that it had just rained but kept running into street cleaners. They were even waiting the day before and the moment that enough tents were gone from the open air market they were cleaning areas. So this all adds up to a very clean city.
One thing I've noticed is that there is a lot of older ladies begging for money. I've seen this in a few cities, churches are a popular location. It ruins the effect when you get out of a Mercedes Benz van. Our tour guide has also seen them leaving by taking a cab home. I'm amazed that enough people still fall for this begging.
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| Helsinki Opera House |
One big thing in Scandinavia is bike trails. They have their own dedicated space between the sidewalks and roads. This is something that Edmonton is desperate to emulate. Only I think we're going to fail. First because the weather isn't as extreme in Scandinavia. I believe it was Oslo, that they only get up in the low 20's in the summer for their highs. But they don't get as cold. Stockholm didn't have any snow last winter. So the bike trails are a lot more year round than here. And gas is a lot more expensive there and their cities are nice and compact. But I did see bikers everywhere. It's a fast and easy way to get around in Scandinavia.
I was delighted to see that all the showers in my hotel rooms had the same taps. That is always the challenge sometimes. I still remember the safety cord in the Venice hotel. I don't think showers and electricity necessarily mix. But these were all nice and easy to use. Also, the hotel in Helsinki had heated floors in the bathroom. So jealous of that!
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| Reykjavik |
I did successfully make it to Reykjavik. Also, I'm impressed that I can finally pronounce and spell Reykjavik. The best phonetics I found were reck-ya-vik. And wow is it a barren country when you fly over. Nothing as far as the eye can see. No trees and small mountain ranges way far away. The weather is pretty decent considering it's around 10 degrees. But there isn't any wind so that's awesome. My hotel is a bit out of town. Farther than I expected. They did give out free bus tickets if you wanted. I ended up walking for the most part as it was only about half hour to get to the far end of town. I toured around a bit and had some dinner. Figured out where places were for my next few tours. And now I'm resting up for my city tour and golden circle tours planned for tomorrow.
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