Bali Bound

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.   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...

Day 1 *note on blogging, many of the Scandinavian words have umlauts, lines through letters, dots and the like.  I have no desire to be so accurate as to spend extra time to insert these properly so I'm not going to.  Also, I didn't write any of that down so I'm not looking it up either!  So if you see things and think 'hey, that should have a line through the o', I'm doing it on purpose.* I survived the Keflavic airport quite nicely.  Usually an hour to change planes is a bad plan when the only back up flight is 12 hours later, but we arrived early and the airport is small and moves you through efficiently.  I was amused on the plane that we were a mere 400 km from Churchill, if we were lower and it was a different time of year maybe I could have spotted some polar bears.  And I feel like in this world of information at our fingertips that perhaps people can do a little research.  Passengers behind me were asking the flight attendant if there was...

The trip to Tallinn was a really good day.  The ferry back was quite chaotic.  It seems as though there is some sort of floorball competition going on in Scandinavia as there were tons of sports teams dragging huge bags around and that's what they were telling people they were playing.  We saw a few teams on our overnight ferry as well. But I am in the airport in Helsinki which means that my official tour is over and it's just me for the next 2 nights.  I do have time to explore tonight as the sun doesn't set until 11 so it will be nice and bright for awhile after I get there .  Which is good because my days are filled with planned adventures. Also, I will be really happy to be able to blog on a proper computer.  The tablet likes to make up words sometimes...

I have arrived.  In a quest to maximize time and stave off jetlag I had a busy afternoon.  Because the lesson I learn over and over is that jet lags enemy is motion! I walked down to Nyvahn, I might be spelling that wrong.  I took the fancy pedestrian street there and ended up going on the canal cruise.  It was a great way to see the city from the water. Then we had our welcome dinner.  Tour is small with only 35 people.  Does mean I get my own seat! Tomorrow we are doing a city tour and then I'm exploring the city on my own in the afternoon and evening with a visit to Tivoli, their famous amusement park. Also, I am in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Or as they call it: Kobenhavn, Danmark.  I still haven't really figured out why we still use the English version of names but it helps to figure out both words and go from there.  And they speak good English here to my relief. And if any of this sounds like gibberish I've been awake for 30 hours...

What a surreal day!  It was a magical day.  So many polar bears!   I'm not sure where to start.  Well, Air North is an awesome airline to fly with.  I've never been on a flight where the flight attendants were actually approachable and excited to be on the plane.  Maybe it helped that while we were out touring they also got to go on a Polar Bear tour. All day, the entire group we interacted with (the tour company people and all the drivers) for the trip was enthusiastic and more thankful that we chose to come along and make it possible, than us tourists were excited to be coming along.  I was impressed.  They were all waiting to help us check in and answer any questions.  And shook our hands and thanked us for coming when we got off the plane in Edmonton.  Maybe it's a Canadian thing but they were so, so, so excited!  It also felt like the entire town of Churchill was excited for us to come and visit!  Check out Class...

Oh Pearson airport, your wifi sucks.  But it is free so I can't say much.  But I have arrived!  The first flight was delayed, partially because one bathroom was not working.  So it was 10-15 minutes of if a broken bathroom isn't good for you, you can take the next flight, we can rebook you right away.  It was a little over 3 hours, we did okay as a plane. Now I am flying air canada, and yes, I am aware that they have won the best North American international airline award.  But I've flown on other domestic airlines within North America and if their domestic says anything about international it isn't really much of a competition.  The flight attendants were a little relaxed on the flight and let the incredibly tall man next to me keep his suitcase between his feet the entire time.  Way to focus on safety air canada.  And the entertainment system crapped out for most of the flight. And now my flight to athens has been delayed an hour and a ...

Now that I'm home again vacation is starting to just feel like a wonderful memory.  It's a little sad how fast it can end.  But the trip didn't really feel like it flew along at a crazy pace.  And now it's back to real life! Our last day in London we had extra time in the morning to wander around but we still had to have our bags out at a specific time and that threw the schedule a little bit.  But I was up early and walked down to Trafalgar square.  I'm still a little awed at the sheer size of London but how incredibly walkable the city is.  Also it was really nice to get there before the tourists and take pictures when it was just me!  And of course I fit in one last waffle.  That's a delight I will miss. We did survive the plane ride.  Air Canada had a far better crew on the way back home than on the way there, I might consider traveling with them again for an international flight.  The one thing I did find amusing is Heathrow air...

In less than 24 hours I shall be leaving on a plane to come back to real life.  Oh swanky vacation I will miss you.  We've all been missing our tour guide, Mama Lia, who kept us all in order.  But now we have to do things by ourselves.  Imagine that.  We've been spoilt with not having to do anything with our luggage aside from drag it in or out from the hotel room door.  What a wonderful perk.  I did think that the trip was a little pricey but all the tipping and such for dealing with the bags is even included.  And you know, now when I go home I'll have to carry my own bags around.  Life is so hard! But we did have an adventurous day in London.  Our morning was spent with a city tour.  Now of all the city tours we've done this was the best.  Our local guide was funny and informative. But not droning on and on and on like some of them.  Or at least not as much.  We rode the bus around and toured St. Paul's cath...

It's starting to feel more real now. I'm currently at the airport waiting for the flight. I'd also like to say that the airport got real fancy in the last few months since my last trip. I'm a little sad that the international area isn't open yet. It's still surreal that this time tomorrow we will be in Amsterdam, probably heading to Keukenhof. Home of the bulb fields. Or maybe we'll be sleeping off the jet lag I'm still a little off with the time change. I'm hoping that it doesn't hit us too badly as we leave at night and in theory can sleep on the plane. And it'll be night time by the time we get to Amsterdam. Either way I'm getting used to the lack of sleep with my weird work schedules so I have hope it'll all be good. Our plane has arrived!! In a few hours well be in the air on the way to excitement and adventure.