CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO DIGITALNOMAD HOMEPAGE
Click here to go to Travel Notes Table of Contents
|
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO DIGITALNOMAD HOMEPAGE Click here to go to Travel Notes Table of Contents
|
|
The night bus made several stops so passengers could stock up on cheap vodka and cigarettes. Speaking of cigarettes. I'm quitting. I've been planning this since before I left Thailand. In Hong Kong I bought a supply of nicotine patches and have them ready to go. After a relatively easy border crossing...Russians checked our passports three times, Finnish once, I arrived at the Helsinki Train station at 10 minutes till 5. Fortunately the station opened at 5 and I could get out of the cold. Coffee was available at 6. I have friends in Helsinki. I met Lassi and Osmo when I was traveling in Cambodia and Vietnam. They said to visit when I came to Finland. Well...here I am. I was supposed to call Lassi when I arrived but I didn't really believe he meant 5 in the morning. Besides, there were no coin operated pay phones so I had to wait until the kiosk opened to buy a phone card. Lassi turned on his phone around 7:30 and came down to the station to pick me up. We bought a Helsinki transit pass and a sim card for one of his spare cell phones then found our way to Osmo's office. Osmo was kind enough to give shelter to an old traveler and Lassi invited me over to use his internet connection. Osmo toured me around the main points of Helsinki which included a really good sandwich at the seaside market. One day we took the bus to Porvoo, one time capital of Finland and site of many historical wooden buildings. I became obsessed with finding the Outboard Motor Museum and even though it was closed, it made a great picture. Lassi and a friend rode their motorcycles up and we all had lunch. I had some really good salmon soup. The weather was cool but sunny. The next day I woke to rain. I met Osmo for lunch and had sautéed reindeer on mashed potatoes at a restaurant specializing in foods from Lapland. Then I bought my ticket for the ferry to Stockholm. Now I'm trying to decide whether to take a day trip to Tallinn, Estonia or to a nearby island. If it rains, I may do nothing but read a book. It was really good to see Osmo and Lassi. I enjoyed traveling with them and I enjoyed hearing about their travel adventures. It is very nice to see familiar faces when you travel. I hope they will come visit me in Thailand or America. My Finnish Crime Spree Now that I'm safely out of Finland, I can reveal the details of my criminal career in Finland. In only one week I racked up a substantial list of infractions. There are three main categories: street crimes, ecological crimes, and shopping crimes. As I was walking out of the store with a large box of cornflakes, Osmo told me that it was a crime not to place them in a bag. Ignorance of the law is no excuse but I would have had to buy a special bag just to hold the cornflakes. A true shopping crime. As a despoiler of the ecosystem, I must confess to putting coffee grounds in with the paper trash. Coffee grounds are clearly bio-mass and I'm sorry for my carelessness. My street crimes are the worst. I crossed against a "don't walk" light and knowingly walked in a bike lane. Fortunately I escaped detection. I guess things are a little more structured in Europe. |
|
|
15-21May21004 Europe at last! I know, Europe officially begins
somewhere west of Ekaterinaburg in Russia but the real European culture doesn't really start until Finland. 