Going to northern Europe was never really in my Top 10 of places to go, but after going to Iceland & Norway last year, I thought to myself “Hey, I really like this area. I think I’d like to come back someday and see more of it.” And that was kinda that for a while.
Every few weeks I’d check for a good cruise in a small ship with a good itinerary at a good price, at a good time. Always looking for a unicorn. And, like the unicorn, it was always non-existent.
To make a long story short, I eventually came across something that appealed to me, and booked it. Case closed. Our departure was in a few short weeks….nothing like leaving things to the last moment. I always try to not get excited about a trip ahead of time; I feel like that will jinx things, so we didn’t tell anyone.
September 30. The flights were not ideal, and sadly, no direct flights to Helsinki, so we got up early (ugh) and were at Cranbrook airport at some ungodly hour and arrived in Calgary at 7:30 AM. *whew*, at least that part is done. We had a few hours to kill so we found an amazing corner, almost like a little studio. A wall on either side, 2 sort of couches, 2 tables and a huge pillar at one end which was like a third wall. Steven instantly made himself a bed and slept and I started to read my traditional new Reacher book, a must for the beginning of every trip. There was no one around us, it was pretty cool.
After a couple of hours of rest, we hit the Aspire Lounge, had a nice lunch, a plethora of cappuccinos, a couple of beer (we all know that Holiday Morning Beer & Clam is the proper way to start a trip), the warm cookies they provide (we also all know that Holiday Calories do not count) plus, who can turn down free beer and cookies?
Boarding the KLM flight to Amsterdam was super quick and efficient. Since it was a long-ish flight I treated us to better seats than usual, which have more legroom, recline further, and hot towels to soothe my frazzled brow. All I wanted was for the plane to be in the air so that I could actually relax. Our flight attendant looked exactly, and I mean exactly like Walter White in his Heisenberg era. I had to ask him if people told him that all the time and he said “Uh, no.” And then he gave me a side-eye and whispered “Yes, but shhhhhh.”
We each had an aisle seat and we each had an empty middle seat beside us! Score! Elbow room and a place to stash those annoying blankets.
Dinner was pretty good. I had vegetarian pasta which looked incredibly gross, it had a pesto sauce in a revolting shade of green, and once I forced myself to try it, it was not too terribly bad. It came with a Greek salad, and the usual cheese in a package that is impossible to open without using your teeth, which of course then risks a broken tooth in the middle of the sky, and the wooden utensils are useless for opening things, so the cheese stayed unopened. Those wooden utensils are so awful, it’s like dragging a piece of 2X4 across your tongue. Cheesecake for dessert which was also quite tasty. To be honest, any meal that I don’t have to cook is excellent!
By now I was exhausted and too tired to watch a movie, so I put on Project Hail Mary and “watched” it three times. I’ve seen it before and I’ll see it again, and I’m a little obsessed with it.
Arrived in Amsterdam on time and since everything so far had been smooth and wonderful, and having Walter White as a flight attendant was a huge plus, I figured Schiphol would be a snap. I mean, everything had gone SO smoothly that I made the rookie mistake of assuming it would continue. Ha. Apparently the universe felt that I was getting a little too comfortable and we had been lulled into a false sense of travel security.
Well. All we had to do was follow the signs for Connections, and we did exactly that, prepared to scan our passports and continue on. We rounded a corner and entered The Gates of Hell.
I have never seen such a disorganized crowd of people. The hall/area was jammed with frustrated, yelling, angry people. I felt like I was in the midst of some sort of revolt. The security people were yelling “Zone 2! Zone 1” and gesturing wildly, passengers were yelling, line-ups were a zig-zag mess, no one knew where to go. People were sneaking under the line divider things (belt barriers?) and getting yelled at. It was hot, it was crowded. It was pure chaos. I knew there was no way we would make our next flight, which was in about an hour.
I heard a woman beside say to her family “Hey..I think we can get in the fast track lane if we show him that we’ll miss our flight if we stay here” and she flagged some fellow down and off they went. “Hmmm” I thought, “I can do that too.” I found a security guy and showed him my boarding pass and told him we were going to miss our flight, and could we please get in the fast lane? “No” he said, after giving the boarding pass a cursory glance, “you have time, you’ll make it”. By now we had 40 minutes left and the line HAD NOT MOVED. It was noon here but 3 AM Cranbrook time and I was just tired and ready to cry. Steven went to the same guy, said the same thing, showed the same boarding pass within SECONDS of when I had, and the guy quickly said “Follow me” and off we went. I was both happy and mighty pissed off….I guess a woman’s opinion was not worth listening to. But I wisely shut myself up.
The flight from there to Helsinki was about 2 hours, and again we had an empty seat beside us, but I wasn’t going to let the travel Gods fool me this time so I pretended it didn’t matter in the least. We were served a snack of egg salad sandwiches, which struck me as really odd. Egg salad is one of those things that you are always warned about if they sit out for more than a second longer than they should. And normally they smell as well. These had no smell, and I ate it anyway. Best egg salad I have ever had! The time went quickly and before I knew it we were in Finland! It was easy to get out of the airport and grab a taxi. We only travel with a carry-on each (and our personal item), so no waiting at a baggage carousel.
When I booked the hotel I was asked if it was any sort of special occasion, and I said “Not really. My birthday is a couple of weeks after we get home, so this is a birthday trip for me, plus it was our 50th anniversary last year, so this is a belated anniversary trip”, and that was that, but when I gave our name at the desk the girl said “50 years! Congratulations, we’ve upgraded you to a suite.” I was so happy! It made the stress of the Amsterdam airport vanish into the nether parts of my mind, and I knew I could finally relax.
When we got up to our room, it was glorious, and, a little box of chocolates and a sweet card was there too.
So, note the card has a quote from Moomin Papa. Do you guys remember the Moomin family? I had forgotten that they were Finnish. I used to read my boys Moomin stories all the time, they were a bedtime story tradition. I sort of became a little emotional. Awwww…..Moomins.
I booked this hotel because it was very close to the waterfront and also close to the large outdoor market that is open daily. We will be here for a short time, so I wanted to be able to walk and see some local sights.
By now it was about 4 or 5 AM Cranbrook time, and about 2 PM here. Confuse. Confuse. Confuse. (If you’ve seen Project Hail Mary you’ll get that reference) Steven decided to have a nap and he all but disappeared into a fluff of duvets and pillows and other feathery things.
Hotel F6
Corner of the room. There was a couch and end tables to the left, and a “coffee station”, like a teeny-tiny café and I can’t find my picture!
The shower had blue LED lighting all around the doors and when the bathroom light was out, stars glowed in the shower doors. I don’t know who goes to the bathroom in the dark, or maybe who showers in the dark, but it amused me greatly. To be honest, I tried to shower in the dark the next morning, to see the stars, but it was not successful. I couldn’t find the shampoo or the soap, and then I had to try and find the light switch in the dark and it was a watery mess by the time I was done. Oh well, live and learn: showering is to be done when one can see, regardless of what marvels might appear in the dark.
But, back to the rest of Day One. I asked the girl at the front for a map, or for directions on how to get to the market and she gave me quite detailed instructions, but as it turns out, it was so simple to find that even someone with absolutely zero sense of direction (I mean me) could find it.
Leave the hotel, turn left, walk one block, look right and you can see the water and the market only a block away. I felt quite accomplished!
Just some nice street art.
I headed back toward the hotel and instantly took a wrong turn and somehow got lost. I mean jeez, it was one block. *sigh* I headed back to the water and paid closer attention to where I was going.
I found the hotel and headed for a block in the other direction and found a beautiful square surrounded by benches, with this monument in the centre.
In November 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland. The assault began without a proper declaration of war—the Soviet Union seemingly hoped their invasion of Finland would be as easy as those in the nearby Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. (Which we will be visiting in the next few days) This was the start of the Winter War. Over 25,000 Finns lost their lives as they were greatly outnumbered by the Soviets, but they successfully repelled the Soviet forces.
You can look through the holes in the silver ball and see thousands of pictures of the men who died in The Winter War.
I continued to wander, being careful to keep track of where I was going, and because I sometimes have the mentality of a 12 year old boy, this restaurant made me snort laugh to myself.
But I think the building itself is slightly shocked and dismayed by the name.
I walked a block in the other direction to see this place, which I thought was likely a church, but it’s called The House of Nylands, it’s 125 years old and was built as student housing and a social gathering place for university students in the early 1900’s!
By now it was getting late (or early, I don’t know anymore, and annoyingly enough enough my Fitbit won’t change to local time, so I’m either trying to subtract 9 hours or digging for my phone, or just randomly guessing.
I found my way back to the hotel and stopped in at the bar for a cappuccino. The hotel has a regular front entrance, like any hotel anywhere, but once inside you go to a central courtyard which then has doors that go to the restaurant or the bar or the elevators. This picture is that area, and also looking up.
Even though this looks like outside, it’s actually inside the hotel, but open to the sky.
By now it was getting dark, I was totally exhausted so I went upstairs and decided to just go to bed. End of Day 1.
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