Days 34-35 - Helsinki, AirBNB and SERVAS visit

Our home stay with SERVAS Host Hanna and her two curious black cats.

We arrived at the train station in Helsinki on the 33rd day of our trip, and had arrangements through AirBNB to stay in a studio apartment for our first night. Te owner of the apartment was out of town, but we knew where t find the key. A taxi took us directly to the address within a few minutes for 12 Euros. We let ourselves into this cute little fourth floor apartment (hank goodness it had a lift for us and our bags.)

We got ourselves situated and went for a walk to a local supermarket where we picked up some pizza bread and cherry tomatoes for dinner and some yogurt, fruit and orange juice for breakfast. We had access to Wifi at the apartment, so we spent a lazy afternoon and evening catching up on making arrangements, answering emails, browsing the web and reading. The sky finally darkened around midnight and we realized that we needed to close our eyes and go to sleep.

Day 34 - July 14
After our breakfast, Russ and I walked about 35 minutes to the car rental agency and picked up a little Skoda, brought it back to the apartment, loaded our bags, Having had enough mosques and churches for awhile we chose to go to an outdoor museum Seurasurri (sp). It is a small island connected by a wooden bridge to the mainland. Historic windmills, chruches, farms, storage sheds, and manors have been relocated to this place. Docents are appointed to open and guide visitors to designated buildings.

We spent an interesting day here absorbing old Finnish architecture, artifacts, gardens, and wildlife. At the conclusion of our day we headed to our first SERVAS visit. We would be spening the evening with a woman named Hanna. Before arriving, we stopped to buy some flowers, some cheeses, fruits, and pastries and some cans of apple and cranberry hard cider. We weren't completely sure whether we should be expecting dinner when we arrived so we came prepared to supplement our cup of soups or to add to dinner.

Our host Hanna has a two bedroom apartment that she shares with her two curious cats full time and with her teenage sons part time when the boys are not living with their father. While we enjoyed the sights of Helsinki, our time with Hanna is by far the Highlight of Helsinki. Her home was comfortabe]le, quiet,and friendly. Hanna, herself was warm, helpful, and welcoming. Through our many conversations, we identified many similar points of view and enjoyed each other's company. We could become close friends if our proximity from each other were not on the opposite side of the planet. Making friends through peace is the goal of SERVAS home visits, and our first experience was a shining example of how one to one relationships fosters understanding about culture and differences.

Day 35 - Juky 15

After a leisurely breakfast with Hanna, Russ and I left our rental car safely parked in front of Hanna's apartment house and took the trolly to the downtown area where we first explored the open market


filled with fruits, vegetables, cheeses, wine, and merchaandise with appeal to both locals and tourists. We visited a deli type stall where we bought sandwiches, salads, soft drinks,and dessert, then found a place on the pier to have a picnic.















 Seagulls around the world we have found are all the same. After tiring of begging, one of them flew from behind me swooping down and grabbing a hunk of my dessert right out of my hand!

A visit to the furniture and decor sections of a large store is always a good way for us to experience modern day culture of the country. Similar to Scandinavia, the designs lines are sophisticated clean simplicity. We visited a rock church designed from an old quarry and was currently in use as a performing venue for a performing girls' choir from Canada. The acoustics were amazing.

We found a geocache on our way to the National Museum of Finland where we spent a couple of hours exploring Finland's prehistory and history.

Natural Cultural Outdoor Museum

 Between the museum and our conversations with Hanna, we have learned much about this independent country, that was once a part of Russia and fought against Russia with the Germans in WWII. There are about 5,000,000 Fins whose language is completely separate from any other language. Hanna works for a publishing company where she secures Finnish authors international rights for their intellectual property outside of Finland. Part of her work involves arrangements for translation of Finnish into other languages.

We ended our day with a lovely meal that Hanna prepared for us including a huge bowl of vanilla ice cream and fresh Finnish grown strawberries and raspberries. All to soon our visit was coming to an end, and we would be leaving the following morning for Turku, birthplace of our beloved Sitala, Nauticat 44 ketch.

Day 36 - July 16 - Heading to Turku in the poring rain.

I will write about Turku when we get there. Currently we are driving in the rain westward after a farewell breakfast with Hanna and two black cats Licorice and Luigi. Thank you Hanna.

All is well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Finland