Day 11

Helsinki

the view from the window this morning

Today’s agenda included a library, a chapel and some shopping – a pretty good mix – and a plane flight ‘home’ to Sweden. So here is the agenda in pictures…

cone of silence for mobile phone users.

                                 

I got a great pic of a librarian who I’m sure was doing a send list but you’ll have to wait to see that one. I don’t blog people-pics unless I have their permission and she was doing the Finnish don’t-talk–to-me face so I didn’t like to (a) ask if she was doing a send list or (b) ask if i could put up her pic.

This chapel was in the same complex as the library and the shops. It was a wonderfully calm place and I couldn’t help but wonder how many Dad’s, husbands, boyfriends etc. had spent time praying for a reprieve from shopping and money left in the wallet.

     

                                                                 the ever-patient MGM with prayers unanswered

      

The walk back from the shops                                     outside the door this container
                                                                                 for a candle is made out of ice.

We had a Finnish feast for lunch.

smoked whitefish, eggs, potatoes (in the bowl with the lid on), pickles (that you eat with Russian sour cream and honey) a basket of bread, some herring and, in the little white boat, salmon roe that you eat piled with sour cream and Spanish onion, and some herring.

I have a strict try-the-local-food policy even when the look of the food is not attractive to my eye but I guarantee you ALL of this was absolutely y-u-m-m-y, yes even the pickles and sour cream with honey. The other dish on the lunch menu was reindeer (I didn’t get a pic of it) from which our host kindly gave me an exemption on account of it being red meat. I must admit I wouldn’t have been able to have a go at that but MGM did so you’ll have to ask him what it tasted like and whether he’s worried that he might now be on Santa’s naughty list for next Christmas.

Dessert was cheesecake

 which, in Finland, is actually cheese, that you cover with sweet sauce. It is so strange because it squeaks when you eat it. Something that’s very hard to describe.

After lunch it was time to bid farewell to Finland, saying a very hearty tack (thanks) to our hosts and allowing enough time to dig the car out of the parking lot before driving on snowy roads to the airport.

this is not the car we were driving but it is a good example of what happens if you sit to still for too long here. I hope you’re not getting too soggy down under, the floods are making the news even here in Sweden.