Suomi

As originally planned, Finland was not to be my final destination in Europe, but things have changed and tomorrow morning I'll be flying to Minneapolis from Helsinki via Reykjavik instead of spending a week in Scotland as I'd hoped.

As final destinations go, Finland is hardly the worst. Although the weather is the coolest I have encountered in quite some time, the especially late sunsets and my hostel's location on a small penninsula surrounded by cruise docks have made this quite a remarkable stay. Admittedly I've not been doing as much exploring as I usually do, I chalk that up to anxiety and timing. However I spent a good chunk of Wednesday and Thursday wandering around the capital, seeing what Helsinki has to offer, apparently quite inconspicuously; I had quite a few people coming up to me and asking things in Finnish. A few I could guess what they wanted, but some I just had no clue and had to try to get it across that I had no idea what they were saying- which they usually seemed to interpret as a negative response to their request! Weird. Even better were the English tourists asking me for directions, especially because I actually was able to give them!

Overall a lovely outing... I'm going to miss this random travelling but I'm afraid it's back to routine for me! At least until I get a well paid job with lots of holiday time, that is...

This city is trying to kill me...

Sunday afternoon I flew to London for the last time, after which I took a train up to Birmingham to spend just over a day with Sam. I left my two larger bags in storage at the airport, seeing as I would be back early Tuesday morning.Sam met me at the station, and we ended up going to the cinema to see Star Trek; it was much better in English than it had been in French... I guess I had missed a lot of the nuances.

Sam still had classes on Monday so I went into the city centre for my last time doing anything English - sometimes I'm convinced I actually studied in the UK and not France, as much time as I visited during the semester. Ah well. After hanging out for the day I had a 10pm train that was supposed to have arrived at the airport at 1am, with a few connections of course. Needless to say, this did not happen.

My train was half an hour late in arriving to Watford Junction, where I was supposed to have changed for Clapham Junction. However, I missed the connection which was unfortunately the last of the day, and the next wasn't until almost 6am; my flight for Helsinki was at 8 am. Since waiting wasn't really an option, it's a good thing I got to know the London area so well this semseter. I took the next train, bound for London Euston, figuring I'd try to get at least as far as Victoria, taking the first train to Gatwick in the morning. However, I arrived just after the last underground toward Victoria had left. I was a bit stumped, but finally I found a bus schedule and discovered the N73 headed for Victoria. I had to take out money and buy a coffee to get change for a bus ticket, but I made it into Victoria just before two. I remembered that the station closes between 1 and 5 from when I was waiting to see Wicked, but I saw a worker standing near the entrance and decided to ask him when the first train to the airport was. "Platform 19", he says, "leaves in 10 minutes." Turns out I had just made the last train of the night! I had no idea they ran this late... Probably would have changed things when I was rerouted to Toulouse. So I still managed to get to the airport by three, get my bags, argue about their weight, and get on my flight, and now I find myself in Finland!

When I got in yesterday afternoon I was beyond exhausted. I checked into my hostel and went for a walk around the area, eventually buying groceries and coming back. From what I've seen so far this is a gorgeous country, and I'm excited to spend the next two days exploring before finally heading home on Friday! I can't believe my time in Europe is almost over.