Category: Finland

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Backpackin’

Four years ago I started this blog as a way to post updates while I was backpacking around Europe. At the time I was simply posting a few random, unedited photos from the road, all taken with an old Canon point-and-shoot. By the time I returned home I had several thousand pictures, and never really got around to sorting through them all.

Feeling reminiscent this morning, I decided to have a quick scroll through the albums and pick out a favourite(ish) shot from each stop on the trip. Here we go:

EnglandLondon, England

ScotlandEdinburgh, Scotland

Northern IrelandCounty Antrim, Northern Ireland

IrelandCountryside, Ireland

CzechPrague, Czech Republic

AustriaCountryside, Austria

GermanyBerchstagen, Germany

ItalyVenice, Italy

SpainMontserrat, Spain

FranceParis, France

SwedenStockholm, Sweden

FinlandHelsinki, Finland

I desperately hope I can do another Europe trip like this one day. There’s so many places I didn’t get to visit! Berlin, Nuremberg, Budapest, Geneva, Lisbon, Vienna, Zagreb, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Oslo, Sofia, Madrid, Warsaw, etc, etc, etc.

Though I still haven’t written off the idea of going to Germany for a year, so maybe if I do I can knock most of those off the list while there!

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Land of the Fin

Apologies if the following post is less coherent than usual. It’s 4am and I’m sitting in the London airport waiting to fly home. I just flew here from Finland, which was great.

On Thursday night I boarded a ferry from Stockholm, Sweden to Turku, Finland. It was a 12 hour ride and the ferry had sleeper cabins, which was great. Well, until I realized that my room was directly under a night club! But, I chose the cheapest option, so, I got what I paid for.

Raisa and Mikko, my wonderful hosts, picked me up at at the boat terminal at the horrific hour of 7am. They drove quite a distance to get there, so I am quite grateful! The took me into Turku and we wanderd the town a bit. I tried an ATM and discovered my bank card works! Huzzah! And then we went and toured a very cool castle:

On Saturday morning they showed me around the village where they’re living. It is really lovely!

On Saturday we drove 3 hours to Helsinki. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant called Grandma’s (well, the Finnish word!) and I had delicious meatballs and mashed potatoes. Yum. Once we got into the city we dropped our bags off at the hotel and went to see a movie. Vaihtamalla paranee. Also known as The Switch. They have assigned seating in movie theatres. Crazy!

On Sunday Raisa and Mikko had to be somewhere so I did a bit of sightseeing on my own. I took a tram around and saw a lot of city. It’s so beautiful!

After that we all went to dinner, and then they were kind enought to drive me to the airport. My flight ended up delayed for about two hours, but I was fine with that. Meant two hours less at the next airport! Where I now sit.

I want to do a bit of a final post. But I’m way too tired to think of what I want to write! So, that’s coming. Thank you to everyone for continuing to read!