Day #171 - Helsinki, Finland

Uspensky Cathedral

One of the busy streets

There were having a wood-chopping show

The cruise ship I took from Stockholm

Wednesday, September 1st

Today starts my favorite time of the year - September through December. So many things I like about it. The weather is cooling down. You can wear sweatshirts/fleeces and run outside at perfect temperatures. Football season starts - college ball on Saturdays and pro on Sundays. Hunting season - how good is it to sit in the woods on a 50 deg day as the leaves are changing colors. The Holidays - Halloween, Thansgiving, Christmas, and New Years. And most importantly of all, you get a chance to complete the goals you have set for yourself. Every year, I wipe the slate clean on New Years (I really like New Years) and set personal goals for the following year. It's a sense of hope. These are never stated to anyone - it's just something I do.

Today was a time for exploring a new city (Helsinki, Finland), but also a time to get a few things done along the way. I started out getting my haircut mid-morning. I normally get the sides and back cut with a blade (typically a 2 or 3). I asked them to give me the #3. They said: "Sir, we have a 1, 4, 6, and 13. I said: "Please use the scissors instead". All good - I'm halfway presentable.

Next, I headed to Helsinki from my airport location. I did the walk-about to start the day. I was completely astonished at first. The city was large and very busy. I expected the city to be more like an Oslo or Copenhagen - but it was more like Stockholm in my eyes. Also, for some reason, I told you the wrong population of Finland a couple days ago. It's not 3.5 million, it's 5.3 million (what does that mean when you transpose numbers like that - I'm holding on too tight - I'm losing the edge). I had the correct totals in my blog written when I first got to the Nordic countries - but this 3.5 number was stuck in my head. Actually, Finland has more people than Norway. It goes Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and then Iceland.

I went to the main rail station to check on tickets to Russia. What a load off my shoulders. I was able to purchase my tickets to St. Petersburg from Helsinki as well as my trips to/from St. Petersburg to Moscow. My cousin who lived in eastern Europe for 2 years has indicated to me that Russia can be a tough place to find an English-speaker. The lady at the counter today completely concurred with that. She's like: "Yeah - I think it's a good idea to get your tickets and lodging straight before you enter Russia". She commented how she was in St. Petersburg last year and was completely surprised by the lack of English and the strange symbols used for signs. I asked: "Do you think I'll be all right?" She just laughed and then said: "You can do it". Really, what she was thinking was: "This guy might as well be holding the American flag - he couldn't be more American. He'll either sink or swim".

I next went to the bus terminal and bought my return tickets from St. Petersburg to Warsaw, Poland. I'll be taking a 2-day bus trip through 5 countries - Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The tourist agency who helped me with my VISA in London gave me the thumbs up on the route. The lady at the counter concurred. Her friend just did this by bus last year. Nice.

I continued to walk around the city. Today was more of an overview - no real specifics. A couple neats things about Finalnd I was thinking about today: One - it's the home of Santa Claus. Absolutely. The Finnish town of Rovaniemi is where Santa's village is located. Equipped with reindeer, Santa's workshop, and his helpers. The post office here receives some 600,000 letters each year from all over the world. Second - a portion of northern Finland is above the Arctic Circle. This is also true for Sweden and Norway as well. The Arctic Circle is represented by the line of latitude right at 66.5 degrees. Anything above this - the Arctic. The North Pole is actually considered part of Norway - at a latitude of 90 degrees.

I then did some shopping for a few family members. September is a big birthday month for me. It's certainly more challenging over hear to get cards out on time and find things that are shippable. I'll do the best I can.

Back to the hotel, a run at sunset, then a dinner in the hotel restaurant. I'm staying up almost all night tonight on purpose. I have a fantasy football draft at 6:30pm St. Louis time. Every year since I got out of college, I have played in a few leagues with my buddies. It's alot of fun. I continue to do this for 2 main reasons: 1) I want to keep in touch with all my friends and past co-workers. I actually play in 3 different leagues - all of which have a different set of friends. 2) It makes football season more fun when you have a little money on the line. This will be the only draft I'm doing myself, as 2 of my good buddies will be helping me out in the others. So, I'm writing this blog at 12:45am. I have about 2 hours before draft time - 2:30am here (I'm currently 8 hours ahead). I need to go get some caffeine to make this happen.

Tomorrow I hope to see more sites in Helsinki - it's just not going to happen real early.