Good, uneventful flight on Singapore Airlines - stopped over in Singapore, had a very welcome hot shower and not much else. Had too much food on the way over and no sleep!
Almost catatonic by the time we re-boarded, bound for London - by this time it was about 2am Melbourne time. Yay - no sooner had we levelled off, than more food was offered.
One cocktail, one glass of champagne and two sleeping pills were the "food" of choice for me.
Woke some hours later to enjoy the special atmosphere - the "dawn chorus" I called it, which can only be had when sharing a "bedroom" with about 40 total strangers, clearing the accumulated mucous from their wee passages!!! Gross.....
More food, and an uneventful flight into London.
I removed an unopened botttle of water from the plane, on the assumption that as it had been procured from a very secure environment (an aeroplane), and was only being taken to a transit lounge at Heathrow, that all would be well!!! How wrong you can be!!! A very serious pain-in-the-arse Brit sheila(!) decided that as I had some 'contraband' in my luggage (said water), that she would empty everything I had in my hand-luggage, and inspect it closely!!!! WTF????? Honestly, I wanted to punch her, but Arthur restrained me.... I have to say that Britain is now even more paranoid than the Americans, and that's saying something!!!! I was obliged to have a full body scan because there was some metal on my bra straps...... Jesus H. Christ.......
Oh, and when my Vanity Case arrived on the luggage carousel, it had been literally ripped open - zippers ruined - and contents everywhere - padlocks still hanging from the dead zippers!!! More paranoid Brits is our guess!!!
Finally arrived in Helsinki at lunch time on Saturday. It was gorgeous to see the entire countryside covered with snow, and the pine trees dripping with snow as well. As someone who has spent a total of three week-ends in the snow in my entire life, this was pretty spectacular.
Hotel okay, but really in need of a couple of million dollars (or more) to upgrade it a bit. Great position though, and close to everything.
Struggled out this morning to do a sightseeing tour for a couple of hours with a motley crew from all over the place, but very few English speakers it seemed.
There is snow everywhere, several feet deep in most places, and it was brilliant. There are parks all over Helsinki and not a blade of grass to be seen, which is amazing. Many small harbours too, and most frozen over. We even saw two people sitting out there fishing in holes in the ice - have really only seen that on the television before, and not sure whether to believe it or not!! But, it was for real!
Very overcast day, but no wind. About -2 degrees or colder all day, and very cold walking about. Glad I bought my gorgeous boots in Melbourne, nothing like them here, although the shops are dripping with winter clothes - mostly on special as the Winter is coming to an end soon!
We came across some very enterprising (insane?) folk in several different groups in parks around the city, cooking food - in the open - no shelter at all - over small gas flames!! Things like curries etc, which the locals queued up enthusiastically to purchase. Two girls were cutting up whole fresh pineapples, with the machines which peel and core them, then cutting them up into small pieces, putting them in a container with some sort of cream, and selling to happy consumers. They both only had thin rubber gloves on their hands, and must have been absolutely freezing, but seemed to be very happy chappies. They MUST be mad!!!
Had a very early dinner - Italian - lovely..... Back in our room, doing a couple of emails, and ready for bed by 7.45pm!!!! We have an early start tomorrow (Monday), heading North, so hopefully will get a bit more sleep tonight, still on Melbourne time.
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