OK PICS will have to follow.... gooogle... ugh... why i was trying to use wordpress
Just to catch up it was pretty uneventful STL – ORD then ORD – HEL… Steve wrote back when i sent a pic of the plane i hope that is NOT the plane you are flying ? lol lol… well it was and it was just fine, tho flying the flight path was over the water a bit of the time, but not so much as you would expect, straight up to canada then over greenland and iceland… so just a couple sea crossings not like straight across the atlantic… and the plane was good there was only about 50% capacity in the section i was in (paid extra for that extra 3″ of legroom)… but i had a family behind me with 2 young boys who were in the window seats to my left and they were quite wild and loud for a while, then sneezing a bit not covering up had me concerned but flight attendant had come up the aisle with a couple masks said someone in the seat in front of me asked for one well no she didn’t lol so i said well give me one then OK ? and she did so i wore it the whole time…
The entertainment options were great lots of music and movies and videos and the flight tracker kept updating how many mile and time to go and showed where we were had a cool camera on the front and bottom which mostly showed white clouds but when we were over the land it showed the mostly forests we were going over but also the towns and then when we got to norway is showed the towns and photos and places of interest and interesting things about them… lots of nature preserves and old growth pine and spruce forests trees up to 350 years old… maybe i will see some of them in Estonia and Latvia they are more than 50% forest…
and the food was good i had requested veg but no i got a chicken with mashed potatoes and steamed brocolli and carrots it was ok (all but the chicken) didn’t try that… and then a nice kale and chopped veg salad with feta cheese a roll and butter and a blueberry crumble for desert but the best part was the drinks, no i didn’t opt for wine or beer or vodka lol like those around me, now my aisle was me and then 4 empty seats… but they had blueberry juice which was fantastic. matter of fact i bought a liter at LIDL last night when i got groceries but i get ahead of myself here…
Then before landing they brought a warm cheese danish and again the magic blueberry juice to drink…
I only slept about 2 hours if that so pretty rocky when we got here, the customs guy was pretty terse and wrote down where was i staying when was i leaving where was i going then, when would i leave the Schengen (EU) area… he put it all down, from here Saturday to Estonia, then Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium before leaving out of Brussels Nov 22… he even waited while i diddled with my phone to find the address i was staying here without internet, use airport wifi he said… oh ok,..,. anyway, i go outside collect my bag and had to make a pit stop at bathroom that’s where i see this little thing for drinking water , HOT OR COLD ? ! Never saw that before but i guess maybe it’s cold here in the winters why not ? lol… add whatever you want to it maybe… anyway…
come out of there well i forgot which way for the buses went outside saw only the train and taxi and car pickup place and it was chilly so go back in open my bag get my coat out… see information desk go ask where to go, oh i just passed it go around the quick shop. take a left so i did and get on the bus, well everything had been fine up to this point… signed with Finnish / Swedish and English but once you leave the airport get on a bus it’s all Finnish… no english so i get on the 600 bus and put my credit card on the reader, no ticket don’t know how much it would be… but takes off, well no, it’s packed, driver gets on and says, in Finnish… hey this bus aint going go get on that one over there… so everyone dashes over i have the big bag and knapsack i’m the last one over there avoiding the curbs get on , no don’t have to pay again i guess… and finally we are off, i’m supposed to get off at Haapaniemi station which is supposedly right infront of the apartment building (Air BNB)… well no internet no wifi on the bus…
but i know it’s about 45 minutes in to there so settle in.. look around, lots of modern apartments out there not many single houses, lots of kids walking paths and bike paths everywhere lots lots of people walking and people getting on at every stop, this is a bus from the airport 12 miles out to downtown… then we get on a busy freeway like road and zooming along this is great ! but.. then the bus starts going ding ding ding ding… the driver pulls over at a bus stop and says something in finnish and everyone gets off.. guess its stopped…
well a 617 bus is right behind but no i’m going to wait for the next 600, can’t be long right? and do i have to pay again ? Luckily a young woman sees my confusion i say no internet do you speak english and yes she says oh where are you going i say Haapaniemi station and she says you can take either one the 617 only goes one more stop past there so if you miss it won’t be too far to walk back (everyone walks here, a LOT..) like its ONLY a 15-20 minutes walk from here to downtown… so i get the 617 and the display board shows the upcoming stop name each one has a name so that’s helpful and i get off the right one, walk across the street and i’m here…
so with all that i didn’t get many photos yesterday but after check in went to Lidl around the corner $47 i got everything i need for breakfast dinner and lunch for the 4 days… and some extras too cinnamon rolls, blueberry juice, earl grey tea… and the best over here, muesli which is not at all like what we get at home it has 45% fruit and not just old dried up raisins either… and well the best best was the bread, the nice loaf of dark bread the crust is to die for i had 3 pieces with dinner and 2 toasted this morning… anyway,
i’m caught up now slept 930-2, then tried for a while finally said hell with it sorted out the internet problem (network settings of the 2 esim cards) and back to sleep 430-9 so i got my 9 and yes i figure to be a little late now noon i’m not dressed still at the breakfast table but i figure 2 days to get over the 8 hours time change… so away i go now to explore Helsinki city center and see about my bus pass for 3 days and a bike share pass and Ferry ticket to Tallinn for Saturday… having some troubles uploading videos so sorry just a few pics for now

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