Back....

Been back for a week... Had to recover from this trip (and paid extra $200) - was limping badly when the plane landed at Changi Airport... Despite the rest from the 12 hour flight, the calf muscles (on both legs) was still stiff and the heel (not sure what that area is called) on the left foot was in serious pain. Had to see a chiropractor for some deep tissue therapy (although my mother would have said "go to the TCM guy, no need to pay so much!!!") Anyway... How was the trip as everyone asked...

It was ok... I supposed. As with the last blog posting, had interesting 1st day, whereby I was in some airport that I had not intended to be in... On the hind sight, it was a good thing. Anyway, Arrived at Helsinki's Vantaa airport, got a bit lost in terms of how and where to get transport to the hotel (yeah, I can get a bit off at times, especially with less sleep than usual). Hey, how was I supposed to know there are 2 different Holiday Inn hotels that is near the train station?!?!?! Heck, one of them was just next to the train station building (not the one I was to stay)... So I thought, hey that was easy, 5.20 Euro for a bus ride, sounds good - NOT! Turns out it was the wrong hotel and I had to take a taxi to the other one which cost 12.80 Euro... What a "fun" way to start the trip...

Anyway, finally arrive safely at hotel, checked-in and rested, before my colleagues arrive too. Was a mild evening after the "excitement"... Had my first experience of somewhat "midnight sun", whereby it was still bright at 10 pm and the sun finally set at 12 midnight. I heard sun rise was at 3.30am, but never did witness that (I want my sleep - it's more important that waiting for sunrise at unearthly hours!)

The next few days was spent at office, having training, while taking the opportunity of long daylight to visit the city centre and looking for dinner there. Had some Finnish cuisine, including reindeer fillet and elk sausages and superb mushroom soup as well as salmon soup. I believe the salmon soup is one of the more popular soup there as I can see them selling it everywhere, including the office cafeteria. In fact, it was there which I had my first taste of it. It can be a meal of its own as it not only consist of salmon meat, it also has potatoes in them. Take it with bread; there you have it, a meal of its own... I have to say the cafeteria food is good, not overly superb but it's good enough to be looking forward for my next lunch there... In fact one of my staple diet was the potatoes... Now these potatoes are not the usual potatoes you see in SG, it's also not those US Russell Burbank type, instead these are those slightly magenta colour skin type of potatoes and it was marvellous, eaten on its own or with the sauces that accompanies the main course...

On one of the nights at the hotel, it seems that the main generator broke down and we did not have electricity for a long time. I had a unscheduled visitor to my room at around midnight - and apparently the person took my room card that was in the card holder (for those who does not know... you need to place your card in order for your lights to work). I was actually in bed trying to get some sleep and the curtain was pulled tight (so that I don't get light at 3.30am and thus unable to sleep further, I had this biological alarm clock that sometimes mistaken light for the correct timing...). Once I heard the door opens (they did not have those door chain latch to prevent forced opening), I immediately got up (without my glasses) and the person apparently saw me and apologised and got out... By the time I got my glasses on, and open the door to check and see if I catch a glimpse of who it was, the fellow disappeared... Locked the door, went back to sleep and then next day, discover the card was missing and had to improvised... Went to the counter, they apologised (blaming on the blackout whereby they did not have the computer to check on what room was available, etc) and gave me a new card with a new lock code.

So how's Helsinki... Well, I can only say that it reminded me a little of the German city - Mannheim. Somehow the buildings in Europe (not those super old cities like Paris, that has superb old architectural buildings which is breath-taking) seems to be very similar. It's rather squarish, dull white/silver in colour. However, there are some splatter of old buildings, like those in Senate Square, or churches with some Russian Orthodox influences. Of course there is another church (which seems to be a huge tourist spot) where it was built in 1960s and the walls are actually rocks formed on a small hill. Interestingly the church has quite good acoustic, especially for pipe organs.

Weekend came and training was over. We were free to embark on our next journey - 3 days of walking and taking in the view of Helsinki. I had actually ask a Finnish colleague on what to do for 3 days, and he recommended to go for the Archipelago Ring Road trip. This was vetoed by my colleagues and they preferred to stay in Helsinki instead... So, we walked around the city centre, took tram rides, walk to different places as recommended on the wiki and other travel sites - did not go to the amusement park, neither did we visit any of the 50 (I think) museums. Visited the Suomenlinna sea fortress which faces the Baltic Sea...

Next thing I know, it was time to leave Helsinki for my next part of the journey - Paris, where I would spent 1 and half day there before flying back...

You would think that I would have been done with "fun" experiences on this trip... Well...

Will blog more on this - in the next post...

* And you would think after so much of travelling, you have seen it all.... Then again, looks like that's not the case....