I can pretty much just flow right off the last post at this point, since this is basically the same day.
So we landed and had no problems getting off the plane. I was the last one off from our group because they were all waiting for me in the airport. Their airport was really nice, it was very Scandinavian feeling. Like an IKEA, lots of light colored wooden architecture and decorations I guess. We wandered through the airport to go to our checked luggage area, I got my suitcase, then we went to customs. They scanned my passport, I got in, and we went to the shops area to use the bathrooms. The bathrooms here are different and kinda confused me at first. Especially the paper towels, because they are actually more like cloth and they retract to be reusable. Also bird noises were playing in some of the bathrooms, very ambient.
We made our way through all the customs or whatever and stuff, and we were through all of that by 11 AM, and we ended up in an area where all the airport shops and stuff were. I really liked this little hand-drawn looking guy who I later figured out was the mascot of a store chain called 'Normal,' there was a shop of it in the airport. I went to the bathroom again, and Dana went to get day train passes while we were waiting, so once she got back, we made our way down to the train station. We took a really long escalator ride into a deep pit, where the train station was. The Nutcracker or something was playing on a projector on the way down there. Very interesting.
We waited in this big cylindrical, concrete, underground train station thing, and we were on the train by 11:45 AM. I sat across from Chelsea, near Rhett and Elisabeth, so I talked to them and got to know them a bit better. I also got to see my first view of Finland from the window, and it was kinda different than I thought it'd be. Lots of apartments and lots of little parks and nature and stuff with trails. Pretty cool. There were also some pigeons at one of the train stops and I remember laughing at one with Elisabeth. I think we got off the train at like, a quarter after 12. We got off a little before getting to the main train station but then walked to the main train station I think. The main train station was really cool, very grand-looking. There was some fancy restaurant or something in there called Olivia. Then we went out front of it, and it looked really cool from the outside, too.
After that I think we either took another little tram to a place closer to our hostel, or we just walked. I feel like we took a tram though, because I remember waiting outside the big train station for a while. But anyways, we got to the hostel, Hostel Diana Park, and we put all of our stuff in one room, because our own rooms weren't ready yet. Caleb was also there. He had gotten to Helsinki the day before us, so I guess he was just waiting around for us to get there. But we weren't at the hostel long, because our rooms weren't ready, so then we all went back out and walked to this Citycenter Mall as a group. From there, they said we could kinda just do whatever we wanted to do. So a bunch of the girls went off to go shopping, and me, Caleb, Carolyne, and Chloe, were left behind as our own group.
So we started off just kinda walking around. We left the mall area and walked towards the city square I guess. There was a lot going on in this city today. There was a queer festival or something going on, lots of them out and about. And then there was this huge pro-Palestine protest going on. There were also people handing out little pamphlets for different things. I think their elections are coming up, so lots of people promoting that. So I started collecting the little pamphlets that they were trying to hand out, while the other people in our group kept declining them. We made our way towards the Helsinki Cathedral and went in there for a bit. It's this pretty large, grand, white, cathedral, that I think is Lutheran. There was a bust of Martin Luther in there, so that was my guess. But it was pretty cool. Then the main Senate Square area is overlooked by that church, and down there was where that big Palestine protest was happening. We left there eventually and walked around some more. We went in this Moomin store, and Caleb said I looked really out of place. Like, boy, you don't look so in place yourself. But Moomin is this big thing in Finland, it's like Mickey Mouse in the US. He's this little white character guy, and I was going to buy a pin of him in there because it was only 3.50 euros, but Caleb didn't wanna stay in there for too long, so he kinda rushed us out. We eventually ended up back at the mall thing and the two girls went into some girly shop, so that left Caleb and I on our own, great. We didn't know what to do, so we walked around the mall and ended up on the top floor, where all there was was a gym. So we just stood up there looking out over the mall and talking some. Then we went down to some shops and we went into this nerd store, and he was in there forever. They had like Funkos, Pokemon, manga, board games, and this Warhammer stuff. Old me would've really been into it. So he was looking around in there forever. I waited outside for a bit. After he was done in there we went to the bottom floor where there was a Tokmanni. I figured it was like Finland's version of Target because that's what it looked like (I later realized they are unrelated). So we went in there and we were kinda trapped because we had to walk all the way through the store to leave. And we didn't end up getting anything, even though we looked at some candy. Then we somehow met back up with the girls and went down to this underground thrift store thing called UFF. There wasn't really much down there, I kind of wanted this one Finnish book just because it looked cool. I wouldn't have been able to read it though, because it was in Finnish. Also, Chelsea was down there and she ended up getting these bright green shoes because she said she couldn't stand just wearing her boots. Also, Caleb waited outside this whole time because he didn't want to go in. But after that I think we were finally done. It was 2:30, and that's when we were supposed to meet back with the group outside.
So we went back outside and met with them. There was this big floral arch and the girls said I should take a picture under it and send it to my mom for international women's day, so that's what I did, a girl named Autumn took my picture. Once Dana got there, she had this bread with rice in it or something. Maybe egg? I don't know, but she had us try it and I really liked it, but Rhett hated it. But anyways, once the whole group was there, we started walking around again. With the group, we walked to the Oodi Library or whatever it's called. It's this big library thing that apparently the Finns are really proud of. It's more of an activity place than a library. There were 3D printers and fabric printers, gaming areas, escalators, lots of study areas, and then the top floor was like an actual library area. The top floor also had this ramped floor where you could go up and look out the windows, there were lots of windows. And we were just walking through this library as a big group like it was an attraction while everyone was in there studying. It felt kinda weird and we definitely were super touristy. I also saw that they had that one book that I stole from the cruise ship, Vesper Flights, in their library and it was in Finnish so I thought that was cool. We left there eventually and went outside where there was another protest. I don't know if this was a new one or if the other one had migrated over to here, but this one was outside of the library and I think it was a women's rights protest.
After that we walked to the grocery store for some reason, because Dana wanted to show us what their grocery stores were like. I just walked around by myself in there for a bit. Dana wanted to show how they buy produce but there was no produce in there so that didn't work out. I got this Novelle mango water drink because I was getting pretty thirsty, but it turns out it was carbonated so it wasn't as refreshing as I thought it would be. Still eventually drank it all though. Also, once we got out of the grocery store, we realized that Elisabeth was missing, so we waited around for a while outside of the store until she was found. Don't know where she'd wandered off to.
After the little grocery stop, we started walking again. Caleb had me carry this box of chocolates or something that he bought and the reason he had me carry them was because I "was wearing a hoodie." But they did not fit well in my hoodie pocket, it looked like a big box was poking out of my crotch, so I had to keep a hand in my hoodie pocket that whole time to make it not look as weird. And he said he'd give me one if I held it and he never gave me one. But after the grocery store we went to the Helsinki Cathedral, which we'd already went to earlier when we were in our small little group. This time they were playing the organ in there though, so that was kinda cool. Then we actually walked down the steps into the Senate Square, and we walked along until we got to the docks or the oceanside or whatever. Down there we saw the Uspenski Cathedral, and that was probably my favorite thing, architecturally, that I saw on this whole trip. And then we actually went up to it and went inside, too. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I accidentally did anyways because that was before I saw the sign. And Caleb was like, "NO PICTURES." Like boy, look who's still holding your chocolates. But it was really cool in there, and there was this bishop who was waving this incense stuff around in a little lantern thing. Smelled very interesting and was a really cool experience. There were also people confessing and chanting and stuff in there. But that was that, we left after 10 minutes or so.
After that we walked down to the Market Square, walked by some souvenir stalls and shops, and went into this vendor building called Kaartinkaupunki, and this is where we ended up eating dinner as a group. The place we ate was called Stadin Herkut. I kinda got stuck at the weird table with the two professors, Dana and Caldwell, and Caleb, who I finally gave his chocolates back at this time. It was 5 PM now so I'd been carrying those things since like 3:45, you're welcome, Caleb. I ordered the salmon with Finnish potatoes, the same thing that Caldwell ordered, and he probably thought I copied him even though I was thinking of getting that first. The food was pretty good, it was all a little watery feeling, I didn't really like this glop of white stuff that I was apparently supposed to dip my potatoes in. But overall, it was good, and it filled me up.
After that we walked around. Someone bought this dried ginger stuff in there and they let me try it, I think it was Carolyne. And it was not great, it was a very weird taste. But no one liked it, so I wasn't alone on that one. I think someone else got lost, maybe Chelsea or something, so we had to wait for them to catch up. Also, this crazy girl named Tosha was gone for most of the day because she got to the airport late, so she had to be picked up from there at some time. I don't remember when she got back with our group, sometime in the afternoon. But she apparently accidentally booked a limousine service instead of a taxi for her layover in New York and paid like, $170 for a 12 mile ride. So that sums her up as a person. Anyways, she was probably with us now. We walked more and ended up at the Fazer store. Dana gave us this little tour guide talk about how Fazer was like Hershey over here and then she gave us some candy. First, she gave us black licorice, and this made me realize that I'd never had real black licorice before. I thought it was going to taste like a Twizzler, but it tasted nothing like that. It was possibly the worst thing I've ever eaten. But then she gave us actual good chocolate afterwards, so that was good. And then we made our way back to the hostel.
We probably got to the hostel around 6:30 PM and we had our rooms and stuff now. Rhett and I were roomed together since we were the only guys and Caleb was staying in his hotel for another night. We were in the same room that all the luggage was initially in. I walked almost 8 miles today in those boots, so when I took those off, the room actually really stank. But part of it was definitely Rhett's feet, too. And at least my boots were actually really comfortable, even though I didn't really break them in prior. Rhett's apparently weren't and he had blisters and stuff, so he had Dr. Caldwell come in and give him scissors and stuff to pop his blisters. Pretty nasty. Rhett took a shower first and then I took one at like 7 o'clock in the shower outside our room. It was a pretty good shower. After that, I basically went straight to bed. Rhett apparently listens to YouTube videos to fall asleep, but that didn't bother me because I had my AirPods and was listening to music, so I was asleep by like, 8 o'clock I think. And that was that.
Pretty great day today. At this time, I still didn't know anybody too well, but this was a good first day in Europe. 8/10.
