Finland

Our first stop on our month long journey was Helsinki, Finland. Due to the harsh winter weather that hit Europe (Lucky for us we caught the very beginning of) our flight from Sofia and then the one from Munich were delayed so that we were suppose to arrive at 11pm and did not get into Helsinki until 4am. The stress of getting in so late, and trying to figure out how to get into the city, plus the insanity of how cold it really is in Finland was hard. I think I figured out how people live in Finland: they get drunk. Arriving at the city bus station I don’t thing there was a single sober person, except for the bus drivers. It was a bit intimidating lugging around a heavy suitcase, which I would grow to hate and trying to avoid all the drunken people! However once we got settled in our few days in Finland turned out very nice. The highlights for me included drinking Glögi, going to the Finish sauna, and taking a ferry to an island nearby Helsinki. The parts I did not like was how expensive Finland is (6 euro/ 12 leva/ 8 US for a beer..OMG.), the immensely unbearable weather, learning how to ice skate, which they call walking, and falling on my butt all the time because of the sheets of ice on the ground. I’m sure Finland is a great place for outdoor activities and when it’s not frigid cold. But from inside, I loved how it looked like a winter wonderland. I loved the feeling of how beautiful the snow was, and going by ferry to the island surrounded by icebergs was pretty neat. You definitely have to be a special type of person to live in Finland, because I would not live there by choice!