Finland

Finland… the land where in summertime, the sun doesn't set. I was always intrigued by that thought, being a lover of the daylight hours. So when Bill told me he was going to a glass conference in Tampere in June, I almost begged to go with him. And then when he informed me he was going to England too, my immediate response was… "No way, buster, not without me !" After living in Australia for 38 years and never having been back to my birthplace, I wasn't letting him get away with that one !

After a good deal of calculating Frequent Flyer points totals, he decided it was possible, so on June 10th, we were on the Melbourne to Singapore leg of the flight. We had an overnight stop in Singapore, where we were to be accommodated in the Transit Hotel at Changi Airport. Bill had assured me that we would be collecting our luggage from the carousel before checking in at the hotel, so it was quite a nasty shock when we were informed that it had been checked straight through to London, and we wouldn't see it again until we arrived there !

Shock, horror ! I had no clean clothes with me… no deodorant, no toothbrush… no clean underwear !! Panic set in ! It was 11pm and we couldn't leave the airport, and the only shops we could find that sold anything vaguely resembling underwear were the designer ones, and I'm afraid I wasn't going to pay those prices ! Resigned to doing some quick washing and hoping it would dry overnight, we headed back towards the hotel, only to notice, tucked away in a corner, a tiny little supermarket. Could we be so lucky ? Well, none of the real thing, but they did have packs of 7 pairs of paper knickers for $2.45 ! Better than nothing I guess ! Must remember never to listen to men in future !

I won't bore you with all the details, but the next leg of the trip was the 13 hour flight to London, where we had another overnight stop before heading off the next morning to Helsinki, and from there to Tampere… a 25 minute trip on one of those scary little planes with two propellers on the front !

Being in a country where it didn't get dark was fascinating, and I found myself leaving the curtains open all night so I could jump out of bed every few hours and take some more photos of the view out of the hotel window ! Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that week !

When the conference in Tampere was over, we boarded the overnight train to Rovaniemi, which is inside the Arctic Circle. There we were treated to a riverboat trip (read overgrown canoe !!) to visit a reindeer farm, a tour of the Museum where we learned a lot about the Finnish culture, an afternoon in a log cabin in the forest, complete with sauna, and a reindeer meat dinner (glad I'm a vegetarian), and we even went to Santa Claus Village, where we met the jolly old codger himself !

One of the highlights of the week was standing on a hill at midnight, wineglass in hand, drinking a toast to the midnight sun as it hovered above the horizon in a brilliant display of rosy hues, before beginning its ascent into the next bright day.

Finland, you're beautiful, but now I must leave you and go back to my Mother Country.... England ....

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