The following are the journals from my trip to Scandinavia (Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland) in the summer of August 2008.
Damn Airplanes
Friday August 1st, 2008
Saturday August 2nd, 2008
Helsinki, Finland
Scandinavia 2008 - Days 1 and 2
So the trip has started, my dad drove me to the airport where I promptly spent several hours waiting because I had arrived to early, oh and the plane was one and a half hours late. I arrived in Chicago with about another 2 hours until my connecting flight. Or so I thought, when the plane was about half the stopped boarding, and announced the airplane was leaking fuel out onto the tarmac. The fire department came out and started cleaning up the mess while the mechanics called Airbus to figure out what in the hell to do. After another hour and a half the airline let the poor people who were already on the plane off, oh and they set there the entire time without a/c or fresh air. While waiting I met a Finnish guy who was in Chicago for work, I looked after his things while he got 10 bags of chips from the airline who was now feeding us because it has now been 4 hours since our plane broke. Finally the airline announced the plane was fixed and ready to go, outside the window the sun was setting, and the plane was only 5 hours late. On the plane I discovered I actually was booked to sit next to the Finnish guy I had been talking to, so we continued our conversation.
The next morning when we arrived in Sweden, I discovered that the airline had rebooked everyone who had missed his or her connecting flights, everyone but me. My Finnish friend walked with me to customer service and translated my conversation with them; we discovered I would have to fly standby to Helsinki. The flight to Helsinki was only 30 minutes late, so that was great, and even better, I was able to get a seat, only thing was I didn’t know if my baggage made it, because it never made it to the stand bye counter.
In Helsinki I was thankful to discover my baggage did indeed make the trip with me, unfortunately it didn’t make it in good shape; my nice Mannfrotto tripod had the entire head broken off. I went to customer service and filed and complaint and I hope to someday get a check to reimburse me for my loss.
So I was finally in Helsinki, except I was about a day late, it was 10 at night and not 10am like it should have been. When I got on the bus to the city center I breathed a sigh of relief. I was finally able to settle down, relax, and change my brain into its new experience/travel mode. With my head against the window in the dark night, I just looked out on the quite city streets as the bus passed bye.
In Helsinki I walked to my Hostel which was a bit of hassle to find, but find it I did, as well as an amazingly hot shower that had lots of water pressure; a real find in Europe. Even though it was late I was dying to go for a walk and get some food. Nearby at the Kampi metro station and shopping area I found a bar that was still serving food. Elmo’s Bar serves a damn good burger, which went down nicely with the warm beer. Chowing down on the burger I checked out the locals around me. Out on the street there was a fine mixture of classy and trashy walking around in their “going out” garb. And across the bar from me is a guy with one had on his beer, but he hasn’t opened an eye in his nodding head in at least 20 minutes; he is just bobbing his head to the thump, thump, thump of 80’s heavy metal music blasting out over the bars speakers. Nearby groups of people are sitting around poker tables drinking, and the entire bar itself seems like its full of 16 year olds. Elmo’s Sports bar is a lively place, even if the beer is fuckin’ warm.
After dinner I went back to the hostel and met my roommates from Muenster Germany. They were just kids in their late teens but they had been to the States several times and loved cars, motorcycles, and guns. The girls are cute, but aren’t they all?
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