October 1, 2009: Copenhagen to Helsinki

It was time to get up and leave Copenhagen. It was kind of sad because we really enjoyed our time there, but we were off to the next adventure. The walk to the train station didn’t seem so bad by the light of day. We got aboard our plane and were in Helsinki in no time.

This is not how we traveled

As we were waiting for our luggage in Helsinki, we heard this fat, obnoxious beast of a woman coming up behind us. Of course, she was speaking English. Of course, she was a Hawks fan from Chicago. She was wearing a (large) purple tie-dyed t-shirt and basically pushing people out of her way while saying "where' my luggage?" in between heavy breathes. So much for the sophistication and style our European vacation, it was just like being home.

Naturally, her and her slim husband - whom we nicknamed Jim and Patti for Bolingbrook - were staying at our hotel. So were plenty of other Americans. And they were obnoxious. No wonder Europeans think all Americans are fat, loud, and obnoxious. DON’T LUMP US IN WITH PATTI AND JIM!

We got everything settled in our room, grabbed a quick sandwich from a local bakery, and proceeded to do our walking tour of Helsinki.

The tour mostly took us through the town square with the Parliament building, the Orthodox Church, the Cathedral, and the harbor.

Helsinki Cathedral (Orthodox)

It was a small (and cold) but pretty town, we enjoyed the walk, got to see some neighborhoods.

Uspenski Cathedral

Did you know Helsinki, while under Russian occupation, was modeled after St. Petersburg? I bet you didn't.

This guy did!

We went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and headed out for dinner. It was quite a walk to find the place, but we navigated our way there and dined on beet salad and reindeer pizza. It was good. I’d wanted to try the reindeer the whole trip, but a steak was quite expensive and I wasn’t sure I’d like it, so we tried it on pizza. It was kind of like salami. Finnish people apparently top their pizza with sour cream, which is a good idea.

Reindeer pizza? Reindeer pizza.

We had a few more drinks at the restaurant and decided to head back to the hotel. We wanted to get up and get moving the next morning to see some sites before the game.

Manly Finnish beer