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Country number two brings me to Finland. We are staying with Dana's friend Laura in Helsinki. Laura and her family have been very friendly and welcoming and it's nice to have a place to leave our stuff and to be able to relax.
Helsinki is a very pretty city! Lots of different kind of architecture and a variety of historic and modern buildings make it very appealing to the eye. I'm so glad we have Laura to show us around here. We haven't gotten lost even once! Plus I don't speak Finnish or Swedish, the other national language of Finland, so communicating would be difficult. Many Fins speak English but it's nice to have someone here who can do the interpreting for us. We've visited several churches whose names I don't know in Finnish, one of them translated to something like the Doom Church. I'm not sure why it's called that, but it's the one in the picture for this blog. The other was the church in the rock. It is called the Church in the rock because... it is a church built in a rock, a very interesting architectual feat.
Laura has driven us around and shown us some of the sights and we've done some walking and used trams and buses to check out different parts of the City. Finland is really expensive so we're doing our best to watch our costs and Laura is very helpful in that regard as well.
Not only have I gotten a pretty good look at Helsinki from our touring, I also got to eat some traditionally Finnish food, reindeer- it was super yummy and reminded me a lot of venison. Laura's mom made it for us our first day here. Laura also made us some delicious meat balls and potatoes today, so we're eating well!
Finnish is a really interesting language to hear, I read that it is related to hungarian and is very different from most other European languages. I believe it, it has such and interesting pattern to it, and lots of consanent usage.
Another random interesting thing about the Fins, they do not cross the street unless there is a green walk sign, even if there is no traffic. This is a unique feature from any other place I've been- usually if there is no traffic, even if the light is red, people will cross. But not in Finland, on our first day Dana, Kristi and I started to cross when there was not traffic and Laura held us back saying "not yet". And I've noticed that everyone else patiently waits for the light to change as well.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to put up picture anytime soon as I had intended because Dana's mac does not have a card port and our cameras take different wires. I am taking plenty of photos though and if nothing else I will make sure to show them off when I get home
So it's been about a day and a half of relaxed touring of Helsinki. I'm really enjoying myself! That's about it for now, more to come later
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