I'm not sure where to begin with Finland, because I never really had an end with St. Petes. Meaning..I was locked out of my room on the ferry and spent the whole night in the closed cafe listening to hip music from around the world, being sea sick, and talking to my friend via skype. haha, honestly who would get locked out of their own room? Thats a story I won't forget. :)
When the sun came up, and my roommates woke up, we grabbed some hot chocolate..okay, we BOUGHT some EXPENSIVE hot chcocolate (sometimes, its just worth it. ;) ) and went up to the deck. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by morning air, and watch the arrival of our ship to Finland. Especially..because Finland. is. beautiful. also, I ended up spilling that hot chocolate all ove me in excitement... haha
As we were deboarding, we were waiting in line, and my roommates and I couldn't help but smile and say over and over, "Oh my gosh! We're in Finland!" :D
Also while we were in line, there was this little boy in his stroller that kept just staring at me.. perhaps because of my funny looking hat, or my loud happy voice.. but for whatever the reason, he sure put an even bigger smile on my face. :) He was such a finnish doll! haha ;)
After storing our luggage we headed out to explore this great unkown. The first little thing we came upon was this, what looked like, old fishermans warehouse. We kept seeing people walk in, so.. we followed. Inside was not an old stinky fish dump. But instead a market! complete with fresh breads, fresh fish, and fresh treats! It was a really neat "hidden" place.
As we kept walking we entered into the center of town. We found a little information center, and boy! was it the best! Janelle and I's goal was to find the temple, and not only did they look up the directions for us, but they printed out a map, pointed us in the right direction, and told us of some incredible sweet shops... and a year round christmas store! It was a heaven sent information place. ;)
the christmas shop was everything and more! They had a complete down stairs filled with christmas ornaments, christmas sanats, and napkins, and candles, and.. well, just everything christmas! It was the best! :D
Our next stop was the actual Karl Frazer sweet shop. He is the master of chocolate. And we quickly discovered why. Janelle and I shared a bar of milk chocolate with cream and blue berries infused inside. The blue berries were whole, and the cream could have been straight from the cow, it was wonderful!
After this we split, and Janelle and I went off to find out temple, which turns out to be quite the adventure!
On the way to the bus station we found this awesome little grocery store that sold fresh foods and drinks, so we grabbed a chicken wrap to share (incredible!), and some delicous drinks.. ( I choose a drink called "firefly", it promised to wake me up.. haha) and then Janelle grabbed us a little treat. On accident though. haha she thought that perhaps it was yogurt but it ended up being this delicious cheese cake cream of ..LOVE! ..stuff. haha, SO YUMMY!
it took us FOREVER to find the bus to the temple. At first we were in the right spot, but couldn't find the bus number.. so when we asked for some help the man ended up sending us clear across to a different area... After walking the same hall way fifty times, and talking to probably ten (very nice, and all very fluent in English, ( I LOVE THE FINS!) ) different people, we finally gave up and decided to walk back the harbour. We were really dissapointed because this was our ONE goal. However, on the way out we decided to ask one more guy where he thought the right way was.. and he pointed us right to the bus! which..was right where we had started. of course. haha ;) All in all though, that was probably the funnest part of the day, because not only did we get to interact with a lot of people, (including a guy with a cute accent) but we also had a good discussion with this last guy about how great america is! It made us feel so proud. and so homesick.. haha
As we waited for our bus, there was this cute little lady walking around asking for change to feed some orphan children. As me and Janelle pulled out our spare change she gave us the kindest smile and kissed us both on the cheek.. making Finlands trip 100% worth it! :)
So, we finally arrived on the bus, and were able to drive through some cities and country sides of Finland. Everywhere.. was beautiful. Like I said before, it was sooo full of tree's that were in their prime fall colours.. absolutly breath taking! We also passed the most quaint and wonderfully cliche yellow cottage with a red terracotta roof. :D
Luckily our bus dropped us off right at the temple, and we were able to spend a good full hour walking its grounds. The temple was closed that day, but it didn't make the expeirence any less great. The peace that the temple grounds provide is always such a welcomed and needed feeling. Especially after being away from it for so long. I really have taken for granted the blessing and joy of having a temple so close.. Russia needs a temple folks. :/
So when our hour was up, we walked back up to the bus stop, so proud of our awesome timing skills. But when we got up there our bus drove right past us... it turns out you have to wave them down if you want them to stop.. even if you ARE at the bus stop... haha it made for a good laugh. :)
We made it back in time though, and even had time to grab more of my dads awesome gift (; aaaannndd I got the cutest magnent! which, I'm collecting! Its a cute little moose wearing a shirt that says, " i love Finland." and, its true. I am absolutely in LOVE with Finland. :D
