Day 3 - Caveman Fashion!

Final day here on the short stay :( still was nice to get another country onto my big long list and another flag to sew to my travelling jeans.

Woke up today a little earlier than the day before and Katerina was about to escape the room and beat me to breakfast! That blaggard! Fortunately I quickly changed and then we went down together to the buffet. Today I decided to stick with the yummy bread products but added cloudberry jam and also a tasty find of rye porridge (I usually have porridge but this was substantially more filling). Another unusual discovery was at the toilet just before I left - while washing my hand I was looking for the soap dispenser and found there was no button. Upon closer inspection the bottom of it had a nipple and you had to 'milk' the soap into your hand. Compared to the other curious happenings, this was quite up there.

As we'd covered the majority of walkable sightseeing on Saturday, we walked into the centre and did a little shopping. Firstly, we had to book the tickets in a little hidden car park in the north of the city with minibuses and russian drivers that operate the unofficial buses into St Petersburg. Listening to them I realised it was probably time to brush up

on the Russian again. Katerina showed me where my bus was to set off from and we stopped for a latte in the train station and talked about cookery (subjects huh?).

We moved on to Stockmann department store to see lots of contemporary Finnish

design. I would have loved to purchase the functional and collectable shaped teasets but as one cup set you back approx €50, I decided to hold back. The store had a restaurant on the 8th floor of which I tho

ught we would get some nice panoramas of the city. Unfortunately the 'design' of the windows reminded me of battlement windows on medieval castles so photo ops were at a minimum. Katerina purchased another healthy salad and introduced me to dark rye bread (but apparently STILL not as dark as Russian can get). We talked more on traditions and business until we got itchy feet to move on.

As it was almost time for me to catch my bus back, we had a small amount of time

to check her emails in a nice little cafe which was very Northern Quarter but finally one had free Wifi to use the iPhone to its max. I sent a couple of messages and had a mocha and found a free magazine on Helsinki as a momento and we relaxed finally before it was time to go.

We said our goodbyes and I got on the Finnair bus to the airport. I played a little Angry Birds and checked the Facebook (yes addicted!). I got off at the wrong terminal but as I was almost two hours ahead of my flight time, I had ample time to walk and take my time. I msned my friend Fjo and shared the trip (and visiting her in Oslo may be the next trip). I moved through to the departures lounge.

Even though Helsinki was an airport that Easyjet flew to, it was

actually a really large departures lounge with a lot of designer and souvenir shops. As I had not purchased any, I had a gander around. I got some Moomin stuff for mum, some unidentifyable foodstuffs (as it was in Finnish) and had a slight moral dilemma over buying a Reindeer skin and bear pate for myself (but how many times can one have that?). I used my change to buy a VitaminWater (as they seem to be a staple of Finnish shops) and some SALTED liquorice sweets (unusual to say the least again). Finally got on the plane at 9:30pm and napped and read my way through the 2:40 trip back home. Through customs in no time (as no hold luggage) and met up with dad to go home and talk about the trip.

Another interesting holiday with new experiences, another meeting of an internet friend whom is kind and friendly and time to look towards the next horizon. Watch this space :D