Arrived Helsinki

Hi everyone!

Last night was heaps of fun. Had a three course meal first of all! Antipasto type things, then lasagne and then cake. Then we all caught the public bus into town and went on a bar crawl. Went to a couple of sports bars, the whole town was pretty dead really!! Ended up at a nightclub and we danced for a few hours. The whole tour our 'wake up' song on the bus to signal to us to wake up and get ready to disembark has been 'You Make Me' by Avici. So we all went nuts when it came on haha. 

Left the nightclub about 3am and I have to say leaving and it being bright as day was the strangest thing!!! Eight of us got a cab back for 2 euros each. Some of the others walked which took an hour. Two euros was worth more sleep I think!!

Got up at 7.45 this morning, showered, packed, had brekky and we were on our way. We arrived Helsinki about 1.30pm and made a few stops. Started at the Sibelius monument which was made to commemorate a famous composer. It kind of looked like organ pipes! Then we went to the church in the rock/underground church. I really liked it in here! Was a different kind of church. 

This afternoon I walked from the hostel the others are staying at to the apartment mum, dad and I are staying in. It took about half an hour with all my bags. It's 15 and sunny here today and I got very warm very quickly !! Mum's flight from Qatar to Copenhagen was delayed 4 hours so she missed her connection to Helsinki. She's been put on a new flight landing at midnight. Dad's flight was overbooked so he elected to go on a flight that gets to Helsinki at 10.40. The airline gave him 300 euros and dinner for compensation so he's pretty stoked!! Thank god for phones though or none of us would've had any Idea what was going on. So my plan now is to go out for dinner with the others, go out with them and then meet mum and dad at about 1-2am when they get into the city. 

I really like Helsinki so far. I've just done a little bit of walking but it's a really cool city as far as I can tell. Our apartment is smallish but oh well. Bit disappointed there's no washing machine so I've just hand washed every bit of clothing I brought with me except what I'm wearing - I was running that low!!!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox