Here at last

What a crazy day - a 7-hour chase across Europe! I was hoping to catch up at each airport, but there was no connectivity anywhere (my rather pathetic 3G card is refusing to play). So I am finally here in the Hotel Silveria, connected on Wi-Fi at last.

So... a quick rundown of my travels so far
Copenhagen looked nice from the air - quite industrial. There was a big bank of wind turbines across the river and a very intriguing big long bridge that ended up just heading into the water...very strange. As my first experience of the Nordic people I found them most pleasant and spoke English very well (thank goodness - I hadn't even attempted to learn any Danish, Swedish or Finnish!). I had about half an hour before boarding, so took in the sights of the airport...lots of shops, but I had no idea what the exchange rate was between GBP and the Danish Krona so I had no idea how expensive anything was. I had just decided that I was hungry and should grab a sandwich or something, when it was time to board. Dang! The plane was pretty decent and I had an aisle seat so I had plenty of room.

Stockholm was just breathtaking from the air. Just trees, fields, lakes and rivers as far as the eye could see...literally. As we circled the landing strip all I could see were forests and water. It was simply beautiful. i just wish I had had the camera to hand to take a picture. There was some confusing message from the Pilot about having to pick up our baggage and re-check it in. I was under the impression that my bag would be forwarded on to Finland, but this had made me nervous that it wouldnt. So, I went down to baggage reclaim, waited a while, then decided that my bag wasnt going to come out, so I trusted to luck and went off to find my plane. Good job I did as they were waiting for me to arrive before bussing us out to the plane! And off we went en route to Vaasa, Finland, without much chance for me to enjoy Sweeden (other than appreciating the highest concentration of blonde people I had ever seen in one place!)

Finland was similar to Sweden in terms of landscape. Vaasa airport was small (Humberside kind of size), but very clean and well organised. I rang for a taxi (who thankfully took credit cards as there was no cash machine for me to get any Euros out). The hotel was only about 10 minutes away and I was soon ensconced in my room (which sports rather blank decor and 3 single beds - a different one each night!). I'm writing this as the TV pumps out lots of American and British programmes with Finnish subtitles (The 70's Show or Bad Girls anyone?) quite bizare.

So now I'm off to sample the Finnish food. Should be an adventure in itself!