Finns are on time

On the first day of class, my instructors warned us not to be late. I have been very punctual to class, but I can't seem to be on time for trains. On Saturday, Janet, my grad student-beginner Finnish friend, and I decided to take the train to Lappeenranta, a town about 200km from Savonlinna. We planned to just spend the day there taking a boat cruise, visiting the old fortress, and seeing the giant sand castle (photo left). All was going well: the boat cruise was lovely, the fortress was old, and the sand castle was HUGE.

We arrived at the train station in time to catch our train back to Savonlinna on Saturday evening. As we were chatting, we heard the announcers say "the train from Helsinki is arriving on track 1." Well, neither of us figured out that the train FROM Helsinki was the same one that went towards Savonlinna. We finally went out to the platform when the train TO Helsinki was pulling up, some 10 minutes later. A moderately sketchy guy started talking to us and wanted to know where we were from in the US- he used to live in the US. Then, he asked us what we were going to do in Helsinki, since the train we were about to board was going to Helsinki. Oops! We scurried back to the station and checked the train schedule again. Sure enough, we had missed our last train WHILE WE WERE AT THE STATION! Considering that Janet and I both hold advanced degrees, its a little embarrassing that we couldn't manage to catch a train!

We roamed the city of Lappeenranta for several hours trying to find a place to stay overnight, but everything was booked. Fortunately, the receptionist at the Scandic Hotel (think Euro Marriot) phoned about 7 places and found us a room in another city, 20km away. We were lucky that a bus was heading that direction, so we managed to catch the bus and arrived at Gasthaus Joutseno around 11pm. Since the sun hardly sets in Finland, it was still light out!

After spending the night in a room that was not normally available to guests, we were greeted with a nice breakfast buffet and took the Sunday morning train to Savonlinna, arriving a mere 13 hours after we expected.

As if I didn't have enough adventuring, on Sunday afternoon I set out on a 75km bike journey to get in shape for the Sideburnz and Maria Sweden Exploration next month. I followed a loop on my regional bike route map that took me on all types of roads, from 2 lane highways with 2ft of shoulder and 100km/hr (60mph) traffic to logging roads. I found this neat restored windmill with an unlocked door so I was able to investigate the gristmill and gearing inside. The mosquitos and black flies in the woods were likely to carry me away, despite the continual drizzle (all 3.5 hours).

Savonlinna Windmill (photo left), The Cross-check hits some rough terrain (photo, right)



















I think it had rained in Savonlinna for about 5 days straight. Earlier in the week, the rain was scattered, but by the weekend it was pissing non-stop. No wonder so many Finns moved to the UP! Today I was greeted with full sunshine, so it was hard to be in class from 9-5 (we had a special movie showing: Kalteva Torni, so we were stuck inside an extra 2 hours).

I have struggled with my beer options in Finland. Not only is beer expensive, but the choices of quality are minimal. I have tried to be openminded and try the popular fruit cider. The first flavor I tried was "forest berry," which I would liken to boozey Kool-Ade Fruit Punch. So then I tried the generic brand (probably the Finnish Roundy's) EuroShopper Pear. Unfortunately, I purchased "Cider Light", which is an artificially sweetened cider for all the calorie, or should I say Joule, counters. I think this claimed the "worst beverage ever" title. This tastes like straight up chemicals. Oh wait, there was that Smirnoff Black something malt beverage that tasted like Windex...

Anyway, the lack of good beer and abundance of disgusting cider will definitely save me money.

Stay tuned for more fascinating facts about Finland.