After ten hours onboard my intercontinental flight from Chicago O’Hare (for a total of about 14 hours of air travel from St Louis to Helsinki), I touched down in HEL (Helsinki Vantaa Airport) about an hour late, but technically eight hours into my (troubled) past thanks to eastward travel. Time machine!
I have this silly habit of taking pictures of myself in the airplane lavatory as if it made some statement other than “Hello, I am trying to look cool in a tiny poop room”. Might as well air out this narcissistic nonsense. Sigh.
I look crazy after an intercontinental flight. You do too. Unavoidable. Yeah, sure, awkwardly brush your teeth in the second airport bathroom (second, so you can avoid all of your simpleton plane-mates that stop in the overcrowded FIRST bathroom they see – fools, I say, FOOLS!), throw some water on your face. It won’t help much.
My face is freaking out from recycled air and the ill-fated/well-intended act of washing said face with airplane hand soap, your stomach is scrambled from the synthetic “laying down” you’ve attempted in your economy class seat, and we’re both covered with food-dusk from pretzels and crusty dinner rolls that have more frequent flier miles than the seat-kicking kid that was seated behind me (why must the people with the shortest legs and accordingly the most leg room be the most insistent upon practicing their muay thai on your half-broken recliner / flotation device?).
ASIDE – an airport-related phenomena that makes me feel like I may be quite dumb:
- ACT ONE: In domestic airport (Chicago) I see a particular, innocuous airplane passenger (let’s call him/her “Passenger 57” for ease of use) meandering about.
- ACT TWO: As Passenger 57 boards my flight, my brain registers it as some kind of incredible coincidence instead of an everyday function of an airport.
- ACT THREE / FINALE: Passenger 57 disembarks from plane at intercontinental destination (Helsinki) and I eye them at baggage claim. Brain notes this parallel as an impossible miracle that said person could be both in my departure city and my destination city.
- THE REALITY: Passenger 57 and myself have been trapped in the same winged aluminum tube for hours with no means of escape. Arrival in the same place is no coincidence, and certainly no miracle.
No relation.
Upon arrival in Helsinki, I wanted to look half-sane and smell of something approaching neutral as I thought there might be a chance that a lovely Finnish girl named Cecilia that I had been dying to see for almost three months might be waiting in the arrival hall. And that could (might) mean KISSIN’ (gross, right?). Maybe (MAYBE!).
Fellow passengers that I was so astonished to see, per my incapable-of-connecting-dots brain, walked the particularly empty, cool halls of HEL towards baggage claim. A team of young American lacrosse players intoned a particularly nasally brand of American English while they gathered their incoming athletic equipment from the conveyor belt. I stayed mum as if to deny my congruent heritage and radiate an aura of “You can’t figure out what country I’m from if I don’t talk at all! I’m an international mystery!”
My pack appeared. I slung it over my shoulder and moved a step closer to exit.
A large, unavoidable mirror loomed in front of the declarations area of passport control as if to say “take a good look at yourself before you smuggle in that invasive species of plant/animal. Last chance!” Fortunately, I was carrying only the following (cue Finland 2012 Packing List):
BACKPACK / BAGS:
- Osprey Atmos 65 internal frame backpack
- Domke J-803 satchel (daybag / photo bag)
- Small, super lightweight nylon backpack for potential overflow
- Tiny canvas shoulder bag for days when I just want to carry a camera with one lens.
- Plastic compression bag for reducing bulk of clothes while in backpack
CLOTHING:
- Two pairs of jeans
- Two pairs of shorts
- One swimsuit
- Seven shirts (three t-shirts, two tank tops, two collared button-ups)
- One waterproof rain shell (I like REI’s Ultra Light Jacket)
- One lambs wool sweater
- One zip-up sweatshirt
- Five pairs of socks
- Two pairs of shoes (one pair of durable Ecco brand kicks for general use, one pair of old Nikes for
- One pair of sandals (the mega-useful Chacos hipthong)
- A new light grey suit, blue dress shirt and purple tie for wedding (no, not my own) dress-up!
- My favorite battle-worn Ray-Ban aviators.
Aftermarket paint-job: chemical color at Holi Festival in the Andaman Islands (India) in March of 2012 turned parts of my aviators permanently pink, and I like them that way.
It’s bound to happen when you look like this at the end of the day on Holi.
TOILETRY BAG:
- LL Bean hanging toiletry bag
- Shampoo, soap, deordorant, nail clippers, tweezers, small mirror, other necessities
- Backup contact lenses and my prescription spectacles
- Electric razor
- Small bottle of concentrated laundry detergent for potential bucket-laundry while on the road
KNICK KNACKS:
- Universal travel plug adaptor (I don’t carry a voltage adaptor, too heavy and generally needless)
- Small, bright LED flashlight
- Small headlamp, because reading with a metal flashlight in your mouth is no fun
- Small pen knife
- Silk sleep sheet for a bit of additional warmth as needed without a lot of additional bulk in the pack
- Combination lock with standard-sized hasp for (better than a keyed lock, as you can never lose a key that doesn’t exist)
- Retractable cable-lock for chaining up backpack while on trains or left unattended in hostel dorm rooms
- Money belt
- Small travel journal (knock-off Moleskine)
- Tiny sewing kit
- Cigarette lighter
- A few business cards
IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS, CARDS, ETC:
- Passport
- Visa paperwork (if applicable)
- Credit card and ATM card
- Xeroxed copies of my credit and debit cards for backup in case my real cards get stolen or misplaced
- Copy of my travel insurance policy card – REMEMBER, YOU NEED TRAVEL INSURANCE!
- A few Xeroxed copies of my passport
- Additional passport photos just in case of unexpected visa applications or border crossings
PHONE / MP3 PLAYER:
- Bring or buy an UNLOCKED (not jailbroken, UNLOCKED) quad-band phone with you for travel. Chances are that you can buy a cheap SIM card at any convenience store, and voila, just like that, you have a local mobile number by which you can call lodgings, text your new buddies and be reached remotely by whomever needs to reach you. This will unshackle you from internet cafes for communiqué. This is generally inexpensive, too (my SIM card for Finland was five Euros). I traveled for years without an unlocked phone, but now that I’m equipped, I’m never looking back. Do it!
- If the phone is also a smartphone, it can serve as your mp3 player too.
- And if it’s wi-fi capable, even better, as this way you can poach internet at coffee shops and lodgings.
- Don’t forget to bring headphones!
CAMERA GEAR:
- Nikon D7000 DSLR body
- NIKKOR 35mm f2/D lens
- NIKKOR lens – AF-S DX 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
- Circular polarizing filter
- One protective UV filter for each lens
- SD cards (I carry more than I need – six 8GB cards, six 16GB cards)
- Extra battery for the D7000
- Lens cleaning cloth
BOOKS:
- A Lonely Planet Finland guide. I expect to spend most of my Finland time in Vaasa, but figured the book might provide a little insight on what makes Finland tick, or help me out if a side-trip pops up.
- A paperback copy of George Orwell’s “1984”.
- I am also carrying an e-reader this time – I purchased a Kindle Touch ($100.00 US) prior to departure. What eventually led me to buy an e-reader: I like the weight and form factor of the Kindle Touch, at 213 grams (7.5 ounces) and 172mm x 120mm x 10.1 mm (6.8” x 4.7” x 0.4”), it’s of comparative weight, length and width to a 300-page novel, and takes up about a quarter the depth. Also nice: Amazon provides a selection of free books for download.
Size comparison: Kindle Touch vs. 326-page novel
What’s lost by carrying an e-reader instead of a proper book: The romantic tactile nature of paging through a paperback. And I like that you can leave a book on the beach, and it doesn’t get stolen. And that when you leave a book on the beach and the tide comes in, the book may still function. And I like trading books with other backpackers. The e-reader will be an experiment!
LAPTOP & RELATED TECH:
- 11” MacBook Air (2011 model, 128GB SSD, 4GB memory, purchased for $850.00 US, refurbished from Apple).
- SD card reader because Apple decided it was just too much effort to put a SD card-sized hole in the smallest MacBook Air
- Small USB hub because two USB slots is never enough, thanks to no internal SD card-sized hole in the smallest MacBook Air
- Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter, as Apple has decided that hardwired internet connections are obsolete
- Small bus-powered external USB hard drive for music and photo libraries and computer backup
- Rechargeable USB speaker for adding volume and bass to music playback from computer and/or mp3 player
- A couple of USB memory sticks for trading songs and data with others.
END PACKING LIST!
After a quick line of questioning from passport control (where are you going: Vaasa, how long: one month, for what: long story… I mean, tourism!), I received a new HELSINKI passport stamp to add to the collection and moved toward the passenger pickup area.
And there she (Cecilia!) was, looking cute in dark jeans shorts and a grey t-shirt, smiling. About as nice a surprise as a groggy, disoriented midwesterner (with recently brushed teeth, whew!) could ever ask for!
Cecilia in Kuala Lumpur, way back in April 2012. No photo from my arrival in Helsinki, sorry suckers!
You know that movie cliché/trope where a couple runs together in slow motion in a windblown meadow of wildflowers with arms outstretched, or perform a mouth-first tackle upon reunification at the airport? Don’t get your hopes up, but sometimes it happens!
Coming to pick me up in Helsinki meant a five hour, 422 km (262 mile) drive for Cecilia the previous day. Nothing I would have ever asked for, but a fantastic surprise. Wow!
The backpack was heavy, so we loaded it and ourselves into the nearby Audi that Cessi had arrived in, which contained sleeping/hung over compatriot Daniel (“Danke”) and set off towards Vaasa – sort of.
Our return route.
First stop: Helsinki’s IKEA for a quick errand.
Yeah, I know it seems a little stereotypical to end up at Ikea on your first day in Scandinavia, but this was no sightseeing trip – Cecilia needed slats for a work-in-progress bed, and this was the place to get them. By the by: IKEA is a Swedish company, not Finnish!
Second stop, two hours’ drive to the west: the city of Turku, to meet briefly with Danke’s brother and grab a lunch of coffee and Finnish pizza (actually, Hawaiian-style pizza, but made in Finland, so Finnish all the same).
And then, the long drive home to Vaasa – an overcast four-or-so hours on well-kept two-lane freeways just inland of the west coast of Finland, northbound. A pleasant but repeating landscape of green pine trees, red barns and purple & yellow wildflowers marked our progress. Cecilia piloted, I quickly usurped low-volume DJ duties, Danke held down dreamland.
As we entered the outskirts of Vaasa, the sun burst through the clouds, and simultaneously, it began pouring rain – an apt duality for a city that speaks and functions in two (two-plus, really) languages seamlessly (Finnish and Swedish).
Finns that speak Swedish as a first language make up about a 6% minority of Finland. Finland’s official languages are both Finnish and Swedish, and all public signage government proceedings/documents are in both languages. This includes everything from proper names of cities (F: HELSINKI, S: HELSINGFORS) down to labeling on public trash cans (in Vaasa, F: ROSKAT, S: SKRÄP).
This map and key current as of 2009 and courtesy of Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/
We arrived in Vaasa at long last. I had been in transit for 24 hours, portal-to-portal. Time for food, a glass or two of green wine, and, and, zzzz…..
The old town of Vaasa was founded in 1606 but, largely built of wood, burned in 1852. The town was relocated and reconstructed in its current location in 1862. Much of the activity of the city takes place within a few blocks of the large main square.
I would remain in Vaasa for the majority of the next three weeks, getting to know Cecilia’s friendly friends, family and town acquaintances (it’s hard to get away from them in a centralized town of 60k people even if you want to!), discovering more types of dairy products and dark-colored bread than I knew existed, riding/running the multitude of bike paths, attempting a bit of Finnish/Swedish and enjoying sunny lunches on the square with Cessi.
More on my time in Vaasa in an upcoming post!
Slut för idag! Kiitos!
Fondis: our lunch spot for nearly every weekday. Repetitive, sure. Good, yes!
