Week 47 - Bound for Europe

 I had three days at home before flying out for our Baltic trip so I was a machine, getting everything done on my pre-trip to do list.

Our anchor day was moved from Wednesday to Monday because of Thanksgiving so I was on campus on Monday and made the most of it. I a bunch of errands at lunch - Mailing Dottie's huge yarn box at UPS, buying my outside tree at Menard's, buying kitty litter at Super Saver and dropping stuff at Darla's office. I got that all done in an hour and 5 minutes! I went right home but knitting was cancelled so I finished Ginny's scarf and called it a day.

Having satisfied our day on campus, I was working from home for the next 2 days. I had my annual/pre-surgery physical after lunch on Tuesday and it was super lame. She barely touched me - only listening to my chest and looking in my ears. Seemed weird but I'm not the doc so didn't question it. I had been making piles of things to pack but started laundry that night for the last few things.

We were told to be done working at 2:00 on Wednesday, which was lovely. I used the extra time to make some notion pouches for the women from my online sock group who'd be meeting us in Helsinki. They only took and hour and then it was time for the final packing and chores. The kid who mows for me came and did my last mow of the season. I was ready to go.

I was having my car repaired from the Sioux Falls rear ending while I was gone so drove my car to the body shop and Anne's brother in law picked me up there. We were flying from Lincoln to Chicago, had a big layover and then flying overnight to Frankfurt. Anne only had one United Club pass so bought another and gifted it to me for early Christmas and birthday. The club was right next to our gate so we spent all afternoon there before boarding our flight. We had an empty seat between us and I was able to get a decent amount of sleep on the flight, which was uneventful.

We woke up in Frankfurt and had quite a long layover but went to the bakery we'd discovered last year and the boarded our flight for Helsinki. The man sitting next to us was very nice and gave us some tips of places to shop and helped us get the train from the airport. He even walked us most of the way to our hotel, which was right by the train station. It was a lovely room and I was up reading in the wee hours but still got a decent amount of sleep.

After a great breakfast at the hotel, we met up with Tarja from my sock group. She spoke excellent English and we walked around downtown and the docks before taking a break in a coffee shop. From there we went to a local yarn shop where we met Mari, another person from my sock group. I bought sock yarn, of course, and from there they took us to the main library, which was amazing. It had a coffee shop among the stacks and there was a big children's play area where a choir was singing Christmas carols. The downstairs was a makers space with all kinds of equipment to use and huge areas full of people hanging out. I've never seen a library like it. 

It got dark early so all the Christmas lights were on as we looked for someplace to eat an early supper, ending up at an Italian restaurant in the train station, which was delicious. They both had trains to catch to get home so we split up early and Anne and I went to Flying Tiger. We discovered it in Norway and it was right by the hotel. We found some fun things and then headed back to the hotel, tired after a long day.

We slept super late on Sunday and had to rush down to breakfast. We were on our own and our flight wasn't leaving until evening so we put our luggage in the hotel's luggage room and headed out. We did some shopping and walked around for hours, then stopped at Starbuck's and enjoyed people watching from a window seat while we warmed up with lattes. When we were done shopping, we headed back to the hotel, where we hung out until we left for the airport. We got there really early for our flight and it was less than an hour to Riga. We were met by our tour guide at our terminal (different from where the UK flight had come in) and joined the tour, saying a big hello to Celine before heading to our hotel.

We had such a great time in Helsinki, thanks to the two woman from my sock group and had the entire tour to look forward to. Life is good!