Finally Finland

[taken from Travel journal entry for March 3, 2010]

Today was one of the craziest travel journeys I've ever had. Travel as in anything that could have gone bad, did. We almost missed our trains, purchased tickets that actually didn't exist, almost lost Mike, stayed in an underground for three hours which ended up being more like a wind tunnel, and once we finally made it to Frankfurt, Germany's worst looking city ever, we realized we missed the crucial bus we needed to take us the hour-journey ride to the Ryan Air Airport, which is inconveniently located no where near Frankfurt. The next bus would end up arriving at the airport an two hours later, giving us a stressful 10 minutes to run through check-in, customs, and security before the gate closed. And that's just what we did, run. The only part that ended up being humorous was when we realized they thought my boots must have been some sort of security problem because I was treated like they must have hidden a bomb. Of course, upon further inspection, they realized, I was no terrorist but just a tired and hungry traveler who just had buckles on her shoes.....oi vey.

Thankfully, the plane was still loading passengers, and we made it safely on. We left Germany as snow began to fall and landed in Finland to more snow than I could have imagined. My luggage had a hard time keeping up with me as I trudged through the snow where my friend Lynda and her friends greeted us with big grins and signs (literally, it was an authentic Welcome Wagon). We then enjoyed the most peaceful ride back to their home where delicious chili awaited my starving body. That night all of Lynda's friend's threw us a grand get-together and we ate good food, met good people, learned some Finnish and played some Finnish games similar to games from my Comedy Improv class.