Here are some random observations from my travels to Finland. Enjoy!

• London-Heathrow Airport: Spotted. A traveler wearing black bike shorts with a lace trim. She was an American. No wonder the Brits hate us.
• Question. How can a flight be full and have a row of 5 seats with only 2 passengers in the row? Luckily I was one of those 2 passengers and the flight was for 7 hours :). Go me.
• A teeny-bopper raving about her travels around the World and saying how our plane to London would have a 2nd partial level because her plane to Australia did. When she gets on and asks where the stairs are, the flight attendant tells her there is only 1 level.
• 10 minutes of Internet in London-Heathrow -$3. 4.5 minutes of Internet in Helsinki-Vantaa-$3. Unlimited Internet access at my home [almost] priceless…(or ~$30)
• 24 hours of daylight, even when it’s raining.
• I’m wearing a sweater. It’s June.
• My new favorite way to fly is having 1 crying baby to my right and another behind me while trying to sleep. Then, having flight attendants wake me up every 30 minutes to ask: “Are you buckled up?”, “Would you like lunch?”, “Would you like a drink?”, or “Do you have any trash?”. Thankfully the flight was only about 2.5 hours from London to Helsinki, but still…
• Purple hair.
• Pink hair. I saw both numerous times at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.
• Captain Hook’s Restaurant with “Peter Pan’s Meatballs” and “Tinkerbell’s Laughing Weiners”.
• The “fun” store at the largest mall in Scandinavia (of course I found it, the mall not the store) with “Willie Slippers” and “Bosom Cushions” proudly displayed in the window. It was near a children’s toy store. Fun for the whole family I guess :).
• The escalators in the mall were flat.
• If you see a pizza restaurant it will more than likely be serving kabobs.
• A supermarket I don’t think would fair too well in the states: KKK Supermarket.
• On a cold, rainy evening of playing RISK (in Finnish), my sister says, “Let me do you from the Ukraine.” She meant, “I want to attack Ukraine.” Inappropriate laughter soon followed.
• We should adopt the Finnish way of bed dressing. It consists of an undersheet, duvet with duvet cover, and possibly a quilt.
• My seatmate to NYC carried a Trevi GM Louis Vuitton purse that I’d kill for, wore a Juicy Couture sweatsuit, and had a carry-on too big to fit in the overhead compartment. She did what any smart and considerate overseas traveler would do and forced it under the seat in front of her. This action provided only a 3-4 inch space on the floor for her feet. In turn, my somewhat good leg room became a bit less than average and the flight was for 7 hours…