After a restless sleep and knowing that we are not going to be able to sleep anymore, we take a shower and head down to the breakfast buffet. Most hotels in Finland include a breakfast buffet. As we enter the dining area, our eyes grow big. This is one of the biggest breakfast buffets we have ever seen. There are numerous tasty choices which appealed to our appetites. I loved the variety of fruits! We had been told that Finnish folks are very quiet and this was quite noticeable as there was little conversations. It may be harder to get to know people than what we thought. After breakfast it was back to our room, repack our bags and head down to get the shuttle which will take us to the train station. While waiting for the shuttle we are approached by a couple who asks us if we are going to do the Rajalta Rajalle Hinto. They said our gear looked suspicious. They are from Canada and are going to be starting the ski several days before us. For this event there are 4 starting days. We are on the last day. They are going to Helsinki for the day and offer to help us carry our bags to the train station. Much appreciated! We share stories on the train. Allison is a veterinary chiropractor and has written a book about her experiences. We buy the kindle version later. Soon we pull into the Helsinki train station and part ways, wishing them a fun adventure.

The next task is finding our hotel. We quickly realize, in our estimation, the Finish language is difficult. We can’t even pronounce the street where the hotel is located. Fortunately google maps gets us there and we only have to take a couple of breaks with the luggage. This is one of the last times we carry the duffles. We quickly learn that it is so much easier to put the backpacks on and then put them back in the duffles once we reach our destination.

Pretty amazing that we can pronounce the name of this hotel.

It is an older hotel and we are given a room on the 8th floor. Fortunately there is an elevator that we can fit all of our gear in. We are spending two nights here then taking the night train to Oulu. We do a little unpacking and stretch out on the bed, hoping to take a nap which doesn’t happen. We decide to go do a little exploring and have lunch at a famous cafe. In a small world, we discovered a few days before we left the states that our friend, a NOLS instructor.Mike, from the 90’s is also participating in this ski event. He is starting on day 2 so our paths won’t cross skiing, but he is flying to Helsinki this afternoon and staying at the same hotel so we plan to meet up early evening. We head out the lobby and notice this sign.

With guidebook in hand, we head to the Karl Franz cafe. It comes highly recommended for its chocolate and bakery treats. It has been around since 1891. We were not disappointed just a bit challenged to decide what we were going to choose to eat. With a full stomach we start our walking tour which takes us past several ornate churches.

The churches are closed today so we might try to visit them tomorrow.

The city sauna is located right on the water front. The sauna is very important to the citizens of Finland. We watched as several people walked out of the sauna and lowered themselves into the frigid water. We hope to partake of this custom sometime when we are here. We check out the oldest monument in Helsinki, the double headed eagle.

It was unveiled in 1835 in honor of Tzar Nicolas and Tzarina Alexandra.

Russia invaded Helsinki in 1808 and burnt it to the ground. Later a German architect who lived in St. Petersburg was hired by the Russians to rebuild Helsinki and give it some class. It was great to do the self tour as we wandered around the streets.

The streets are quite wide. Most of the streets are cobblestone which makes for hard walking.

Before heading back to our hotel to see if Mike arrived we checked out a small grocery store and picked up some items for dinner. On our way back we received a text from Mike saying that he had arrived and we plan to meet up at the lobby and then go out for tea. Mike was excited to be here and will be able to spend a few days here when his ski trip is over. We tell him that we will scout it out more tomorrow and give him a heads up about what we find. Mike is up for a short walk to the harbor and then we head to a coffee shop which is located in a large department store.

Lots to talk about. Just as a side note Mike was the carpenter that built out the van that we now call home.

Our conversation with Mike made us oblivious to the time. The waitress had been putting up chairs on the tables, but really hadn’t said anything to us about closing. Finally we realized that shops were closing around us and we needed to leave. That was harder that we thought, we encountered several locked doors and several clerks pointing at us to leave. Finally one of the clerks spoke some English and pointed to a door at the opposite end of the store. We were relieved to find it unlocked! Heading with Mike to the hotel, we decide to meet Mike at the breakfast buffet and after breakfast take a short walk to visit more places before he needs to head back to the airport.

It was another night of poor sleep. We have never experienced jet lag, but are thinking that is what we have. We head down to the restaurant and partake of the good food. It doesn’t , however, have the variety of the hotel that we stayed at yesterday. Even though we share a table with other hotel guests, no one talks so neither do we. After breakfast we head out to visit the train station with Mike. He will be leaving there mid morning and we will be catching the night train tomorrow night.

The train station was completed in 1919.

Flanking its entrance are two massive male sculptures holding illuminated globes.

On a busy day over 300,000 people pass thru the railroad doors. About 200,000 will be passengers for the train.

We decide to visit the Kamppi Chappel before Mike needs to depart. The chapel was built by the City of Helsinki in 2012 to give visitors a sense of serenity.

There are no services just a place to sit and be quiet. It is 38 feet tall with no windows.

The inside curved structure is made of alderwood paneling

It is so peaceful inside that we plan to visit here again. We say good by to Mike and continue on checking out more buildings with very interesting architecture. Another church which is open to the public is called “The Church in the Rock” It was blasted out of solid granite.

The church is known for its concerts, sadly none were scheduled during our time here. Underneath the church is an air raid shelter that can accommodate 6000 people

We identify our first new bird in Finland the Hooded Crow

After some more walking and with the weather deteriorating, we decide to head back to our hotel. First though we are going to check out the Nordic Market which is located underneath the City Center. Wow! We are in for a surprise. The store is huge with high quality food. It is an experience just to walk the different aisles and check out the products. We select some items for dinner and plan to return tomorrow to get food for the train ride.

During the night the rain pelted the window and the wind whipped the flags. It doesn’t seem to be a day of leisurely sight seeing. We were glad that we had two days of mostly nice weather to explore the city. It was another night of getting short stretches of sleep. We head down to the breakfast buffet and once again share our table with quiet people. Back to the room and repack our bags, the check out is at noon but fortunately the hotel will store our luggage for the day. The rain and wind are going to be a factor of how we spend our day. We had plans to take a ferry to an island if the weather had been nice, now we are just figuring out where we can stay warm and dry. The first stop is the train station where we check to make sure are tickets are valid.(they are) and where we should be to board the train. The advice given was be on time and ready to board when you see the train. That was great advice! The rain turned to snow and we become serious about where to spend some time. We had passed the free City Museum yesterday and figured that would be a good place to start. It was. It had 6 floors of informative details about the city. The first floor had an interesting movie displaying how the town changed over the years. The third floor gave high lights of the history of the people living there. The top floor was devoted to an artist and writer who described in great detail the homeless. This man had an alcohol addiction and often found himself living on the streets. His drawings and writings were scattered thru out the 6th floor. After slowly going thru all of the exhibits it was time to move on. Across the street was the large Luthern Church which can be easily seen thru out the town. We walked up the steep granite staircase to the church. In the summertime these stairs are often the location of music festivals. The church which was built in 1852 was austere and unadorned except for the pulpit. There are 3 very large statues in the corners of the church, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchon and Michael Agricola. Michael is the father of the Finish Language. He sure was successful in making it difficult! The church wasn’t exactly warm so we were off in search of warmth, dry would also be nice. The Russian Orthodox Church is opened today so off we go.It is quite the contrast to the Luthern Church There are lots of colorful icons surrounding the interior. There are no pews in the church so after checking out what we could see it was time to head out.

Even though we had tried to spend as much time inside and had umbrellas, theyturned out to be mostly useless, we were wet and cold. Across the street was the Cafe Kappeli.

It is a 19th century restaurant with lots of windows and chandeliers.

It is known for its expensive and great tasting dishes, however, a noon menu describes the soup of the day and bread for the budget traveler.

Don hits the jackpot with the soup of the day being shrimp and fish.

I on the other hand was quite content with an egg fritatta and chocolate tarts. Plus I was sitting next to a heater and just watching the rain pour down outside the window!

We weren’t the only ones in the restaurant taking advantage of the warmth. Several peop[le were reading books and we even observed someone sleeping. I am sure on a busy day we would have had to move on, but it was a slow day and the ambience was appreciated. Eventually though it was time to move on. There was a break in the weather and as we headed out the door, we both had the same thought. Let’s go to the Kamppi Chapel .With the combination of silence and warmth, this option was most appealing. A short walk found us entering into this meditative chapel. Pillows on the floor invited us to be quite comfortable. Don took it to the extreme and was observed doing a bit of cat napping! Several people came in, but none stayed as long as us. It was so deliteful. Before we left, we both light a couple of candles and place them in a bowl of sand at the back of the chapel. This is a great place for tourists and residents of Helsinki.

The last stop before returning to get our luggage was the Nordic Market. Once again we marveled at the food selection and found some tasty treats for dinner and our travel tonight and tomorrow. We made ourselves comfortable in the Hotel Arthur Lobby where we waited till about !0:00 pm or since we are in Finland 22:00.

We walked about a block to the train station checking out the ice rink which was starting to melt.

At the train station, the hustle of the afternoon had banished. There were even seats to sit in. We didn’t last long there as the area was also being used by some drunk people who were rather obnoxious. We decided to wait by the doors that led out to the platform. We noticed that several trains had departed, but no announcements were given. There was a board telling the departures and our train was listed as being on time. As the departing time got close, passengers starting heading to the platform. We followed and found our sleeper car. We managed to get our skis and packs up the narrow stairs to our cabin. We barely had our skis strapped in when the train began to move. The advice of being ready was much appreciated. We have been told that trains pride themselves on being on time.

Our cabin had two berths, a shower and toilet. By the time we had gotten settled it was after 2:00 am We were hoping that the gentle rocking of the train would put us to sleep.

Before we had gone very far down the tracks, the conductor came on and made an announcement. We were glad that the last one was in English as the first two had no words that we understood. Basically he said that the train should be in Oulu around 8. That would be great as we could then catch the bus to Kuusomo that was leaving at 8:45.

Well the hopes of a good night sleep did not happen. When the watch said 7, we started to prepare for our station. We checked the train app which showed us the location of the train. Unless this train becomes a bullet train we are not going to make it to Oulu by 8. Not sure why, but there is over a 2 hour delay. The bus that we hoped to take would be long gone. Before long the conductor came on and confirmed the delay. Nothing to do but sit back or in our case hang out in our bed and watch the landscape go by. A knock on the door was made by a conductor who told us that since there was a delay everyone was given seven euros to spend in the cafeteria. Don, with receipt in hand, headed to the Cafe and with the help of the cashier spent our allotment. The next message that we heard was not in English, but we did recognize the word Oulu so we quickly packed up and headed down the narrow stairs. When the train stopped we hopped off in the cold air and looked around. For a brief moment as the train chugged down the track we thought that perhaps we had gotten off too early. A man walking by confirmed that we were indeed in Oulu and pointed us toward the bus station. It was a very short walk to the very empty bus station. There was only a man selling food at the counter. When we asked him about the bus, he told us to go outside to the number 4 line. We just got there when a bus pulled in with the words Kuusumo . We paid the driver and were soon on our way. The timing couldn’t have been better. Three hours later we arrived at the town of Kuusumo. We had been told that we would need to catch another bus to where we were staying for the next couple of days. As we prepared to leave the driver motioned for us to sit back down and then proceeded to get back on the highway. Hope our destination wasn’t lost in the translation. Five minutes later we pull into the Holiday Resort. He smiles and now motions for us to leave the bus.

The travel agency that we worked with to book the Border to Border Ski had also made all of the arrangements pre ski event. I made all of the arrangements after the ski trip. We will also be staying at this hotel the first day of our ski event. When I give our voucher to the receptionist, she says ,you will be staying in one of our apartments. Not what we had expected, but off we go to find our abode for the next two nights. It was quite nice. It had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a washer and dryer, a fireplace and a sauna. The other attribute that it had was right outside the window was the ski trail. Later today we will see some skiers from the Border to Border ski past our window.

The little yellow sign in the front is a trail marker that we will become quite familiar with.

It has been a long day and perhaps a nap would feel good, but the ski trails look inviting. They are nicely groomed and it will be good to put on the skis. We do a loop meeting a local school teacher who comments that it has been a good snow year. This bodes well for us! Some years the trail has so little snow that the participants have to be bussed to the snow. We even ski a short section of the actual route we will be on when we start the event in a couple of days. Back to our apartment we laid down and finally the deep sleep that we have been waiting for finally happened. Early evening we woke up and snacked on some of the food that we had brought with us. Then it was back to bed. Unfortunately Don has developed some congestion, his sinuses are painful. Fortunately I can head over to the other bedroom and soon I fall into a deep sleep.

The next morning I feel rested and Don still has the painful sinuses. So glad for the two bedrooms.It is also a great space for us to organize our gear for the upcoming ski trip. We use the iPhone to find the nearest grocery store. It is only about a mile away. We are impressed that there is a plowed path for the walkers, we don’t have to walk on the side of the road at all. Kuusamo is a small frontier town that is located close to the Russian Border. There are also several resorts in the area dedicated to winter sports. The grocery store was small, but we were able to buy food for today and tomorrow, The cans of meat on the shelf were interesting.

It was fun to walk back with the snow berms piled high. It is truly a winter wonderland. Seeing all this snow we were excited to head out for a longer ski today. Today we skied for several hours enjoying the mild terrain. Once again we passed participants in the Border to Border ski. They could be identified by the red ribbons attached to their fanny packs. In two days we will also have the red tags attached to our gear! We didn’t see our friend, Mike, but he texted us later saying all is well and get ready for fun! We headed back to our apartment and when Don reached into his pocket to retrieve the card key, he came up empty handed. Somewhere during the ski, the card had fallen out. A walk to the hotel desk was all that was needed to get a new card. Glad that was the case, it wouldn’t have been easy to track the card down. Don also checked out about the bus that would take us to Olivanki tomorrow. It will arrive 45 minutes before the flight gets to the airport. She warns him that one needs to be outside waiting as if the driver doesn’t see anyone they won’t stop. Good advice.! Once we are back in our cozy apartment we dry our clothes in the closet dryer.

Just lay your clothes on the rack, shut the door and turn on the heat.

After dinner, Don takes a sauna, I last for 30 seconds. He stays in longer and is quite relaxed.

Tomorrow we will pack up our gear, take the bus to Olvanki, have an evening orientation and meet other skiers. Looking forward to a good nights sleep.