Day 2...Began on the overnight flight from Chicago to Helsinki. We attempted to sleep. We probably each got a couple hours out of the 8 1/2 hour flight, but it wasn't good sleep. They fed us breakfast on the plane, which was nice...never expected two meals, and they actually tasted pretty good. We arrived in Finland about an hour late, at 3:30 pm local time (7:30 am back home). We were told we could pick up our stroller at the baggage claim, so we took turns directing and corralling Aden through the terminal. Once we got down there, the luggage carts were free...so we grabbed all of our bags and headed to the car rental counter.
On our way to pick up our car, we bumped into some of my cousins that had come to meet us at the airport. Rauno, Arto, and Tero I had met previously when they came to visit the U.S. Matti and Marikka I had not met before. They were super helpful and took our luggage out to their own cars so we didn't have to push the carts the rest of the way. We picked up our car (a Ford Galaxy minivan) and headed to the hotel. We have two adjoining rooms, and Rauno and Arto are staying here as well, so that's nice.
After some quick freshening up, we headed to Matti's house for dinner. Matti and his wife, Leena, have a very pretty house. It is super simple, not cluttered, with the center piece around this enormous TV. We watched the British Open, ate some traditional Finnish food, and had a very nice visit. We ate these little rye and barley pies with egg butter on top, reindeer meat (tastes like a really good salami), meatballs and mashed potatoes. I might add that today was my birthday. Leena had a fabulous strawberry cake for dessert that tasted amazing. They even sang Happy Birthday and had me blow out the candles. :) We also had goat cheese and fresh fruit. It was a really nice evening.
Since we lost what feels like a day during the flight, we came back to the hotel around 10:30 pm local time, and are heading to bed.
First impressions...Finland looks a lot like Michigan's Upper Penninsula...I can see why a huge population of Finnish immigrants settled up there. It even feels and smells like the UP. Cool 60 degree weather, slightly damp, tons of trees, but without all the mosquitoes!
Tomorrow we start our long trek north, so we'll see what turns our adventure takes us on!
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