Now that our trip to Finland is less than a month away, I feel the need to blog about it. The trip participants include me, my husband, Geister, Boo, Grandma G. and Grandpa G. The reason we are going to Finland is because I know a family there; the reason we are going this year is because Boo will fly for (almost) free (there are some taxes on overseas flights, as it turns out, and tax calculated on a $0 fare turns out to be about $300. Who knew?).
Our itinerary includes:
- Seeing Helsinki
- Spending time at a summer cottage (I use the modifier “summer” deliberately, as this is the phrase the Finnish always use. “You have a cottage?” you might say, only to be told in reply, “Yes, we have a summer cottage.”)
- Driving to the Arctic Circle
- Hitting a Swedish border town, and crossing over, just to say we did it
- Going to Russia, if I remember to get the required visa
- Spending a day at the Moomin amusement park for the kids. Geister already has his own Moomin plate, and cutlery set.
- Seeing Helsinki again
- Crossing over the Gulf of Finland by ferry to see Estonia
- Having a sauna everyday
It will be a great experiment to see:
- Whether Geister and Boo can get over jet lag
- If they can sleep with that much constant daylight
- If the mosquitoes are worse in the Finnish north, or ours
- How cozy it really feels to travel and camp with my in-laws in the 24ft camper we’re renting
- Whether or not our host family will go nude in the sauna when we’re there, and what they expect us to do (This brings to mind the one rule I have for the trip: Do not see father-in-law naked. I'm trying not to be glib here--I really really mean this.)
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Also, this is my blogiversary, or birthday or something: in one year, I’ve managed to post 25 entries!! That’s an average of one every two weeks. Honestly, that’s better than I thought I was doing.
