The vanishing cards trick

There’s a local saying that goes ‘ A Finnish introvert will look at their feet when talking to you. A Finnish extrovert will look at your feet.’ (You have to read that carefully).

There is some truth in that observation. The Finns are friendly but in a very reserved way. It’s also incredibly quiet here. Hardly any cars - mostly trams and buses and they are all electric. So are the scooters. The only noisy thing is the pedestrian crossing beep. I haven’t heard a single siren. It’s strangely disconcerting.

And everyone waits patiently at the pedestrian lights until the little green man appears. So far the only person I’ve seen impatiently crossing a totally deserted street against the red man is me.

It’s been an odd day. It started well with an outstanding breakfast at our hotel. I do love a hotel buffet. The highlight was the special omelette created by the Ghanan chef, Johnny. He spends part of the year here and part back in Ghana. Apparently he came to school here, which brings many questions to mind, the most obvious one being why? If you had to find two more contrasting countries you’d be hard pressed. Anyway, Ghana’s loss is Helsinki’s gain as he’s an awesome chef.

Being Monday, several of our plans were quashed as the museums and galleries were closed. We did find a very special place though : the Kamppi Chapel. It’s a beautiful wooden sculptural building in the middle of the city. Its purpose is to provide a place for silent reflection, and miraculously, that’s exactly how people are in the space. Totally still and silent. It’s a Lutheran church but open to all. Quite lovely.

Some cool sculptures nearby as well. It’s a lovely sunny day and the cafes which had direct sun were heaving with hatless coffee drinkers.

We returned to our hotel and at check out I discovered my wallet with my credit cards was no longer in my bag! A stressful time was had as I unpacked everything but no luck. Nothing else missing but I then had the tedious process of putting cards on hold and contacting the various places I might have dropped it. Luckily I have Apple Pay still and Grant :)

We are now out at the airport at a hotel overnight before the real adventure begins tomorrow. We leave in the morning to fly to Longyearbyen, the main city on the island of Spitsbergen, on the Svalbard archipelago. It’s the Northern most inhabited community of over 1000 people, right up in the Arctic circle. Temperature around 1degree forecast for tomorrow.

We are now part of a tour which is a very unusual experience for us. There are 150 people on the ship that we will live on for the next five days and they are all congregating at this hotel as I write. It’s quite fun trying to pick them as we sit in the bar.

Helsinki has been such a pleasant start to this journey. Now I’m super excited to see the Arctic in all its beauty. How lucky are we? I do pinch myself daily.Read more