welcome to helsinki!

New York – Helsinki – Stockholm.  I only wanted to go as far as Helsinki, and I would just ask the check-in agents at Finnair to short tag my bag for Helsinki, so it and I would just end our journey there.  Apparently, wanting to save the airline a little money isn’t as generous as it sounds.  The scene at the check-in desk at JFK:  I’m standing there with my 27kg backpack, being assured I need to travel all the way to Stockholm or my return flight would be cancelled.  I don’t have any accommodation there, nor a flight to get back over to Helsinki.  Mmm, very convenient indeed.  So I finish the check-in process and can feel my heart racing a little faster than I ever remember it doing so before.  Another little bit of information for those travelling through JFK – they have no computers with internet access.  I remember I have my iTouch tucked away in my bag – ahh excellent, I’ll just book a flight back over to Helsinki this way – done, taken care of, all is well.  Not quite.  Apparently I forgot to charge it the night before, so as I now go through the 28 step process to get signed up for paying $8.95 for an hour of Wifi – my battery life is flashing red with 20% remaining.  Bollocks.  Scramble over to flysas.com, and find a flight back over to Helsinki from Stockholm – last flight of the night …$327.23 later.  US dollars.  So instead of arriving into Helsinki at 1pm, I arrive into Helsinki at 22:40pm.  The following hour wasn’t my finest, but thankfully the money was there, and things still happened to line up to get me to where I needed to be and sometimes, that’s really all that matters.

A little side story here if you’re still reading, and haven’t skipped ahead to the photos… After I clicked ‘Confirm’ on the SAS website, I felt my body sank into the airport chair knowing I’d just gotten myself to where I wanted to be, but more because I’d just unexpectedly spent $400 Canadian.  I sat with probably the most blank face of anyone in the boarding lounge, and my thoughts seemed to just pause.  I leaned forward in my chair, and just released a quiet thought ‘Universe, I just need a sign… I just need a sign things are well’.  I felt so non-resistant finally.  Thirty seconds later, I picked up my camera bag, picked up my tripod and walked almost automatically toward a nice looking restaurant tucked away near the middle of the corridor called O’Neals.  Seated myself to a booth with a view of the terminal.  I picked up the menu, opened it… French onion soup, closed it.  A waitress spots me, walks slowly over… “You all ready there, sweetie?”  The rest of the story doesn’t really matter, it’s just sometimes when we think we couldn’t be more alone – there’s always something to point us in the right direction.  Ask, and it it given.

I’d planned to end this post here, but this evening I got a little inspired when I saw there were to be thunder-showers in just a few hours time, so I headed on out to a place I plan to go every night for twilight from this day forward.  The sun isn’t setting here until about 10:30 pm now, and twilight lasts well into 1:30 am – it’s incredible.  So the forecast says thunder showers & lightning, and what do I do – keep on my linen shirts & capris.  Walk out the door, the summer wind blows nicely and the rain starts.  Get to the cathedral – rain continues, harder now but not without getting the shots intended of course.  After taking refuge inside the cathedral for a few minutes, literally instantly as we walk out the door – lighting!  Not just a little bit of sheet lighting, but full on sheet & fork lighting panoramically across the entire sky!  Absolutely phenomenal!  And by the time we get back inside by about 1am, my clothes are now glued to my body, it’s like I’ve just taken a shower with my clothes on.  But ohh, I’d do it again in a heartbeat!