Another day, another country

You would think that the last day of an incredibly busy three months would be spent relaxing in the sunshine, possibly with a beer and reminiscing about days gone by. However, we decided to take in one more country by travelling to Finland and back. Varro kindly gave us a lift to the ferry terminal in the morning and helped us with the tickets and check in and we were soon on the rather impressive katamaran which was taking us to country number thirteen. I was very excited about the sea crossing, Sarah rather less so, but we both agreed it was great fun to arrive in the heart of a capital city by boat. We got out right on to the main Esplanada, a lovely boulevard of Art Nouveau buildings and incredibly posh shops and cafes. Our day in Helsinki was absolutely lovely. We explored the Orthodox and Lutheran cathedrals (the latter is much more impressive on the outside than the inside), wandered round the docks admiring the beautiful yachts and wandered in bookshops which had whole sections devoted to the Moomins.

Perhaps the highlight was visiting the Atheneum Art Gallery, which had a special exhibition on the Kalevala: the Finnish legendary cycle about the folk hero Vaininaimen (sp?). The original poems are ancient, but the cycle itself is a 19th century construction built up when Finnish nationalism and independence from Russian rule became hot topics. It was a wonderful exhibition, and really exciting to encounter a mythology with which we were completely unfamiliar. Lots of strange monsters, creation and rebirth legends, quests, nymphs, water giants, healing bees, the river of the dead....so many overlaps and also differences with other mythologies. I think it was actually a good way to encounter the legends, as the rooms took you through it motif by motif rather than as a continual story: probably a more authentic first experience of how the stories were told and understood. It left us both wanting to read the Kalevala....though possibly not in Finnish, as it's one of the most unusual languages in the world and apparently fiendishly difficult to learn.

We arrived back from Helsinki around nine at night absolutely exhausted and stuffed ourselves with a final meal of....you guessed it...pasta and pesto before tumbling into bed. A really memorable last day, which has left us with all sorts of new interests and questions. The best way to finish a trip which has been one new experience after another.