We're 'here'!

The word 'here' has a funny concept when you wake up from an early-morning dream and don't know where you are. But...I have made it to Helsinki. With Adam and all our luggage (most of it empty so we can vacation American style - by shopping). And I found a couple computers in our hotel, so I should be able to post every day.

So.

On Thursday, I cabbed to the Ottawa airpot, flew to Toronto, caught my connection to London, and then flew all night to Heathrow. Adam met me at Heathrow and took me to the 'Yotel', which is the cute little hotel inside Heathrow's Terminal 4. The rooms are really 'cabins' - tiny, but ironically, decorated with a much cooler aesthetic than most North American hotel rooms. I had time to shower, dry my hair, and drink an orange juice before we caught our flight to Helsinki.

Giddy from lack of sleep by this time, we passed the three hour flight in fits of giggles over just about everything. And then...somehow, after propelling our bodies through space and time, we were here. And 'here' is the Scandic Grand Marina, an aging, European hotel housed in an old port warehouse. We do see the water from our room - through a tiny, diamond-shaped window and natural light pours in from a skylight tucked into an alcove in the ceiling.

Today, still lacking any sense of time and without much appetite, we set off to explore the city. The bright sunshine perked us up as soon as we left the hotel, and we spent the next six hours of so in the city centre - eating tomato and mozzarella croissants at brunch with a big bottle of cold carrot juice, picking up an ergonomic birch spatula at the Design Forum Finland, and stopping at Stockmann, a massive Finnish Department store on the way home for a big container of grilled tofu with leeks, sesame seeds, and a big pile of green beans.