Helsinki - Reyakjavik - Boston

Hello from sunny Boston!

I had a wonderful weekend in Helsinki with my best friend, Silje. I had a hotel room from Saturday to Monday, and Silje was hanging out with me from Saturday to Sunday. We got ourselves takeaway from the best chinese restaurant in Helsinki, which is cleverly enough named CHINA (but you have to forgive the guys - it was the first chinese restaurant in town, established in 1973). Anyway, we got ourselves more chinese food than we could eat, rent Thelma & Louise and Rango, and had a little movie night. LMAO have you seen that Rango movie? It was probably one of the craziest movies I've ever seen xD Definitely not for little children, even if it is an animation...

Well, Silje was kind enough to stick with me on Sunday which was my official "OMG, I need to buy this and this and that for the roadtrip!" -day. So, we spent hours running around the city and eventually I found everything I needed. Afterwards we stopped for a coffee at Wayne's...

Wayne's large coffee IS large - even by my coffeeholic standards!

Soon after Silje had left, I got an upsetting phonecall from home - my grandpa had passed away. It wasn't unexpected or anything - he had been very sick for a long time - but still it messed up my feelings pretty well. Just imaging it - you're about to leave for the adventure of your life, and right before you leave, you hear you've lost a family member. To tell you the truth, I was never really close with my grandpa, more likely I felt bad for my dad who has now lost his father. I'm also going to miss grandpa's funeral, because I'm in the States. Well, I'll go and pay my respects once I'm back in Finland. So, summa summarum: yes, it was upsetting to hear I've lost my grandfather, but there's no way I'd ruin my USA adventure by thinking about it too much. It may sound heartless, but think about it - it wouldn't change anything if I let myself to dwell in this thing. I will keep going and hope everyone in Finland is doing the same. Of course it is hard to lose a familymember, but somehow... just somehow maybe this was the best. Grandpa had a long and good life, but now he was very sick and not getting better. RIP pappa.

Aaaaand back to my adventures. I pretty much spent the whole Monday by travelling - first from Helsinki to Reyakjavik, and then from Reyakjavik to Boston. This trip was so much easier than the one to Brazil! It was only 3,5 hours from Helsinki to Reyakjavik, and then 5 hours from Reyakjavik to Boston. Just enough time to watch a few movies (Drive, I Am Sam, and some funny Icelandic children's movie). Weather was amazingly clear, so even we were flying in 12,000KM, I was able to see Greenland and Canada :-)

I admit I got a little emotional when we landed in Boston and I saw all the American flags... I mean, I've been dreaming about the States for a decade, and then I suddenly was there, like for real. Security check was pretty exciting, and I got a little nervous in the interview eventhough I knew there was no reason not to let me through. Well, actually the officer was nice, he was just asking about our roadtrip and how I'm planning to travel from Boston to NYC and stuff like that. In the end he took my photo and fingerprints, and said those magical words: Welcome to America!

I left the airport around 7PM but my innerclock said it was 3AM, so I was lazy/sleepy/tired enough to take a taxi from the airport instead of looking for a bus. Luckily Logan Airport in Boston is really close to the actual city of Boston, so the taxi ride wasn't so expensive. By the time I had checked in to my hostel (40 Berkeley), I was more than ready to go to sleep. So I just paid a quick visit to 7-Eleven across the street and took a shower (OMG there was no hot water left!) before hitting the hay.

...and once again, thanks to the time difference, this morning I woke up around 6AM after lovely 9 hours of sleep. After enjoying an awesome breakfast at the hostel restaurant (bacon, eggs, diet Coke and coffee, LOL) I headed out. First I bought a disposable phone, because obviously my phone / SIM card doesn't work here. I was surprised by how cheap those disposable phones are, mine cost only 15 bucks! So, now I have an American phone number and I'm good to go. I think I'll keep my own phone shut down as long as I'm here, it makes no sense to keep carrying it since it doesn't have service anyway... So, my dear Finnish friends, don't bother trying to contact me with my DNA phone number, I won't be using it for a while now.

Today I ended up walking along the famous Freedom Trail. Haha, it's great because the path is actually painted to the streets on red, so you cannot get lost, or if you do, you can always follow the red brickroad back home ;-) Here's some photos...

Public Gardens

Cranary Burial Ground (the victims of the Boston Massacre 1770)

harbour

Actually took this photo to find my way back home, LOL.

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Okay, that's all. I'm planning to write one HUGE blog post about the actual road trip once I'm back in Finland, but if I feel like, I might came back telling you more about Boston later. We'll see. At least I will be tweeting everytime I have a chance, I promise. The bottom line is: here I am, and I LOVE IT! The city is amazingly beautiful, people are nice, food is great and I feel good about this whole thing :-)

yours truly-