I had been looking forward to going to Helsinki. I don’t know what I was expecting though. Whatever it was, Helsinki just didn’t live up to it. Yes I was a little tired after a festive night out the previous evening but I did get lots of sleep on the bus. We got there not long before lunch. Firstly we went to the olympic stadium. It was OK, but we didn’t get to go inside. Next we went to a park to see this famous sculpture. It was pretty cool. I’m not entirely sure what it was meant to be of, but it was made up of all these pipes, some of which looked like they had rusted through – but in an artistic way. We had lunch in the park and then went to the underground church. Unfortunately again we couldn’t go in because there was a big funeral on. We could however climb up the rocks onto the roof. I was in my best climbing thongs of course. One of the boys held out a hand to help me, I did the no thanks I’m fine thing, took one more step, slipped, regained my balance, but the chilvalrous young man tried to vallantly help me. What he succeeded in doing was hitting me in the face and making me slip again. I always was an excellent climber!
Next we were left in the centre of the city to explore ourselves. I have to say after beautiful Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen; Helsinki was mildly disappointing. It just didn’t have the charm, beauty or vibrance that the others had. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice place. But after visiting the others and enjoying then so much I was mildly disappointed. We did however find an excellent restaurant in the city centre. The meals were good and reasonably priced. It was a pity that our waitress seemed to hate the world and all those that inhabited it!
Tomorrow we catch a boat to Estonia. Can’t wait!
To all those who were wondering how the Pheasant Pluckers fared in the remainder of the viking Olympics I am happy to announce that we kicked arse!
After our disappointing start at the opening ceremony and an equal last at the hammer throw, and a close loss in the volleyball – we went on to win the trivia challenge and the scavenger hunt, did admirably in the poetry competition, won the countries of the world quiz and won the closing ceremony (with an excellent display impersonating Gavo (the cook), Stevo (the bus driver) and Marty (the tour leader).) It was a controversial decision but I am quite happy to admit that we were brilliant!
