Thursday

Had quite a long layover (5+ hours) in Frankfurt. Since it was so long between flights, the departure gate for my flight to Helsinki wasn’t posted right away. Did a lot of walking to kill time.

Good thing I did get to my gate with time to spare. It turns out that Lufthansa had no reservation for me on the flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki 🙁 Ahh traveling is such fun haha. Fortunately, the Lufthansa agent was very friendly. She made a few calls and got me squared away.

This flight was quite full, so I had to check my carry-on bag. Hope my laptop survives! We wound up having an hour delay, including the time it took to de-ice the wings. Finally took off, enjoyed a light snack and a complimentary German brew.

We arrived in Helsinki late and our luggage took its sweet time in getting to baggage claim. Despite my being over an hour late, my cousin Harri was waiting for me, patiently.

Harri and I decided to stop and have a short visit with his sister-in-law, Erja. His brother (my cousin) Tapio got home from work early, so we got to see him too. We had coffee and sandwiches, including some delicious salmon (my fave, you know!) and Erja’s home-baked bread. Harri and I left in the late afternoon while it was still light out…we still had a long drive ahead of us.

It was a snowy trip to Harri’s home in Lappeenranta. I had only slept about 15 minutes the past 28 hours, so I slept for a few hours in the car.

We got there around 7:30. Harri’s wife Mirja was out front, shoveling snow and chatting with the neighbors.

Had some wine and snacks and talked with Harri and Mirja. Turned in sometime after 11PM.

 

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