June 28, 2000
An older business man picked us up and dropped us off in the center of town where we wandered to do the typical old European church visit, then got a bus to the castle. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to do everything in Turku, the capital city when Sweden was in charge.
Tiiti, Petra’s mother, was doing an art exhibit in the city and met us at the castle. She then took us out to a great meal at a classy restaurant and emptied her purse of all the foreign coins to the countries I planned on visiting in the next month. Afterwards, she drove us back to Petra’s place, where I met one of Petra’s friends who was going to Helsinki.
After having some strawberry birthday cake from the girl having a party in the downstairs flat, we said our goodbyes and I jumped into the car for Helsinki. “Are you going to Denmark? If so, my sister lives there, so you have a place to stay.”
Wow, that’s cool. I hope to see Petra on the road again sometime; however, I don’t think I could survive a week in the dark winters. The “white nights” are another story. It’s dark at midnight and day again at 3AM. I’d wake up thinking how lazy I was… it must be about noon by the lighting. Look at my watch… it’s only 6AM!
All this time, my large bag is in storage back in Estonia - I’ve got all I need in a small daypack, so I have a new level of freedom – if I can’t get a ride back to collect bags, it doesn’t matter. I’ll have to try a longer trip going ultra-light sometime. Just me, my toothbrush and a clean pair of underwear.