Today is Dad's birthday and also the day that Ivan arrives! Hurrah! We slept in and had a nice breakfast. Us girls left after breakfast to do some sightseeing in Helsinki before picking up Ivan. First, we went to Porvoo so Claire could wash her hair in the public Water Closet. Then, we went to the port of Helsinki to confirm our tickets to Tallinn, Estonia. Near the boat terminal was a big Orthodox church that we decided to visit. It was nice, but after the gorgeous cathedrals we saw in St. Petersburg and Moscow, it didn't seem that impressive. Then the Rock Church, where we stopped across the street for a lunch consisting of a traditional Finnish Rice Pie (which was quite tasty and cheap). Then a quick stop at the senate square before picking up Ivan from the airport.

We had to wait quite awhile, feeding the meter (1 Euro for only 10 minutes!!). We finally got Ivan, added him to the car rental agreement as a driver (which was supposed to be free, but cost 10 Euros), stopped for some groceries and went home.

We were invited over for tea with our landlord's mother and grandmother and had a delightful time. The mother, Ingrid, speaks excellent English, but the grandmother, Marianna, only speaks Swedish. It made for interesting discussions with everything being translated into 3 languages (Russian, for Ivan's parents). Marianna will be 88 years old in November and she is still so energetic and active. She prepared a delicious spread of treats to go with our tea and told us all about the farm and the family history. After tea, we returned to our cottage and packed our bags for tommorrow.

Labels: Europe 2008, Finland