Helsinki/Helsingfors

I didn´t bother asking why everything in Finland is written not only in Finnish but also in Swedish. Best example is the cinema: I watched Transformers 2 which had subtitles in both languages. Luckily they don´t dub the English films in Northern and Eastern Europe. I think that´s one of the major reasons Scandinavians speak very good English; everybody watches TV and goes to the cinema and most of it´s in English.
The first day in Helsinki I walked from the central station to the harbor to see some nonexisting icebreaker ships, but at least the yacht harbor was nice. On my way back I stopped by at Finlands biggest cinema. Helsinki is a nice city; not great but not bad either, so I took the opportunity of watching a film in English for once in a while.
I originally had intended just to stay for two nights but my host told me about an event, that was going on two days later so I stayed an extra night. The second day having no plans I again strolled around in Helsinki, but due to heavy rain I spent most of the time beneath a marquee.
The event was on my third and last day and the night before lots of friends from Tampere had come over to join my host for this event. There is a small river, no more than 10m wide at its widest. And at one point of this river lots of people from Helsinki and other cities put their rubber boats in the water and with a packet of beer they floated down the river. My host told me all the rubber boats in the whole of Helsinki were sold out and sometimes you could see proper rafts and bands playing on them. Sadly I didn´t see any of those.
From there I headed straight for the ferry to Tallinn.

Rovaniemi

My host was so kind enough to lend me his bike so I could discover the city and a nearby city where a couple of small people and a fat man with a beard live.
But on my way there, I stopped by on an island on the river that goes through Rovaniemi. There some student wildlife organization or something had layed out a wooden path for tourists to have a look around on the almost swamp like island. It included a tower for bird watching. With the sun shining it was really nice to see.
After that and a stop at a huge supermarket in the middle of nowhere to get some food, I went on to greet Santa, who by the way talks very good German. Sadly I forgot to put on my kilt which would have given it a nice touch, but then again it would have been difficult for cycling. It was also nice to cross the Arctic circle, just for the thought that I have been really high up north. This also meant that the night was extremely short with darkness not even being an hour long.
On my way home I pushed my bike up a hill with a watch tower from where I had a great view across Rovaniemi and the endless coniferous forest. I wanted to go downhill on the other side but the way ended after 20m, so I pushed my bike down a stone slope and through some bushes to reach a small road that led me back to the main road. Luckily in Finland as in other Scandinavian countries there is a public right for roaming around freely.
My host and I had a lot of fun together, because we both love British comedy, and watched the whole Blackadder goes Forth series as well as some parts from his ¨Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl¨ DVD. He also let me use his Finnish sauna, which was great.

Suomi

One small step for me, one giant leap for my ego.
I walked all the way from Sweden to Finland, after a night train ride from Stockholm, sitting next to a Thai, who couldn´t speak any English, and two drunken French blokes... It actually took me 15 minutes and apart from a sign, saying Sverige and Suomi on each side, it was really hard to tell where the border line was because right behind the sign there´s a big shopping mall, which seemed to be half Swedish and half Finnish.
Suomi by the way is the Finnish word for Finland. In Norway and Sweden I had hoped to understand the odd word, but upon reaching Finland I gave up on that. You could just as well be talking Russian or Chinese to me, I wouldn´t get a single word.

Some pictures

Glasgow, very rainy

Prestwick

Bergen

The Fjord in Bergen

Oslo, also very rainy