Welcome back, after an unprecedented hiatus, to the special edition series finale “Emma leaves Finland and Blogs for the duration of her Travels home.” The following posts were written during my 28+ hour journey from Helsinki to Vancouver and are both a real-time chronicle of my jet-lagged mind, and a recap on the last few weeks in Helsinki. I’ve broken it up into (fairly) managable parts and will be posting throughout the week. Enjoy!

4:31 am, Helsinki Time; HEL (000 Hours Blogging)

I am sitting now in an Americana-themed cafe in the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, after checking in and gliding through security without a hitch. When I woke up this morning at 2:30, after about an hour of “sleep,” I realized that the day ahead of me would be similar to that of my last “flying experience,” in which my fate would depend entirely on a series of good and bad karma.

Having my first of three international flights in a row take to the air at 7am is, what some may consider, bad karma, as it meant I had to get myself to the airport from my rural apartment by at least 5. A problem only because the last night bus to the airport left the city centre at 3.20. Obviously not an easy situation.

However, I have chosen to take what karma gives me and make lemonade. If nothing else, the last four and half months have proven that I am capable of meeting kind and reliable friends. Case in point, when I explained my plight at an all-nighter party last week to Kim, she immediately offered to put me up for the night of my flight in Pasila, which meant I could wake up and stumble to the bus stop minutes from her apartment, rather than fandango my way to the city centre in the middle of the night from my own. It also meant I didn’t have to spend my last evening in Helsinki alone.

The fact is, as antisocial as we all know I can be, I have rarely spent an evening alone in the past 3 weeks. Finale after finale party and dinner were had, just to make sure we wouldn’t forget each other any time soon, and then just like that, its over. Within two hours’ time I will leave Finnish soil indefinitely, and return to Vancouver via -Montreal-via-Munich.

Hmm. I was hoping to be a bit more humourous by this point, to be honest. I feel I owe it to you, oh dear and few readers, for keeping you hanging for so long. Bear with me- maybe the more sleep-deprived and jet-lagged I become ,the funnier I get. Or maybe not. Stay tuned.

You see, this journey is going to take over 24 hours of sitting in airports/airplanes, so I figured what better time to update the ol’ blog and shower you with photos along the way!

Soo. Where to start. Shall I tell you how, in a fit of OCD, I made my way through the dusky morning of barely-3-am-Helsinki with an impossibly awkward load of luggage to barely make it to the busstop in time? I was silently thanking my spurt of timekeeping by narrowly catching the airport bus, when I realized it was only 3 am, and the bus I was supposed to catch was at 3.30, so man, good job OCD for keeping me from missing my flight due to the bus being stupidly early. But then of course my sleep-deprived, sun-addled brain figured out I had just caught an earlier bus, not the bus, and now I’ll have to wait even longer at the airport (possibly a better alternative to waiting outside in the half-night). Did you know that flight check-in desks do not open until 4 am? I did not know that, until today.

And now, as I said, I am sitting in an airport cafe, sipping unpleasant coffee and probably looking a bit strange, between my  sunglasses to shield from the very strong 5 am-sun, and my lobster-red tanned face earned from the previous day’s exploits. Here, here’s a picture to show you how bright it is/how red I am.

Actually, you can’t really see how red I am. Here is a more accurate rendering.

Yay photoshop! Now here is what I would look like if I had gotten and frost bite.

I could go on.

Yes indeed! The first sunburn of the season, and earned in Finland of all places. Speaking of Finland of all places, I am still undoubtedly there. I just went up to get a yogurt-granola thinger to tide me over until the flight, and the three your gentlemen in front of me were ordering beers. It’s not even 5:20. I know I didn’t keep much of “Differencez between Canucks vs Fnnz!!!!!1″ list, but if you are interested in what makes Finns Finnish, I recommend checking out this list, posted by Sam. It’s scarily accurate to my experience in Helsinki (I find number 33 especially sardonic..)

Anyway. Yesterday’s escapades. As a final “cleanout” (and house-purge) we all shared a table at the Heitalahti Open Air Flea Market to hawk our wares.

The day was both cloudy and windy, so we were all surprised when we gathered for dinner last night to see our matching lobster masks. The Finnish sun took us by surprise(This last week as been a bit dismal weather-wise, though the week before was unbelievably hot. Every. Single. Day. Gorgeous). As for business, we did okay, for amateurs, though it was pretty obviously that the Finnish Flea Market Goer is a seasoned veteran. They don’t really haggle. They are just incredibly cheap, and probably won’t buy something unless it has a very obvious function (clothes were only purchased by younger, trendier types). Speaking of functional Flea-Fair finds, here is the cute little carry-on suitcase I found to lug my porcelain over three countries:

I found it at the Saturday Valteri Indoor Market, with a matching larger case, all for 3E. I wasn’t sure which would fit the size regulations for carry-on, so I bought both, and alas I could not take both home. The larger now resides either with Vincent or the Recycling Centre.

I didn’t sell much at the flea market, but I will once again (and probably not for the last time), commend Helsinki on its unparalleled thrift shopping. There are chains of thrift stores, Fida, and Uff; there are at least two public Flea Markets every weekend, and of course there is my beloved Recycling Centre. All are unbelievably cheap, and all are a pretty normal part of many a Helsinkian’s life. All walks, from skinny-jeaned hipsters to cute and/or shrewd old ladies to business suits to immigrants, can be seen at the average flea market. Maybe because of this diversity has the Helsinki Flea scene not become a scene and maintained its dignity and authenticity. And cheapness. As I said, this suitcase, for example, cost me 3E, which is probably about what its worth, not being especially top quality. Were I to find this in Vancouver, it would probably be double or even triple the price in some trendy boutique and touted as “vintage.” But no, I bought it on a misty day, outdoors in Helsinki, next to a flea market table from a nice middle-aged woman who shrugged and said “Meh, it’s old.”

(Digression: I just wrote 1200 words in and hour and a half! This is going to be a fun day. As long as the coffee keeps coming.)

Stay tuned for Part 2, June 3rd!