Iceland is rocky, Finland is green and Greenland might still be icy

Surreal, but nice. So we have started our whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe covering Iceland and Finland, with much more to come. Can I just say that exhaustion is a key ingredient in adventure. A 5 hour overnight flight to Iceland was mostly spent wondering what would come next, except for Katie, who thought that this would be her only time to shut her eyes and was knocked out for the duration of the flight. Jealous. After getting into Iceland, we went straight from the airport to the Blue Lagoon, a thermal mineral spa in the middle of a lava field. Pretty damn cool. Not so cool what your hair feels like afterwards, STRAW. With the amount of conditioner we used in our hair both before and after the swim, you could have greased an elephant through a banister. That's hard people. Needless to say, we conditioned some more and the Finland air is doing wonderful things for our attractiveness.

Check out our fancy bathing suits. Also, it smelled like sulphur. Yum.

After a quick 2 hour dip in the baby blue springs, we headed back to the city of Reykjavik. Gloomy, but nice. Very modern, the people were all dressed nicely and it rained, just like Ireland. It had a beautiful view of the mountains and adorable shops and churches. I would have enjoyed it much more if it was 70 and sunny, but I would go back for an Icelandic farmer, I really would. The sun shines til 12:30 am and then shines some more til the next day. We were awoken by 15 straight gunshots. No mom, they weren't gunshots, we just thought they were until we heard the rain of fireworks. In the meantime we just cowered, hoping they wouldn't hit us.

On to Finland! We took a morning bus from Reykjavik to the airport, it was scenic, but I was tired, so sleep won. We took a flight from Reykjavik to Helsinki and might I add that I am a fan of Icelandair. Promptness and fun words in Icelandic are their strengths. Takk is thank you by the way.

In Finland, we encountered the wrath of crowded streets and a lack of knowledge of where to go. Finnish men are nice and pretty is all I have to say. A random stranger noticed the frieghtened looks and bewilderment on our faces and offered some well needed directions to our hostel. We preceeded to make it to the hostel safely and on time to take a ferry over to Suomenlinna, an island that houses a world heritage fortress and beautiful beautiful views. We toured the fortress, hid behind isolated rooms and doors, and rode, yes rode, canons.

We also encountered supposedly famous Finnish men that offered a picture with them for 10 euro. A steal if you ask me as they were ridiculously intoxicated and unattractive. Maybe next time boys, maybe next time.

After a lovely 4 hour tour of serene beauty, hot air balloon sightings, church bells, picnics, supposed jewish weddings, and european techno family gatherings we headed back to Helsinki. Helsinki is absolutely breath-taking. Parks, outside cafes, fresh fruit markets, ice creams, adorable dress boutiques and wonderfully attractive people. This, I could get used to. Anyone want to help me open up a bakery in Finland? We could learn nordic languages together, become blonde, and eat some cured fish. It'll be a party.
Enjoying the past two days with my comrades. Be jealous, they're wonderful. Fast fast typing becuase my 15 minutes of allotted hostel computer time is up. Until I get free internet again, enjoy!