« Jen and Lisa's Baltic Adventure – Day Eleven | Main | Jen and Lisa's Baltic Adventure - Day Thirteen »
March 26, 2005
Jen and Lisa's Baltic Adventure – Day Twelve
This morning has not started well. Lisa wanted to see the Architecture Museum, so she left early while I slept in. I was supposed to wake up at 11 a.m. (it's vacation, after all), but I somehow turned off the alarm and overslept. When I did wake up at 11:30, I was worried that Lisa would come back before I was properly up and ready for our afternoon adventures. So I ran off to the bathroom to wash my face, forgetting my key in the process and locking myself out. I had to tromp down to the reception area in my pajamas and pantomime the situation to the Finnish housekeeper, who eventually went to find the English-speaking receptionist that finally let me back in the room.
From there, things just got worse. I was hungry, and still flustered from being locked out, I grabbed a yogurt from the window sill and ate it. Now, let me explain the food situation.
Because food is so expensive here, Lisa and I stopped by the grocery store on our first afternoon here, stocking up on apples, carrot sticks, sandwich materials, and yogurt. We don't have a refrigerator in our room (or, indeed, the whole hostel), so we put the temperature sensitive items on the window sill. I went so far as to put my yogurt (which seemed the most precarious to my health in a warm environment) on the outside of the window sill, where there is a 5 inch ledge that slopes down. After carefully gauging the angles, I determined that the yogurt would not slide off the side of the building, plunge 3 stories, and kill and innocent passer-by.
You can probably see where this is going…I had grabbed Lisa's yogurt (that was sitting on the inside of the window sill) because it was the only one I saw, and I knew that I had one yogurt cup left. Well, as I sat there, I realized that my yogurt should have been on the outside of the window sill—thus, the realization that I had eaten Lisa's yogurt.
Tentatively, I opened the window as far as it would go and peered out over the edge of the building. And as you've probably guessed, there was my yogurt, far below. It had exploded on impact and had a rather "Law in Order" splash to it. Fortunately, no one seems to have been injured.
Now, Lisa is back and has been very understanding of the food situation, and we are preparing to go out for another round of Helsinki on Foot. The weather is just as gorgeous today, and I'm going to be leaving my fluffy down coat in the room (how audacious!) and go with a light sweater instead. Onward!
Later that day…
It's just after 5 p.m. and we've arrived back at our hostel. We set off, originally planning on taking a self-guided walk around part of the city, but were quickly distracted by the plethora of shops lining the main street. I engaged in some retail therapy (designed to ease the pain of returning to Karlskrona) and walked away with a new bag and a key chain.
We also stopped by a local market, where I finally got Jess and birthday present, a mere six weeks late. I am a bad sister.
With our credit cards still warm, we recommitted to the walk, which we partially completed, but then were once again distracted—this time by a café, where we stopped and had a coffee and little treat. By then, it was getting late, so we cut the walk short and instead zigzagged through the city to reach the modern art museum.
We spent about an hour in the museum, which was partially closed in preparation of new April exhibits. It was strange and disturbing, which, I suppose, was its intent (I feel much the same way after visiting all modern art museums). There were a couple cool features, including a two-paneled video of women rolling skeins of wool. Sounds weird now that I've typed it, but it was quite compelling.
And then we walked back to our hostel, where I have just finished downloading the pictures of the market and typing up this entry. I'll load it onto the memory stick and run down to the internet shop next door (that for some reason is open, even though it's advertised as closed today) and check email. Hope I have something good that makes me want to go back to Karlskrona!
