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March 27, 2005
Jen and Lisa's Baltic Adventure - Day Thirteen
I'm not sure that today should be counted as part of the travel adventure, since we didn't really experience anything new in Helsinki. On the other hand, we did spend numerous hours on busses, trains, and airplanes and if that doesn't count as travel, I don't know what does.
We were quite rudely awakened by the neighbors across the hall at 5:30 a.m. this morning, who were delighted to tell their friends (in the next room) all about how they had just survived a mugging. As the story was painfully spun out, it turns out that the mugging was really an attempted mugging. Furthermore, it wasn't so much an attempted mugging as an attempted pickpocketing. In my opinion, they deserved it for being out and about in the middle of the night (and I don't care one whit if that makes me sound like a middle-aged spinster).
After nearly an hour of hysterical laughing (they seemed to think it funny to lock each other out of the room), they suddenly fell quiet. I was nearly certain that a good samaritan from down the hall had killed them all, but apparently they just passed out at the same time.
By then, I was only able to get a couple hours of rest before the alarm went off and it was time to get up and pack. It just happened to be daylight savings time this weekend (who knew?), so even without the annoying neighbors, we got less sleep than usual.
We were at the bus station (right next to the train station--what integrated transportation Helsinki offers!) waiting to catch the bus to the airport when I realized I had left my camera charger in the room. After all the trouble I went to to get the stupid charger in the first place, I decided that God was telling me something. Nevertheless, I risked a smiting to run back to the hostel, negotiate the chatty receptionist, get the key, run up two flights of stairs, locate the charger, deposit the key back at the front desk, and run back down to the bus station--all within 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, the bus to the airport had left a mere 2 minutes after I left to retrieve the charger, and so we were forced to wait for the next bus, which left 30 minutes after the first one. Thankfully, we had time to spare and made it to the airport with enough time to spend the last of my euros on a sandwich.
What can I say about the rest of the day? The flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen was packed full, and Lisa and I were both in middle seats. I would like to put a question to the general public: why do men feel that the armrest between two seats is automatically theirs? Pay attention and you will find men monopolizing the armrests at movies, in airplanes, in doctor's waiting rooms. It must stop!!
Once we got to Copenhagen, it was the usual routine to catch the train to Karlskrona. I managed to doze a little, while poor Lisa was constantly getting kicked out of her seat to accomodate people with "reservations". (Lucky for me, my seat was apparently unreserved and I was able to ride unmolested the entire time.)
In a feat of magic, I got off the train in Karlskrona and immediately caught a bus up to Kungmarken, arriving in my very own apartment at just past 4:30 p.m. I had been dreading the return to this hovel, but I have to admit that it's nice to be back home. I've managed to procur the laundry key, the bathroom and kitchen are relatively clean, and brisk air is flowing through my stuffy room. All is well.
Photo Info: This is the picture that I got in Vilnius (showing one of the main streets in Old Town). It's amazing that it survived the trip in one piece. It's now hanging on an absurdly high hook in my room, where I will see it first thing in the morning when I wake up.
