Back in Blighty

From Russia into Finland

I travelled by minibus from Murmansk in Russia to Ivalo, a small village in the North of Finland. The bus stopped off a couple of times and it was nice to get out and stretch my legs although I couldn't help feeling that the motorway services inside the Arctic are lacking a certain something...





This is as much of the sun as we saw on the journey.

Helsinki

I stayed in a lovely flat on the outskirts of Helsinki with some new friends, Sami and Jenni.









Their lovely dog showed a remarkable talent for unzipping unattended rucksacks. This, combined with his obvious love of Russian chocolate, made for a nice surprise when we returned from night out in Helsinki.

Finnish steet food

Moose balls. No sniggering please (Jo).

Malmö

The last couple of days out of Britain were spent with my friends Michael and Maria in Malmö. And their two lovely cats, one of which has a liking for sinks...



...and also for Jetpac on the Spectrum.

Home again!

Travelling by land and sea is so much more interesting (and hopefully environmentally friendly) than flying but I couldn't find a route back to London from Scandinavia for less that £250 so I caved in and booked a flight to London City. After many horrible experiences, I vowed long ago to avoid the major London airprts and definitely never ever again to use Stansted.

The flight itself was very smooth and with excellent service. After being held outside London for around 45 minutes due to fog at London City, the captain announced that the fog was not expected to lift any time soon and that we were being diverted to....Stansted. Woo-hoo. Despite my past experiences everything went very smoothly and, less than 20 minutes after stepping off the plane, I was on a train to London. I arrived at Michael and Mary's flat in time for their Christmas drinks party.



That's it for now!