Aug 11, 2012

Returning from a Trip

We've returned from Helsinki without having seen Suomelina. Bad planning and the last kick of Mercury Retrograde were in play, maybe some stomach ache, maybe some lack of attention, but at the end of the day, there was no time whatsoever to either go to Suomelina or eat real Finnish food. Not that I mind so terribly, as this only serves as a good excuse to go back to Helsinki some other time.

I was fascinated with the weather - truth to be told - and though maybe I should visit in winter to see if I hold up to my current opinion, I certainly enjoyed the fact that there wasn't such a brain melting heat. We basically wandered about, checked out the beautiful Sibelius Monument, and then wandered around a little, while we still had time. We took some pictures, but the park was taken over by large herds of tourists of the worse kind, who had no consideration for others and monopolized the monument, standing in the way of others taking pictures while they took about a hundred of the same friend posing in the same position.

From the trip we've brought along lots of pictures, I brought a couple of ideas for jewelry making that I found simply beautiful and ingenious. There's also our trademark fridge magnet - we love to get cute little fridge magnets from our trips (when there are nice ones), so that there's a reminder of our trips linked to another source of pleasure: food - some memorabilia for a young friend of us, and then a bottle of Lapponia made out of cloudberries. The liqueur is rather sweet, so I ment it for a friend of mine, who would certainly love this drink. I tried it out at the hotel, and though I also loved the Polar Cranberry (it was polar cranberry), the cloudberry is something much unknown in Costa Rica than the cranberries or polar cranberries. My boyfriend wasn't very excited about the drink, so I just got one bottle instead of two or more (I would have considered a bottle of cloudberry and one of polar cranberry for us, and a cloudberry for my friend), but since he was frowning at the idea, I decided against it. So far so good, except that when we've got to Budapest, he suddenly proposed to change the bottle of Lapponia for some other gift for my friend, because he suddenly wanted to keep it for us!

At the same time, as we arrived to Budapest again, I couldn't help but think about the few days I have left. I'm going to the airport again in Wednesday and flying back to Costa Rica. I'm still nowhere close to finishing the book inventory (people keep talking to me about Goodreads.com, but that wouldn't do it for me, though I do have an account there), and let's not talk about the rest of the stuff on my list! I'm gettinbg worried: "how will I carry all the things I plan to take home with me?" Even my original plan for packing has proved to be quiet far from my reality.

Helsinki has been beautiful, but right now I have a few hell-days ahead of me still in Budapest, and then only Hyne knows the kind of surprises that await for me in Costa Rica. Let's hope and pray that there would be no hell expecting me at my return.

No comments: