Wandering through Scandinavia

Well, I haven't acceded to refugee status, but it's just a matter of time. My work trip to Stockholm got extended, but in some respects it was a moot point. All air travel is indefinitely grounded because of the ash from the Iceland volcano (Don't ask me to spell it here!). So unless the ash clears by Thursday and flights are back to normal, I will become yet another refugee. I've been listening to other people toss out ideas on how to get back to the U.S.; some are quite outlandish. The simplest are to take trains or rent cars to Rome and try to fly from there. Others talk of getting a Russian visa and leaving from Moscow. One idea is to take a boat to Iceland and go from there. For uws there is no point to speculate until it gets closer to our departure.

I decided to go to Helsinki to visit an old friend who I hadn't seen in almost 7 years (in Madagascar no less!). Both ways I took a 12+ hour ferry. For me that was always the plan; but there were a lot of businessmen who normaly would have taken the 1 hour flight.

Helsinki was nice and relaxing. It was a nice change of pace and I got to hang out with locals, a welcome contrast from business trip life in Stockholm. I'll put up some pictures later on. We went to a couple of musuems -- it was interesting to see the Natural History Museum with my friends who worked there.

Here's a picture of one of the islands of the Finnish archipelago. Yes, that is snow there. The temperature has ranged from the high 30s to the 40s. Brrr! I packed warm clothes for this trip at least. The days are getting longer, too -- I couldn't imagine coming here in the dead of winter. I'd freeze in the dark!

Speaking of cold, it's getting cold sitting here on the boat. Let me get a sweatshirt -- at least this time I have a cabin. More posts when I'm back on dry land!