Day 5: Finland

After fun in Stockholm I'm a ferry journey further and find myself in Helsinki. It turns out that I've really fallen on my feet with the dates I've been in various places. Yesterday in Stockholm it turned out to be the King's 60th birthday so I made my way to the palace and saw the Royal family at the balcony. It's not quite the pomp and circumstance we'd associate with Trooping the Colour in London but it was nevertheless interesting to see how another country's monarchy celebrates thing.

Better still today in Helsinki it's May Day, and there's loads of things going on around the city. I wore out some shoe leather this morning having a wander around. It seems on first impressions to be a fairly compact city, although some sights are spread out on nearby islands. It seems very laid back, but that's maybe due to the holiday. It adds an extra level of foreign-ness to the trip in that although I can read signs, unlike in Sweden I can't understand a word people say here! Fortunate then that everyone speaks English here - I'll miss that in Russia!

Oh, and lest I forget to mention last night's ferry journey from Stockholm. It turns out that the ferry company had given it an 'urban' theme. There were lots of suspect looking people at the ferry terminal but it transpired these were the crew, DJing and what-have-you. Clearly the ferry company wanted me to suffer! Although I managed to avoid the 'urban' music on offer, there was a noticeable bass beat to be heard in the cabin from the deck above. Not to be defeated I took out my ear plugs for the first time this trip and got a good night's kip!