The Best Birthday Ever!

In honor of my great-grandmother's 96th birthday today, here's a story from nearly 6 months ago!

August 20, 2014 was our last day in Helsinki, Finland before heading up to the arctic circle. We spent the day exploring Suomenlinna, an inhabited sea fortress, and some of the churches around the city and then met up with our fantastic hosts - and now friends - Pasi and Marjo for dinner. As a small token of our appreciation for all their kindness, Brian and I had wanted to treat them to a night out. However, Pasi & Marjo continued to surprise us with their thoughtfulness. Although I hadn't told anyone that it was my birthday, Brian had mentioned it in passing to Pasi. After we'd chowed down on our pizzas, Pasi placed 2 small yet exquisite cakes on the table and Marjo retrieved a bottle of champagne. I definitely got all misty-eyed as we toasted to friendship, birthdays, and Finnish saunas.

Kippis!

We opted to continue the celebration and so off we went to another of Marjo and Pasi's favorite spots. This is where my birthday went from good to great to best. I don't know how the conversation got started, but at one point Brian brought up this band called "Steve-n-Seagulls" that his friends had recently been talking about on Facebook (here's the band's Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc). Pasi remarked that they were from Finland and Marjo looked them up on her phone to show Brian. And that's when we learned that they were playing that very night in Helsinki.

Moments before Marjo takes out her phone...

The next minute we were running to catch a train. We arrived at the bar just as the band was finishing setting up. 

When the guys stepped on stage in their overalls and animal hats and began playing a cover of ACDC's "Shook Me All Night Long" with banjos, anvils, and spoons, Brian and Pasi wasted no time running up front to dance. "This is the best birthday ever!" Brian exclaimed. I laughed at him (he did look a little ridiculous jamming out when all the other Finns were being very Finnish and standing around holding their beer), but I also knew he was right - this was the best birthday ever.

During our travels I've been keeping two journals - one that is for all the emotional stuff and the other for logging where we were and what we did each day because I want to be able to look back 10 years from now and be reminded of what little village was our home for that day. But that night I realized birthdays kinda do that for you. My birthday wasn't just a day to celebrate my birth but to recall where I was the previous year on the same day and to reflect on my journey. 

I'd come a long way during year #30, literally and figuratively. I was a sourpuss on my 30th birthday because I selfishly (and foolishly) thought the day should be all about me and was frustrated that I had to get shots and spend the day driving separately from Brian through Colorado and Kansas. Now I didn't care about celebrating me at all. I just wanted to be with loved ones and celebrate being together and life. I left Denver feeling like I had not made the most of my time there, but I did not feel the same about the previous 21 countries we'd visited, having learned how to "suck the marrow out of every day," as Brian puts it. I arrived in China missing my family and friends. Now I felt that had friends and family all over the world. 

As Brian and Pasi continued to show off their epic dance moves, as Marjo continued to laugh, and as the Steve-n-Seagulls played a cover of ACDC's "Thunderstruck," I reckoned that this was the first of many best-birthday-evers to come. (Yes, I used "reckoned"...I attribute it to the banjos!)

Do you see that hat on the right???!!!

I'll let you guess which one is Brian.

Side note: To all those who have been part of my 30th year journey and now my 31st year journey (especially Brian, Pasi, and Marjo), thank you from the bottom of my heart!

First Impressions of the Land of Potable Toilet Water

On August 16, we arrived in Finland.  At 1 in the morning.  And so our first adventure was sleeping in the Helsinki airport.  Now, before you think we had no way of getting to our hotel or some mix up happened with our reservation, let me state that we excitedly opted to spend the night in the airport. While our ticket to Finland was a great deal, we were unable to find a hostel, hotel, airbnb room, etc within our budget.  When we read on www.sleepinginairports.net (yes, it is a real website) that the Helsinki airport is the 3rd best in the world to sleep in, we decided that was just what we would do to help keep costs down.  Apparently so did a ton of other people because by the time we landed all the benches were already taken and we found ourselves sleeping on the floor (we had our sleeping bags). We didn't mind though - with free and ridiculously fast wifi, a grocery store, adorable dogs waiting to greet their owners, and clean facilities, the airport proved nicer than half of the places we've stayed.   

When Brian was finally able to tear me away from the airport (I was seriously considering moving in), we discovered a city equally as impressive.

Cool architecture:

People with a sense of humor:

Restaurant Day!  (a day when anyone can open a restaurant anywhere)

(Mexican food made by real Mexicans! Made us miss Denver.)

But what truly wowed us was when upon asking if it was safe to drink the tap water, the staff at our hostel shared that Finland's water is so clean even the water in the toilets is potable.  My mouth dropped open and I excitedly exclaimed, "Really?!"  The staff laughed at my enthusiastic reaction and that's when it hit me that maybe we'd been roughing it a little too long -- I was just as excited about sleeping on an airport floor and potable toilet water as I'd been while touring the Great Wall, hiking the Himalayas, and standing inside the Great Pyramid.  

In case you're wondering, the tap water in Finland is fantastic.  As for the toilet water...we just took the staff at their word ;-)