One more thing which made my arrival to Helsinki miserable was the wait at the border control. I had never experienced a situation like yesterday when I waited in the border control line for over 45 minutes, like in O’Hare. I lady who was managing the line replied to my question, saying that I was lucky if I never saw it before :). I think it was a combination of several flights arriving almost at the same time, with many of them being late, so passengers with connections proceeded first. Also, I noticed that there was once again a significant trickle of Russian-speaking people with all sorts of passports coming in, and they would always go through extra scrutiny by the border control.
Trying to save time at this last stage of my journey, I gave my passport to the border control officer and said: staying here in Finland until next Saturday, not going anywhere.
–And where are you going next Saturday?
–Back to Chicago
–And you are not here for business, I assume?
–Nope, for husband. It doesn’t count like business, does it?
–Well, more like a hobby! Or… maybe… some business?
It was good to have a laugh, and I think he enjoyed it, too.
The one before the last disappointment was a rail tacks construction for the airport trains, which meant they are less frequent now. Sometimes on the weekends, you would have to wit for the train for 30 minutes! And the last one – massive road construction and a reroute of traffic by our house (it has been going on for a while, but when I was in Helsinki last time, I didn’t have time to notice). So, I need to learn new traffic patterns just when I learned my way around!
Hettie's Reflections 