SICK in HELSINKI FINLAND..aww

Day 185

Helsinki, Finland

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HAPPY FATHERS DAY PA!!!! Hope you had a great day...all our love and hugs!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGIE!!!! Hope you have a wonderful day!! We´ll be thinking of you..All our love xxxxxxxxxxxx

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We´re still here in Finland....and recovering from our flus. So basically, we´ve pretty much holed ourselves up in our apartment..which is really nice! Thank goodness because if you´re going to hole yourself up..it is good if the place is nice! I was so surprised as well..to find it was a one room apartment,with tv, a kitchen with all the modcons and loft and a bathroom with a heated floor. It has a laundry underneath the stairs. And all for a really reasonable price. Only 39 euros each which is actually cheap for up this way.

I think the people who own it have an office in the city and then rent out apartments they own around Helsinki....which is why we had to wait so long to actually get here. Their office is only open from 2pm onwards...

Anyway, so why are we holed up? Cause our colds turned into flus and we´re not good company for anyone...and we´re heading up the north of Finland in a couple of days so we wanted to be fit for that..because it´s COLD up there!

The weather here is pretty nice actually. We´re still wearing 4 layers...and it´s still raining intermittedly..and hail stones when it does rain, but when the sun comes out it´s nice.

We´ve been reflecting a bit, seeing we´ve had a repreive from our fast travelling pace..and thinking, after 6 months on the road so to speak, about what we miss most...

And for me..

It´s friendships with my family and friends. I MISS talking to people! Which i guess is why i´m such an avid emailer..i miss the communication and contact of people i love. We even started thinking about how we could make (accost! haha) some friends over here!! But the only way really, is to go on overnight tours..or settle in a place for more than 3 or 4 days!!

So..it´s just US for now............

And we´ve survived six months.....

Now we just have to survive for another 6 months! hahahaha

Greg is wondering if there´s a ´rent a friend´here because im so desperate! hahaha

Oh dear.

Seriously, that would be the ONLY pitfall of travelling...................

The different languages, different accomodation, weird foods, smells, headache of packing, unpacking, lugging packs, planning, plotting, working out our how to use maps, worrying about money, not worrying about money, not having a laundry...wearing the same clothes over and over and over...............not being able to buy things in all these exotic places we´re in, because what we buy we carry...feeling inadequate when we´re sick because we have our plans...

And all those things..pale into insignificance when you think about the realness of what we´re doing...

And that is.....we´re away from those we love.

Especially when there are breakups...people are working away..its birthdays..mothers and fathers day....

That is the worst thing....

BEING AWAY and not BEING THERE to help, to comfort to be with.

But.....

We will venture on...because that´s our goal....to travel. And we will fulfill it as long as our finances and priorities allow..

Will write more about Helsinki when we´ve been and had a better look..until then..

Ciao..love you guys xxxx