A Day in Finland




   

A DAY IN FINLAND




Greetings Friends and Family,

After much planning and organizing we are on our way to Rzeszow, Poland, where we are volunteering with Israeli organization Topaz https://www.topaz.org.il/en/

We flew overnight to Helsinki. We were greeted by Anne, a friend of Bahman’s, and her granddaughter, Sophie and brought our bikes to be stored, while in Poland, at her son’s friend’s house. Sirri drove us to our Airbnb in Helsinki. The welcome and kindness of strangers was very heartwarming. 




                           Our welcome committee! Anne and her granddaughter, Sophie.





                                  Our bicycle boxes and bags at Helsinki Airport (3AM EST!)

                 


Finnair says: “Our most important destination is our future” and their sustainability initiatives from how they serve food to how they encourage passengers to bring less baggage are truly impressive; the airline pledges carbon neutrality by 2050. Welcome station for Ukrainian refugees at baggage claim.

Finland takes climate change seriously. The van that shuttled our bikes from the airport to where we stored our bikes was electric, so are all taxis and a noticeable percentage of cars on roads. Public transport is truly impressive and largely electrified, bikes are prolific and recycling organization in the yard of the apartment building we stayed at was a testament to zero waste goal being mostly achieved. Helsinki is very green, they are carbon farming in the city with many green spaces left wild



 


             Beautiful flowers on the courtyard of town.




Locals are enjoying the heat of Nordic summer, wearing shorts and t-shirts, with the temperatures in low 60s. We were the only people we saw wearing sweaters! It is the time of the midnight sun. At 10PM the streets were full of people and the sun was still up. 

We enjoyed a ride on a grand ferris wheel and marveled at how the amusement park was able to incorporate nature into a human-built environment. 




                              Wild rides at the amusement park! Too wild for us!




 I

View of Helsinki from the Ferris Wheel.





That morning we took a bus back to the airport to fly to Krakow. We  walked through security (no lines, no stress, shoes and laptops stay put, all smiles). We look forward to spending more time in Finland!


Lynne and Misha

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