Day 70.

Today we travel to Helsinki, Finland to visit our good friends Magnus & Nicola and for John’s solo concert.  I try to get mid-day flights when possible but the best I can do today is a 6:15am flight to Zagreb and then Zagreb to Helsinki.  The kids do remarkable well for a 3:30am wake-up call.  The travel is completely unremarkable and our travelers continue refining the well-oiled travel machine with military precision.  Ok, maybe that’s taking it a little too far but at least we haven’t lost any of the kids yet.  

I’ve booked an Airbnd and Magnus and Nicola have offered to host a few of us in their house.  In advance, Leanne has determined that Justin, Corey and I will be the ones to stay with Magnus & Nicola.  The taxi drops us off at the Airbnb apartment.  Magnus later informs us that we are staying in the part of the town that was inspired by the 1970s communism vision.  There are numerous tall concrete apartment buildings surrounded by a fence with a few retail stores and restaurants.  I recognize this from the Miniversium exhibit in Budapest where the idea was to built self-sufficient living areas that the people didn’t have to leave.  While I am pleased to yet again connect the dots, the Airbnb description definitely failed to mention this.

The Airbnb owner meets us and shows us to the apartment.  I feel bad because he is a really nice, chatty guy, but the apartment is a dump, ok I shouldn’t say that, let’s say it’s really small and basic. It’s amazing how the a craftily taken angle-shot picture can make an apartment seem three times bigger on Airbnb than it is in real life.  He shows us the bathroom which has the toilet, shower (with no curtain or door) and washing machine.  We are instructed that if we use the washer, we need to take a tube and put it in the toilet to drain the water.  “So no-one can go to the bathroom while the mashing machine is going?” I ask. That’s correct.  Given there is only one bathroom and with the number of people, I’m guessing you have to resort to setting your alarm at 2am to do wash when no one is going to need to use the bathroom.

After the guy leaves, Leanne looks at me and says, “Is there any way we can stay at Magnus’ too?”

We meet up with Magnus, Nicola and their 10 year old son Max for dinner.  We walk to the city center with a gorgeous harbor, ships, impressive buildings, stores and restaurants.  With a 20 minute walk we are out of the communist era and solidly into the capitalist one. The weather is perfect and we find a restaurant with outdoor tables.  It was great to catch-up with our friends.  We all ask lots of questions about what it’s like to live in and to go to school in Finland.

Afterwards, Justin, Corey and I head back to Maguns & Nicola’s house while Leanne somewhat despondently heads back to her communist dorm room.  Huge thank you to Magnus & Nicola for their hospitality!!!!