Turku, Finland

My family spent the week before Finland in Sweden so it was coordinated for me to meet them at the Helsinki airport. I flew in and my sisters were waiting for me just beyond baggage claim. From there, I scarfed down bread and cheese and ham and chocolate as we drove to Turku, which was once the capital of Finland before the capital was moved to Helsinki in the 19th Century. The next day we visited the medieval cathedral, toured a preserved village, Turku Castle, took a boat ride to see the islands in the sound, and hit up the local Medieval Festival for dinner. We discovered that we really like the yogurt called rahka (translated to English as something called quark), tried to keep ourselves hydrated and I enjoyed being in Europe again.

It was a really cool city, and a really hot day. We were exhausted from speed walking from the main part of town to the castle and then back to the boat we hoped to catch. All the way we complained about the heat and the speed and the length of the "short walk". I was totally sweaty by the time we got to all our destinations. But at the end of the night we were able to relax on the boat and see the pretty islands and all get sunburned at 9:00 in the evening. I really liked Turku.