Finland

We left Estonia early and you’ve guessed it – in the rain. The one and a half hour ferry journey was soon over and we found ourselves in the middle of Helsinki. Blueberries, cherries and mange tout were purchased at the busy and inviting market. Fruit and some veg. is purchased by the litre and measured out in a glass jar or plastic jug. The mange tout looked tasty but weren’t. However the fruit were a delight. Shortly after I realised I’d lost my waterproof trousers and retraced my steps, later looking in the bins as though I was someone looking for bottles with refundable deposits.

We turned up at what we thought was the Marimekko outlet store but wasn’t and made our way onwards to the actual outlet store. Located in an industrial estate we didn’t really know where we were going. We managed to take the Metro to the right station and found the street on a map. There were boxes and boxes and rails and rails of colourful t-shirts and Jenny was bored and I was enthralled.

Helsinki didn’t appear to be a very touristy place and there isn’t much to see as far as we could gather, so we took a small boat to an island and had a wander around it. In the town we looked in the actual Marimekko store to confirm that I’d purchased some bargains and walked up and back down the main shopping street.