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Welcome to Hei Hei Where's the Munkki!

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 Welcome to Hei Hei Where's the Munkki! Welcome to the Claridge family travel blog, detailing our adventures in Finland from August to October of 2024.  I have organized the posts below in chronological order of their original publication:  The oldest posts are at the top and newest at the bottom.  So if you start at the top and work your way down you'll be reading them in their intended order. All views and opinions expressed herein are my own and do not reflect the views and opinions of my employer, friends or family.  If you notice a typo, broken link, or image that isn't working, please message me.  More importantly, if you feel that I have made an error or misrepresented your country, city, or cultural experience, also feel free to message me and I'll do my best to rectify the error.  Most importantly, if you want to message me with nice to things about the blog, that's also great! Suomi Flight Part I Flight Part II Facts About Finland! Helsinki !...
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Na na na na, na na na na, hei hei hei...

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  Na na na na, na na na na, hei hei hei…. I often get asked “how was Finland?” by excited friends and family.   I feel like my response is probably pretty disappointing.   I paw at the ground and say something like “it was magical.”   It often surprises people.   I think they expect that I’ll say more.   So this blog is it.   This is how Finland was.   This is what we did, what we thought, how we compared it to the United States.   These were the happy moments.   These were the trials.   This is what we did in Finland.   It’s thirty six thousand words across sixty seven single spaced pages, with hundreds of pictures in between.   That is how much those two months meant to us.   This is the distillation of our trip. You know the crazy part?   There’s so much we haven’t told you.   We haven’t told you about Hervanta and the police museum.   Haven’t really talked about the rain storm.   Or the t...
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Reflections

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  Reflections What did we learn in from our time in Finland?   So many things.   Too many to count.   But ultimately I think that most can be grouped around six central concepts. Take your young kids abroad .   I know that’s a ridiculously privileged thing to say, and I hope in the near future that policy changes and Americans weaning themselves off of their own addiction to money will make international travel accessible for more families.   But I’ll be honest.   I was apprehensive.   Two straight months of parenting my kids?   No school or childcare?  No breaks?   Foreign cities and difficult systems to navigate?   Them both too young to appreciate what they were really seeing?   I had no idea how they would do. They did marvelously.   Like not even just okay.   They were stupendous.   And the four of us are all so much closer for our shared triumphs and setbacks, and foibles.   And we have this...
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Arrivals

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  Arrivals We flew Finnair from Helsinki to London.   It was our last chance for blueberry juice, so we drank deeply from the cup.   We landed in Heathrow and had a few hour layover.   It was a pretty bad experience overall.   It’s a sprawling airport, and transportation between gates is convoluted and slow.   We had to re-go through security, which was similarly slow and inefficient.   Our bags were selected for random screening, and midway through the officer went on break and our bags were left unattended – and we were stuck with nothing to do – for about twenty minutes.   We had about three hours for our layover, but ultimately wound up with only about an hour to eat.   We ate at a nice restaurant and had some authentic British fish and chips, and everything was right with the world.    Until the bill came and we were introduced the brutal exchange rate between the pound and the dollar.   On our way to the gate we found ...
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Helsinki, For the Last Time

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Helsinki, For the Last Time Our train arrived at the Helsinki rautatiesema (which is a beautiful art deco building) around 1:00.    We wouldn’t be able to check into our hotel until 4:00.   Which was fine.   We were staying at a familiar Scandic, and knew they had a luggage room where you can store your things before your room is ready.   We walked the few blocks to our hotel relatively quickly. Quickly, but not necessarily that easily.   We were at maximum capacity.   The kids had collected so many new and precious things on the trip that we had to buy a whole new suitcase.   So as we walked Helsinki’s cobblestones I had two suitcases, and a duffel bag stacked on each.   Amy had two suitcases, and Oscar’s backpack on top of one.   Amy and I each were wearing a backpack, and Milo was responsible for his backpack and a roller bag.   We looked like we were mounting a small scale invasion.   When we got to the Scandic we wer...
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The Last Day

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The Last Day I think that when you have space before or after something there’s still the possibility of more.   But the last day is – by necessity – finite.   We wanted to make the most of it.   And in true Claridge style we planned way too much. We wanted to eat at Pella’s.   It had become such a staple for our family that it felt wrong not to have it one last time.   But it didn’t open until 9:00.   And we had returned most of our library rentals, but we had held onto a couple of things for the last night, mostly so Amy could lose at one final board game.   So we had a couple of things to drop off.   And the library didn’t open until 10:00.   Then our train left from the rautatiesema at 11:00.   And we’d have to tram there.   So the windows were tight. We were pretty much all packed and ready to go before leaving for Pella’s.   That was more of an effort than it sounds like.   And surprisingly emotional.   Ev...
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