as hard as it was to leave family and friends, we were also excited for the next half of our trip- exploring helsinki, sightseeing, shopping, etc!
the train station in helsinki was super cool. i loved the architecture, and appreciated my uncle explaining to us the different types and influences. i'll have more architecture in a later post!
so we made our way to the mission home/our aunt & uncle's house, towing our luggage and using the navigator- learning the route for much future use!
then we were off to market square to do some shopping! i loved this mermaid mama and baby statue just before the market.
the market square was right on the water's edge, with big cargo ships, ferries, and tourist boats. there were rows of vendors, both food and gifts.
the wares were mostly all under uniform-type shades, but we did see a few more primitive vendors and really loved them. it was cool that there was some of everything- really kitchy/cheap souveniers, as well as genuine hand-made pieces.
and there were things like these, that i was drooling over and wishing i had more money/room in my luggage..
i tried (too hard) to be practical, because i thought i would keep seeing amazing things & i knew i couldn't buy everything. looking back, i wish i'd known better! or planned better, or something..
after shopping, we went to stockmann's department store and got some dinner. it was the same store my grandpa had been to and talked about, so that was really fun to do. walking there was so beautiful, with the dark bark on the trees with bright spring leaves..
and then this tree, in this light, with these huge flowers took my breath away!
**go ahead to part six, back to part four, or start at the beginning!
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