Our last couple of days in Finland

Today is my last post about our trip to Sweden and Finland.  If you need to catch up you can read the first posts here, here and here.

On this day, we toured this old wooden church.  

Later in the day we headed to Helsinki to check into our hotel and head out to dinner.  We went to a restaurant that served a traditional Lappi dinner.  This was just the appetizer.  They had a platter for every four people.  This was ours.  The man that we were sitting with said this would have been served on special holidays, like Christmas.  

 Reindeer heart, liver and meat.  Little smoked fish.  Cheese spreads with different fish eggs that you rub on bread.  I want you all to know how brave I was.  I tried almost all of it, except for the liver.  I know people like liver, but liver is like the garbage disposal of the body, and I just didn't feel the need. 

The next morning, the safari was finished and Dan and I were back on our own.  We walked around and took in all the sights.

 Helsinki is very different from Stockholm, but I loved it just as much.  We both said we enjoyed Helsinki more than we thought we would.  We were there on Saturday and everyone was out on the town squares at the farmers markets.  So fun.  We were able to pick up a few souvenirs for the kids and for ourselves.

And I found a jelly roll!!!   I don't even know where jelly rolls are from.  But... my great grandmothers family was from Finland and she was the one who always made them when I was little.  I haven't had one since I was probably 10 years old.  So when we went, this was the top thing on my list to watch for.  My mom told me she didn't think I would find one over there, but I did!  And I took a picture to send to her.  There were two booths at the farmers market that had them, otherwise we never saw them anywhere else.  I may or may not have acted like a lunatic when we spotted them.  ;)

 I am so blessed, that this man of mine, puts up with me.  ;)

After the reindeer the night before and a whole week of trying new foods.  We decided it was time for some comfort food.  So we headed to Hard Rock Cafe. 

Chips and salsa with 3 mini margaritas.  Yum!!!

The next afternoon, we sat outside of our hotel and just relaxed while waiting for the taxi to come and take us to the airport.  The whole time we were in Helsinki, we kept saying that our hotel couldn't have been in a better location.  It was perfect.  If you're ever in Helsinki, I would definitely recommend staying at the GLO Hotel.  It is right in the middle of all the shopping and right next to the park.  Perfect!

Here is a map of all of the places that we traveled while over in Sweden and Finland.  We traveled a lot and got to see so much.  Over the 10 days, we stayed in 6 different hotels. 

It's kind of hard to see...  but you get the idea.

We had the best time on this trip.  But like I've said before, it's good to be home!