Beautiful. chilly Finland

Celebrated Columbus Day Weekend by taking a trip to Finland with my friend Natalie.  We stayed with Natalie's friend Amiee who had come to Germany for Oktoberfest.  Finland was quite gorgeous and we were there for their abbreviated fall, so all of the leaves were splendid in golds and reds.  The weather was quite chilly - a good 15 degrees cooler than in Frankfurt, but the rain stayed away.

A few observations - the Finns were fantastically nice people, almost all of whom spoke perfect English.  It was quite chilly, but not quite cold.  Think Thanksgiving weather in the mid-west.  You need a coat and a hat if you are going to be out for a while.  It is really expensive - about 40% higher than Frankfurt (which is not in itself cheap).  Practically every Finn has a sauna in their house.  We used Amiee's sauna every day.

(Note - this trip reaffirmed that Frankfurt has the worst housing outside of the war zones.  Absolutely no charm, small kitchens, meh location and no sauna.  Amiee's house had a fantastic kitchen, great living room, was in a cute neighborhood and had the sauna.)

These pretty red berries were all over Helsinki

It's a moose

Boats

Cannon

Natalie and weird statue peeing

That guy is getting way to close to the weird alien peeing statue

Church

Boat

Island

Soldiers