Finland, day 1

Hyvää Huomenta! I have some free time (and free internet) this morning, so I'm going to tryto make a real update.This morning I woke up before dawn (9 A.M.) and had breakfast here at the hostel.My body didn't really think that breakfast was a good idea, but I'm trying to trick myselfinto believing that it's really Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night (I'm 10 hoursahead for California). I have to check out of the hostel at noon, so until then I'm using thefree internet since I don't know when I'll get another chance (at least for a couple days).Originally, I was going to take a city bus to the train station, but I'm a little too tired this morningand I think I have too much stuff to do that, so I'm going to splurge and take a cab since I saveda little money taking the Finnair bus instead of a cab last night.The British Airways flight from San Francisco to London was not the best experience inthe world. My little screen that shows movies and such didn't work, and my seat wouldn'tgo back either. The couple next to me decided to move since their screens didn't work either,so at least I ended up getting the row to myself. I tried to sleep, but it didn't really work. Onceit was about 9 A.M. London time I decided to stay awake. Once I got to London, I had to spenda couple hours in the airport. It was strange because they don't tell you your gate number untilhalf an hour before your flight, so I had to wait in this shopping mall/food court area until then.It was really tempting to go look in a shop, or get something to eat, but I decided against it sincethe pound coupled with airport prices is definitely out of my budget. The Finnair flight to Helsinkiwas nice because it was shorter, and the seats seemed a little roomier. I ordered the Veganmeal for all my flights too, which was also an interesting experience. For dinner on the BritishAirways flight they served a pasta with vegetables, salad, and other little items. Other than thepasta and the salad, though, nothing else was vegan. Luckily, I'm not really vegan. I wasvegetarian when I ordered the meals, but I'm still happy that I got the vegan meal becauseI didn't want to get anything that might upset my stomach. The vegan breakfast was prettyinteresting. It consisted of a fruit bowl and a vegan/gluten free cinnamon donut with soy yogurtfrosting. Pretty gross. The Finnair vegan/gluten free dinner was pretty weird too. It was a pieceof tempeh with broccoli, potatoes, and a weird clear gravy-gel sauce that tasted like the smell ofa generic Asian grocery store.Once the Finnair flight arrived in Helsinki, we got off the plane and had to stand on a bus in thecold. It was pretty awesome, though, since it was the first time I had been in the fresh air for aday. The Helsinki airport wasn't very stressful. I just showed them my visa, picked up my bags(which arrived safely), and left. It was definitely a better experience than when I flew into Naritain Tokyo, which is huge, and has a bunch of customs/visa stuff that you have to go through.Well, I'm sorry is this is kind of "stream of consciousness," or whatever you want to call it.I'm still a little tired, but I want to write everything thing down before I forget. It's almost timefor me to call the cab, so wish me luck, and I'll try to write soon.

(i will format this later, but now it is not cut off. sorry)