Hannah having an IV on the Bangkok to Helsinki leg of our trip (Steve is about to hang the spring infuser that is in the foreground).We had a bit of an adventure getting here (Luosto). On the first leg of our journey, we got to Sydney and discovered there was a lightening storm, and we were stranded on the ground. A few people managed to get off the plane (it was an itty bitty baby plane, necessitating walking across the runway). We waited on the tarmac for a while, they opened the door and about 5 people got off before the lightning started up again - thankfully we didn't have a tight connection, so were able to laugh it off. When they finally opened up the door, the stewards were keen to get us off the plane and across the tarmac as quickly as possible - when we got to the entrance to the terminal, the lift was broken, so Steve got to carry Hannah up a fairly steep flight of stairs.
Bangkok was HOT, and the airport terminal is MASSIVE - it is way bigger than anything we've seen before. We were really glad we got a hotel room, even though it was only for 7 hours - the girls & Steve slept really well, so it was worth every penny - we will be staying there on the way back as well. (we don't really have any photo's of bangkok, mainly because we were exhausted or asleep when we were there).
When we checked in in Canberra, and Sydney and Bangkok, everyone told us our bags were checked through to Rovaniemi, but we would need to collect them in Helsinki and clear customs - it turns out there really isn't any customs in Helsinki, so our bags went straight to storage - with all our warm clothes :-) The staff were very kind about it all, but told us it would be up to 2 hours to get our bags. We settled in for some good wifi/facebook time but our bags arrived in 20 mins, which was a lovely surprise.
We had the night in Helsinki, and we didn't get to see much, apart from the school kids lining up to go to school in the snow next door.
A bear holding up a street sign in Helsinki - there is a lot of public art in Helsinki (ask Hannah her theory on public art as a barometer of the cultural health of a civilisation).
It took FOREVER to get through immigration and security at Bangkok airport (over an hour). As you can see, Helsinki airport doesn't have the same problem!
These kids were on an excursion to the airport. They were in security looking at the xray of our stuff when we went through (Steve tried to take a photo, but we soon discovered that they don't like you taking photo's in the security screening area).
Helsinki airport has free wifi, so Jacqui got to chat with her friends via facebook.
This is the sign that greeted us when we landed in Rovaniemi airport :-)
They really love Santa here.....
Johan met us with our very own sign (Hannah was particularly excited to have our name on a sign to be met at the airport!!). All the staff where we are staying are so incredibly helpful and friendly - it is wonderful.
Yes, we all went crazy taking photo's of the snow - it is so beautiful!!
We were pretty excited to have our own limo (well, it was a flash minivan, but it felt like a limo - with the table and the row of backwards facing seats).
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