Homeward bound....

The lovely staff at the Aurora Chalet put an esky outside our door the night before full of food for a breakfast picnic in our room, because we had to leave sooo early to fly home. The night before the manager Katarina had come and asked us if she could give us a gift that you can't buy in the shops - her husband is Saami (from one of the Finland Indigenous tribes) & they had been touched by our story (we had really connected with Katarina, she was lovely - we really enjoyed telling her all about our day when we got back to the hotel and she enjoyed telling us all about her time living in Australia). Katarina's husband made a beautiful carving for us out of reindeer bone (and thankfully Quarantine said we could bring it into Australia) - it has Saami symbols on it for safe travel and healing, and we were so touched that they would make it for us - we felt like we arrived at the hotel as guests but left as friends.

We found a nice place in Helsinki airport to hang out during our 7 hour layover - very comfy.


Trying out beer in Helsinki airport (non-alcoholic).

With determination you really can do an IV anywhere - this is Helsinki airport.

They had to de-ice the plane before we could take off - which meant we were an hour late taking off. This was actually one of the most terrifying flights of our life. On the wing there was a loose screw that just kept unscrewing throught the flight, and as we landed in Bangkok the ceiling of the plane started leaking on us, and finally the screw flew off the wing as we landed. We mentioned it to the stewardess who was a bit freaked out - but the purser came and spoke to us (since we are always the last people to get off the plane whilst we wait for Hannah's wheelchair) and she told us that the pilot already knew about it and it was fine (that kind of freaked us out even more). The food was so bad that Hannah didn't eat for the whole flight and the rest of us just snacked - it was a looooong flight & we were so grateful to land in Bangkok.

We had about 7 hours in Bangkok & so we got a hotel room to sleep in and it was FANTASTIC (they upgraded us to a suite because they stuffed up our reservation - we had two rooms like this with a dining room and two massive bathrooms). Hannah slept for about 4 hours, Nikki got 2 hours sleep, Jacqui got 1, and Nikki & Steve even got to swim in the hotel pool. Breaking up the journey with even just a few hours in a hotel room made a HUGE difference for all of us & we'd definitely do it this way if we go to europe again.

Before we left we ordered room service - it was suprisingly cheap and REALLY delicious - it made us want to stay in Thailand longer - but Hannah wouldn't have coped with the heat.

Now we are home, recovering from the trip. We had a FANTASTIC time, and we are so very very grateful to the people at Make-A-Wish who made Hannah's dream to see the Aurora come true - thank you so much. If you are looking for a charity to donate to this year, we'd highly recommend Make-A-Wish (I believe you can give money, or frequent flyer miles)