A little more from Helsinki

I had a great time in Helsinki.  I managed to do a ton: I took a sightseeing tour, I went to three different museums, I ate Napoleon cake at a cafe that's famous for it, I went out to the sea fortress and toured it as well as a WW2-era submarine, I ate sausages (made of moose, reindeer, bear and wild boar) at the harbor, I bought fresh berries, I walked around the city... it was a surprisingly relaxing 3 days, given all that I did.  

Here are a few more photos of Helsinki!

The front of the train station square

The Kappeli restaurant in the promenade

Fountain that is the symbol of the city

Helsinki harbor

Old market building

Helsinki Cathedral, on Senate Square

Crazy clouds out over the Baltic

The "Flying Finn" near the Olympic stadium

 Then, on Thursday morning, I woke up bright and early (and it gets bright very early in Helsinki--the sun rose at about 4:30 every morning) and caught a ferry to Estonia.  Here are two pics of my last views of Helsinki, both before the boat left the harbor and before my eyelids snapped shut for the duration of the ride.

Goodbye, Helsinki!

The Estonian flag waving goodbye to Finland as we headed out over the water for Tallinn

Helsinki Days 1 & 2

First stop on my trip after Georgia is Helsinki, Finland.  I had rain on my first day, but have had nice, clear weather since.  Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to!

View of the Caucasus from my airplane

Goodbye, Caucasus!

I got set up at the campground in Helsinki before the rain hit.  Thankfully, my tent is waterproof.  (You can see it way in the background, the little brown-and-red tent.)

Cathedral on Senate Square, with a statue of Alexander 2 of Russia in front

Sibelius monument

Floating market near the open-air market

Open-air market.  Note the large quantity of delicious berries for sale.  

Today's Special of 4 kinds of sausages was too intriguing to pass up

Here it is: reindeer, bear, moose and wild boar sausages over fried potatoes and onions, doused in lingonberry jam and spicy mustard.  Amazing.

Self portrait on the ferry out to the sea fortress, Suominlinna

View of Helsinki from the ferry.  Dark clouds rolled in but it stayed pretty much dry all day on day 2.

The sea fortress

Dry docks in the sea fortress

Beautiful beach on the island of the sea fortress

Not a self portrait!

One of the 5 submarines that made up the great Finnish submarine fleet of WW2

Inside the sub

The sea fortress island was really gorgeous, even in spite of the dark clouds.  The cool church tower in the middle also doubles as a lighthouse.

Some street art near the Finnish National Museum.  Not sure what it says or whether the bird is dead or knocked out.

Ceiling inside the rotunda at the Finnish National Museum

Finnish Parliament

Main train station in Helsinki

If they don't have it at Stockmann, you don't need it.

Cool wooden entryway

Sunset on day 2.  I took this picture at 10:25pm.

Saying Farewell

My last full day in Akhalkalaki was Thursday.  I spent the last several days running around, trying to see everyone one last time, saying goodbyes, drinking lots of coffee, eating lots of sweets, and generally being reminded of all of the best aspects of my life in the Peace Corps.  There were, of course, lots of difficult goodbyes to be said as the end approached, but some of the most difficult ones were reserved for that last day.

One of my English teaching counterparts, Gohar, informed me that she had planned a trip for us.  I went to her house at 11am and we piled into a taxi with a friend, Kristina, and enough food to carry us through three days of hiking.  Our destination was the next village over from Akhalkalaki, where we’d meet with another friend, Melania, and then hike out to some old churches. 

You couldn’t have asked for a prettier day, or more perfect weather.  Every now and again, we’d turn a bend and peek out at Akhalkalaki from between the hills.  Each of my senses battled to demand my full attention: the overpowering smells of the earth, the wildflowers, the freshly mowed grass; the spectacular, breathtaking landscapes; the birdsong and babble of the river.  I was too overwhelmed by the moment to focus on my reality, of having to soon say goodbye.  The setting was so enrapturing that I could get lost in each second of the hike, as opposed to being lost in thoughts of leaving. I’ve included some pictures here that do a lousy job of capturing much of the feeling of the day.  

Back from the hike, I went to another counterpart’s house.  Anaida lives near our host family’s house and has frequently had me over, ostensibly to lesson plan, but more realistically to feed me lots and lots of delicious food.  Thursday was no different (except that we were by no means going to be planning for any lessons).  After saying goodbye to Anaida, with heavy heart and full stomach, I headed back home, for one more big meal and many more sad farewells.

Armine made dolma for dinner and Shushan, Marianna’s mother, made a giant, delicious cake.  We sat around the table for hours, eating, being coaxed to eat more, talking, and talking about past and future.  We had a moment where I thought we’d all start crying, but my host grandmother, Emilia, defused the situation by looking up at us all, teary eyed, and saying, “Just think—Melissa won’t be here to buy bread for us in the morning any more.  Who’s going to go to buy the bread?”  The ridiculousness of her focus on that aspect of my leaving made us all laugh, and the crisis was averted. 

I ended up staying up too late on Thursday, checking and rechecking that I’d packed everything up, talking with Armine and Akop and Shaen, and just dealing with the huge amounts of caffeine that I consumed in my last day of being feasted.  Waking up on Friday morning at 5am was, however, easier than I expected.  I guess the nervousness of taking off on the next adventure kept me from sleeping too soundly.  I loaded into my final marshrutka from Akhalkalaki to Tbilisi, rubbing away sleep and trying to keep the tears at bay, and said goodbye to the town that’s become like home.

Going on a Picnic

(I had mistakenly believed this post to be posted already... sorry for the delay!) 

Getting everything set up for our picnic at Tavshanka

On most week days, our host dad Akop only gets home from work around 7pm.  On Monday (July 2), the weather was clearer and warmer than it has been in Akhalkalaki for about 2 weeks, so Akop came home early and the whole family surprised me with the news that we were going to Tavshanka for a picnic.  

Tavshanka (sometimes called Tashvanka; people here tend to transpose consonant clusters, especially in place names.  So "Tiflis" as Tbilisi is in Armenian often becomes "Tilvis" in local Akhalkalaki Armenian) is the little hill at the edge of town, covered in trees and sidled up to the river.  It's a really pretty place, and the go-to location for any kind of outdoor activity in Akahlkalaki.  (It was the location for the summer camp that Sam and I helped out with when we first came to town, and the place where we'd go to walk around when we needed some green.)  

A pretty little spot for a picnic, no?

Some nice views of Abul

Lilit and Shaen helped Akop get the fire started, both by supervising the work and by collected pine cones to throw in 

We got started off pretty well, although it was cool by early evening when we arrived.  We had dressed warmly enough for the weather, so we started up the fire, got things in place and got the grilling started.  Soon the winds picked up, though, and we were wishing for some extra sweaters as we clung to our picnic gear and food, trying to keep them from taking flight.  The kids huddled in the car, trying to keep warm, while the adults got the food ready as quickly as possible.  And though the scenery was pretty, as soon as everything had cooked and we'd eaten the warm barbecued veggies and meat, we piled back into the car and made our way to Armine's mother's house to finish off our feast.  Lala (Armine's mom), supplemented our dinner with tea, coffee, cake and fruit (as if we'd needed any more food!) and having a warm, wind-free spot to continue our eating was much appreciated.  Shaen appreciated it so much that, after stuffing himself, he promptly fell asleep on the floor of the living room.  After making our way back home, I quickly followed suit (although I managed to make it to bed before keeling over).

Armine supervised the veggie skewers.  I helped by eating lots of the fire roasted veggies.

Lilit, mugging for the camera

Seriously, how cute is this kiddo?

Shaen ain't too far off in the cutie-pie category

Shaen was practicing patience, although not too successfully, as the food was prepared

Lilit staked out the best spot, right next to her grandma, Emilia, who gave her the best pieces of food as soon as they came off the fire

So even though the weather didn't cooperate entirely and even though it was a little crazy getting food prepared and then packing it all up again and moving locations, this picnic was one of the best possible ways to spend an evening. Having all these fire-roasted veggies (peppers and tomatoes and eggplant) reminded me of how much I'm definitely going to do this at home.