Helsinki Zoo

Today we went to the zoo. It wasn't a very impressive zoo- I think my favorite thing was all the wildflowers that lined the paths. The funniest was the lion though. He was playing with a soccer ball with his two sons and then was visiting with his wife and then he came up to the glass (that is when i took the picture), stared at us and turned around and sprayed the window with his scent glands. It really was funny- thank goodness for the glass, if it was just a fence it would have been pretty gross. I guess he was tired of us watching his family. Josiah was glad to see his hero Aslan again:)
It is our last night in Helsinki. Tomorrow we will pick up our new visas in the morning and then wander around downtown for a bit before getting on the train in the evening to head back to Moscow. We will then be in Moscow for hopefully just a few days (though we still are getting our plane tickets so we aren't exactly sure) and then we will be heading to Siberia!

While David was at the Russian Embassy getting our new visas (we pick them up tomorrow morning) the kids and I found a new park. It really was nice, everything was made out of wood and looked so natural or something. Isn't the little finnish baby boy so cute. Huddy played with him for quite a while. Huddy looked so American next to him:)

Funny picture of Huddy- I love his expressions. Do you notice anything about Emma's smile????!!!! Just this morning when we were eating breakfast she said "Hey who put this thing in here?" She thought somebody put some hard nut in her breakfast roll but it was her front tooth! She is so glad it fell out cause it wasn't a very white tooth and we always told her that it is ok cause someday she'll get new teeth.

One thing you don't see in Moscow is women jogging or running. Actually you don't really see men doing it either. Here in Helsinki there are people jogging or biking everywhere. Seems like such a healthy place after living in Moscow for 2 years. Yes, in Moscow people are walking non stop but you don't really see people excercising just to exercise- though Moscow women don't need to exercise for weight loss (maybe for weight gain:) The women here rarely smoke (almost every young woman in Moscow smokes) and it is just so refreshing to not see everyone at the park with a beer in hand. It is a different life here. The lack of garbage really stood out to us at first. There is the occasional drunk here but they really stand out and everyone notices them whereas in Moscow you don't see them cause they are everywhere.

Suomenlinna Sveaborg Sea Fortress

Yesterday we went out to a group of islands (by ferry) to the Suomenlinna maritime fortress. Though it was really windy we had fun exploring tunnels of the old fortress. Kinda scary walking through them as you can't see anything if you are far from an opening. One tunnel was too scary for any of us to try. I took pictures with the flash, and then we could navigate our way from the pictures in the camera:) It is a nice place to cool off I guess, lots of sunbathers everywhere- we got quite a bit of sun and windburn ourselves.

Finnish Hobbits

mmm....pizza

It turned rainy and very windy on us so we were glad to head into one of the shelters and have some pizza. David and I were adventurous (the kids had pineapple and ham pizza). Our pizza had capers, kolbassa, mushrooms and pickles on it, oh and sour cream. Very salty. I liked it, david not so much. I think I'll go with a more regular one next time:)

yum...finnish pancakes

More Marina views. It is so nice down by the water and sailboats, there are lots of antique stores, furniture stores, restaurants and cafes and even playgrounds for the kids. Mom- really reminded me of you, I think you'd love it here!

I've read that Helsinki is known as the city that has no slums. We really haven't seen any poor areas at all, and we did tour the whole city. (I accidentally put us on the right bus but heading the wrong direction so we got to do the whole loop which goes around the whole city:) There doesn't seem to be the contrast of poor/rich people here. Everyone just seems to be doing ok. The cars in the first picture obviously belong to those who are doing really ok.

There are always about 3 of the huge cruise ships down at the marina at all times. Seems a popular thing to do from here. We will be taking a smaller ferry probably tomorrow to get to the zoo.

I forgot to explain the pictures I put on yesterday. We went onto a little island north east of Helsinki where they have an open air museum. It was so fun to walk around and see all the old buildings and see the ladies in traditional dress etc.

It really is sooooo nice to have this time. We haven't been tourists for a long time...It is so relaxing to have nothing we need to be doing (though right now David is picking up our HIV test results) and be able to spend this time as a family doing whatever we like. And I can't think of a nicer place to do it in really- Helsinki is beautiful and organized and safe and I don't know how to describe it- maybe comfy...

We have our train tickets booked to go back to Moscow on Tuesday night. (I promise I'll get on the train....:) Then we will have a few days till we get on the plane for Siberia. Time is going fast!

This is such a treat for our kids. They could never take off their shoes and socks around our place in Moscow. The ground was always covered in broken glass and bottle caps and if there was grass it was half grass and half rocks/glass. Josiah was so scared to take off his shoes- he didn't want to get dirty and ouchy but after he tried it he sure loved it! They rolled and rolled in it. What a treat...