Travelling with all my hopes and dreams

[gothwalk]

I left the house in Dublin yesterday at about 06:40. The sun was just up, it was a little bit foggy, and the city was very quiet - quite boring, really, since I was already in travel mode. I got to the airport, and went to check in. Having stood for ages because there was nobody actually at the checkin desk, I finally got that done with, and was told to bring the rucksack to oversize baggage, apparently because of the straps. As I got there, and took it off, the guy at the x-ray machine said "Nice shirt". I was wearing a long-sleeve-t with a Torshammer on the back, and for some reason it does often get comments. And then I put the bag on the scanner, and turned to go find some breakfast. "Hang on," the guy says, "What's that?", pointing at the screen. I looked. "That's a three pound hammer," I said. He looked at me. "Why would... ohh, Asatruar. Me wife's sister's married to one of them".

(Apologies for typos here; this is a Finnish keyboard, and all the punctuation is differently placed.)

The rest of Dublin airport was boring, and boarding didn't happen until an hour later than advertised. But then... the plane was brand spanking new. It couldn't have been its first flight, because it had to come from Helsinki to get to Dublin, but it had to be still in the single figures for commercial flights. (An Airbus 320, I think, grutok) It had comfortable seats, was all shiny and new, and had lcd screens that folded down from overhead - one per four seats or so. They used this for the safety instructions, and then they went black as the plane taxied toward the runway. I figured they're fold them back up, but a second later they flickered, and suddenly they were showing a runway. It took a few seconds to dan on me that we were seeing from a camera in the nose of the plane. They showed this view during takeoff, until all we could see was a patch of sky, and then switched to a view looking straight down. When the view on the screens got too small to be interested, they did some in-flight entertainment stuff, but I was looking out the window by then.

We flew up the coast of Ireland, and then east across the north of England and/or Scotland, and acros the Irish sea. It was the first time I'd crossed Norway in summertime - usually the route goes over Denmark - and let me tell you, Norway is a country that doesn't mess around. It goes from coast to huge towering mountains in a few miles. It's hard to judge from overhead, but I'd say you can see mountains that mean business from the beach. I also found I could tell Norway from Sweden from the air - Norway is mountains and forest and roads that go where they have to get around. Sweden is all straight lines. And Finland is rounded lines and has a forest everywhere, not just where it hasn't been turned into fields or something else useful. We flew over the archipelago as well, but I don't think you can approach Helsinki without doing that.

We touched down in Helsinki, and having passed by the vast number of Chinese people in passport control (I saw a Chinese Taratto. Very strange), I came out into the arrivals area. Nina phoned, and we chatted for a few minutes, and worked out that I'd have to wait about an hour for a bus. So I went and ordered a burger (entirely in Finnish, too!) and ate it, and then worked out where the right bus stop was. Bus arrived, I enquired (again in Finnish) if this was the right bus, and I was on the way.

Details of time here so far to follow...

Comments

[grutok.livejournal.com]

Most jealous about the trip! Sounds like my kind of trip!

Tarratto?

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Taratto are the nomadic people in Davon, the folk with the tattoos and the Spell of Restoration.

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

Based purely on the flight alone grutok wants to go to Finland next year. Myself the lake sounds like home to me - does it have leaches tho? Mine does in parts... I'd almost be tempted to bring a rod and hook with me and fish for food... if it's allowed, Bream and Perch are good food, bony but good food.

Most Jealous!!

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

There are no leeches in the lake. And yes, you can fish. There's a law - called something like "Everyman's Right" - which allows anyone to walk across any land, except people's yards and sensitive crops, to pick berries, mushrooms and flowers anywhere you can walk, to camp anywhere you can walk, and to fish (well, certain kinds of fishing, we're not quite sure what the distinction is). You can't fell trees, disturb birds or livestock, or light fires without the landowner's permission or desperate need. You're also allowed to walk on ice, or swim, as appropriate to the season. It's a wonderful sort of a law - one that grants permission, not takes it away.

[grutok.livejournal.com]

Very cool laws, Breem and Perch are fairly common, I'd say rod fishing would probably be okay but maybe a check with the powers that be might be in order.

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

This was supposed to be ME! Damed password rememberer!!

[microgirl.livejournal.com]

Ok, comment #1 answered my first question (what is a taratto) but I still have one more..... what's an Asatruar? Based on context I'm going on "Thor-worshipping thing" (where thing can of course mean person ;) ) but I've never heard the term before so would like to properly know.

[microgirl.livejournal.com]

Ta. Asatru I think I've heard of. Meh, Thor-worshipping thing was close enough :P

[coryphella.livejournal.com]

I like the way you write, especially about your travels. I've never been anywhere.

Mind if I add you?

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Go for it!