Let me begin with saying that almost from the moment we got our bags, we were in trouble. We found an information booth and the nice young gentleman kindly directed us to take the 615 bus to the main station and then take tram 4 to a street called Lanninkatu (we have since discovered that "-katu" is Finnish for "street")...

So, after spending 20 minutes standing in front of the airport looking around for our bus, Jana finally located it. Then it was a matter of getting a day pass to ride their public transportation. We would later find out it was good for both the buses and the trams (these are essentially what we call trollies). So then Jana makes the minor mistake of getting off at the wrong stop. Two stops early which shouldn't have been a big deal and really was quite an honest mistake.... Thankfully, Jocelyn saved the day by braving to walk into the local one-hour photo shop to get directions.... which turned into a half-hour ordeal.

We finally got ourselves straight and caught the 7 tram and then switched to the 4 and made our way to our first hostel, Eurohostel.

After taking care of the necessary details, we dropped our bags off in our room and took off to see the sights. Jana got a map of the inner-city transit system and then we walked downtown. Our first stop was Upenski Cathedral. It was beautiful. It overlooked a large part of the city, which was perfect for an aerial view of the city and the harbor. We then went down to the market square which had already closed for the day and went by a couple of the tourist shops. Those were also closed, as almost everything in Finland usually closes at 6:00pm. We then went in search of food... we'd have rather starved. Jocelyn got fish and chips which had some bizarre tarter sauce all over and Jana tried some local concoction they call a kebob but is definetly NOT americanized kabob.

Then it was the time to go next door to the ice bar. This bar was entirely made of ice and served only six drinks that only contained Finlandia Vodka. ***Note, Finlandia Vodka has no rival in the industry as far as I'm concerned.

Our final stop was the Grand Cathedral in Senate Square. This is actually their Parliament buidling. The steps leading up to itäs doors made Jana feel like she was Rocky Balboa in training. It took forever to get to the top.

We left around 11:30pm and it took that long for Jana to realize that it was still light outside.... yep, she has that little of a grip on time here. Daylight usually lasts about 20-22 hours in the summer.