After almost 4 weeks on the road, understandably, a bit of travel fatigue is setting in so we are doing a few different things in Helsinki to recharge the batteries a bit. That's very easy as Finland is very different from where we have been. And you can start to understand why Finland is often excluded from the definition of 'Scandinavia'.

The first obvious difference is language. Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are all, after some practice, understandable as a derivative of Germanic languages. Although it must be said it is written as base German with the phonetics of a Kiwi. I'll try to post some signs I have taken to show that. Lots of long vowels.

Finnish on the other hand, immediately, and after 4 days practice, makes no sense at all. There is a reason most Finns speak Swedish and/or English….very helpful for us tourists. All signs are in Finnish and Swedish, so we wait for the second announcement and try to get that one.

There are the structural differences as well. No royal family, closer to Russia and more influence from there etc. So there will be no crown jewels, royal palaces etc.

To find our feet we jumped on one of the local trams that just happens to run a figure 8 route, past most of the key attractions in Helsinki. Like a Hop on-Hop off tour but 10% of the cost….and no English commentary.

We saw the Helsinki Olympic stadium, which is currently being severely renovated….but they at least waited 70+ years to do theirs, not 18!!. We went to the rock church (OK, so that was only a 2 minute walk from our apartment). When they decided to build a new church, two brothers decided rather than build, they proposed to dig. The result is a church that is about 75% underground but still designed to let in natural light. Really interesting.

But the highlight was definitely the evening. With some research we had found none of the first division Finnish hockey teams were playing in Helsinki while we were in town which was disappointing. But we did find a second division team playing about 30 minutes out of town, near the airport, called Vantaa…..so we bought tickets and headed out to the elaborately named - Trio Arena.

Mum, Dad, Sis - Think St Catherines ice rink, but a bit bigger…..just.

What a night. As soon as we walked in we ran into the lady selling merchandise. Lets call her 'Finnish Sharon' as we never got her name but she reminded us a LOT of someone many readers know well. As she said we had 'TOURIST' written across out foreheads, so she adopted us for the night……on the condition we cheered for Vantaa.

Attendance at the game probably nudged 300, maybe a few more. It wasn't huge but the atmosphere was great. Surprisingly for me, used to NHL, where sometimes hockey breaks out to interrupt the fight, this was a fast game, played relatively clean. Ok maybe 4-5 fights broke out and a few penalties but the cleanest game of Ice Hockey I can remember. And close.

After going goal for goal through regular time, our new favourite team, the Vantaa fish (look at the logo), were up 3-2. The evil Tuto team benched their goalie for 6 on the ice and we were one down for a penalty. Sadly they levelled up the game and force sudden death overtime with 16 seconds left on the clock. As you might know Hockey overtime is 3 on 3 plus a goalie for each team, played for 5 minutes. Very fast and furious.

'Sharon' had now found us in the stands, sat with the boys and explained everything that was happening. After about 3 minutes of Tuto dominating, without scoring, Vantaa broke away and scored the winning goal…….cue 300 Finnish people, and 4 Aussies, going crazy. What we didn't know was that 'Sharon' had arranged for the boys to go on the ice and be part of the presentation to the winning captain. Pretty amazing night.

Might have to get some Bombers merchandise and send it back to Vantaa as a thank you.

We grabbed the ferry over to Suomalinna island, we just called it semolina to make it easier. Actual translation is Finnish Castle. It's an island about 10-15 minutes off the coast of Helsinki that used to be the defensive for the city, having being built/run by at various times, the Finnish, the Swedes and the Russians.

Today it houses a number of museums as well as the remnants of the fort. Sadly like a lot of the Nordic region, most things had a sign on them that said. 'Closed for Winter, come back in Feb/March/May'. We have seen a lot of these signs, maybe we will have to one day. Instead the three boys went to the Finnish Aviation museum and Al did a bit of shopping to fill some time until the Ice rink opened.

….And that was our finale to Helsinki, 2.5 hours of skating on an outdoor rink, right next to Helsinki central station. The weather was -6 to -7 degrees and the snow was falling lightly….but we didn't feel it (much), it was so much fun.

At one stage there were 9 people on the ice, four of us and 5 people from Melbourne….we could pick them as one was wearing a Port Power beanie….and yes he claimed it was because he lost a bet. 15,000kms from home and he still had to defend it. Later a couple from Brisbane joined us.

Sound like the start of a bad joke, what do you call so many Aussies on an ice rink…..we couldn't come up with a punchline.

A home cooked meal of Kotsbollar (meatballs), mashed potato, brown sauce (gravy) and lingonberry jam finished off the night. Going back behind the iron curtain tomorrow, early ferry to Tallinn, Estonia.