Country: Finland
Distance travelled:
Weather: Sunny but cool

The alarm was set for 7am, lucky since we had no natural light to give a clue as to the start of the new day. We ate the last of yesterday’s pastries sitting on our beds in the cabin and then finished packing and getting ready for disembarkation. The ferry docked at 8am and we soon joined the queue to pass immigration back into Finland. It was a fairly quick process although the fancy electronic scanners didn’t seem to work and everyone had to go through a manned booth instead.

It was easy to catch a tram from the port back into Helsinki although the young man who decided to chat to us during the trip gave me the willies. I couldn’t decided if he was drunk, drugged or just putting the wind up a silly tourist. It didn’t really matter, we were soon changing to the train and heading to Rastila Camping. On the way past reception, we paused to ask if the parcel we were expecting had arrived yet but were disappointed.

Back at the van all was ship shape thankfully. Mark connected to the internet and we tracked our parcel online using the tracking number Liz, Marks aunt, had given us and a few hours was spent sorting out some important business that needed attention including ringing our bank, they had locked his account when we attempted a transaction in Russia since we hadn’t informed them we were going there.

At 12pm I walked back over to reception where after some translation difficulties, I discovered our parcel had now arrived. Hurrying back to Mark and the van, we tore it open, it was like an early Christmas! With that, it was time to leave since we didn’t want to pay for another night. After pausing at the service point to do the usual empty and fill procedures we headed off, getting on the road by about 2.30pm.

A relatively short drive through Helsinki resulted in us reaching a carpark where it was possible to wild camp.

The beach nearby was crowded with people enjoying the summer sun although it was a little cool for my preference. While Mark sorted out our ferry ticket to Estonia tomorrow, I spent some time researching places to see while we were there. Six months ago I barely knew where Estonia was, now I was going to be there.

Late in the afternoon I got out my bicycle and went for a ride to get us some bread and milk and a few other essentials since our cupboards were bare of fresh food and once I returned Mark cooked us hamburgers for dinner. As the sun set we decided to go for a short stroll since there was some lovely colour in the sky but we were soon back inside and heading to bed, still worn out after the hectic days in St Petersburg.