Karma and Airport

Helsinki

You know karma! You know how you say that when you spit in the wind, it's gonna come back on you... I like to believe the same principle applies to money you throw out of the windows. That one day, the wind is gonna bring it back, at least  part of it, in the house. We can always dream.

You remember that trip from Amman downtown to the airport, happy run that cost me 40 $JD because the driver didn't have change? Well, someone somewhere probably felt guilty I guess. Today, I went to Helsinki airport for free. Yes, free. Zero cent!

I had missed the bus I should have taken by 30 seconds. It just drove passed me while I was waiting to cross the street. Good news are the payment thing was broken. The driver decided it was free.

All in all, it means my taxi from Jordan now cost me 35 $JD. Still have to take three free buses and I'll find full satisfaction.

Airport

About the airport itself, it is well organized. We can print our boarding cards and luggage ID by ourselves. After, we could drop our luggage on the conveyer. The problem is that the place is too small and th queues are very long. But the idea is good.

On a security point of view, Finnish people installed two big tables where you can take your time to put your personnal belongings in the bins, before the queue. You take your computer out, liquids, take the belt off. When you're done, you go throught security. It keeps everybody from getting impatient behind the lady that forgot to take her perfume out of her purse and doesn't seem able to find it back.

The Helsinki airport also sells the best chocolate-cheese muffin with a chocolate truffle in the middle. Yeah, they cost a yearly income or something, because nothing is affordable when you take the plane. But it must be the value of the best muffins in the world.

In the end, I fly to Portugal in a couple of hours. According to my plans, if the brazilian consulate doesn't bother too much and accepts to give me an express visa, I would spend my birthday in one of the most southern point in Europe : Lagos or Sagres. With new sunglasses. Because I desintegrated, in spite of me, my authentic false Rayban, sunglasses number 4, I bought in Cambodia.

And if I have problems with the consulate? Options are still open. Argentina for sure. I was thinking of Peru, but a canadian governement alert says it's not a good idea. Bolivia wouldn't mind being a replacement destination. Only, the flights there are more expensive than from Rio, Buenos Aires or Lima.

Plan, again and again

Helsinki

I won't make anybody cry. That wasn't my intention. But traveling for six months, through discoveries and encounters, is a lot of planification as I go. A lot of decisions must be taken quickly, too quickly sometimes, and I must assume them no matter what. It gets tiring a little bit.

Visiting Baltic countries, wandering day after day from a city to another, means being alert for trains and bus schedules and to book hostels 24 hours in advance.

The problem is even bigger when week-ends come, in a season where everybody is traveling. In Helsinki, where everything is expensive, there is already not a lot of places to sleep. Except if you want to pay 50 euros for a more or less mediocre room.

So I decided to book flights for the next (and last) month, and to plan in a tighter way. Might be an error. Having bought already a very expensive flight from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, I need to get a visa for Brazil. Problem is I don't have the 10 working days most brazilian consulates demand. I thought it would be easier than asking for the chinese visa. There, at least, I needed no more than five days.

So I cross my fingers for an express visa service to fall from the sky. I checked for Helsinki. No express visa here...

If it doesn't work, I'll need to cancel my flight, which is not reassuring when you think I'm not sure I would be able to get any money back. The plan would then be to go to Argentina first and wish for very efficient border patrols in Foz de Iguazu, where I might get a visa in one day if I'm lucky. That is what the rumor says. I'm starting to consider the option of giving up on Brazil, but I hope I won't have to do that.

In the mean time, I got in Helsinki, Finland, in the morning ferry. I took that occasion to reunite with Tua, a Finnish girl I met in a dorm in China. Each time I see someone I met previously, we make the world smaller. It is crazy to think our first meeting was two months ago already. And the first thing she said when she saw me : "You lost weight!"

Must mean I'm getting thiner by the minute. Two months and she sees a difference.


Another sign of the time flying, I have torn my only pair of shorts. I bought a new one while falling for a new t-shirt. Bored of wearing the same two t-shirts all the time. In the same order of business, my almost non existing soles start showing how much I traveled, like that hole appearing on top of one of the shoes. My bag is, on his side, holding on with duct tape.

I'm trying not to buy anything new as I'm getting closer to my destination. We'll see if everything holds.