Helsinki

Fair night’s sleep and a later breakfast. Unfortunately going to a later breakfast meant that D and G who arrived at the dining room earlier than us, were sitting at the end of a long table. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure out who would come and sit opposite us but the Butinskys. For those who know me well, I am not a morning person and SB knows me well enough not to chatter away at me first thing the morning as I take a while to get all pistons firing. Well, Mrs Butinsky’s voice grated on me at the best of times as she has that NSW nasal twang and always talks loudly. As she tells us in every sentence that she was the best special needs teacher ever to grace a school yard and probably would have been bestowed with sainthood if only she’d been Catholic, has written curriculum that could win Pulitzer’s and at 65 had to learn judo because she was the only person in the entire world who could get across to and understand special needs children who were learning judo, and blah, blah, blah. I will give it to her though, no matter what the topic she can interrupt and take it over to somehow be repackaged to be a story about her, Mr Butinsky or her perfect children. Give me strength... Oops, I’d better not use that phrase any more as look where it got me last time 🤓 Anyhow, I was ready to simply offer myself to God and say ‘Take me now’ if that bloody woman didn’t shut up during our breakfast. I’m about ready to finish breakfast and leave the table so I make the final arrangements with Foggy and Captn D for us to go out shopping later to a souvenir shop I’ve found in a booklet, that has a downstairs area just for Christmas (knowing that SB was still on the prowl for the miniature Christmas houses). With that, as I get up from the table to walk away Mr Butinsky says to Foggy, “ Okay if we tag along with you?” Agh... yep, I really am ready for God to take me now. Breathe in, breathe out. Water over sand, water over sand. Nope, nothing is working. Is it too early to start drinking hard liquor??? I bid a hasty retreat and all the while heading to my room am grumbling to myself.
As some of our group were leaving at various times today, we have all agreed to meet in the lobby at about 10am for a final catch up and say our farewells. The weather was pretty crappy, in that it was about 1 degree (very tolerable as long as we were rugged up) but snow and light rain was intermittent with strong multi directional winds. We were in no rush so duly. sat about the lobby at the designated time, chatting with various others. Finally the catchup was coming to an end so as SB and I started heading for our room I’ve had what I hoped was a quiet chat with Foggy to say we would meet them back in the lobby in an hour to head to the shops. Bat ears Mr Butinsky who is metres away asks to confirm the arrangements at which point I have given him ‘the look’ and said that we are just going to a souvenir shop for heaven sake. SB has herded me towards the lift and a ‘scene’ in the hotel lobby was averted, but I was ready to blow!
Back in the lobby we are an hour later, all rugged up and as SB and I have already looked up on the map where we needed to go we head off. I figure that if I just don’t talk directly to the Butinskys and zone out their endless chatter, we should all survive the afternoon unscathed. Well, we finally got to our souvenir shop, bought a couple of knick knacks (but no Christmas houses) and decided it was time for coffee (apparently still too early for the hard liquor) so went into a nearby cafe which looked really nice. As it was lunch time, the place was really busy and we weren’t hopeful of getting a table for 6 so whenI found a table for 4 I went and asked staff if we could move chairs to make it a 6. They were very accommodating and said no problem so that’s what we did. I ordered a cafe au lait and a delightful pastry called a Tosca something or other. When my coffe came out, it was a bowl! One of the best coffees I’ve had since I’ve been on holiday. Mind you I was very full by the time I’d finished it.

As no one had any other plans of what to do to fill the day and the Butinskys were determined to stick to us like glue, Captn D had a brilliant idea to go on a local tram so we headed to the Information Centre at the railway station who directed us to the Kioski next door to it to purchase our tram tickets. Shiny Bright and I were in charge of the map so at the tram stop let the others know that we needed a Number 3 tram and later in the journey would need to change trams for a number 2. It would take a bit over an hour for the full trip and we would Circle the city. As the Butinskys were still busy talking about themselves, I said that it was like herding kittens and as many of you might know, that’s what I regularly would say to my PL travellers, that getting them all in the one place at the same time was like herding kittens. Mrs Butinsky corrected me and said that it was like herding cats. I told her that the groups I took travelling were kittens because they were like herding kittens. She told me that when she was the world’s best special needs teacher she would say to the children that it was like herding cats. I said, “well I call them kittens”. Not sure this conversation was going anywhere and I had forgotten my earlier thought to have no direct conversation with them. Damn! Just as well the tram came and we were all able to safely get on and find seats.
It was a nice tram ride circling the city in a figure 8. Sadly too much rain on the windows for photography but I would certainly recommend the trams for getting around Helsinki. Eventually we make it back to our starting point with all 6 still in our number. SB and I had been looking for aged care facilities along the way that we were hoping to leave the Butinskys at but no luck. From the tram stop we all go our separate ways and I thought we’d seen the last of Mr and Mrs B, but no, wait, there’s more. They now invited themselves to join us for dinner, even though at this stage we haven’t even made plans for dinner... Oh dear...
SB steers me away to a nearby shopping complex and we wander there for a little while, with some last minute gift buying on my part.
Back to the hotel where it is finally happy hour so SB and I finish off a bottle of wine I’d bought earlier on while on the cruise. SB can’t put it off any longer, and has finally gotten stuck into packing her suitcase as she heads off to London first thing tomorrow morning with a 5 am taxi booked. She does a fabulous job of it and has even kindly offered to take back some of the souvenir/gifts that I’d bought.
Time to head downstairs to meet the other four and we all agree to stay in the hotel lobby dining room to eat. I had a lovely Pasta Carbonara. Finally time to say goodnight and head back to the room where it is my turn to pack. Somehow managed to fit everything in and time to hit the hay.

One more thing though before I finish. Today has been a ‘gap’ day where we deliberately gave ourselves a free day to catch our breath and not be in a rush. The Butinskys have somehow managed to consume this day. I shall finish on one more Mrs B story. When we were on the ferry coming back from Estonia to Helsinki, the four musketeers were all sitting together in the cafe area, with a table by a window. Without fail, the Butinskys are like heat seeking missiles and find us even though there are 8 decks to choose from. As they couldn’t add chairs to our table they were forced to sit at a round table near us. At one stage Captn D was telling SB and me quietly in a private conversation about her chemo treatment. Foggy had gotten up from the table to use the bathroom. In the blink of an eye, Mrs B almost knocked her own chair over getting up, to rush to come and sit in Foggy’s chair and in her grating loud voice says ‘I was eaves dropping. Didn’t hear the last bit you said, so what was it?” I couldnt believe it! Captn D repeated the last thing she said and next thing you know Mrs B is now telling us all about her medical procedures, poor Foggy has returned to the table, she isn’t moving any time soon so forces him to have to go and sit in her seat. Having previously endured all the medical stories Mr B has foisted upon us where even Foggy was rolling his eyes back in his head, this really took the cake. All I have to do now is avoid them in the morning and that should be the last I ever see or hear of them...