Finland
We were lucky in Finland, since we had a local guide and she was able to take us directly to a fabric shop! Â Actually, it wasn’t quite that simple. Â We thought it would be nice to get some Marimekko fabric, since it is a well known Finnish designer and I really like a lot of the patterns. Â However, when we arrived at the shop we found out that for a tiny little piece of this fabric we would be paying almost 20 Euros and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do that.
So we set off again and found a different fabric shop and there we found this beauty.
The colors seem especially appropriate to me since blue and white are the colors of the Finnish flag, but also it really strikes me as a place of water and ice. Â Another fabric success!
We pulled in to Helsinki in the morning and were met from the boat by my friend Tania. She even managed to spot us as we were walking down the long hallway into the terminal. Apparently she first noticed our backpacks and then was sure it was us because Justin was wearing his “pirate hat.† (click the link and scroll down if you want to see the hat.)  And this is what she would expect from someone who married me! I was still so excited to see her and to introduce Justin and we had a wonderful three days hanging out and getting to know her awesome boyfriend Lauri.
We spent a lot of time walking around the city and just chatting and catching up. Tania knows a lot about Finland and knows all of the good places to go, so she was a wonderful tour guide.
We were sad that the dance camp was over, but not for long because the next leg of our trip was one that we were really looking forward to! Â One of my close friends from high school is living in Helsinki, Finland with her boyfriend and we got to go and see her!!! Â But this post isn’t about that yet because we had several bus rides, a subway ride, and an overnight ferry to take in order to get there. Â We left Herrang in the morning after the camp was over and arrived in Helsinki about 24 hours later.