I woke up on Wednesday feeling kind of allergy-ish which was bound to happen. Henry and I walked to the nearby K Market (it is with a heavy heart I report that the K was not for Korean) and OFC I found my favorite industrial strength cough drops in LICORICE flavor!
And why am I not surprised that Finland has the cutest toilet paper mascot??
While in this tiny market, I decided that I wanted to get a loaf of the good-good brown bread that I had been almost exclusively relying on for a.m. sustenance throughout the whole trip until now. Fending for ourselves for breakfast?? This was really one of the only drawbacks to trading a hotel for an airbnb, honestly. Anyway, Henry was being a big fucking jerk about it because he didn’t want to have to buy AN ENTIRE THING OF BUTTER as well, when we were only going to be here until Saturday and couldn’t take it with us. He’s such a cheapskate sometimes, I really swear to god. So, then I slammed the bread back down and stormed off. Then I came BACK and shouted some stuff about how I’m A FUCKING GROWN UP AND I MAKE MORE MONEY THAN HIM because this is definitely how GROWN UPS ACT IN GROCERY STORES. So, then he was like CALM DOWN (probably, it seems like something he’d toss in my face like a patronizing grenade) AND GET THE BREAD AND BUTTER, I DON’T CARE but then I was like NO I’M NOT ALLOWED AND I DON’T WANT IT ANYMORE ANYWAY.
I ended up getting the bread and the butter and I ate it several times a day and yes, we left a nearly full tub of butter behind in the fridge when we left Saturday morning, but it was worth it because that bread and butter made me happy every time that I ate it.
Fucking men.
There was a Fazer Cafe right across from K Market so we popped in there too for some coffee and to get Chooch breakfast before heading back and by then, I was simmering down a bit.
Oh also! (Sorry, it is now several hours later and I had approx. 5 sips of a BEER so buckle up, baby.) This was one of…what? Two? Days where we were able to sleep in and get a slow start to the day even though I was in everyone’s ear, being bossy about NEEDING TO GET STARTED. The main plan for the day was to head out to Squirrel Island, which is actually called Seurasaari. When I told Chooch to please for the love of god give me some things he was interested in doing on this trip, that was his big want, and it was sweet because obviously I’d like it because SQUIRRELS and he was interested in it because NATURE and who cares if Henry wanted to go because we were going. End of story.
Of course, there was a fight betwixt Henry and Chooch over how exactly to get there. Chooch was like, “We have to take the Blah Blah Bus” whatever that means, so we walked to the bus stop and waited.
This lady ended up getting super flustered and scolding Chooch in Finnish for not flagging down the bus, like any of us knew we had to do that and if she knew it, why didn’t she flag one for the team?!
(At least, I think this is what was happening. Maybe she was just angry at the bus driver and was trying to commiserate with us about it?!)
It turns out the next bus wasn’t going to come for quite a while so Chooch was like, “We can walk to another stop and get a street car” or something, I don’t know, it was two months ago at this point and I was sick, if you recall.
So we got on a street car / tram / trolley whatever it’s called and about 5 minutes in, I started having A COUGHING FIT totally reminiscent of all the times I would be on the T going to work and I dunno if it was the dry air or what but sometimes I would get a TWINGE in my throat that was uncontrollable and this was well before COVID but even still I didn’t want to be That Disgusting Person hacking away in an enclosed space so I would get off the T waaaaay before I was supposed to and walk the rest of the way to work.
Because I’m neurotic.
Anyway, this happened that morning and I was like WE HAVE TO GET OFF OF THIS THING ASAP and I practically pitched myself headfirst out of the door.
We were right by some mall thing so we went in there and found a pharmacy where I bought cough syrup and allergy medicine. There are the exciting and exotic details of my life that you came here for.
Coughing fit quelled, we got on the SUBWAY/TRAIN whatever they call it there and took it to Senate Square! Actually, we just took it “near the water” because I wanted to go where all of the local vendors are, but we ended up accidentally running into Senate Square. We’ll just pretend it was part of the plan.
There was a little cafe there so we bought cafe and sat down to eat the donuts we bought on a whim from a donut kiosk in the subway station. They were good!
This might have been one of the only days that I left for the day with NO JACKET. Just me and the NCT U shirt on my back.
Chooch racing the little brother he obtained somewhere along the way.
I wanted Henry to take our picture here but then some guy was I WILL TAKE ONE OF THE WHOLE FAMILY and I was like, “Oh. I mean, OK sure, yeah. How…nice.”
I wanted an obnoxious filter and I got it.
Being out in the fresh air was definitely helping me feel better, that’s for sure. I’m pretty sure I get sick every time we go somewhere longer than a weekend.
More later!