Finland by www.born2travel.it

if you want to know more or see all the photos visit:

12. 01. 2000 Lahnajärvi (FINLAND) 'Are you Mark?' Here's the friendly Maaria! In her SAAB (there are lots of them here since it's a Swedish brand) we went to Helsinki. The first thing I noticed, driving along those roads that wound through veritable forests of very tall, snow-covered trees, was the long strip of asphalt with no snow, and so far... I couldn't understand how they managed to keep it clear of snow for kilometres and kilometres, especially considering we didn't pass a single snowplough. After joking a bit she reveals the secret to me: in Finland the roads are heated!!! When snow falls it melts at once! Mystery solved!

She took me around the historic centre. Perhaps it was the weather (of course it was snowing), perhaps because it was already dark, but I didn't see any monument that struck me particularly. Just lots of very pretty, colourful shopping centres; after all, they have to invent something to avoid staying outdoors in winter!

In the evening we go to her house. Very cosy and all in wood. Like the ones in cartoons. I liked it a lot, and her large family was very warm and kind to me.

[Maaria Sainio from Lahnajärvi, Finland]: 'Dear Mark, you really are even nicer than I thought. Thank you for visiting Finland, my land.'

13. 01. 2000 Vantaa (FINLAND) At 10.30 pm, dead tired, I decide to go to sleep. Maaria kept insisting on showing me where the bathroom was but I refused because I didn't need it! Big mistake! At exactly 3.30 am I wake with a start... I wander like a sleepwalker through the huge house in search of the WC. No use, I can't manage; do it outside? Not even the thought of it, I'd freeze to death!

Early in the morning she takes me back to the airport. How kind of her, it was lovely to see her. Francesco's plane has just landed, together with one arriving from Dubai. The first to come out are those from the Emirates. All tanned; one even comes out in flip-flops, with a cowboy hat and a Hawaiian T-shirt with big colourful parrots on it. 'Oh nice, but do you know where you've landed?' I would have liked to ask him...

Having met Francesco, we sit at the same little table that 'welcomed' us almost a month ago! He's right when he says it feels like only two days have passed! We tell each other everything that has happened. So many things have happened in this period, so many lovely memories, so many new experiences, new friendships, and now it's all already over, but with no regrets, only with the joy of having lived it all!

They're calling our flight. We're going home!