One of the reasons to go to Helsinki was to pick up some documents that we will probably need en route. Our plan is to apply for a Chinese visa in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Unfortunately the Chinese embassy in Almaty wants the visa application form either in Russian or Chinese. So back home in France Pei helped us to pre-fill our visa application form in Chinese and sent it together with a letter of invitation written by her brother in China to the Amadeus office in Helsinki. Thanks Pei! I used the opportunity to meet and have lunch with my colleagues Ulla and Minna and say 'Hi' to other colleagues in Nice and Istanbul during a conference call. They were quite surprised to hear me :-)
Another reason to go to Helsinki was to meet up with Silja and Pekka who we had met when we had arrived in Finland four weeks ago. They had been on the Archipelago Ring bicycle tour and we had agreed to meet again in Helsinki. We went out for a coffee in a nice cafe with a beautiful look over a lake and had a really nice time hanging out and just chatting.
We were strolling in the city center of Helsinki on Wednesday and Thursday. The city was full with people and musicians performing in the streets. Great atmosphere! Helsinki is the prettiest city that we visited in Finland. So much as we loved it during summer, we wondered how it would be in Winter with minus 25°C and dark all the time..
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