Friendly Finns and Silent Snow

I just arrived at the airport, it’s almost 9, flight is at 2- so I’m only really like 3 hours early. I tried to hang around Helsinki for awhile to kill time- first trying to use the internet stations only to be scarred away by various drunks who were at the time trying to sober up by drinking juice which they just managed to spill everywhere. Then I went over the the mall that abby, susanna and I had walked through so many times to warm up – much more peaceful, but then some man came and sat near me and began speaking Finnish to me. I think he was asking when the stores would open- and I didn’t know so I just shrugged my shoulders which seemed to confuse him. I was then very aware of how quiet it was in that mall and decided that honestly it would just be less sketchy to hang out at the airport than anywhere else. The bus ride from the central train station was peaceful- I just sat with my headphones in and stared out the window at all the snow falling about and the people trudging through it. The bus was so quiet, like so much of Helsinki, at least in the winter; a sort of quiet that rests somewhere between majestically peaceful and eerily silent. It’s as if the world was sleeping and you feel like you shouldn’t waken it.

After finding a bench in the airport I remembered my frozen wet toes. I sat down and rummaged through my backpack for my slippers that Susanna had given me and proceeded to don them rather than the sodden boots. Going to repack my things I sort of stared dumbly at my wet boots wondering what exactly I would do with them when from behind me the man who worked at the Taxi call center across from my seat appeared with a large plastic bag. He held it out so I could put my boots inside and shocked at this friendly gesture I thanked him, he nodded and said something in finish and just smiled so warmly. I have now managed to find a bench downstairs hidden away, slippers slowly melting my toes.