Journey and Finland Day 1

Greetings everyone, I arrived safe and sound in Finland around 23:00 local time Friday night, but not after a long, tiring journey. The flight from Houston to Frankfurt went smoothly, as Lufthansa is always the best in the air. I had an interesting conversation with an Egyptian family in my row. During my 8 hour layover, I rode the train into town wandered around the city centre for a while. I was impressed with the diversity in the area, I suppose it is because Frankfurt is an international banking centre. The train station was amazing, it reminded me of Union Station in St. Louis. The state of cleanliness of the downtown left much to be desired, though.

Once I made it back to the airport, I came across something I had been warned about in TU's Global Education pre-departure orientation but had swept under the rug thinking it would only happen in lesser-developed nations. Yep, a full-fledged political demonstration turned riot. Hundreds of police were struggling to restrain thousands of demonstrators (some dressed in clown outfits). I still haven't figured out what it was all about, but I steered clear, per orders from the CGE. After that mess, and past security (which is much less militant than in the States), I had to walk about 3 miles (or so it seemed) to the gate for my flight to Copenhagen. It was a short flight, but I made some small talk with a Chemistry professer in Denmark, who happened to be from Spain. Once I arrived at CPH, I walked approx. 50 metres to my next flight (thank goodness, I was tired). The flight to Helsinki was uneventful and customs was nonexistant, but it took forever to retrieve my luggage. I'll post some pictures from FRA if when can figure out how to do so.

FYI Post times are US, Central time, GMT-6. I am 8 hours later in Finland, GMT+2.