DAY 3 - 8 JULY Suomenlinna, lunch in Market Square, Ainola, and the Glass Museum!

Everyone feels much better after a good sleep and a wonderful big breakfast! The whole group walked down to Market Square, oohing and aahing over the beautiful vegetables and berries for sale. A quick ferry ride to Suomenlinna, a fantastic sea fortress situated on several islands. After free exploring time, we took a guided tour to see the very old structures and walls, learn the interesting history of Swedish, Finnish and Russian control of the Fortress, view a huge dry dock where boats were built, and overlook a sweet little beach.

With Euros in pocket, everyone found lunch in Market Square at the many food stalls – salmon soup, fried herring, reindeer meatballs, juicy cherries, and yummy ice cream. Paige joined us in the afternoon, fresh off her long flight.

Our bus driver – also Pentti (Benedict in English) – was great, sharing interesting stories and fun Finnish words on the way to Ainola, the home of Jean Sibelius for most of his life. We learned about the colors Sibelius associated with keys – yellow and D Major, blue and A Major, red and C Major, green and F Major – and visited his grave.

Next was the Finnish Glass Museum, a fantastic collection of important examples of Finnish, Estonian, and Swedish glass artistry, as well as detailed displays of different glass production techniques. Many favorites amongst the Singers :) We spent a little time outside with some wonderful carved wood sculptures and little buildings.

Another dinner – with berry crepes! – at the hotel, followed by rehearsal in one of the conference rooms.

Very early tomorrow, we drive to Pärnu for the 6^th annual Europa Cantat junior Festival!

DAY 2 - 7 JULY Our first day in FINLAND! Helsinki sights

Amsterdam from the plane!

DAY 1 turned into DAY 2 quickly (heehee) while en route! Right after breakfast (in the middle of the ATL night, but 7AM in Amsterdam), everyone was getting excited…and ready to run for it, as the plane was late leaving Atlanta and getting into Amsterdam. Hilarious celebrity sighting: the Christian rock band PETRA was on our flight, sitting directly ahead of Ginny and on their way to a reunion tour in Sweden and Norway – “back to the rock.” As we flew below the cloud line, we saw lovely canals and lush green fields on the outskirts of the city. Check out Brianne's picture!

We only had a 1½ hour layover in the large spread out AMS airport, cut down to 45 minutes by late departure and 20 more minutes by deplaning from the back. After going through passport customs and security, we walked really fast and ran - KLM held the plane for us, and we had another smooth flight to Helsinki.

How exciting to be landing for the first time here - first time for AYS, first time for every one of us. The many little islands off Helsinki were visible from our plane windows. Our city tour guide Raila met us near the airport door! With Raila and our bus driver Pentti, we had our first official tour of the City Centre – Senate Square (including Alexandre II with a bird on his head), Olympic and hockey stadiums, the very cool Sibelius monument, the harbor, lovely churches, the beautiful train station, rug washing stations by the sea, and other sights.

Our hotel buffet dinner included 2 courses, lots of beverage choices, and options for everyone. After finding out that our luggage would get here between 9:00 and 11:30PM, we took a long walk (in broad daylight, by the way) to Stockmann’s department store (bigger than Harrod’s), the Orthodox church, and Market Square.

Off to sleep, dreaming of darkness ;)

DAY 1 – 6 JULY: ATLANTA YOUNG SINGERS off to Finland!

What great travelers our Singers are :) The flight to Amsterdam was good, if a bit sleepless. The flight attendants complimented their always lovely manners. En route, very close stars!

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