Turku, Finland

I may not have the same crazy and horrifying stories, but traveling in this part of the world is just so easy and enjoyable. This morning I walked 90 seconds from my hotel to the Central Railway Station, bought a ticket for a train leaving in less than an hour from a lady who spoke flawless English, and less than two hours later I was in Turku. Smooth. It was one of the nicest trains I had ever been on, and pre-recorded announcements were made in Finnish, Swedish and English. There is a Swedish speaking minority in Finland and Swedish is an official language. All signs are written in both languages. This can actually be confusing because the Swedish names for things bear absolutely no resemblance to their Finnish counterparts. For example, the city I´m in right now is Turku in Finnish but Abo in Swedish. All street signs are in both languages as well, and the Swedish is usually some completely different name that I can't imagine how they came up with unless they were just trying to be annoying. I just bought a ticket for the overnight ferry to Stockholm tomorrow night. The chick at the ticket office was very amused at the part of my California drivers license which read "Age 21 in 2008." She said it was the first time she had seen anything like that, and that it was a good idea. Finlandia vodka is everywhere in this country and it's very good. It is not, however, the traditional liquor of the land. That would be Koskenkorva or something like that, which is like vodka but technically not vodka for some reason. It's pretty harsh but not that bad. Everybody really loves heavy metal here. Crazy shit.

One month ago I was in Dubai.
Two months ago I was in Cairo.