Day 8 to Day 10 - 28/3~30/3 - Last Two Days, and Home Sweet Home

Reko and I had this day to ourselves, because we needed to do some last minute shopping and to meet a mutual friend of ours.

We got up early in the morning, and the first place we went was actually Helsinki Cemetery. It was a bit out of the way and inaccessible, as we had to walk quite far from the Helsinki train station. Nevertheless, we managed to get there without getting lost. In case you are wondering what I am doing at a cemetery in Finland, I'll let you know that we were paying our respects to his Dad.

I probably hadn't really mentioned about it much, but Reko's Dad had contracted cancer before Reko came over to Singapore for his studies. I told him to stay with his Dad and postpone his classes here, but both his Dad and himself didn't want to, because there's absolutely no clear indication as to when his Dad will get better, or worse. And so he came here for studies... and while he was here, his Dad's condition got worse... and eventually he passed away. Reko was devastated, and to be honest, I don't think that I had done a good job in consoling him. I was feeling guilty myself, because after all, I'm part of the reason why he is here instead of being back in Finland. I felt guilty for being the reason why his Dad wasn't able to see Reko in his last moments... Well Reko didn't allow me to be guilty as he said it wasn't my fault, and since this matter is over, I shall not dwell on it anymore.

Yeah in any case, we went to the cemetery to visit his Dad's grave. The cemetery itself was huge, and we got in from the wrong entrance, and thus we had to walk one big round to get to the other side of the cemetery where Reko's family grave was at. It was a peaceful and quiet stroll. Apart from some birds singing and the ice crunching under our feet, there was almost no other sounds. I was unnaturally silent, as I started to wonder how different would this trip be, if his Dad was still around. I would very much like to meet his Dad and to talk with him, but unfortunately I didn't had the chance to. As we stood in front of the tombstone, which was almost half-covered under the snow, I wondered if he would hear me if I talked to him there and then. But I didn't really have the time to talk to him either, as Reko told me that we could go after he had finished lighting the candles. And so, standing there for barely 10 minutes, we left the candles (in containers, of course) burning in the snow, and slowly trudged back to the cemetery exit. On the way back to Helsinki central, we talked about how different our cultures are, when it comes to funerals and such.

While looking for a place for lunch, we went past this relatively new shopping centre, Kamppi. We decided to pop in and take a look at what restaurants they had there, and imagine my surprise when I see the below cafeteria:

Interesting... yes? =D Of course, I went in to try! My first question to the Asian-looking lady at the cashier was "Are you from Singapore??" Unfortunately, my exuberant question was met with a flat, unfriendly "No". Feeling somewhat deflated, we looked at the menu and Reko ordered its Beef Kway Teow, while I ordered Nasi Goreng. It's freaking expensive, with each set (it came with drinks) costing EUR9.90... that's almost S$20!!

Reko got his kway teow first, which looked surprisingly similar to what we had here in Singapore. Plenty of beansprouts, with some green leafy vegetables stir-fried together with it. And it smelled nice too!

When my Nasi Goreng came, it was with a bigger surprise.

Did you see that spoon there (on top of the banana-leaf plate)?! XD The lady actually gave me a spoon together with the dish! She must have heard my complaint about spoons, and promptly provided me one! A quick check around the other tables, all other customers who ordered Nasi Goreng were eating with either chopsticks or fork, and none of them were using spoons. I felt so special! Not only that. Shortly a while after my dish was served, the lady came back again and put three plastic containers in front of me: A Kikkoman light soy sauce, "cooked" chilli with lots of chilli oil, and raw chilli padi! The lady must have guessed that I'm from Singapore, and she must have thought that I'm just a typical Singaporean, who can't live without chilli. Haha, unfortunately this Singaporean doesn't know how to take spicy food! But I thanked her profusely for going all the way out for me, and I obligingly tried the cooked chilli. It was really fiery hot! Good thing I just had a small dab of it on top of a huge spoonful of rice, so it wasn't too bad. Haha! But overall it's perhaps the best Chinese food I've tasted in Finland, and the best prepared rice too.

Reko's Beef Kway Teow tasted slightly different from ours here, but it's still pretty much okay. The serving was very huge too, and I couldn't finish up my rice. But it was good, and well I guess it's the closest "Singapore" food that I can get in Finland. xP

We were supposed to meet our friend at 3pm over at Fazer's cafe, and we had barely an hour left for souvenior shopping after the lunch. We rushed over to Stockmann for a quick look, and I bought several reindeer plushies and Finland keychains for my colleagues and buddies. We managed to reach Fazer cafe by 3pm, and our friend reached at the same time as us, so we kinda bumped into each other at the entrance. XD

And yes, this friend of ours is none other than Joni, better known as "Joni-San" in the game Ragnarok Online. XD Reko and I got to know each other over the same game, and that's how I befriended Joni too. Both of them were inseparable (almost) in the game when I first knew them, so they were really pretty close friends. That's quite a rarity itself for Reko, because he's a guy with very little friends. So I insisted on meeting up with Joni during this trip, so that they could meet as well and catch up with each other.

When he's online, Joni could be quite sarcastic at times, and funny, and always trying to fool around. In real life, he wasn't any different! He laughed a lot, and he chatted a lot too, though not with me. XD I figured Finns are rather reluctant to speak in English, so after a short chat with him, I promptly kept quiet and let the two guys bantered to their heart's fill in Finnish. And honestly, I didn't feel out of place at all. xD It was weird. Even though I couldn't understand a single word that they said, I don't feel being neglected or anything like that. I'm actually glad that Reko was talking that much. He only talked that much when he's with his family or with me, but never with anyone else. So I'm glad he could really talked with Joni. =D

Joni was surprisingly cute-looking in person too. I've seen his photos before, but they were always either of his side view or of him with some funny weird facial expressions. I was slightly taken aback at how boyish he looked when I first saw him. Unfortunately, for the interested girls out there, I forgot to take a photo with him!! Gah, can't believe I actually forgot about it. He even took the same train with us when we were heading back home, and I had so much time to remember, but I forgot! Bleh. Oh well, maybe next time! He said he might be coming to Singapore for a summer vacation. =D So let's cross our fingers and hope that he would really come, and then I'll take photos of him so that you girls can take a look! (See, I'm so nice. =X )

When we went back to his place, I was introduced to his brother-in-law, Timo. He doesn't really speak English, so I didn't really get to chat with him. My impression of him is that he was a very quiet guy, and with quirky sense of humour every now and then. I'm not sure if I'm right about him, or course, as Reko hardly talked about his brother-in-law in front of me anyway. But well, he seems like a nice person to me.

After his mom's home-cooked dinner, I went back up to the room and started to pack, as we would be flying back the next day. While I was packing, Reko suddenly came in with a huge print out of the photo which he had taken of us in his hotel room, way back in year 2005 when he first came to Singapore to meet me (and my parents). Before I could ask him why he printed such a big copy, he told me, "This is my Dad's. I kept it after packing his stuff from his place." (His parents were divorced and his Dad lived alone at another place.) I was dumbfounded. Apparently, his Dad had printed a photo of us and placed it on his wall... he must have looked at it plenty of times when he missed his son. He probably would be thinking to himself that his son was very happy here in Singapore with this girl, and that's the best he could wish for his own son. He must have had those thoughts even though he was in pain. My heart almost broke when Reko told me that his Dad had it up there on his wall all these while. Then Reko's mom called to him, and he left me alone in the room to continue with my packing. My heart felt a lot heavier, and I wondered what I had been doing all these while. While his Dad had believed that his son was happy here, I had (somewhat) mistreated him by throwing tempers and fits at him, being unreasonably demanding and stubborn... and all these times, he gave in to me.

I'm sure his Dad believed that his son would be happier with that girl in the picture... and I vowed to myself that I will stop being so temperamental and unreasonable towards Reko from then on. (I believed I had somewhat kept to my promise since we came back from this Finland trip!) I hope I will change for the better, be a more considerate and loving girlfriend, not just for the two of us, but also for his Dad -- I want things to be the way his Dad had believed in, till his very last breath.

We spent a relatively quiet morning, and Reko left with his mother, sister and brother-in-law to go over to his mom's workplace for a quick visit. I opted to stay at home because I needed to wash my hair. Okay, that sounded like a weird excuse, but it really wasn't an excuse. I really needed to wash my hair, because I would be spending one and a half day on the planes, and I really didn't want to travel with oily hair and itchy scalp. And if I washed my hair, I shouldn't get out in the open with my hair still wet because... it's unadvisable to do so. My hair (or brain) might freeze. Or so Reko said. Since I don't use hairdryer, the only option was for me to stay at home. And so I did.

They came back really fast, and after lunch, we did a last minute thorough check before we left. His mother and sister were of course reluctant to see him go, but his mother said that she would be coming over to Singapore this September (or October?) if she misses him too much. xD

We took Finnair to Bangkok, where our connecting Thai Airways flight to Singapore was cancelled. -_- We were re-scheduled to board the next Thai Airways plane which was about four hours later than the one we were supposed to board. And thus, we were forced to spend a four-hours transit at the spanking new Bangkok airport, that was disgustingly hot. I really didn't know if the sun was just too strong, or that the air-conditioning sucks. Instead of a central cooling system, they had these "standing" air-con "pillars" that were placed randomly at certain points. Reko found one while on his way to the Gents, and we got stuck in front of one for a good ten to fifteen minutes or so. It was really just too warm!

We finally managed to board the plane at 4pm in the afternoon, and while we were reaching Singapore, I looked out of the window and saw a lot of lightning flashes within a humongous thunder cloud that was pretty near our plane. The view was spectacular, yet scary at the same time. I was half afraid that our plane might have to pass through that cloud. Haha. Thankfully, it didn't, and we reached Changi Airport, safe and sound.

After spending about 8 days in Europe (excluding the days on flights), after boarding 6 different planes within 10 days, I'm finally back home. Where it's eternally warm and humid.

I'm missing Finland and its cool weather already.

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