After leaving the ferry we inmediately find an amazing cycling route into the city: the Baana, a former railway line. After a few kilometers we get waved down and end up in the middle of a Cycling promotion activity by the Dutch representation in Helsinki and find out it is Helsinki day (which explains why there were only 4 places to stay available on booking.com for Helsinki that night...), we also meet the Finnish Haase dealer and enjoy exchanging with other bike enthusiasts for a while. Crossing Helsinki by bike is easy, our hostel "sleep cheap" (a little over 50€ for 2 beds in a 24 bed dormitory - in most European countries we got a decent appartment for this price, we are completely spoilt by now...) proves a bit more challenging, but eventually I manage to check in and we postpone the question where to leave the bike until after our return. We have a date with my EKLIPSE colleagues Liisa and Riikka and want to meet them in the centre.

 

After waiting for a while I went into the building and found Riikka in a panel on nature-based solutions next to my ex-department member Christian Albert, organized by Chris Raymond as I find out minutes later. After greeting Eva Primmer as well and before becoming too involved in the topics, Riikka, Liisa, Andreas and I set out for a short stroll through Helsinki and to find a place for dinner. It is not so easy on Helsinki day we realize, but Liisa knows a nice Lebanese place and we chat all evening, a bit about EKLIPSE but much more about Finnland and where the best licorice ice cream is sold and how we best spend midsummer in Lappland. As always I really enjoyed the exchange with people I already know and it is great to learn more about their countries and backgrounds.

 

The night in the hostel yields hardly any sleep on my side: too stuffy, someone fell assleep with her light on, all night someone enters or leaves and the door shuts with a slight bang each time, other people have less troubles and snore happily around me....