March 22, 1984. Hello, right now I'm traveling on a Russian train into Moscow. However, before I talk about Russia, I think I should start at the beginning of my day in Helsinki. I woke up at about 8 and had breakfast in the hotel. Mark and I started out towards the market and snapped a few shots of the train station which Saarinen designed, and then wandered around the streets and stores. [Editor's note: Saarinen also designed Cranbrook -- i.e., my high school -- and the similarities are striking, as anyone who has seen the tower on the Cranbrook quadrangle could attest -- although for some reason I didn't note this at the time, perhaps because I was running a fever?]
The stores in Helsinki are pretty up-to-date and there are tons of people bustling around. We worked our way down to the marketplace. Situated by the sea, the marketplace resembles our farmer's market. There were many stands with flowers, vegetables and fish. Further down the way were more stands with furs, hats and touristy souvenirs. Mark and I started talking to a fur vendor and considered buying a reindeer skin for 220 marks (the exchange for today is 5.7 marks/dollar). However we walked further out from the city and saw the Greek Orthodox church.
The streets are fairly narrow and the buildings are not too tall, but they are very stylishly built, which gives the streets a very picturesque view. We came back through the market and temptation getting the better of us, we each bought a deer skin. [Ed. wtf?] We then took a trolley back to our hotel and had to take a full loop because we missed the first round. We finally made it back, however, and unrolled our skins.
Our our loop, by the way, we saw the sports complex where the Olympics and World Championships were held. Our skins were beautiful and they should be a big hit. I like it, anyway. Next we packed and ate lunch. I had stuffed cabbage, which was not the best, but it was an experience. After lunch, Mark went to a drugstore to get some medicine and then because we had one hour to spare we strolled through the art museum, which was nice but nothing spectacular.
We then went back to the hotel, caught our bus and went to the train station. We boarded the train and there were tiny rooms which held four of us -- two bunk beds, one on each side. I roomed with Mark, Kurt J___, and Danny L____. At the border of Russia, we had to fill out some forms of declaration. The Russian police checked each of our rooms and searched through all of the suitcases, although not very thoroughly. They didn't even check mine. It seems that it was more a show of power than anything. We played cards for a while. Earlier we had stopped at a Finnish restaurant for a snack. I had a hard sandwich. Much of the bread here is stale, crusty or hard.
We should arrive in Moscow by 9:00 tomorrow morning. By the way, Mitch F___ bought a fuzzy fur hat like all the men here wear. I personally think they're funny looking. I now have to sign off as I can't think of anything to say except it's terribly hot in the cabin.
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