We went back to the market square and went on the boat to svomenlinna island. Leo thought his ancestors may have worked on the island and he wants to see it. Watched a movie about the history of the island in the museum. It was actually very interesting to me. They had parties for the officers and their families on the island. It is not a big island and I can’t picture how they can fit the elaborate parties. Afterwards, we walked around a bit more, took lots of pictures and came back to the market square. Had lunch at Penisulla, a Chinese restaurant. There was a big group of Chinese that stayed in the same hotel and happened to be at that restaurant also. They kept the serving staff busy and they seemed to have a very high standard for their food. We saw the serving staff bringing big dishes back from their room to the kitchen as rejects. One of them actually showed up at our table as a freebie for us because they want to apologize for the slow service for our order. They didn’t say it was a reject from the other room, but we knew. It was called “Eggplant Dragon”. It was breaded and deep fried and looked like a dragon. That night, I had stomach problem because I ate too much of it. Maybe there was a reason for the reject.
When we got back, Leo went back out trying to find a Starbucks to look for a mug for Tom, but arrived 15 min after they closed. He came back empty handed. There are actually only two Starbucks in Finland. One in Helsinki and one in its airport we found out. They planned to go to an italian restaurant for dinner, but Dale didn’t want to go and I was going to skip it because of my stomach problem, so Leo and Deborah decided to eat at the hotel restaurant again. Leo came back to ask if I want to join them there, I decided to go and enjoy their company. Lo and behold, the Chinese party was there too. And they were doing the usual salute with each other over and over again. Each time, they had to stand up to cheer and drink their booze. It went on and on and on. Always a different combination of people standing up and saluting to each other. This time, we didn’t get any reject from their table.
I had a small appetizer and a drink, we talked till 11:30. There was still light outside and we didn’t realize it was that late already. It was an experience to have light till the wee hours of the day, you tend to stay up later thinking it is still early. This was a full day and fun too.