Return to Helsinki

I caught the intercity train to Helsinki on Thursday. This is allegedly the slow train, but it splits the countryside at about 100 mph. From my window seat I feel like I'm hurdling back through time, seeing areas that took me days to bike through flash by in seconds. The scraggly shrub birch of Lapland is replaced by the giant (they seem giant to me now) birch. It's the spruce that are scraggly now. The land opens into many farms with hay neatly shrink wrapped in white. The bales resemble marshmellows lined up waiting for the roast. We cut through cloudbursts, sunbursts and at last we slow and approach Helsinki. The sun has broken through the clouds. The golden light shines off the Olympic stadium tower, Finlandia Hall and the golden domes of Upenski Cathedral glisten. I gather my stuff and ride to the harbor where I'm greeted by a rainbow framing the bay against a backdrop of tumultous clouds and shafts of sun. And then a strange thing happens. It gets dark. The moon and stars come out, the first time I've seen the night sky.

The ride is over. It's time to go home.