Saying Hei Helsinki, Again!

I can travel through my travel pictures. Such a mind I enjoy. Every time I feel that urge of packing my bags and leaving the mundane behind, I open my photo albums and get lost in them, literally. I have travelled a lot, not enough to pen a ‘Lonely Planet’ but certainly more than what just 3-decades of shamelessly indulgent existence deserves. Hyperbolically speaking, my photo collection can make a ring around the Moon and make astronauts feel Saturn is closer home. Really!  

Lately, on an unusual day of trying to feel constructive, I started labelling old pictures and shoe-boxing them in the right categories for ease of search. That’s when I came across old pictures of our Helsinki-Stockholm trip from some years back. Forgetting what I had set out to do, my grey matter started itching to remember the little Finnish I had learnt for the trip. To God Mr. Google I instantly prayed for some help and found my answers.

I looked at the basic phrases of Finnish on this British site. With a smile I remembered how everyone smiled when I tried to pronounce “Anteeksi, missa on WC?” (Excuse me, where’s the toilet?). Being 7 months pregnant meant frequent nature calls and the sub-zero temperatures did not let you hold it in too long either. Even as I scanned the list for all the mispronunciations a human being is capable of, I kept going back to the blue-and-orange Yatra.com advert banner flashing before my eyes. It seemed to be saying to me what Oscar Wilde wildly said once – The best way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it. Was this tempting 'Hurry!' a Happy Coincidence asking me to do just that - give in? 

Past Tense 

I was in Helsinki for Christmas holidays in 2010. Call it a cross between a honeymoon and a baby shower, if you please. It was the closest I have lived to the Arctic Circle and very exciting. Exciting because at 9 am the Sun used to make an attempt to rise behind the snowy clouds and at 3:30 pm it was gone. Did that mean it was time for dinner and bed in the afternoon? No sir, no way! The city kept awake, of course. Wrapped up like onions and with my belly full of baby, we used to walk the streets every night, me and my husband. The smell of snow, of Christmas lights adorning every corner and the ‘Hei’ generously shared with strangers on festively high spirits, literally, made us go wow at every turn. We saw all important sites of Helsinki on foot, night-after-night. In the day we slept like owls. We even took an over-night cruise to gamble away our hard-earned money on the Baltic, only to enjoy old Stockholm’s charm on empty pockets but wide-eyes the next day.  

The Finnish are impressive personalities, with lovely cheek bones, jaw lines and eyes which remind you of blue lagoons, albeit at a height of nearly 6 feet. I made sure I got an eyeful (and I am sure Mister did too) only because when pregnant, you should look at nice-looking things and no other. We ate everything from shark to boiled beetroot to our comfort food in foreign climes called McDonald's and Subway. The water went from spring to mineral to sparkling to I-just-want-the-normal-purifier-water, someone? Pregnancy hormones behaved themselves, the baby kicked in glee eating all that fruit yogurt and Mister and I got a good one week to hold hands in abundance and answer the ‘boy or girl?’ questions of kind passers-by with a shrug of our shoulders, but a heart full of anticipation.

On one such night, when the 20 layers of clothing on our bodies could not hold out the minus 20 degrees of wind blowing and we desperately looked for a coffee shop to revive our frozen ribs, we came by a warmly lit-up baby shop. It was our last night of the holiday and as we peeped inside at the prams and strollers, we swore to ourselves, right there, that we will get our little one to Helsinki and Stockholm one fine day. To tell him how, at 28 weeks, he had added to the beauty of our experience manifold!  

Present Tense 

The advert on the Finnish language site that seemed to be Coincidence's doing was to be the catalyst for keeping my promise to my little one. I rubbed clicked on the magic lamp link and a genie seemed to start a chain reaction of click after click leading to a ‘booked’ for the December that is to come. Not having planned and booked my family’s travel on my own before, I had no idea about the how and why of doing it all online. But a desire to throw a surprise for the boys and being wildly led by what Wilde said, I thought why not.

I was bent on planning everything to the T, to ensure that my holiday is speed-breakers free. I wanted to ensure a wallet-friendly package, hassle-free booking procedure and everything delivered as promised on the site. I also wanted to leave no stones unturned or no other site unchecked before doing my fare comparisons. And the last thing I wanted to see? A message that read ‘page expired’ or ‘session ended’ as my bank balance decreased even as the transaction failed over a sad server connection. With this baggage of expectations I entered the advert and keyed in my expected dates of travel.   

This indeed took just a few seconds and the confidence ringing through the ‘best international flight combinations for you’ made me very confident in turn. An array of flights found and the competitive rates to grab right before my eyes. A quick calculation of budget and time zone difference away, my flight was ready to take-off with me and my family. Next came the hotel booking, especially important since a week is not a short duration. Will I have to sell off my car to afford it? Or my house? I mused. The filters helped me find the one that fit the family income as well as my specifications of facilities, especially since I was to have a toddler in tow. The detailed advanced search for short-listing hotels was a breeze.  

 And eureka! Yatra.com seemed to have read my mind! Radisson Blu Royal Hotel , where we had stayed the last time around too, popped up as I entered my requirements. And when I saw a Smart Deal offer on the hotel of my choice, I quickly added a few extra items to my long shopping list because now I could afford to - thanks to the sudden windfall of another happy Smart Coincidence! 

I was a happy (and confident) traveller already, as I “travelled” on Yatra.com and finalized the formalities. Like I said, I had never booked a holiday single-handedly before. But now I know, that if this is the site you too choose for your travel plans, you need not worry about failed transactions, online banking security, sorry speed of servers, limited options to choose from and hidden catches waiting like a trap. Yatra.com is a different experience altogether.

Future Tense

I sit enjoying my Pre-travel Happiness High, for I know already that I have ensured a well-planned and comfortable trip to Helsinki for my beau, my boy and myself. And what begins so well, can only grow to be even better. Happy Travellers we shall surely be. I always wanted to scream “Olemme takaisin, Helsinki” – We Are Back, Helsinki. And this time around we will be three. But shh! That is just a little secret between you, me and my genie.   

[Post written for 'Creating Happy Travellers' hosted by IndiBlogger in association with Yatra.com]