One of the things that caught my eye was this young woman walking her cat like a dog. You can't really tell from this picture, but the cat below is on a leash. And it strolled right by me next to it's owner just a dog would. I was so surprised I had to snatch out my camera, turn around, and take a picture.
Another interesting thing was this thing. It's not a statue, it's not a monument, I'm not sure what it is. But it was in the middle of a pedestrian street a few blocks from my hotel. I liked the sense of whimsy it conveys, given that there is nothing else near it that even hints of a similar attitude.
Another thing that caught my eye was this giant mushroom-shaped thing. I took this picture from the ferry while on the way to Suomenlinna. And I saw a similar structure in a different part of town while riding the metro. They look like gigantic cement radio telescopes to me, but it turns out these are water towers. These are way cooler than anything I have seen in the U.S.
Also from my trip to Suomenlinna on the ferry is this picture of the seagulls, following along hoping for food to show up on deck or in the water.
One of the highlights of my visit was to go to the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) world championships on Saturday and watch Team USA play Austria. Here is a picture of my ticket.
While enjoying my first live ice hockey in years, I was pleasantly surprised to see form San Jose Shark Matt Carle on the ice as one of the assistant captains.
That is the last of the pictures, but I thought I would close out with the story of my trip back to Poland. As they say, things did not go according to plan.
My itinerary was to fly from Helsinki to Munich via Lufthansa, and the catch the last flight of the night from Munich to Poznan. My flight from Helsinki left about 35 minutes late due to a delay in arriving, but I had about a 1.5 hour buffer in Munich, so I figured no big deal.
Then, probably half-way through our flight a stewardess gets on the announcement system and asks if there is a doctor on board, as another passenger has had a serious seizure. "Is there a doctor on board?" Just like you see in the movies.
I thought it might be allergy related and offered up my Epi-pen to the stewardess, but she said it was something else, possibly epileptic in nature. Luckily, there was a nurse or doctor on board, as a lady went back and helped the cabin crew. We could feel that the plane had sped up quite a bit, so we assumed they were rushing to get to Munich.
Seemingly a short time later, the seat belt lights go on and we are asked to prepare to land. But only after we have landed are we told that we landed in Dresden, not Munich.
After offloading the passenger who had the seizure so that he could be taken to the hospital, we refueled and took off for Munich. We were short 2 passengers, as in addition to the gentleman who had the seizure, there was actually one person on board who was connecting through Munich to Dresden (the only lucky passenger on board).
Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Munich I had missed my flight to Poznan and nearly every other passenger who was flying on had missed their connection. Some folks were delayed for at least a day, and on person who was flying to China was delayed for 2 days.
Luckily, I just had to stay overnight and catch a flight the next day. Unfortunately, they didn't pull any of our checked baggage, which meant no toothbrush or clean clothes. Unhappily, they put me in a Holiday Inn Express near the end of the runway that had the hardest pillows I have ever encountered. They were so hard they actually gave me a headache, and were probably only slightly softer than wood.
Eventually, I arrived back in Poznan on Monday afternoon. The trip was great, until the end. And if I were at all philosophic, that would seem like a great metaphor for life. :)
Have a great day!
FYI, all the pictures from my vacation that are OK will end up on my photo site, even if they aren't posted here in the blog. So check them out there if you want.
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