it all started when we boarded a flight from chiang mai to bangkok.
that was kinda like an appetiser.

and we had like 5 hours to wait at suvarnabhumi airport. my parents ditched me to the lounge they had access to through credit cards. obviously, i was too young to have one and i stayed at starbucks, my favourite spot  at the airport. i ordered a cup of coffee nut latte and a crappy sandwich and settled there. i read a book from dad's iPad, it was me before you, the book of my iceland trip.

then we boarded the second flight to hong kong, that was a bowl of soup.

two hours with cathay pacific was still alright, but eleven hours with finnair wasn't a pleasant one.

my main course wasn't quite right.

first of all, the plane was very old. i wasn't sure if i had ever been on an airplane this old before. the screen was tiny and the seats looked old. i was lucky i sat next to an asian girl, and i thought she was too. the thought of sitting next to a huge westerner guy was quite scary.

for once, i was very satisfied with my short, tiny body.

then the dinner (or midnight meal?) was served. i was used to airlines that had a menu in the seat pocket, but this wasn't the case. the food was terrible. i know food on airplanes are always terrible, but that meal was extra-terrible. it was  some kind of chinese noodle with chicken, and the other choice was pasta.

when i slept that night, i woke up every hour to reposition myself because my legs hurt. but i did have quite a lot of sleep (for travelling with an airplane plane)

breakfast was another awful meal i hardly touched. but by that time i didn't care much because we almost landed to helsinki, which meant some real food were waiting for me out there!

the custom security wasn't complicated. the only thing was that we got into a wrong bus. instead of taking bus number 615 direct to the city centre, we got confused with bus number 620 which took like 15 minutes longer and stopped at every stop.

still, we got to the train station!

it was a cold day, and the sun didn't shine (as i hoped it would) we had some coffee and chocolate before we roamed the city.


the most impressive part we got to see of helsinki was probably the helsinki cathedral and senate square, which was very lovely (and abandoned, maybe we were too early). area around the habour was under construction. the market square was almost empty and i didn't know that we should go inside for the indoor market hall, which was a big miss.


what i liked the most in helsinki, however, was fafa's, the best falafel had ever eaten!

everything in helsinki was expensive, and it was impossible to compare it with germany, where falafel could never cost more than 5 euros (at least the one i have seen). here, a simple falafel with pita bread costed 7.5 euros, but it worth it, really. it was mouthwatering and simple amazing. AMAZING!

also, the design of the place was very chic. i got hooked with the cool takeaway that said 'if you can't stay, take me away' and stuck it on the cover of my journal.

we didn't stay in helsinki very long. in the end, we were too tired, too cold, had no energy to figure out what to do next, and it started raining. so we took (this time the right) bus back to the airpot.

there was wifi in the airport, and book swap. i took advantage of them both (though i found no books to swap with) and continued to read my ebook when i was bored. our dessert was on its way.

the last flight to iceland. finally!!


it was such a loooooooong journey and i felt like we would never arrive at our destination, and sometimes actually forgot what the destination was.

icelandair stated in the website that they serve no food and earphones are available for sale. (i thought that was quite shocking, but i was naive and haven'r yet seen a lot of this world) we bought some sandwiches before we boarded. the airplane was actually quite nice, with little lovely details like icelandic words and meaning on the headrest. the packaging of food and paper bag was also very creative (in comparison to other airlines where graphic design doesn't really play a role in it)


after about three and a half hours (which i spent watching little manhattan), we landed to keflavik…

it's about to begin!