Battered Mars bars and other delights of travelling

Having wept a little weep and packed my bags I staggered out of Swansea and found myself in Bromsgrove for a few days before flying out from nearby Birmingham. When I first heard the west midland accent on the train I was struck with a strong sensation of having left home and arrived in a foreign country! In Bromsgrove I was introduced to battered Mars bars (very sweet and gooey) and lovely locals who all vied to tell me what a horrible place their town was. What do you say to that? I haven't either lived there or met these people before so insulting someone's hometown - whether or not they are doing it themselves - can backfire on you. And in all honesty, as regards judging places purely on first impressions I have seen worse...

Birmingham International Airport is a lot less hectic than Heathrow and the police I saw were not carrying huge weapons either. I was asked to take off my shoes and they went through that machine along with my jumper and bag, but other than that getting through security was a breeze. I only had to wait until the boarding queue before hearing some Finnish too. It came in the form of a teenage girl who looked like she was from Sri Lanka and spoke perfect Finnish and broken English.

This is when all the unexpected things started to happen... Our plane got redirected to Billund - the opposite side of Denmark - due to a thunderstorm in Copenhagen and faulty weather radar/monitor/or some crucial equipment. It was a full three hour bus journey to the capital which meant I missed my connecting flight. I spent the bus journey sleeping, reading Catch-22, and counting windmills everytime I lifted my head to have a look outside.

At the airport I was booked into the next outbound flight to Turku, but 20 minutes before I was going to board it got cancelled. After much queuing and waiting (again) I was told I'd be staying the night in a nearby hotel and leave Copenhagen 2pm the next day. By that time I was quite looking forward to a meal and a bed so I wasn't too upset. And by this time a sort of comradeship had been struck up between other passangers in the same situation... I made friends with a German guy who was on his way to Turku for a term to study nordic languages at Åbo Akademi (the University my mother is doing her PhD at) and he was to live in Varissuo (which is where my family lived up until a few weeks ago). Monday morning the two of us went exploring in Copenhagen and saw impressive buildings, the Tivoli from the outside, and lots and lots of bikes. The cycle paths are amazing! And they were everywhere... We also managed to find a statue of Hans Christian Andersson with lots of tourists having their picture taken with him. I think it's brilliant that the Danish have a storyteller as their national hero!

As interesting as all that may have been I'm pleased to be back home. I feel like I'm on holiday (with the requisite lounging around and reading loads:)and I'll be splitting my time here between the flat in the centre of town and our house in the islands. Korpoo has a winter population of 800 people and a summer population of 10000 people, but as the schools have started back I'm hoping it won't be too busy... An open mind is the best travelling companion (I read somewhere). It definately helps when unexpected things turn up.