I enjoy walking. Not trains, or planes or automobiles.

              I have just arrived in Helsinki, Finland and come to the conclusion that as far as methods of transportation come, I enjoy walking. Most of you who know me also know that I don't particularly like flying. In fact a few of you have had your hand crushed during turbulence and, massive apologies go out to the many strangers who have been seated next to me. Seeing a 22 year old girl adjust to a sort of fetal position while seated, blasting her "Airplane Mix" music and furiously sudoku-ing must be an odd sight to see. I also don’t particularly enjoy buses that careen down mountain paths - or up them for that matter. (Shout out to Jeff who covered my eyes when I tried to calculate how long a drop it would be if we were to go off the edge of the hill in Panama.) I much prefer my feet as transportation. If I could walk from New York to London I would.
              That said, however, last night I took a boat from Stockholm to Helsinki and it was actually a lot of fun. AND before that I took a short flight from Oslo to Stockholm and actually enjoyed take-off and landing. I know, CRAZY! Even though the deicing of the wings preflight wasn't the best, I honestly didn't hate the whole flight. The reason for this is, one, before flights I always stay up really really late so that I'm just absolutely exhausted once I board the plane making my body force me to go to sleep, and two, because I think that I getting used to flying again. The fact that the view from the plane was absolutely breathtaking definitely didn't hurt either. The pine trees covered in snow made me feel like I was in a fairy tale.
             Now when I got onto the boat last night, I didn't think that I was going to have that big of an issue. My family has always had a boat, I know how to drive our boat, I've been on an overnight boat once before from Athens to Crete, and I really do enjoy the water. In fact, I didn't have issues with the trip, and was actually the only one out on deck in the wind. Pretty chilly but also very pretty. My roommate Linda, however, who was a very nice woman from Finland studying in Germany, did not enjoy the trip. She had previously warned me that she might be reading the entire night, and was hoping that it wouldn't disturb me. I assured her that it wouldn't, and thus followed a long in depth conversation about why she didn't like boats, and why I didn't like.... well basically everything else. After going to dinner, and doing some roaming of the ship we both decided to go to bed.
               For the past few nights I had stayed up pretty late in Oslo, so even though I tried to go to sleep, it just wasn't happening for me. After about an hour of lying there, the boat began to rock considerably. Each rock of the boat was followed by a short vibration of my bunk and a sound of the engine. I couldn't help but start laughing. It was just such an awkward movement to be feeling followed by this type of snoring sound. It was hilarious! Linda, however, realized that I was awake and so we turned on the lights and starting talking again. I noticed that she kind of cringed with each sound of the engine, and felt badly for her. Most of us know what it is like when you're uncomfortable traveling, and it really helps to have a distraction. Hence my airplane music mix and the sudoku. I suggested that we make a night of it and watch a movie on my computer. She immediately perked up, got really excited and ran upstairs to the tax free shopping to purchase some Finnish chocolate, chips and peanuts.
            Once Linda returned we settled into a good old-fashioned movie night, and as far as I could tell, she forgot about the ship. About an hour into the movie the ship settled down, and about 15 minutes after that the engine was no longer making the snoring like noise. We stopped the movie about half way through, and with our second attempt both successfully went to sleep.
            This morning we pulled into port an hour late due to the stormy seas, but Linda and I were no worse for the wear. She kept thanking me for the impromptu movie night, and insisted that I keep the unopened chocolate and other goodies. She also walked me to Helsinki Central Station where I was to meet my couchsurfing host. We exchanged contact information, and I’ll give her a call when I head to Germany in six months. I’m really happy that I met her, and also it made me realize how nice it was to help someone with a little gesture of friendship. The movie wasn’t that big a deal for me, but for her it was, and I know how big a deal it is for me when those around me try to put me at ease.
            Anyways, hopefully I’ll continue on this getting used to flying thing, and I’ll try to avoid buses that use sketchy mountain passes. That way I can focus on the beautiful things surrounding me because they are what is worth my energy - and feeling like I’m going to fall out of the sky is not.