Finalin

In the fifth grade I began a short lived fascination with a country I had never really thought much about. A woman came into my class and gave a presentation about Finland and planted a desire in me to serve a mission to Helsinki. Being young and not knowing too much about the world outside of California I began referring to Finland as Finalin. The dream never materialized and over the years the desire of visiting Finalin gradually died.

Even the move to Scotland failed to rekindle the desire to make it to Finalin and as the months in Europe began to pile up it looked as if I would never make it to Scandinavia, let alone Finalin. But as luck would have it, I went searching on wikipedia for flights out of Edinburgh and found a cheap one to Copenhagen, Denmark. I purchased the ticket, knowing that I would have to go alone while Kristen studiously worked on her paper, and set about planning a lonely adventure.

I called my grandma a few days before leaving for Copenhagen and she reminded me of the family we have in Sweden. She told me to call them and see about arranging to meet up with them. I was a little apprehensive about my grandma's idea, as it had been over fourteen years since I had seen my family and we are third cousins, but thought it was better than spending three days alone. I shocked them by my phone call but after a few minutes they kindly invited me into their home to spend most of the weekend in Halmstad, Sweden.
Before arriving in Sweden, my grandmother called up Bodil ( my mother's second cousin) and made sure that I would have a chance to see all of the family history sites in Halmstad. Filippa, Bodil's daughter, and I share the same great-great-grandfather. Bodil is standing in front of what may be his grave, along with her fiance Boo.
This is the site where my great-grandfather's house stood before it burned down in the 80s. It was really neat seeing the places where my ancestors had come from and now that I'm old enough to understand the family history, it means a lot more. During the course of the trip I also saw where my great-great-grandmother taught in a two-room schoolhouse.

After visiting the family sites we headed to downtown Halmstad. This is Neptune's Clothespin, and of course, Filippa and I had to recreate our own version of it. I hadn't realized that Filippa was so near my age and it was really fun being able to get to know her as an adult while staying with her and Niklas, her fiance.

Halmstad from the nearby hills. The tall spire on the left side of the photo is from the church in the large square of the city. Bodil and Filippa said that Saturday is usually a great day to walk around and see the city at its busiest, but this Saturday the crown princess was getting married and the city shut down a little earlier than usual, even though the wedding was in Stockholm which is on the opposite side of the country.

Quite possibly one of the prettiest churches I've seen in all of Europe. It is an octagonal church and reminded me of a birthday cake.

Sadly all trips must come to an end and after three days it was time to say good-bye. For the last big event we went to the local castle and planned future get-togethers.

It was so much fun being with family and even though it wasn't "Finalin" I still had a wonderful time. Someday Kristen and I will return to Sweden and spend the Summer Solstice eating strawberries and cream down at the beach.

The trip didn't end there though, as I still had to catch a red-eye flight the next day. I caught the train from Halmstad and returned to Copenhagen in just enough time to see this:

I had always heard that the Christus in Salt Lake was a replica but had no idea where the original was from.

The best part about the church, which is also the main cathedral in Copenhagen, is the simplicity of it. The only pieces of art in the cathedral in addition to the Christus are statues of the twelve apostles, which line both sides of the nave.

After seeing the Christus I must have been inspired because I set out on a 30-minute walk to the Copenhagen Temple. It is a simple building and it really comes out of nowhere as you pass under an expressway and turn the corner.

The desire to see the city didn't end with the temple. I ended up wandering all around Copenhagen for five hours. It was my intent to become so exhausted that I would be forced to go to bed at ten o'clock and sleep like a rock in my hostel room along with 65 other people.

Copenhagen did not disappoint and I saw even more than planned. Nothing was open, as everything closes by 5 pm, so it gave me another reason to return.

My plan for sleeping worked and I woke up at four in the morning to enjoy the longest day of the year. Waking up at 4am is not something I suggest and as soon as I got back to the flat I laid down for a nap. It'd be cute to say that I dreamt of Finalin, but I was so tired I didn't dream at all.