Eugene Cordell Vail
Helsinki, Finland Temple Dedication Trip
Day 8 - 24 Oct 2006

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be sure to hit REFRESH on each page each time you come again
because if you don't, you will only see what was here before,
and I am adding things daily!


This is the main Post Office in Hyvinkää. I remember going in that very building many many times in 1964 to mail things
home and buy stamps. It looks just the same as it did then.


I went in the Hyvinkää rail road station and was so thrilled to see these old fire places. Most every where we lived
43 years ago our apartments were heated by these fire places. I doubt they still use these but I was thrilled to see
them still be there in the train station just like they were when I left years ago.


One of the great treats of my whole trip was to find one of the families I knew before. They were teenage kids when I was there.
Just a little younger than us. The family was very dear friends to us. The parents have passed away but one of the sons still lives
in the old house. I have so many memories of this house. He was not home. I was very disappointed to not be able to go inside.
This is us standing in front of the home where they used to live 43 years ago.. What wonderful friends they are to me. I was so thrilled
to find them again and even more thrilled that they could understand my Finnish. We spent the whole evening together. Tapio
drove us all around Hyvinkää so I could see it again. I have so many memories of that town and riding around on my bike.






It was almost dark when we finally got to their old original home where they lived in 1964.
So the pictures are a little dark. This house looks exactly like it did back then. What a thrill to see it.



Let us never forget the SAUNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Up the hill behind the house were some beautiful woods. We used to go up this hill on our free day to just walk around.


They even took me back up on the hill where the whole floor of the forest is covered with blueberry bushes.
I never eat blue berries that I don't think of that forest behind the house and all the hours me an my companion
Rock Zane Taylor spent there on our free days. Being there was like waking up in one of the many dreams that I
often have about that place.


She is holding one of those famous little blue berry bushes. They are just every where on the floor of the forest.
and in the spring they are covered with blue berries.


Their mother used to always sit just inside this window in the front room when we came to visit her. I was so
disappointed that the son was not home so I could have seen that room again. I know it like my own front room, we were
there so many times.



They now have a LDS beautiful chapel in Hyvinkää


It was dark by the time we got there so it doesn't show up much in this picture. Great improvement from that old blue bank we met in.


Then we all went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Even got the cook in the picture.

An the waitress. They don't speak finnish but do speak
English so we were able to order just fine.


Mean while back in Savio where I was staying with Sister Häkkinen. Here is the computer that I was using. It still has a dial up connection so
it took about 20 minutes to send one email. But it worked and it let me send my journals home every day so I did not lose them.
For that I was very thankful.


I wanted to give Sister Häkkinen something really nice for letting me stay with her. So before I left I decide the most valuable thing that
I could give her was a 72 hour emergency kit. So I gave her my back pack which has wheels on it like a luggage cart. Then I filled
it with every thing I could think of she would need. Dry food and water. First Aid supplies. Space blankets, Hat, gloves, scarf, rain coat, flash light,
batteries, whistle, compass, Swiss knife, Leatherman tool. Then I asked her to take the plastic bags I left in it and put a copy of
her birth certificate and other important papers she might need, some cash money and shoes. I pretty well had everything else she
needed in it.


And it is right by her door where she can just grab the handle and go if she needs to leave in a hurry (like if there was a fire.)
Notice the shoes? They always take their shoes off when ever they come into the house. Another reason to have shoes in the kit.


It is amazing how comfortable this bed was.



She had this picture hanging on my wall in the room where I stayed. Every time I looked at it I was surprised it had
Finnish writing on it. But why wouldn't it?


They had cobble stone everywhere back then and still do now. Try riding your bike on that road and see what it does
to the fillings in your teeth. Especially at 40 below zero (which I did).... Such wonderful memories.


I love the trains and the train stations. I spent a lot of hours on them back 43 years ago and again on this trip.




The signs on the track tell you when the next train is coming and where it is going. That is so nice.


Most trains come about every 15 to 20 minutes. Every hour on the weekends.


Kerava the next town up the line from Savio where I was staying
All the train stations in the small towns look pretty much the same.




I decided to just go to Karava and walked around. It is soooooo Finnish.
The people and stores there are so Finland. Helsinki is Europe.
These little towns are traditional Finnish.


Still lots of buses too. Easy to get around without a car there most any where you want to go.


I tried to take some pictures of houses for sale so we could see how much they are. About the same as in the USA.
From $80,000 for really little ones to $300,000 for normally family homes.