safely made it through the russian border, a process that took just as long going into finland as coming out of it. we crossed sometime between midnight and one am, so technically i had had my cinderalla moment- i half expected to see the bus turn into a pumpkin as i myself turned into an illegal immigrant. the ice queen on the other side of the passport control window made a few phone calls and took a few minutes longer with my passport than with anyone else´s, but i was granted entry into finland in the end. after all, i was on my way out on the 30th, and what could they really do, deport me as i was crossing the border? no, it was really no trouble at all, it went just as i hoped it would. except...unfortunately, our bus was not totally overnight...we got in around 3am, so we slept on some benches in the helsinki airport and now are drinking overpriced coffee and about to go into helsinki for the day, our last day abroad. someone just passed by me and said ´boy, that was a fast two weeks!´if only they knew that a month in a way can be even quicker....