Author: rphbaker

I feel like a new person. I originally woke up at 5am, saw a text from Greg that he was headed out for a run, I wished him well and I promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

When I finally decided to actually wake up I was greeted with this text from Greg.

I wasn’t positive whose phone it was, turns out it was Logan’s and despite his brand new Apple silicone case it was confirmed dead by the authorized Apple dealer they took it to. Originally it would turn on but that quickly stopped working. It was going to take 5 days to fix which isn’t an option due to our travel plans.

I’m very close to an Apple Store so after I get myself going I will head over to see if we have any options. The coffee options in this room leave a lot to be desired.

While I’m very appreciate of the ceramic mug and stainless steel spoon I could have done without instant coffee. To make things even worse I accidentally made myself a cup of decaf.

After my lukewarm cup of instant decaf convincing Maddie to get out of bed we were off to the mall. Turns out this is the mall the girl was referring to yesterday.

The Apple employee was not confident a U.K. phone would work due to the difference in SIM cards. They actually still use SIM cards here vs the states where it’s an e sim. Plan B it is which is to buy a phone in the states and to ship it to Jake to bring over with him. I think that’s a lose/win for Greg because he also forgot his mouthpieces that he wears at night so those can be brought over too. Let’s hope Jake doesn’t mind…he hasn’t been asked yet.

After Apple, surprise surprise but I’m hungry. Time to find a proper coffee and some food. There was a French breakfast place in the mall so we stopped there.

Next up…exploring Cardiff

I didn’t get a lot of info from the boys, mainly because they were unwinding and heading to sleep as Maddie and I were still out and about.

I do know they went for a scooter ride and found dinner. I had asked Greg if he took any pics and his response was “ummmmm” So that’s a no?

Logan to the rescue. He sent some pics before he went to bed.

And their dinner…

The initial details I got from Greg on Helsinki is that is extremely quiet there like all the time. The noise level on his watch outside is barely higher than inside our house on a normal day.

Also there are trails everywhere. For biking, running, scootering.

Can’t wait to hear more details from them when we catch up!

Despite the fact I’ve been eating all day it’s been all snacks and no real meals. It’s time for dinner.

Maddie started chatting with a girl at the merch tent who was a local so we asked her for a dinner suggestion. She directed us to walk through the mall arcade and we would find lots of options. She mentioned a few, I can’t remember them now (one was chicken which Maddie wouldn’t be into.)

We ended up on Mary Street which is exactly where she told us to go. If this is the mall and the arcade it’s much prettier than mall arcades I’ve seen in the past although I’m not quite sure we have nailed the directions.

We are hungry and there are lots of options here so we are going to stroll along until something looks appealing.

We ended up seeing a place that both struck our fancy. They had a menu hanging outside so we decided to check it out.

An impossible burger was on the menu along with lots of pizza options. We headed in to try to get a table. After standing there waiting for the host for a minute or two a bouncer type mean looking dude asked Maddie for her ID. She said she didn’t bring it but had a picture of an old one on her phone.

He didn’t like that answer and said we would have to leave. Me, being curious and also southern asked if all the places in town were the same? His answer was that it basically was dependent on the doorman. They policy was anyone who looked under 25 needed an ID. Dumb ass me was standing there the entire time with her passport in my bag not even thinking. I was more concerned with where we would be able to find food.

He asked what are you looking for? I said anywhere to grab a quick dinner with vegetarian options. Fish and chips, pizza, or we picked this place for the impossible burger.

I’d charmed him and realized that I had her passport all at the same time. Pretty sure he realized we are just two tired swifties looking for a meal after visiting the merch tent. He told us to grab a table anywhere.

Turns out flight club was a social dart club. It was a cool inside with friendly competitive dart games.

The food came and it was….fine. We both basically ate our entire meals because we were so hungry.

After dinner Maddie, Maddie wanted to stop for a boba tea (didn’t even get a pic because I’m a loser.) That was basically my cue to stop at a dessert place for something because after all this is vacation.

I went for the cinnamon donut things with speculous dipping sauce. It was not a bad decision…or it was depending on how you judge it.

We have managed to stay up way past what I think the boys did but it’s time for bed despite it being complete daylight outside. And that everywhere in the world probably because it’s not even late.

After some minor chilling in our room, I’m pretty sure I basically forced Maddie out of the bed and guilted her into going in search of food with me. Until it occurred to me that there was a good chance the merch tent was open.

At the last Eras tour that I went to (Cincy just to tailgate because I couldn’t get a ticket, the line for merch was over an hour long. Also, I wasn’t going to get merch for a concert I hadn’t actually attended.

We set out to see what we could see. I accidentally took her on the scenic route due to my terrible sense of direction. I’m blaming this one Greg because for the last 20+ years I don’t ever have to pay attention to where I’m going or how to read a map. So now I’m basically incompetent with any sort of direction following.

I pretty quickly figured out we weren’t in the right spot when the dot never made progress on the line. Thankfully Maddie had an idea of where to go. This fact was solidified when we saw three teenagers walking with an era tour bag. Follow those girls!

They mostly knew where they were going. Cue music!

Here we are with lots of our new besties…all waiting for merch.

Of course I needed a sweatshirt. After all I flew all this way and then drove a manual over an hour to get here.

Next up…dinner

Or rather lack of competition.

So Greg and the boys are chilling in the presidential suite or some bull in Helsinki. In his defense, not that I’m actually defending him, we were all supposed to be there so he booked a giant room, or maybe rooms, on points.

When they checked in they were offered a bottle of wine.

He gave Maddie and I a FaceTime tour. It includes a kitchen, dining area, giant bathroom, etc. It also includes an igloo that overlooks the water and had a bed in it.

Meanwhile, Maddie and I are all checked into the Radison Blu complete with not much of anything.

And there’s a DJ party tomorrow with prizes.

All in all I’m not mad. So excited to be in this super tiny room that we will be able to walk to and from the stadium from.

Despite my nervousness I channeled my inner VW convertible rabbit days and handled that manual transmission like it was no biggie.

It’s a beautiful day here. Lots of bridges and pretty sights along the way.

There were also some signs of home.

Brooks shared some pics from their flight which I appreciate since the boys are typically blog haters.

We have officially landed in Bristol! It was an easy one hour flight.

We follow all the masses down to passport control. There were so many people all merging into a tiny line. Somehow the line moved quickly which I am grateful for.

Guess it’s time for me to convince myself I can do this one hour or so drive to Cardiff. Better google what side they drive on so I don’t look totally stupid.

Maddie and I head off in search of rental cars but first I’d better get a snack. It’s been about 90 mins since my last snack.

We made a slight wrong turn looking for the rental cars and ended up in the Uber pick up area. Turned back and found the bus that would take us to the rental car area which ended up being pretty far off site.

The drive to the rental cars was a pretty one!

We arrive at the car rental counter and the very nice lady who said lovely at least ten times said that I had rented a manual and was I ok with that. Maddie immediately had a look of fear on her face and said you don’t know how to drive that do you? I said yes, I can drive a manual. She said “a stick shift!?! I have never seen you drive a stick shift!” I said don’t you remember when dad lost his sh!t in Norway because he stalled the car and he hit the steering wheel and I ended up driving the rest of the way? Somehow she doesn’t remember any of that last part….so weird.

After convincing Maddie, the rental agent and mostly myself that I could indeed do this we headed off to find the car. As we were crossing the street a man who was driving who I assume to be his wife was coming out of the lot. He jumped a curb and scraped the underneath of his car which gave me confidence that I would in fact not be the worst driver there. Thanks dude. Needed that.

It’s been so long since we have traveled that I feel like I’m out of practice. For example, I forgot how amusing the shopping options are on flights in Europe.

Like am I really going to ask this all male crew for some Brazilian bum bum cream?

I might actually need whatever this magic is that will make me look 10 years fresher in 20 minutes. Heck, I’d even be happy with 5 years at this rate.

The best part was hearing them advertising all the products you could get as well as highlighting that Kylie Jenner is on the cover. He mentioned several cosmetic products and fragrances and added a plug for cigarettes. As polite as they are here he ended it with “we hope you chose not to smoke but if you are going to we have cigarettes duty free.” Also, there was a 25% discount off fragrances and cosmetic products. I’m not gonna lie, I did think twice about placing an order for something….anything to not make me feel like I’ve been awake for basically 24 hours.

The drink options are also interesting….mostly zero products and only one regular Coke but so many coffee and tea options.

In the end I got nothing…not even any sleep.

Maddie and I hung out in the H terminal waiting for our flight to Bristol. We have evidence that at least one swiftie will be on board.

Since i have no clue what time it is in any time zone it feels like a snack is appropriate. A coffee can’t be a bad idea and might as well pair it with a muffin since I’m not entirely sure when or where my next meal will come from.

We received confirmation of life from the boys. Seems as though they will have a much different experience on Finnair than we will have. Greg’s seat is giant albeit apparently uncomfortable.

Brooks was visiting the cockpit while Greg and Logan got settled.

Maddie and I had speedy boarding because we are basically like A listers on Easy Jet. I honestly had forgotten how flights board her Europe. They line everyone up essentially in holding pens and then generally release you into the wild to board via a jet bridge outside.

We were the first through speedy boarding and lined up with all our stuff eager to board only to realize there was no plane in front of us. Cool. We dropped our bags and waited while we grew more and more concerned we had lined up at the wrong rope. Around us people sat on the floor with their computers out, or in chairs lined up against the walls.

Finally the plane pulled in, everyone deplaned fairly quickly and we were ready to board. I’m still not sure if we were in the right spot but they were nice enough to open the rope in front of us and on the side where I think maybe we were supposed to be.

It’s a one hour flight to Bristol and then a drive to Cardiff. What side of the road do I drive on? Is it short right long left? Or short left long right. Ughhhhhh!

Pic of the Play plane courtesy of Maddie’s seat mate for Brooks not that he will really care.

My Whoop fitness tracker notified me that my sleep had been processed. It somehow thinks I got 3 hours of sleep which I dispute but it’s not common for me to thinking it’s counting sleep when I’m just laying there contemplating why I can’t sleep. It alerted me that I was in the 1% club which only 0.5% of whoop users are in. I feel so special. And tired…mostly that.

We made our way off the plane and thought we were headed to Passport control. We came upon a long line which Greg said he would stand in while we walked ahead to check things out. I swear all signs pointed to this being where we needed to stop.

After waiting for ten mins or so a KLM worker was walking along asking if everyone was staying in Amsterdam. We sent Maddie over to ask her if we needed to stay in this line since none of us are actually staying. She asked where we were going and Maddie said some of us are going to Helsinki and I’m not sure where I’m going…somewhere near Cardiff. The worker said “where is your family.”

She confirmed the boys needed to walk toward their gate within the same terminal for a different passport control line. She said Maddie and I were likely in the same terminal until I said, no, we need to go to H. She scowled and said “oh…Easy Jet.” I’m going to just go with her frowning upon it because she works for KLM and not because it’s a shitty airline. Brooks would never lead me astray.

Off we go to find our intended destinations within the airport.

The boys finally made it to their line for passport control which was maybe longer than the first one. We decided that despite having several hours before our flights we needed to go ahead and split off in case we needed the time.

Maddie and I rushed off to get from the D terminal to H. Clearly Easy Jet has the worst most farthest away terminal ever. We ran past Tulip shops, chocolate shops, cheese shops, Hérmes, Rolex, Delft Pottery and more. Only to end up in a crappy terminal without the need to go through passport control

All that running, and sweating for nothing. I take that back, it’s not for nothing. It’s for Taylor. I hope this plane is full of swifties. That would be amazing!