Day Six - Back to Helsinki
Sunday June 29
We woke up to a beautiful morning, clear skies and the sun shining, but not quite ready to say goodbye to our new Vox Aurea family. There really isn't anything easy about saying goodbye, especially to such great families that took amazing care of us for the last few days.
Once everyone arrived, we did a quick check-in. Once all our luggage was loaded, we circled around our families and sang Homeward Bound. Not too many dry eyes in the crowd as we held hands and sang.
After one final round of hugs and pictures, we loaded our bus, waved goodby, and were settling in for our 3 hour journey back to Helsinki. Just as we were leaving, the sky grew gray with rain clouds and not that far into our drive, the rain started. It was as if the sky was crying goodbye too.
We still haven't seemed to quite get over the jet lag, so there was a mandatory, but also much desired nap for about an hour before we reached our lunch stop.
Lunch today consisted of some more salad, potatoes, pork, lasagna, and some really good bread. The kids all seemed happy with full bellies, and then we were off again, with about an hour and a half left to our ride.
We arrived at the Academica Hostel, got everyone checked in and they all were able to rest a little before we met back down in the lobby, in uniform, ready to head to our next concert venue, Espoo Cathedral.
This cathedral is a beautiful medieval stone church with some of the oldest parts of the church completed in the 1480's. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espoo_Cathedral . We had a shared concert with a young adult choir, Juvenalia Choir. Even though everyone is quite tired, and some are fighting little colds, they still managed to put on their performance faces and sing a great concert. This choir has also learned No Enemies, No Bombs, and they joined together to sing this at the end. The power of their voices combined was amazing.
After the concert, we headed for the bus to go back to our hostel, where they are required to have an early night for tomorrow's adventures. Hopefully the rain will hold off so we can continue as planned on our excursion to Suomenlina Island/Fortress. We will keep you posted!
Click through the slideshow below to view some highlights from today:
