[Photos taken 10 August 2023, posted online 28 May 2024. I’ve managed to not drive automatically to work in the mornings so far. However, my treacherous perimenopausal-body keeps waking me up at 6 am, no matter when I go to sleep, so that’s sub-optimal. I also managed to re-strain my lower back yesterday on my third deadlift rep of 130 kg, so I’m forced to take it easy. Maybe one day I’ll learn to listen to that body of mine …?]
We usually try to visit a science museum on our travels, as they usually have something interesting to do for the whole family. Luckily, the Heureka science museum turned out to be only a 20 minute train-ride north from downtown, plus a bit of walking.
It was a fun museum, but our trip ended in disaster when Finnur twisted his ankle so badly that he ended up being transported by an ambulance to the local hospital (even further north!) for x-raying.
Luckily, no bones were broken, but it meant he was out of commission for the remainder of the trip, which was a huge bummer. Also, this meant that two years in a row a family member would be returning from vacation in a wheelchair?!?!
Thursday 10 August 2023
Playing on a lovely playground as we walked from the train station to the science museum. The Finns are good at designing things!
As this was a designated “relaxed day”, we didn’t leave the apartment until noon.
Trying a coffee house chain for lunch. We discovered all their eats were delivered to them, so there were no modifications available, much to some people’s consternation.
On board a proper train, northbound to Vantaa (which we would find out, is not Helsinki.)
We walked from the train station towards the science museum and passed through a lovely park.
It’s hard to pass up a cool slide, even though you’re a teen!
Inside. The netting across the room caught our attention…
Turns out it was a bike-path! They’d attached a heavy weight underneath a bike, so you could bike safely over a cable.
An animated gif of Emma traversing the cable on the weighted bike. (May take a while to load)
There was an AI-section where you were tasked with training a neural network to perform certain tasks.
Of course there was also a live video-AI-face-meld between whoever stood in front of the screen and a few celebrities. Veeeery creepy.
Also, quite fun. But still creepy!
Lounging in the planetarium. Yay for headphones with English narration!
As much of the ceiling as my phone could see at its widest setting.
Looking at the very cool projector-sphere as we exited.
Sound-dampening disguised as art.
At the back of the museum was an area dedicated to “play”.
This photo was taken about two minutes before Finnur’s accident. Bjarki made it across in one piece, and then Finnur stepped out on the wire. There was very little light as the cable-rig was out in a corner, and the photo is taken by a dark wall. Finnur made it across, stepping one foot on the circular landing platform, but he was so unbalanced that he took a large sideways step into the darkness to his right… and landed on the outside edge of the 4-5 cm tall metal-frame surrounding the area, rolling his ankle, and immediately collapsing to the ground in agony.
He was in so much pain that it was decided to call an ambulance, and the paramedics decided he needed to go to the ER for x-rays.
The ambulance crew told us that they would be taking him a 30 minute drive north to the Vantaa Peijas Hospital, as we were no longer in Helsinki. There was no space for me in the ambulance, so me and the kids ended up taking the train home, as we were told it could be hours until Finnur was cleared to leave the hospital.
An hour and a half later Finnur had made contact, asking for his passport for insurance purposes. I’d also called up our travel insurance company, now as a ‘seasoned pro’ after Anna’s ankle twist a year prior. I also managed to get instructions for him to electronically access his European Health Insurance Card. The card is “A free card that gives you access to medically necessary, state-provided healthcare during a temporary stay in any of the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland or the United Kingdom under the same conditions and at the same cost (free in some countries) as people insured in that country.” It’s pretty neat, but in the end they were satisfied with just the passport.
At the train station, waiting for my second 30-min-long trip north in the same day.
It was interesting to travel to the more residential part of the area.
Helpful signage on the way to the hospital, but Google Maps was the real life-saver. By that point Finnur had messaged to say that no bones were broken (yay!), but he still needed the passport before leaving the hospital.
Enjoying a little bit of nature on the walk.
A Finnish apartment building.
I found the hospital (and its very serious-looking communications tower!)! However, as it was now almost 8 in the evening, the main doors were firmly closed. It took a while to hunt down the ER entrance.
Found it!
Also found a pain-relieved Finnur, ready to leave, a relatively short two-and-a-half hours after entering the ambulance. Due to the wonders of socialized medicine included in our taxes, and agreements between countries, we ended up paying something like $20-$30 for this visit. Suck on that USA, where we paid our full insurance deductible of $150, out of a much larger bill, the year before.
Finnur had pain-drug-induced-delusions of taking the train home, but was overruled, and a nurse called an accessible taxi with a fancy lift!
Best-case scenario out of a worst-case scenario day!
We made it! Finnur got to figure out how the elevator worked, and Anna got a high-five for sorting out dinner for the siblings. What a day!
