When I originally planned my journey around the United Kingdom, I knew I would attend the Arsenal match versus Blackburn Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm and Hospitality Jim had a ticket waiting for me for the game.

In order to partake in all of the festivities I needed to take an early flight as the Arsenal boys usually meet up for brunch three hours before kickoff. Thus, I booked an 8:00 am flight out of Helsinki that was scheduled to land in London at 9:10 am.

In order to get to my 8:00 am flight I needed to wake up at 5:00 am and take the 5:50 am Finnair bus from the Helsinki train station to the Helsinki airport. There were actually other people on the bus with me at that time.

We arrived at the airport before 6:30 am. I checked in and now had an hour wait before my flight would board. Not my ideal scenario but at least I was at the airport. I walked over the cafeteria to grab a soda or coffee and rest. To my surprise about 25% of everyone in the cafeteria had a beer, wine or cocktail of some sort. Had all these people stayed up all night and were still partying? Do Finnish drink this early when they fly? Rather than debate the issue I did as the Finnish and grabbed myself a beer to pass the time.