We woke around 8.30, and realizing we only had an hour before breakfast closed, went downstairs before showering. It was a big buffet with mostly Finnish style food. I had cold meats, salad, cheese, yogurt, fruit salad and hot chocolate.

After breakfast we showered and headed outfor the day. I left my backpack behind and just carried a water bottle, so it was a very easy day. We started by walking in to town and were pleasantly surprised to see a market operating! So we wandered through that, enjoying the smells of the fresh fruit.

We then walked along the water (Savonlinna is an island so there was plenty of it!) to the museum and walked around that for a bit. We then went to the castle and paid €10 for entrance to check it out. There was a guided tour starting in 10 minutes so we did that, and were able to go up into the towers, and learn some of the history of the castle.

By the time the tour was over it was almost 1.00 and we were hungry. Pipsa had told us about Hesburger -a Finnish fast food restaurant that was supposed to be good. We were thinking something like Mosburger, so thought we should give it a go; we had noticed one back in town. So in we went for our first and last. It really was just the same as McDonalds.

We went back to the market to get a Savonlinnain specialty – Lorsty (??). We had the sweet version – Kaoru had cloudberry and I had vanilla. It was basically a flat jam donut; it was nice and cleared the taste of fast burger from our mouths.

We had time to kill so walked aimlessly; we went in the Savinkinna cathedral, and a few other stores. About 3.00 I was feeling sleepy so went back to the hotel for a nap while Kaoru walked around on her own. By 4.30 Kaoru was back so we showered and put on our good clothes for the reason we had come all this way – our evening at the opera.

We were here to see The Barber of Seville. Kaoru had been to an opera before but it wasmy first time. We stopped by the supermarket to get a sandwich, and then had a beer at a food van just outside the castle walls, before excitedly going inside. We were still early so had to wait before we could take our seats.

The show was very enjoyable; a real modern version with some comedy in it. There were screens that gave a few english words to let you know the storyline at the current location. At interval i bought a bottle of waterbecause my mouth was getting quite dry.

The show finished around 10.15, so we went to the supermarket and bought an ice cream.I also had a drink left from yesterday’s purchase so we had that in the room and watched tv before bed.