Christopher Brown-Hulmes is travelling from Helsinki, Finland to Athens, Greece, via Amsterdam spending his Finnish euros. Follow him on his travels.

Helsinki, Finland
Hundreds of Finns braved the freezing temperatures to queue up to exchange Finnish markka for euros at the Bank of Finland, which was scheduled to open its doors between midnight and 1 am. Such was the demand for euros, that the bank closed at 1.30am, despite the growing queues.

At 1.30am, the last in the queue, I finally changed 600 markka and received a total of E100.95 - a slightly better rate than the usual exchange rate of 5.94 markka to the euro.

At 1.40am, I went to the ATM in one of the main streets in Helsinki - Aleksanterinkatu - and tried to get some euros out but it was still dispensing markka.

At 1.50am I tried another ATM in Fimonkatu but got the words "temporarily no service for foreign cards."

After a few hours sleep in my hotel in Tormi, I made a phone call costing 3.98 markka with a 5 markka note and got E7.70 in euro coins.

Arriving at Helsinki airport I paid my taxi fare of E381.0, gave him a E50 note but he didn't have any euros so received 60 markka in change.

At 6.05, I went to the airport's cafe, purchasingt two croissants, jam and an orange juice, costing E6 - I paid E10 and was given E4 change so at least they were up to speed.

Amsterdam, Netherlands
After my plane journey, I arrived in Amsterdam and bought a coffee for E1.85 - I paid with a E10 note and received the correct change in euros - a smooth transaction. In Amsterdam, unlike Helsinki's airport, where everyone seemed to be paying in markka, everyone in the queue had euros in their hands. And there was a real sense of excitement about the new European currency - I spied excited clusters of people curiously examining their brand new euro notes.

Return to this page, to see how Finnish euros are received in Greece.