Trapped in Turku!

We packed up the next morning and headed for Naantali, planning to reach it by around noon, explore a bit and then head further south towards the islands. This plan was disrupted when a snap on my pannier hit my back wheel and broke a spoke just after we left the campground. Thus began a many-hour adventure to try to get my spoke repaired. We were soon to discover that while nearly the entire population of Finland has a good understanding of English, bike store employees, for some reason, don't. Furthermore, they don't like repairing spokes! Map in hand, we went to a bike shop, where we were informed that such a repair couldn't be completed that day, and were directed to a second shop where we were assured it would be no problem. On arriving at this shop and explaining the problem through a complicated game of charades, we were told that the repair couldn't be completed that day, and directed to a third shop. At this one, we were told that it could be done the following day, but could not be completed immediately. We moved on to a fourth shop, where we found someone who spoke English, was sympathetic to our problem, but directed us to a fifth bike shop, this one on the other side of the river. Upon arrival, we were again told that the simple repair could not be completed. By this point my wheel was starting to bend, it was getting towards noon, and we began to feel like we would never get out of Turku.

Out of desperation we headed to the Turku tourist information office, where I delivered a very effective sob story and was immediately assisted. The person I was talking to gave me the address of her own bike shop, called ahead to ensure that the repair could be completed, and even wrote a note in Finnish to the shop owner explaining our predicament. We biked over the Aura River a second time, got lost, and finally found the shop. The very helpful shop assistant fixed my wheel in about 20 minutes. With the spoke issue solved, the bike store assistant inflated our tire, but it deflated shortly. We changed the tube, re-inflated it and headed on our way, only to find it deflated again in another two blocks. We stopped and removed the tire, and found that it was punctured by a thorn that had now punctured the new tube as well. After 15 minutes of patching, we were finally on our way.