Stockholm
I have been rather lazy lately and hae neglected to update my blog for almost an entire month. I am sorry mom, as I know you have been naging me about it. So here is what went on:
Getting the trip started was rather complicated. Originally more people were going to go, but then we recieved notification of a cheaper, school organized 'Love Boat' trip, with a guided tour of the city. Unfortunately, I could not go on it as I will have a paper due that weekend, and my friends Martin, Tinneke and Anne don't go to the same school so they were unable to sign up.
So us four decided to go anyways. Me and Martin drove down to the city of Turku (he has a car) one night early to party with Anne at her residence before catching the ferry Friday evening. She made a rather intersting supper... it was poached egg with a tomatoe and vinager sauce over rice...I tried it. But did not love it. Anyways, we continued to the bar. On our way we got a rather hilarious phone call from the people back in Tampere. Their Love Boat trip was full and now they wanted to come with us. How quickly the tables turned.... We proceeded to the bar laughing the entire way and had a great night.
The next day we woke up late and then went to go buy the tickets for the ferry. Luckily, Anne's Finnish friend Essi was there to help us out. Our plan was to leave Friday evening, be on the ferry all night, get to Stockholm in the morning spend the day and night there, and then take the Sunday morning ferrry back. Then we would continue home and arrive in Tampere in the evening. Essi was aghast at our plan as it meant that we would not be sleeping for 24hrs. But by doing that we were able to get a cabin for 4 for 20€, which was very cheap, even though we still had to buy one more ticket. And plus, one day would not be enough, we wanted to really experience Stockholm. In the end the ferry was 151€ for 5 people, so 30€ each. Not to bad.
Later on we picked up Meike, who was the only one from Tampere who had been able to join us on such a short notice. She was rather sheepish, but she learned her lesson. We then went and hung around a big island park in the city for the afternoon. It was really cool, except Anne's driving was rather insane... She can be a bit over exhuberent. After picking Tinneke up at the bus station we then boarded the ferry.
This was my first time on a ferry and I was rather excited. We managaged to score airseats, they were super comfy, and they had to be as they were to be our beds for the evening. Well, in theory, except we were not planning on sleeping. We wandered around the boat for a bit, had a little bit of overpriced buffet food. Then we went to the bar. And then to the duty free. Well, the rest is just history. I am going to self-censor and not go into all the details. But the ferry was quite memorable. We did not get to bed till around 5 AM and us five learned a lot of new things about each other.
But around 6 the ferry docked at Stockholm and we had to get going, with very little sleep. But we had a plan. After catching the bus to the centre we decided to find a swimming pool where we could shower and relax. Yes, not the most touristy activity, but I think of it as a way to really experience the city and culture. Except we did not know where one was. We ended up just asking people at the train station and they directed us to what turned out to be an expensive spa. It was rather beautiful and was in a hidden-garden type court yard. But it was a little bit out of our price range. Upon asking someone else they directed us to the public pool.
We had to catch the metro to get there and we just decided to buy a 24hr pass, this ended up being the best idea ever. The pool was nice, it was good to feel clean again, and it served to wake us up as well. Except poor Martin had forgotten his swimming suit. So he had to spend a couple of minutes trying to figure out which of his pairs of underwear looked more like trunks. It was pretty funny.
After showering and getting cleaned up we decided to go get something eat. It took a bit cause the girls, being girls, took forever to shower and change. I took a nap in the lobby. For food we decided to kill two birds with one stone and go to the old city. That way we could have a little walk around it and see some sights while finding a cheap place. This ended up being quite trying as we could not find a place and ended up at the first place we saw. After this we wandered down to the city centre to find some shoes and coffee. I needed new shoes, and we all needed coffee. I saw some I liked, but I could not find them in my size. Similarily, we saw lots of coffe joints, but for the life of us we could not find a café with seating for five. We finally got frustrated and let fate decide. We decided to get on a random metro line, go in a random direction, get off after five stops and then just find a cafe there. That way we would see the city.
It ended up being a great idea. We found a cool little place by the metro station we ended up in. And there we planned our next move. We would get my shoes at another store in the centre and then proceed to Ikea. Yes. We went to Ikea in Stockholm, Sweden. We really had no choice, it was to funny of an idea to pass up. We just took the metro to the burbs and there it was. It had like 3or4 floors, it was massive. I am sure my mom would have been in heaven.
After hanging out there we took the metro back to the city centre. Anne wanted Burger King, cause there are none in Finland that we can find so we sat there and ate. I seem to eat more fast food here than I do at home, its ridiculous. There Anne and Tinneke had a run in with a couple of sketchy guys who offered drugs and followed them into the public bathroom. Not dangerous or horribly threatening, but definately sketchy. So we hung around Burger King for more than a short period of time. By now it was about 8 or 9, so we had a lot of time to kill before our ferry.
At this point we just had time to kill as most places were closed. So we just wandered around the city at night. This was actually a great idea, though the idea of spending a night out in the cold might not be great for everyone. It was wonderful as the streets were not so crowded, it had stopped raining and all the buildings were lit up beautifully. The old city was fantastic. Then when wondering where to go next Meike saw a strange building in the far distance, so we just walked towards it, randomly. Stockholm is not that dangerous of a city, so we were able to do that without much fear. On our way we got to see so much of the city, there was an observation deck at the top of a hill that we just sat on for a good half an hour taking in the site of the city.
After some more walking, some random photos and a lot more walking we ended up at a McDonalds downtown to refuel on some coffee and warm up. By then it was pretty late so we just hung in there for a couple hours until the bus station opened. Once it did we went there and had a power nap before catching the bus to the ferry. Thank god that we booked a cabin for the return trip, as it meant we had a place to crash. And crash we did.
On arriving back in Turku Anne's friend Essi picked us up and tooked Tineke to the bus station to catch her bus to Pori and then Anne's other friend Dominic had a fancy meal prepared for us. The stereotype is true about the french making good food. There were appattizers! Some sort of wierd banana, cottage cheese and mushroom concoction. And since I hate both mushrooms and cottage cheese the fact that I thought it was delicious says a lot. The maincourse was samon, which I also liked. Who would have thought?!
As the cap to this weekend Anne decided to come back to us to Tampere, even though she lives in Turku in order to visit the spanish friends of Claudia that had come up this weekend. So we ended up at a bar for a night cap before even going home. On Monday night I was pretty tired.
Getting the trip started was rather complicated. Originally more people were going to go, but then we recieved notification of a cheaper, school organized 'Love Boat' trip, with a guided tour of the city. Unfortunately, I could not go on it as I will have a paper due that weekend, and my friends Martin, Tinneke and Anne don't go to the same school so they were unable to sign up.
So us four decided to go anyways. Me and Martin drove down to the city of Turku (he has a car) one night early to party with Anne at her residence before catching the ferry Friday evening. She made a rather intersting supper... it was poached egg with a tomatoe and vinager sauce over rice...I tried it. But did not love it. Anyways, we continued to the bar. On our way we got a rather hilarious phone call from the people back in Tampere. Their Love Boat trip was full and now they wanted to come with us. How quickly the tables turned.... We proceeded to the bar laughing the entire way and had a great night.
The next day we woke up late and then went to go buy the tickets for the ferry. Luckily, Anne's Finnish friend Essi was there to help us out. Our plan was to leave Friday evening, be on the ferry all night, get to Stockholm in the morning spend the day and night there, and then take the Sunday morning ferrry back. Then we would continue home and arrive in Tampere in the evening. Essi was aghast at our plan as it meant that we would not be sleeping for 24hrs. But by doing that we were able to get a cabin for 4 for 20€, which was very cheap, even though we still had to buy one more ticket. And plus, one day would not be enough, we wanted to really experience Stockholm. In the end the ferry was 151€ for 5 people, so 30€ each. Not to bad.
Later on we picked up Meike, who was the only one from Tampere who had been able to join us on such a short notice. She was rather sheepish, but she learned her lesson. We then went and hung around a big island park in the city for the afternoon. It was really cool, except Anne's driving was rather insane... She can be a bit over exhuberent. After picking Tinneke up at the bus station we then boarded the ferry.
This was my first time on a ferry and I was rather excited. We managaged to score airseats, they were super comfy, and they had to be as they were to be our beds for the evening. Well, in theory, except we were not planning on sleeping. We wandered around the boat for a bit, had a little bit of overpriced buffet food. Then we went to the bar. And then to the duty free. Well, the rest is just history. I am going to self-censor and not go into all the details. But the ferry was quite memorable. We did not get to bed till around 5 AM and us five learned a lot of new things about each other.
But around 6 the ferry docked at Stockholm and we had to get going, with very little sleep. But we had a plan. After catching the bus to the centre we decided to find a swimming pool where we could shower and relax. Yes, not the most touristy activity, but I think of it as a way to really experience the city and culture. Except we did not know where one was. We ended up just asking people at the train station and they directed us to what turned out to be an expensive spa. It was rather beautiful and was in a hidden-garden type court yard. But it was a little bit out of our price range. Upon asking someone else they directed us to the public pool.
We had to catch the metro to get there and we just decided to buy a 24hr pass, this ended up being the best idea ever. The pool was nice, it was good to feel clean again, and it served to wake us up as well. Except poor Martin had forgotten his swimming suit. So he had to spend a couple of minutes trying to figure out which of his pairs of underwear looked more like trunks. It was pretty funny.
After showering and getting cleaned up we decided to go get something eat. It took a bit cause the girls, being girls, took forever to shower and change. I took a nap in the lobby. For food we decided to kill two birds with one stone and go to the old city. That way we could have a little walk around it and see some sights while finding a cheap place. This ended up being quite trying as we could not find a place and ended up at the first place we saw. After this we wandered down to the city centre to find some shoes and coffee. I needed new shoes, and we all needed coffee. I saw some I liked, but I could not find them in my size. Similarily, we saw lots of coffe joints, but for the life of us we could not find a café with seating for five. We finally got frustrated and let fate decide. We decided to get on a random metro line, go in a random direction, get off after five stops and then just find a cafe there. That way we would see the city.
It ended up being a great idea. We found a cool little place by the metro station we ended up in. And there we planned our next move. We would get my shoes at another store in the centre and then proceed to Ikea. Yes. We went to Ikea in Stockholm, Sweden. We really had no choice, it was to funny of an idea to pass up. We just took the metro to the burbs and there it was. It had like 3or4 floors, it was massive. I am sure my mom would have been in heaven.
After hanging out there we took the metro back to the city centre. Anne wanted Burger King, cause there are none in Finland that we can find so we sat there and ate. I seem to eat more fast food here than I do at home, its ridiculous. There Anne and Tinneke had a run in with a couple of sketchy guys who offered drugs and followed them into the public bathroom. Not dangerous or horribly threatening, but definately sketchy. So we hung around Burger King for more than a short period of time. By now it was about 8 or 9, so we had a lot of time to kill before our ferry.
At this point we just had time to kill as most places were closed. So we just wandered around the city at night. This was actually a great idea, though the idea of spending a night out in the cold might not be great for everyone. It was wonderful as the streets were not so crowded, it had stopped raining and all the buildings were lit up beautifully. The old city was fantastic. Then when wondering where to go next Meike saw a strange building in the far distance, so we just walked towards it, randomly. Stockholm is not that dangerous of a city, so we were able to do that without much fear. On our way we got to see so much of the city, there was an observation deck at the top of a hill that we just sat on for a good half an hour taking in the site of the city.
After some more walking, some random photos and a lot more walking we ended up at a McDonalds downtown to refuel on some coffee and warm up. By then it was pretty late so we just hung in there for a couple hours until the bus station opened. Once it did we went there and had a power nap before catching the bus to the ferry. Thank god that we booked a cabin for the return trip, as it meant we had a place to crash. And crash we did.
On arriving back in Turku Anne's friend Essi picked us up and tooked Tineke to the bus station to catch her bus to Pori and then Anne's other friend Dominic had a fancy meal prepared for us. The stereotype is true about the french making good food. There were appattizers! Some sort of wierd banana, cottage cheese and mushroom concoction. And since I hate both mushrooms and cottage cheese the fact that I thought it was delicious says a lot. The maincourse was samon, which I also liked. Who would have thought?!
As the cap to this weekend Anne decided to come back to us to Tampere, even though she lives in Turku in order to visit the spanish friends of Claudia that had come up this weekend. So we ended up at a bar for a night cap before even going home. On Monday night I was pretty tired.
posted by Jesse A at 2:37 AM
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