The time I went to Stockholm pt. 1

On Thursday night, 30-ish crazy university students and I left for Stockholm (along with hundreds of crazy Finns) on the infamous Viking Line. It's like a floating version of Reno, i.e. a lesser version of Vegas. There are slot machines, karaoke, tax-free shopping, a disco, and a buffet. It's hilarious and overwhelming at the same time. The majority of the Finnish people are drunk before they get on the boat. Once they're on board it gets even worse, since everything on the boat (except alcohol) is incredibly expensive. The actual ride across the Baltic isn't very expensive though, and the cabins aren't bad. The one I stayed in had four beds that fold out from the wall, along with a small bathroom that includes a shower, toilet, and sink. It's possible to go across without a cabin, but they don't provide benches for people to sleep on, which means that the people without cabins have to curl up in random corners and sleep on the floor. Although I had a bed, I didn't get nearly enough sleep. Around 6:30 in the morning (Finnish time) an alarm goes off in the cabin, and the cleaners start walking around the boat, knocking on the doors.


There wasn't any kind of border control after we got through the ferry. Just a small booth to declare items, and drug-sniffing dogs. I still only have a Finnish stamp in my passport. Poor me.


We stood around in the cold for a little while, waiting for everyone to get off the boat, and eventually made the 15 min. walk to the metro station. One of the nice things about traveling with Finnish people is that they know, at least some, Swedish. This came in handy when the ladies at the ticket counter didn't speak English. After everyone had a metro ticket, which took a little while since there were so many of us, we took the subway to the central station and left our bags there. We split into groups, and I headed to the Old Town with 3 others for some cake and coffee at a cute little cafe. We then made a plan for how we would spend the rest of our day: a walk by the river, and then a trip to the Vasa Museum and Skansen.



The Vasa Museum was great. I don't really have time to write everything about it on here (thus the link to the all-knowing Wikipedia), but I was really happy I went, even though maritime museums don't usually peak my interest. They had some nice history, anthropology, and forensic exhibits as well. I couldn't get any good pictures of the boat, though, because the museum is quite dark.


Leaving the museum, I noticed some plastic palm trees outside a nearby restaurant. From this picture you'd think I was in California, not Sweden, but when I knocked on one, I could hear an echo from inside the "tree," so trust me, I was really in Sweden.


Our next destination was Skansen, which was really lovely. The weather warmed up in the afternoon, so it was nice to be in a museum and outside at the same time.












As you can see, lots of beautiful buildings, cottages, and flowers! They had animals too.


Look, I met a bear!


And of course, they had reindeer too!


There was also some kind of rainbow pacifier display too. I don't know what the purpose of it was, but it looked interesting.


After Skansen, we headed to an ice cream stand. In Sweden they have proper (sweet) licorice ice cream. Mmmm...delicious.

It was then time to catch the bus back to the central station, and meet the rest of the group. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how difficult buying tickets was going to be. The bus drivers don't sell tickets, so you have to buy them from a machine at the bus stop, or by text message. The machine at the stop didn't work, even when a nice Swedish woman tried to help us. I also tried to send a text message, but I never got a receipt. During this ordeal, we missed our bus and went to another stop to try that machine. This time the machine worked, but we had to find someone to get change from. As an aside, I have to say that I hate Swedish kroner. It's the most difficult currency I have ever encountered.

So, we ended up arriving at the central station past the meeting time, but I there were still some people that arrived after us, so it was ok. We got our bags from the lockers, and walked to the hostel.


It was clean, new, and conveniently located next to a 7-11! Nearly all the furniture was from IKEA too, which was hilarious, and confirmed every stereotype I had about interior decorating in Sweden. Once we arrived, I went to a nearby supermarket to get something for dinner. The supermarket was a little depressing though, because it reminded me of how sparse the average shop in Turku is. It also reminded me how expensive Sweden is, so financially, at least, I'm lucky to live in Finland.


Afterward, I joined a group of Finnish and exchange students on a walk around the neighborhood. They stopped to get some pizza, and I had to take a picture of this one. It's a curry chicken, pineapple, and banana pizza. I tried a bite, and it wasn't that bad. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I kind of liked it, but I needed to go to bed. I was exhausted from the ferry, museums, and walking, and so was Barbara. We left the pizza place and walked back to the hostel. I went to sleep, and coincidently, I'm going to do that right now too!