Journey Duration:
18 September 2010 - 11 January 2011
Countries Visited:
Great Britain
Belgium
Italy
Spain
France
Germany
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Passport Stamps:
17
Luggage Weight Departing:
~ 70 lbs
Luggage Weight Returning:
~ 130 lbs
Restart the journey by clicking here. Follow the archives on the side for all following posts.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Homecoming
11 January
Cereal with Alicia for breakfast. Got ready. Alicia said she would accompany to the airport except she had a prior engagement at 1pm and would be late if she came with me. It's an hour to get to Heathrow from Lambeth North and it would take another hour to get back. I left a little after 11am.
It was just enough time. Got to the airport, got a luggage trolley, checked in. Met a nice couple from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin who were coming home from visiting their daughter in England. We didn't talk that much, but they were really friendly. Checked in my bags, and was on my way.
Bought a whole bag of candy at a WHSmith plus a wrap with duck in it. The duck was good. Ate it while waiting for my gate number to be called. Two minutes passed 1:30p, a woman asked an airport worker which gate was for Minneapolis (because the gate was supposed to have been called at 1:30p). I overheard the conversation and walked with her to the gate. There, I waited some more and did some more sudoku until boarding was called.
There was barely anyone on the plane, which was nice. I could spread out on the whole two seats I had to myself. The screen in front of the window seat didn't have good sound, but the screen next to it worked. So I watched movies on that one. Saw Easy A which was really good. Also started Despicable Me but it couldn't hold my attention because I had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I wanted to watch that. So I stopped Despicable Me and started Scott Pilgrim, which I call a good decision because Scott Pilgrim is an awesome movie. It's funny and full of video game references and really quite campy. Highly recommended movie. Between movies, napping, sudoku, and journaling, I didn't have enough time to watch Inception. Sadness. So I passed the last two hours of the flight watching sitcoms and napping.
Food on the flight was good. I had a pasta dinner, which turned out to be lasagna. Kept drinking water throughout the whole flight to help with jet lag. Towards the end of the flight, we got a small pizza and container of gelato as a snack. That was good stuff. You can't go wrong with bad pizza.
I was excited to have my US phone back. It's much much better than the phone I bought in England. Did I tell you how much I hate the phone I bought in England? I'll save that for later.
Customs took away my fruit. I was sad because I wanted to eat that fruit later, but I guess you can't bring it into US soil. Darn. At least I got to keep my Finnish crackers.
Reunited with Mom and Dad right after that. Mom was teary eyed, but that didn't last long. It wasn't like I was completely out of touch with them the entire trip. So I was alright when I got back to them. Felt all right in the hotel as well. Didn't cry much when I got home. Yeah, it's home. Can't explain why it wasn't an emotional thing for me. Nothing's really changed, except the garage door and the family room, but those are family matters. Mom and Dad still bicker like an old couple (I intend this in a lighthearted way. They love each other very much. This is the kind of bickering that comes with age, love, and a good sense of humor. I greatly look up to my parents, and I love them to death). Ryan kept texting mom about when I was gonna be back, did they see me yet, etc. Adam was working.
Dinner at Culver's, where I had real American bacon and cheese curds. How I missed cheese curds and American bacon. Yum.
~ ~ ~
Spent five days in Neenah doing general things like procrastinating, reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis (which you all should read, by the way). There was some packing involved. Mom made a giant turkey dinner, of which I got three servings of leftovers. I also have leftover homemade lasagna, which will be delicious. After a few relaxing days at home, I managed to pack up my stuff again and I moved to the next town.
At the moment, I'm in Madison. It's currently the day before school starts. I have cats to cuddle with, a master bedroom to myself, a freaky high-def television, and awesome kitchen supplies. My family is just a two hour car ride away, my friends are a ten minute bus ride away or a ten second walk down the stairs, and I have some real school work to occupy me this semester.
All in all, life is good. Stay tuned for a finalizing post about my journey.
Cereal with Alicia for breakfast. Got ready. Alicia said she would accompany to the airport except she had a prior engagement at 1pm and would be late if she came with me. It's an hour to get to Heathrow from Lambeth North and it would take another hour to get back. I left a little after 11am.
It was just enough time. Got to the airport, got a luggage trolley, checked in. Met a nice couple from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin who were coming home from visiting their daughter in England. We didn't talk that much, but they were really friendly. Checked in my bags, and was on my way.
Bought a whole bag of candy at a WHSmith plus a wrap with duck in it. The duck was good. Ate it while waiting for my gate number to be called. Two minutes passed 1:30p, a woman asked an airport worker which gate was for Minneapolis (because the gate was supposed to have been called at 1:30p). I overheard the conversation and walked with her to the gate. There, I waited some more and did some more sudoku until boarding was called.
There was barely anyone on the plane, which was nice. I could spread out on the whole two seats I had to myself. The screen in front of the window seat didn't have good sound, but the screen next to it worked. So I watched movies on that one. Saw Easy A which was really good. Also started Despicable Me but it couldn't hold my attention because I had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I wanted to watch that. So I stopped Despicable Me and started Scott Pilgrim, which I call a good decision because Scott Pilgrim is an awesome movie. It's funny and full of video game references and really quite campy. Highly recommended movie. Between movies, napping, sudoku, and journaling, I didn't have enough time to watch Inception. Sadness. So I passed the last two hours of the flight watching sitcoms and napping.
Food on the flight was good. I had a pasta dinner, which turned out to be lasagna. Kept drinking water throughout the whole flight to help with jet lag. Towards the end of the flight, we got a small pizza and container of gelato as a snack. That was good stuff. You can't go wrong with bad pizza.
I was excited to have my US phone back. It's much much better than the phone I bought in England. Did I tell you how much I hate the phone I bought in England? I'll save that for later.
Customs took away my fruit. I was sad because I wanted to eat that fruit later, but I guess you can't bring it into US soil. Darn. At least I got to keep my Finnish crackers.
Reunited with Mom and Dad right after that. Mom was teary eyed, but that didn't last long. It wasn't like I was completely out of touch with them the entire trip. So I was alright when I got back to them. Felt all right in the hotel as well. Didn't cry much when I got home. Yeah, it's home. Can't explain why it wasn't an emotional thing for me. Nothing's really changed, except the garage door and the family room, but those are family matters. Mom and Dad still bicker like an old couple (I intend this in a lighthearted way. They love each other very much. This is the kind of bickering that comes with age, love, and a good sense of humor. I greatly look up to my parents, and I love them to death). Ryan kept texting mom about when I was gonna be back, did they see me yet, etc. Adam was working.
Dinner at Culver's, where I had real American bacon and cheese curds. How I missed cheese curds and American bacon. Yum.
~ ~ ~
Spent five days in Neenah doing general things like procrastinating, reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis (which you all should read, by the way). There was some packing involved. Mom made a giant turkey dinner, of which I got three servings of leftovers. I also have leftover homemade lasagna, which will be delicious. After a few relaxing days at home, I managed to pack up my stuff again and I moved to the next town.
At the moment, I'm in Madison. It's currently the day before school starts. I have cats to cuddle with, a master bedroom to myself, a freaky high-def television, and awesome kitchen supplies. My family is just a two hour car ride away, my friends are a ten minute bus ride away or a ten second walk down the stairs, and I have some real school work to occupy me this semester.
All in all, life is good. Stay tuned for a finalizing post about my journey.
I don't even wanna blog about Helsinki
9 January and 10 January:
What you basically have to know is I wandered, I looked around, and, miraculously, I got bored. I was pretty much done with Helsinki on the 9th, and I wondered why I booked a flight that was at 9:00pm because that gave me a whole extra day in Helsinki to wander and wonder what else there is to do. Helsinki is a city where you go with friends to hang out with friends. Yes, there are some cool sights, but I was more involved in the shopping scene. There was an Open Air museum that would have been fantastic, but it was only open in the summer.
There was food from the Forum, the National Museum of Finland was interesting. Paid 5EUR to wander and learn about Vikings and see an exhibit all about dollhouses, which was really interesting. I liked that one. Also wandered around the treasury in the basement and looked at all the coins both old and new. Even saw an American dollar in there which I thought interesting. Also saw some really fancy and expensive goblets and jewelry from the Days of Yore. That was pretty too.
On the 10th, I took a tram around the city center and saw the Opera House, the Olympic Stadium, and the Finlandia building. Also found a store that had a plethora of Star Wars memorabilia in the window, so of course I tracked that down to find out what else was in it. I'm pretty sure that store out-geeked even me, but I did find a Pokemon Yellow Version in the vintage video game section. I picked it up to check the price (99EUR!) and a worker came up and asked if I needed anything. I said no, but started a conversation anyway. I told him how I still have my Yellow Version and we continued to talk about old games and how they're awesome but forgotten because of new games. Then we got onto the subject of Halo and that occupied our time for the next three minutes. He was really nice. Kind of socially awkward, but sweet.
The flight back home was uneventful. It took off thirty minutes later than it said it would, but according to the complaints of the guy behind me, that was completely normal. Alicia called while I was on the bus back to Central London, I told her that I'm almost there, it'll probably be another hour considering I have to take night buses back to Lambeth North with the Tube closed. And that's what I did. It was kind of sketch considering it was bar closing time, but I did alright. Just kept an eye on my surroundings and made sure I had a hand on my spray deodorant. All was well.
Got back to the dorm at 1am. The security guard let me in because he recognized me. He asked how my holiday was, and I told him it was fantastic. Then he let me up to Alicia's room where she had a better air mattress that didn't leak with sheets and an awesome pillow. They were leftovers from Siri and Marianne and Carina who had left things behind when they returned to Scandinavia.
What you basically have to know is I wandered, I looked around, and, miraculously, I got bored. I was pretty much done with Helsinki on the 9th, and I wondered why I booked a flight that was at 9:00pm because that gave me a whole extra day in Helsinki to wander and wonder what else there is to do. Helsinki is a city where you go with friends to hang out with friends. Yes, there are some cool sights, but I was more involved in the shopping scene. There was an Open Air museum that would have been fantastic, but it was only open in the summer.
There was food from the Forum, the National Museum of Finland was interesting. Paid 5EUR to wander and learn about Vikings and see an exhibit all about dollhouses, which was really interesting. I liked that one. Also wandered around the treasury in the basement and looked at all the coins both old and new. Even saw an American dollar in there which I thought interesting. Also saw some really fancy and expensive goblets and jewelry from the Days of Yore. That was pretty too.
On the 10th, I took a tram around the city center and saw the Opera House, the Olympic Stadium, and the Finlandia building. Also found a store that had a plethora of Star Wars memorabilia in the window, so of course I tracked that down to find out what else was in it. I'm pretty sure that store out-geeked even me, but I did find a Pokemon Yellow Version in the vintage video game section. I picked it up to check the price (99EUR!) and a worker came up and asked if I needed anything. I said no, but started a conversation anyway. I told him how I still have my Yellow Version and we continued to talk about old games and how they're awesome but forgotten because of new games. Then we got onto the subject of Halo and that occupied our time for the next three minutes. He was really nice. Kind of socially awkward, but sweet.
The flight back home was uneventful. It took off thirty minutes later than it said it would, but according to the complaints of the guy behind me, that was completely normal. Alicia called while I was on the bus back to Central London, I told her that I'm almost there, it'll probably be another hour considering I have to take night buses back to Lambeth North with the Tube closed. And that's what I did. It was kind of sketch considering it was bar closing time, but I did alright. Just kept an eye on my surroundings and made sure I had a hand on my spray deodorant. All was well.
Got back to the dorm at 1am. The security guard let me in because he recognized me. He asked how my holiday was, and I told him it was fantastic. Then he let me up to Alicia's room where she had a better air mattress that didn't leak with sheets and an awesome pillow. They were leftovers from Siri and Marianne and Carina who had left things behind when they returned to Scandinavia.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Remember Suomenlinna for the Zombie Apocalypse
You would think that, now that I'm home, I would do this more often. Not the case. I will try to get the final days of my journey as soon as I can.
8 January:
Although breakfast wasn't included in the room, I still didn't think it would cost 7EUR for it. 7EUR for an all you can eat buffet isn't that bad now that I think about it, but thinking in terms of American currency, that's about $11. Which is a bit expensive in terms of all you can eat buffets, especially ones that don't offer that much hot food. The only hot things were tea, coffee, porridge, and sausages. Not even a pancake in sight, which had me disappointed. Dined that morning on granola cereal and some fruit. The big projection screen had a BBC show about a racecar road tripping from Alaska to the southern most tip of South America. Crazy. It was all about how they were trying to find a charger for the car because it was electrical and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant.
Left for Soumenlinna, which is a big fortress Helsinki is noted for. Took me a while to get on the ferry to it. Soumenlinna is a big island and takes about twenty minutes by ferry to get there. Public transportation tickets work on the ferry going there, so that's what I attempted to get. But the machine didn't take my card because it wasn't a chip card. (Don't ask what that means. They have two types of debit cards over there and one has a chip in it, and others are like mine.) So I went to get cash from a cash machine. When I returned, the machine only accepted coins. Grrr. The ferry had left by this point, but I wanted my ticket so I went to find a place to get 20EUR in coins. Once that was done, I got my three-day travel pass and waited.
The giant parking lot nearby had a small market, so I walked around there for a while. There were mostly souvenir booths. I guess the market is bigger when it's summer and only open for tourists in the winter. Didn't buy anything, but I did try on a really cute hat with ears on it. It didn't seem like it would keep my forehead that warm though. Also, it was more than I would spend. Oh well. There were only two booths with food inside. But they were both for fish, and I wasn't about to walk in to smell the fish. Besides, I don't like fish. Don't really enjoy eating it, although I am trying to warm up to shrimp now.
Got on the ferry when it returned. I found a really nice seat by the window towards the front, but a team of men led a drunk in chains my way and he started making a ruckus nearby. I wasn't going to deal with that, so I got up and left for another seat. It wasn't by a window, but the people weren't drunk or in chains, so that was nice. I could still take pictures from my seat, so that's what I did on the ride.
At the island, I figured I would do what I do best and just sit and explore. So I wandered away from the main path several times until I started to follow signs pointing me to food. Except there was only one, maybe two places on the whole island that sold food. I wandered away from them and decided to eat a light lunch before I ate dinner back on the mainland.
Found my way into the Soumenlinna Museum where I learned about the history of the island and the fortress, mostly through a big 30-minute video presentation. This movie was interesting because before it started, you had headphones attached to a receiver. You chose the channel for the receiver depending on what language you speak. The narration of the documentary happened on the headphones, but the sound effects and the music came from the screen. I thought that was an interesting and unique way of doing things. It was a cool way to break the language barrier.
The rest of the museum wasn't much. The panels were only in Finnish, but there were booklets with translations in other languages. I picked one up and explored and read, but I missed just skimming something on the wall and moving on. Walked along the first floor and the second floor before exiting the museum to explore some more island. This isn't to say that it was a bad museum, it was actually really good. There was a lot of history and detail in everything. You can learn a lot about the island in that museum. I, for one, learned that Finland became an independent nation in the early 1900s, that it was inhabited by Russians before that, and invaded by Sweden before that. I also couldn't help but think that I would definitely have Suomenlinna has one of the first fortresses I conquer if I were to start conquering the world. I declare the walls thick enough and the fortress well enough protected to have it as a military base.
Outside the museum, I found the grave of the man who built the fortress. His grave was in the middle of a courtyard and covered in snow. Then I wandered over to the King's Gate, which was important enough to have a different colored sign on the street signs, so I followed them. Wandered up by some cannons with other people and saw children sledding down the stairs, which weren't maintained for winter so it required a bit of skill climbing up them. Then I walked down the fortress wall until I explored some not-so-hidden crevices and eventually followed a pair of footprints up to the top of the wall.
That was a really fun adventure right there. Wandering the top of the walls as the sun mingled above the horizon. It wasn't sunset just yet, but it was debating on it. I walked along the walls just to see how far I can go and if it'll lead anywhere. All the while, I thought about using it as a fortress just in case aliens attacked the planet and some people needed a safe place to defend themselves and think up a battle plan. The thoughts mostly included buffing up the place for alient invasion. Please, don't ask about the state of my imgination. Anyway, although I came to the end of the wall and eventually made it to the King's Gate, there was no way for me to get down easily, so I ended up retracing my steps back to the place I climbed up the wall in the first place and walking the rest of the way on the actual path.
The King's Gate wasn't as magnificent as I thought I would be. I didn't realize it was the King's Gate until I saw a map later. Good thing I took pictures of it. From there, I was sufficiently hungry so I went to find a place to eat. There was a small cafe in the small village by the ferry dock where I first got on the island, so I walked in there.
Cutest. Cafe. EVER!!
I dare anyone to find a cafe cuter than this one. It was tiny with only about five or six tables for people. The wallpaper was red and gold and intricate and reminded me of the 1930s. There was only girl behind the counter and a really small kitchen behind that. I didn't see an oven or anything, so I figured that you could only eat whatever was displayed in the small display case immediately to the left of the cash register. There were two pies on the counter: one slice of pecan pie left and about three quarters of apple pie. The apple pie came with a hot vanilla sauce that looked really good. Today's soup was smoked salmon.
There was a small line when I got there, and most of the tables were full already. But some of them looked done with their fika (fika being a Scandinavian activity involving tea/coffee/hot chocolate and conversation. It's basically a Swedish coffee break) so they left after a few minutes. I was patient and waited for a spot to open up. One did as I was ordered hot chocolate and the last slice of pecan pie. I settled down and set out to slowly enjoy my pie and hot cocoa.
Although any hot chocolate is mediocre compared to the stuff Ryan and I had in Berlin, I still ordered it just to see if it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. So far, it is. But the hot cocoa was still good, even with the whipped cream. The peacan pie was also really good. I savored it and ate it slowly. There was an Asian man behind me in line. He got a slice of apple pie and coffee. He sat, ate, took pictures of the place, and left. Eventually, some others left and I was the only one in the cafe, now playing sudoku.
As new people came in for the next wave of customers, I finished up my puzzle (and pie) and left. I was nice and put my dirty dishes on the dirty dish tray next to the counter. Then I left for the mainland.
Of course, the sun sets about 4pm, and I left as soon as the sun set, which means I would feel eternally lame if I returned to the hostel now. So I went and walked around Forum some more because I didn't effectively explore it the previous day. Walked into H&M and bought some cheap wrist warmers and a cute hat. Dinner was a Chinese buffet in the food court basement. I found it unique that I walked the walls of a sea fortress in the afternoon and ate bad Chinese food for dinner at a very modern mall.
Went back home after that and spent the night on Skype. w00t
8 January:
Although breakfast wasn't included in the room, I still didn't think it would cost 7EUR for it. 7EUR for an all you can eat buffet isn't that bad now that I think about it, but thinking in terms of American currency, that's about $11. Which is a bit expensive in terms of all you can eat buffets, especially ones that don't offer that much hot food. The only hot things were tea, coffee, porridge, and sausages. Not even a pancake in sight, which had me disappointed. Dined that morning on granola cereal and some fruit. The big projection screen had a BBC show about a racecar road tripping from Alaska to the southern most tip of South America. Crazy. It was all about how they were trying to find a charger for the car because it was electrical and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant.
Left for Soumenlinna, which is a big fortress Helsinki is noted for. Took me a while to get on the ferry to it. Soumenlinna is a big island and takes about twenty minutes by ferry to get there. Public transportation tickets work on the ferry going there, so that's what I attempted to get. But the machine didn't take my card because it wasn't a chip card. (Don't ask what that means. They have two types of debit cards over there and one has a chip in it, and others are like mine.) So I went to get cash from a cash machine. When I returned, the machine only accepted coins. Grrr. The ferry had left by this point, but I wanted my ticket so I went to find a place to get 20EUR in coins. Once that was done, I got my three-day travel pass and waited.
The giant parking lot nearby had a small market, so I walked around there for a while. There were mostly souvenir booths. I guess the market is bigger when it's summer and only open for tourists in the winter. Didn't buy anything, but I did try on a really cute hat with ears on it. It didn't seem like it would keep my forehead that warm though. Also, it was more than I would spend. Oh well. There were only two booths with food inside. But they were both for fish, and I wasn't about to walk in to smell the fish. Besides, I don't like fish. Don't really enjoy eating it, although I am trying to warm up to shrimp now.
Got on the ferry when it returned. I found a really nice seat by the window towards the front, but a team of men led a drunk in chains my way and he started making a ruckus nearby. I wasn't going to deal with that, so I got up and left for another seat. It wasn't by a window, but the people weren't drunk or in chains, so that was nice. I could still take pictures from my seat, so that's what I did on the ride.
At the island, I figured I would do what I do best and just sit and explore. So I wandered away from the main path several times until I started to follow signs pointing me to food. Except there was only one, maybe two places on the whole island that sold food. I wandered away from them and decided to eat a light lunch before I ate dinner back on the mainland.
Found my way into the Soumenlinna Museum where I learned about the history of the island and the fortress, mostly through a big 30-minute video presentation. This movie was interesting because before it started, you had headphones attached to a receiver. You chose the channel for the receiver depending on what language you speak. The narration of the documentary happened on the headphones, but the sound effects and the music came from the screen. I thought that was an interesting and unique way of doing things. It was a cool way to break the language barrier.
The rest of the museum wasn't much. The panels were only in Finnish, but there were booklets with translations in other languages. I picked one up and explored and read, but I missed just skimming something on the wall and moving on. Walked along the first floor and the second floor before exiting the museum to explore some more island. This isn't to say that it was a bad museum, it was actually really good. There was a lot of history and detail in everything. You can learn a lot about the island in that museum. I, for one, learned that Finland became an independent nation in the early 1900s, that it was inhabited by Russians before that, and invaded by Sweden before that. I also couldn't help but think that I would definitely have Suomenlinna has one of the first fortresses I conquer if I were to start conquering the world. I declare the walls thick enough and the fortress well enough protected to have it as a military base.
Outside the museum, I found the grave of the man who built the fortress. His grave was in the middle of a courtyard and covered in snow. Then I wandered over to the King's Gate, which was important enough to have a different colored sign on the street signs, so I followed them. Wandered up by some cannons with other people and saw children sledding down the stairs, which weren't maintained for winter so it required a bit of skill climbing up them. Then I walked down the fortress wall until I explored some not-so-hidden crevices and eventually followed a pair of footprints up to the top of the wall.
That was a really fun adventure right there. Wandering the top of the walls as the sun mingled above the horizon. It wasn't sunset just yet, but it was debating on it. I walked along the walls just to see how far I can go and if it'll lead anywhere. All the while, I thought about using it as a fortress just in case aliens attacked the planet and some people needed a safe place to defend themselves and think up a battle plan. The thoughts mostly included buffing up the place for alient invasion. Please, don't ask about the state of my imgination. Anyway, although I came to the end of the wall and eventually made it to the King's Gate, there was no way for me to get down easily, so I ended up retracing my steps back to the place I climbed up the wall in the first place and walking the rest of the way on the actual path.
The King's Gate wasn't as magnificent as I thought I would be. I didn't realize it was the King's Gate until I saw a map later. Good thing I took pictures of it. From there, I was sufficiently hungry so I went to find a place to eat. There was a small cafe in the small village by the ferry dock where I first got on the island, so I walked in there.
Cutest. Cafe. EVER!!
I dare anyone to find a cafe cuter than this one. It was tiny with only about five or six tables for people. The wallpaper was red and gold and intricate and reminded me of the 1930s. There was only girl behind the counter and a really small kitchen behind that. I didn't see an oven or anything, so I figured that you could only eat whatever was displayed in the small display case immediately to the left of the cash register. There were two pies on the counter: one slice of pecan pie left and about three quarters of apple pie. The apple pie came with a hot vanilla sauce that looked really good. Today's soup was smoked salmon.
There was a small line when I got there, and most of the tables were full already. But some of them looked done with their fika (fika being a Scandinavian activity involving tea/coffee/hot chocolate and conversation. It's basically a Swedish coffee break) so they left after a few minutes. I was patient and waited for a spot to open up. One did as I was ordered hot chocolate and the last slice of pecan pie. I settled down and set out to slowly enjoy my pie and hot cocoa.
Although any hot chocolate is mediocre compared to the stuff Ryan and I had in Berlin, I still ordered it just to see if it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. So far, it is. But the hot cocoa was still good, even with the whipped cream. The peacan pie was also really good. I savored it and ate it slowly. There was an Asian man behind me in line. He got a slice of apple pie and coffee. He sat, ate, took pictures of the place, and left. Eventually, some others left and I was the only one in the cafe, now playing sudoku.
As new people came in for the next wave of customers, I finished up my puzzle (and pie) and left. I was nice and put my dirty dishes on the dirty dish tray next to the counter. Then I left for the mainland.
Of course, the sun sets about 4pm, and I left as soon as the sun set, which means I would feel eternally lame if I returned to the hostel now. So I went and walked around Forum some more because I didn't effectively explore it the previous day. Walked into H&M and bought some cheap wrist warmers and a cute hat. Dinner was a Chinese buffet in the food court basement. I found it unique that I walked the walls of a sea fortress in the afternoon and ate bad Chinese food for dinner at a very modern mall.
Went back home after that and spent the night on Skype. w00t
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Most Awesome Airline Efficiency I've Ever Experienced
7 January:
I remember waking up, being quiet, and leaving earlier than I anticipated. When I left for the station, I ended up passing it. Whoops. There were people waiting outside for it to open when I got there. I joined them knowing full well I was waaay too early for my flight. But there was nothing to do anyway, so I sat there. We walked in when it opened, I found the Arlanda Express, which is the train that takes you to the airport. I checked to make sure my Eurail pass can work on it, and then I found a seat.
Checked into my flight without any trouble. The flight was delayed thirty minutes, and I didn't like that it was delayed because I wanted to get going, but I was still willing to wait. I spent the time playing sudoku, journaling, and napping. When we boarded, I liked how everyone was given an assigned seat instead of picking when they board like they do on Ryanair. It made boarding that much faster. There wasn't a super-annoying and recorded safety brief, in fact I believe the captain explained the safety features herself. She even apologized for being delayed. The plane started in Helsinki and it had snowed overnight there, so they took 30 minutes to defrost the plane before launching. But what really surprised me was the plane actually took off on time.
Everything was so efficient! I loved it to death! Of course, the one thing I didn't like was the English version of announcements coming on third instead of second. First was Finnish, second was Swedish, third was English. I guess it shows how many people travel between Finland and Sweden. This sort of language distinction was also found throughout Helsinki, so it's not just the airline. But I was still amazed by my flight. We took off when they said we would take off, we landed when we were supposed to, and we even got complimentary refreshments like tea and coffee, though I only had water. I liked that bit.
Found my way to the Helsinki city center alright. There was a bus that took you directly to the central station. I bought a single journey ticket, but it was good for 80 minutes since time of purchase, so I could also use it for the tram to my hostel.
Speaking of which, I couldn't find it right away. I was lost and walked around the station, found the trams, but none of them were the 4 which was the route I had to take. So I went to the information desk and asked where the tram 4 stop was. The man was nice and gave me a really good map of the city which I used the rest of the time there. Upon walking out of the info booth, I saw the street that lead to the stop, but I was hungry so I decided to get some lunch now that I knew where I was going. Ate at a small deli in the station and just people watched. While leaving, I gave my table to a couple of women who patiently waited for me to get my stuff together before occupying my table. That was nice of them.
At the hostel, I went and paid for my room and was nicely informed that I can come back and get my room number anytime after 2:00pm. I had forty minutes to kill time before I could see my room. No big deal. I saw a giant mall thing while on the tram. Besides, I had to find some eye drops for my eye and a charger for my phone. So after I dropped off my duffel in the luggage room, I asked for a pharmacy and an electronics store. The woman at the desk kindly pointed them out on the map and I set off for my errands.
Of course, I got distracted by a souvenir shop. Because it was so cute, and because it was kind of cheap, I got a small Viking figurine with a fur beared and the flag of Finland on his shield. He's so cute. I name him Sven the Viking.
The electronics store was more the electronics section of Stockmann, the largest department store in Finland. They're like JCPenny, but with more departments. Perhaps more like a Shopko with better quality and more expensive clothes? Definitely not like Wal-Mart. Anyway, I found the section and struggled through finding a charger and/or an adapter. The only charger for my phone was 19.50EUR and I couldn't find an adapter, so the $30 charger it was. The workers at the store wore little flags on their nametags denoted which languages they can help customers in, which I though was really awesome. Nearly everyone had a Finnish and British flag on their nametag, which goes to show how widespread English is. Swedish was more common than I thought, so there were only a handful of workers that didn't have it on their nametag. At least most people had English flags.
The next step was finding a pharmacy, but I managed to find a giant mall called Forum that I wandered through aimlessly for a while. Finnish malls are just like American malls. While wandering the Forum, I got so sore from my backpack. I attempting to find a place to sit, but I clearly wasn't looking in the right place because I had no idea where to go. The maps by the entrances said there was a pizza and kebab place on the third floor, so I attempted to find it. Found it I did, but there wasn't room for me to sit right away. So that plan was scratched.
After wandering around a bit, I found a small cafe a block or two away from the Forum. I ordered a hot chocolate and sat there for a while just people watching and playing sudoku. I rested until my shoulders stopped complaining and I finished three puzzles. Then I picked up my backpack and attempted to find the pharmacy the woman at the hostel desk pointed out.
Between the cafe and the pharmacy, I went the wrong way down the road and found a souvenir shop which some pretty awesome stuff. Got a patch and some postcards there. They had tee shirts, one for 10EUR and three for 25EUR. I debated getting some there, but I figured I would find the same deal again and I would buy then. I wasn't ready to buy tee shirts just then. In restrospect, it was the opportune moment to buy tee shirts because I never got my Helsinki tee shirt. (Neither did I get my Nightwish tee shirt, but I'm not too heartbroken about that).
Walked the wrong way down the street after that. Of course. But I found the right way and by now I was looking for a cheap place to eat. Found it at a place called Carrolls, which is the Finnish version of McDonald's or Burger King. The fries were awesome. But that's where I ate and then I left for the hostel.
I was given a room number and a key and I went up to dump off my stuff and relax. But when I got to my room, I realized that I wasn't the only one in the room like I thought I was. This confused me. The website said 1bed-dorm, and I took that as one bed in a room. I guess not. I was planning on sleeping in my own room and not worrying about someone overhearing my conversations with my parents and friends. So I picked up my stuff and went back to the desk to see if there was a private room available. There was, and I said I would be willing to pay the different between the rooms. So I did and got a new room on the same floor.
I liked this better. I was more comfortable, I was alone. There was even a table for me to keep my computer so my bed can be free for clothes. So I set up camp on the table and spent the rest of the evening on the computer. Even called Dad at home to tell him I was fine. My phone ran out of minutes haflway through that conversation. Whoops. My immediate thought was how I was going to call Alicia to tell her I was back in London, but then I thought of phone booths. They're all over the place in London. So that problem was solved.
I remember waking up, being quiet, and leaving earlier than I anticipated. When I left for the station, I ended up passing it. Whoops. There were people waiting outside for it to open when I got there. I joined them knowing full well I was waaay too early for my flight. But there was nothing to do anyway, so I sat there. We walked in when it opened, I found the Arlanda Express, which is the train that takes you to the airport. I checked to make sure my Eurail pass can work on it, and then I found a seat.
Checked into my flight without any trouble. The flight was delayed thirty minutes, and I didn't like that it was delayed because I wanted to get going, but I was still willing to wait. I spent the time playing sudoku, journaling, and napping. When we boarded, I liked how everyone was given an assigned seat instead of picking when they board like they do on Ryanair. It made boarding that much faster. There wasn't a super-annoying and recorded safety brief, in fact I believe the captain explained the safety features herself. She even apologized for being delayed. The plane started in Helsinki and it had snowed overnight there, so they took 30 minutes to defrost the plane before launching. But what really surprised me was the plane actually took off on time.
Everything was so efficient! I loved it to death! Of course, the one thing I didn't like was the English version of announcements coming on third instead of second. First was Finnish, second was Swedish, third was English. I guess it shows how many people travel between Finland and Sweden. This sort of language distinction was also found throughout Helsinki, so it's not just the airline. But I was still amazed by my flight. We took off when they said we would take off, we landed when we were supposed to, and we even got complimentary refreshments like tea and coffee, though I only had water. I liked that bit.
Found my way to the Helsinki city center alright. There was a bus that took you directly to the central station. I bought a single journey ticket, but it was good for 80 minutes since time of purchase, so I could also use it for the tram to my hostel.
Speaking of which, I couldn't find it right away. I was lost and walked around the station, found the trams, but none of them were the 4 which was the route I had to take. So I went to the information desk and asked where the tram 4 stop was. The man was nice and gave me a really good map of the city which I used the rest of the time there. Upon walking out of the info booth, I saw the street that lead to the stop, but I was hungry so I decided to get some lunch now that I knew where I was going. Ate at a small deli in the station and just people watched. While leaving, I gave my table to a couple of women who patiently waited for me to get my stuff together before occupying my table. That was nice of them.
At the hostel, I went and paid for my room and was nicely informed that I can come back and get my room number anytime after 2:00pm. I had forty minutes to kill time before I could see my room. No big deal. I saw a giant mall thing while on the tram. Besides, I had to find some eye drops for my eye and a charger for my phone. So after I dropped off my duffel in the luggage room, I asked for a pharmacy and an electronics store. The woman at the desk kindly pointed them out on the map and I set off for my errands.
Of course, I got distracted by a souvenir shop. Because it was so cute, and because it was kind of cheap, I got a small Viking figurine with a fur beared and the flag of Finland on his shield. He's so cute. I name him Sven the Viking.
The electronics store was more the electronics section of Stockmann, the largest department store in Finland. They're like JCPenny, but with more departments. Perhaps more like a Shopko with better quality and more expensive clothes? Definitely not like Wal-Mart. Anyway, I found the section and struggled through finding a charger and/or an adapter. The only charger for my phone was 19.50EUR and I couldn't find an adapter, so the $30 charger it was. The workers at the store wore little flags on their nametags denoted which languages they can help customers in, which I though was really awesome. Nearly everyone had a Finnish and British flag on their nametag, which goes to show how widespread English is. Swedish was more common than I thought, so there were only a handful of workers that didn't have it on their nametag. At least most people had English flags.
The next step was finding a pharmacy, but I managed to find a giant mall called Forum that I wandered through aimlessly for a while. Finnish malls are just like American malls. While wandering the Forum, I got so sore from my backpack. I attempting to find a place to sit, but I clearly wasn't looking in the right place because I had no idea where to go. The maps by the entrances said there was a pizza and kebab place on the third floor, so I attempted to find it. Found it I did, but there wasn't room for me to sit right away. So that plan was scratched.
After wandering around a bit, I found a small cafe a block or two away from the Forum. I ordered a hot chocolate and sat there for a while just people watching and playing sudoku. I rested until my shoulders stopped complaining and I finished three puzzles. Then I picked up my backpack and attempted to find the pharmacy the woman at the hostel desk pointed out.
Between the cafe and the pharmacy, I went the wrong way down the road and found a souvenir shop which some pretty awesome stuff. Got a patch and some postcards there. They had tee shirts, one for 10EUR and three for 25EUR. I debated getting some there, but I figured I would find the same deal again and I would buy then. I wasn't ready to buy tee shirts just then. In restrospect, it was the opportune moment to buy tee shirts because I never got my Helsinki tee shirt. (Neither did I get my Nightwish tee shirt, but I'm not too heartbroken about that).
Walked the wrong way down the street after that. Of course. But I found the right way and by now I was looking for a cheap place to eat. Found it at a place called Carrolls, which is the Finnish version of McDonald's or Burger King. The fries were awesome. But that's where I ate and then I left for the hostel.
I was given a room number and a key and I went up to dump off my stuff and relax. But when I got to my room, I realized that I wasn't the only one in the room like I thought I was. This confused me. The website said 1bed-dorm, and I took that as one bed in a room. I guess not. I was planning on sleeping in my own room and not worrying about someone overhearing my conversations with my parents and friends. So I picked up my stuff and went back to the desk to see if there was a private room available. There was, and I said I would be willing to pay the different between the rooms. So I did and got a new room on the same floor.
I liked this better. I was more comfortable, I was alone. There was even a table for me to keep my computer so my bed can be free for clothes. So I set up camp on the table and spent the rest of the evening on the computer. Even called Dad at home to tell him I was fine. My phone ran out of minutes haflway through that conversation. Whoops. My immediate thought was how I was going to call Alicia to tell her I was back in London, but then I thought of phone booths. They're all over the place in London. So that problem was solved.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Skansen Open Air Museum
6 January:
Woke up later than the previous day, which was nice. I still felt like I had to wake up early to get to the sites early because sunlight doesn't last long this far north. So I was out of the hostel as soon as I was ready and planned the route.
The plan was to head to the Skansen Open Air Museum and hang around there for as long as it takes. If there was time left, and only if there was time left, then I would check out the Vasa Museum which features a giant ship from the 1600s that's boasted to be 95% original (after a very slow and painstaking restoration process that may or may not still be ongoing). But I was more interested in the Skansen Museum because it's a type of museum I've never been in before, a few trusted travel websites said it was really awesome, and I wanted to see what life was like in Swedish towns 200 years ago.
The museum was broken into quite a few sections that talked about life in various parts of Sweden. There was a Town Quarter, my first stop, which talked about life in the industry around the 1920s and 1930s. I walked into a glass blower shop (which was a shopping shop, the actual glass blowers weren't there in the winter. A bummer because that's why I wantd to go). Also visited the furniture factory, the engineering works which was all about engines. There was a small interactive area in the Engineering Works building including a mini theater where you can watch documentaries. One notable documentary was about the SAAB cars, which I would have watched except the documentary was 40 minutes long and in Swedish. I couldn't sit through 40 minutes of Swedish, so I continued on.
Forget exactly what was next, since I was just wandering around for a while. If I had gone in the summer, I would have spent two full days in that museum, seriously. What you do is when you walk into a house, or a building, you are greeted by the workers who are there doing a craft in costume. You can ask questions and they are more than happy to answer you. Once you get them talking, though, what they have to say is very interesting. I saw a house from the 1930s that would have featured a new couple from the upper middle class (new money is what the woman said). Also walked into a house from the late 1800s during Christmas time, so the woman talking about that one went into detail about all the foods on the dinner table and even a few folk traditions.
Christmas was the only time rural Swedish inhabitants had fresh bread from flour, so that was always a treat. They usually hung it out to dry and kept the small tower of Christmas bread for the 12 days of Christmas; the last day of which they would eat the tower. I found it interesting how the Swedish didn't eat fresh bread right away. But this is bread from flour and I guess they normally make bread from something else (forgot to ask what they usually make bread out of).
An interesting folk tale is about the Jud Tomte, a little gnome who goes up to about the knee of an adult man. He has a full beard and dresses in grey but wears a red cap. He's a household gnome and usually lives in the barn. During Christmas, you're supposed to take a bit from each dish on the table, place it in a basin to leave underneath the table, or put it out with the horses which are his favorite animal. Keeping the tomte happy would provide good fortune for the household, but bad fortune will come if he is not taken care of. Although just a folk tale, the woman in this housestead said that one grandmother had come in and told a story about how, when she was seven, she and her brother saw a tomte. They woke up early to go wake up their neighbors for Christmas mass, and as they came around the barn, they saw a small man dressed in gray disappear around the corner of the barn. When they went to look, they saw small footprints in the snow. I really like this idea of a tomte for each household.
Not every household had a good enough guide. I walked into one house where I took a picture or two then asked a question, and the tour guide just answered the question and didn't elaborate on anything. I attempted to get her going, but she answered my follow up in just the same way she answered the real question. Have you ever had that feeling where you have a question in your head but you have no idea how to word it? And you know that there's more to the answer of your question but you don't know how to work that to get the follow up? That's my feeling with this girl. Another couple walked in and they talked about how all the Christmas dinners in all the houses seemed like the same, and the girl agreed and they talked about that for a while. Then I left.
The next place I went to was very nice. It didn't have a Christmas dinner, but I asked a question and the woman answered with a longwinded answer that elaborated on a lot of points. She was nice to listen to. She was the one that also pointed out that a lot of items in the houses would have been painted bright reds or blues, but since the museum authorities don't want any changes to the current items as they are, they all just look drab and grey and brown. But there would have been more color if they were new. Also, a lot of windows in farmsteads faced south, especially in the north, and she thought that was a clever move on the homebuilder's part.
Families usually stayed within one or two rooms with other. Anymore rooms weren't really needed and it was a sign of wealth if you had more rooms for storage and/or a second floor.
Christmas tradition: Some of the Christmas dinners displayed had candles with more than one branch coming from it. The point of these candles was that each branch represented a member of the family. During Christmas dinner, everyone lights their candle at the same time and how the flame catches and burns predicts how the coming year will be for that person.
Also saw someone driving a horse-drawn sleigh and walked through the portion of the museum that is considered the zoo. Not a lot of the animals were out, but I did see some reindeer and a small pack of grey seals. There was also a cow, but that was mostly by the farm animals. That was cute. Smelled the cows before I saw them too. Reminded me of home.
When I was all done with the Skansen, I walked into their gift shop. It was quaint and pricey and I ended up not buying a Swedish horse while in Sweden. They were so expensive! I overheard someone say that it's hard to find someone to carve them. Painting is the easy part, finding a wood carver for them is the hard part and what jacks up the prices on them. Oh well. Maybe next time I make it to Sweden? Hopefully I'll have more money then.
Returning home, I thought I'd maybe stop by the Vasa Museum, but as I walked by, I noticed that people were walking out of it. After stopping to think about it, I came to the conclusion that it's probably not worth going in. This is a legit museum where you can spend hours walking through the exhibits. If I'm going to that museum, I'd rather spend those hours walking through the exhibits then pay a lot of money just to see one thing and then walk out again. So I skipped it and took the tram to the end of the line, which was an area I was familiar with and a closer walk than if I had walked all the way from the museum myself.
Thought I would spend some time on the Internet before dinner so that I can spend the later part of the evening blogging about the days I've been missing. This was foiled because the Internet was down. I tried my computer, and I tried a few of the hostel's computers, but everyone said that another person had the same IP address as the computer I was using, please try again later or contact your network administrator. This seemed like too much work to handle, so I did some quiet sudoku in a quiet lounge. A guy came by asking for a shower, and I pointed him in the right direction. He asked which State I was from because my accent was so obvious, and I said Wisconsin.
"So this must be normal weather for you, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda. Where are you from?"
"Texas."
"Ooo."
"Yeah. Hopefully I'll get out and do something."
"You should."
Dinner was a restuarant a few blocks away from the hostel called Cafe Trenem. It was pricier than I thought it was, but I figured "Hey, why not? Real Swedish food." They were nice enough to give me an English menu, so I could actually read what everything said. Ordered a pig's knuckle thinking that wouldn't be too harmless and drank my water and people-watched as I waited. There may have been some sudoku involved too. When the food came, I did not expected a real live cooked pig's foot in front of me. It kind of creeped me out, so I pointed the toe away from me and took as much meat off the bones as I could before chowing down. It was good, I have to say. There were three sauces that it came with. One was pumpkin, one was apple, and the other was some vegetable combination. I liked the apple the best, so I ate the pork with that mostly. The pumpkin was good too, and the vegetable one was crunchy but also good, though not a flavor I was looking for.
After getting back to the hostel, I did my Internet thing and showered. Took out my contacts and my eye went bonkers again. Argh. As I was dealing with that, a girl came into my once-empty room. And of course, being the only two people in the room together, we started talking. Her name was Karen, she comes from California. She graduated with a major in Spanish and then went to Madrid to find a job. I guess this was a weekend holiday for her. I apologized on behalf of my eye and explained that I did something I probably shouldn't have done and now my eye is seeking retribution. Yes, it hurts. No, nothing is wrong with me emotionally. I have a feeling we would have seen parts of the city together had I been staying an extra day, but since I was leaving at five the next morning, I called in early. She totally understood and I went to bed around 10pm. I hope she had a good time in Stockholm.
Woke up later than the previous day, which was nice. I still felt like I had to wake up early to get to the sites early because sunlight doesn't last long this far north. So I was out of the hostel as soon as I was ready and planned the route.
The plan was to head to the Skansen Open Air Museum and hang around there for as long as it takes. If there was time left, and only if there was time left, then I would check out the Vasa Museum which features a giant ship from the 1600s that's boasted to be 95% original (after a very slow and painstaking restoration process that may or may not still be ongoing). But I was more interested in the Skansen Museum because it's a type of museum I've never been in before, a few trusted travel websites said it was really awesome, and I wanted to see what life was like in Swedish towns 200 years ago.
The museum was broken into quite a few sections that talked about life in various parts of Sweden. There was a Town Quarter, my first stop, which talked about life in the industry around the 1920s and 1930s. I walked into a glass blower shop (which was a shopping shop, the actual glass blowers weren't there in the winter. A bummer because that's why I wantd to go). Also visited the furniture factory, the engineering works which was all about engines. There was a small interactive area in the Engineering Works building including a mini theater where you can watch documentaries. One notable documentary was about the SAAB cars, which I would have watched except the documentary was 40 minutes long and in Swedish. I couldn't sit through 40 minutes of Swedish, so I continued on.
Forget exactly what was next, since I was just wandering around for a while. If I had gone in the summer, I would have spent two full days in that museum, seriously. What you do is when you walk into a house, or a building, you are greeted by the workers who are there doing a craft in costume. You can ask questions and they are more than happy to answer you. Once you get them talking, though, what they have to say is very interesting. I saw a house from the 1930s that would have featured a new couple from the upper middle class (new money is what the woman said). Also walked into a house from the late 1800s during Christmas time, so the woman talking about that one went into detail about all the foods on the dinner table and even a few folk traditions.
Christmas was the only time rural Swedish inhabitants had fresh bread from flour, so that was always a treat. They usually hung it out to dry and kept the small tower of Christmas bread for the 12 days of Christmas; the last day of which they would eat the tower. I found it interesting how the Swedish didn't eat fresh bread right away. But this is bread from flour and I guess they normally make bread from something else (forgot to ask what they usually make bread out of).
An interesting folk tale is about the Jud Tomte, a little gnome who goes up to about the knee of an adult man. He has a full beard and dresses in grey but wears a red cap. He's a household gnome and usually lives in the barn. During Christmas, you're supposed to take a bit from each dish on the table, place it in a basin to leave underneath the table, or put it out with the horses which are his favorite animal. Keeping the tomte happy would provide good fortune for the household, but bad fortune will come if he is not taken care of. Although just a folk tale, the woman in this housestead said that one grandmother had come in and told a story about how, when she was seven, she and her brother saw a tomte. They woke up early to go wake up their neighbors for Christmas mass, and as they came around the barn, they saw a small man dressed in gray disappear around the corner of the barn. When they went to look, they saw small footprints in the snow. I really like this idea of a tomte for each household.
Not every household had a good enough guide. I walked into one house where I took a picture or two then asked a question, and the tour guide just answered the question and didn't elaborate on anything. I attempted to get her going, but she answered my follow up in just the same way she answered the real question. Have you ever had that feeling where you have a question in your head but you have no idea how to word it? And you know that there's more to the answer of your question but you don't know how to work that to get the follow up? That's my feeling with this girl. Another couple walked in and they talked about how all the Christmas dinners in all the houses seemed like the same, and the girl agreed and they talked about that for a while. Then I left.
The next place I went to was very nice. It didn't have a Christmas dinner, but I asked a question and the woman answered with a longwinded answer that elaborated on a lot of points. She was nice to listen to. She was the one that also pointed out that a lot of items in the houses would have been painted bright reds or blues, but since the museum authorities don't want any changes to the current items as they are, they all just look drab and grey and brown. But there would have been more color if they were new. Also, a lot of windows in farmsteads faced south, especially in the north, and she thought that was a clever move on the homebuilder's part.
Families usually stayed within one or two rooms with other. Anymore rooms weren't really needed and it was a sign of wealth if you had more rooms for storage and/or a second floor.
Christmas tradition: Some of the Christmas dinners displayed had candles with more than one branch coming from it. The point of these candles was that each branch represented a member of the family. During Christmas dinner, everyone lights their candle at the same time and how the flame catches and burns predicts how the coming year will be for that person.
Also saw someone driving a horse-drawn sleigh and walked through the portion of the museum that is considered the zoo. Not a lot of the animals were out, but I did see some reindeer and a small pack of grey seals. There was also a cow, but that was mostly by the farm animals. That was cute. Smelled the cows before I saw them too. Reminded me of home.
When I was all done with the Skansen, I walked into their gift shop. It was quaint and pricey and I ended up not buying a Swedish horse while in Sweden. They were so expensive! I overheard someone say that it's hard to find someone to carve them. Painting is the easy part, finding a wood carver for them is the hard part and what jacks up the prices on them. Oh well. Maybe next time I make it to Sweden? Hopefully I'll have more money then.
Returning home, I thought I'd maybe stop by the Vasa Museum, but as I walked by, I noticed that people were walking out of it. After stopping to think about it, I came to the conclusion that it's probably not worth going in. This is a legit museum where you can spend hours walking through the exhibits. If I'm going to that museum, I'd rather spend those hours walking through the exhibits then pay a lot of money just to see one thing and then walk out again. So I skipped it and took the tram to the end of the line, which was an area I was familiar with and a closer walk than if I had walked all the way from the museum myself.
Thought I would spend some time on the Internet before dinner so that I can spend the later part of the evening blogging about the days I've been missing. This was foiled because the Internet was down. I tried my computer, and I tried a few of the hostel's computers, but everyone said that another person had the same IP address as the computer I was using, please try again later or contact your network administrator. This seemed like too much work to handle, so I did some quiet sudoku in a quiet lounge. A guy came by asking for a shower, and I pointed him in the right direction. He asked which State I was from because my accent was so obvious, and I said Wisconsin.
"So this must be normal weather for you, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda. Where are you from?"
"Texas."
"Ooo."
"Yeah. Hopefully I'll get out and do something."
"You should."
Dinner was a restuarant a few blocks away from the hostel called Cafe Trenem. It was pricier than I thought it was, but I figured "Hey, why not? Real Swedish food." They were nice enough to give me an English menu, so I could actually read what everything said. Ordered a pig's knuckle thinking that wouldn't be too harmless and drank my water and people-watched as I waited. There may have been some sudoku involved too. When the food came, I did not expected a real live cooked pig's foot in front of me. It kind of creeped me out, so I pointed the toe away from me and took as much meat off the bones as I could before chowing down. It was good, I have to say. There were three sauces that it came with. One was pumpkin, one was apple, and the other was some vegetable combination. I liked the apple the best, so I ate the pork with that mostly. The pumpkin was good too, and the vegetable one was crunchy but also good, though not a flavor I was looking for.
After getting back to the hostel, I did my Internet thing and showered. Took out my contacts and my eye went bonkers again. Argh. As I was dealing with that, a girl came into my once-empty room. And of course, being the only two people in the room together, we started talking. Her name was Karen, she comes from California. She graduated with a major in Spanish and then went to Madrid to find a job. I guess this was a weekend holiday for her. I apologized on behalf of my eye and explained that I did something I probably shouldn't have done and now my eye is seeking retribution. Yes, it hurts. No, nothing is wrong with me emotionally. I have a feeling we would have seen parts of the city together had I been staying an extra day, but since I was leaving at five the next morning, I called in early. She totally understood and I went to bed around 10pm. I hope she had a good time in Stockholm.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Archipelago Tours and Souvenirs
5 January
I had several things on my mind when I woke up. Each fighting for precedence over the other was laundry and my eye. Laundry one because I got up at 7am to go check on it. The thought had woken me up at 4am but I wasn't going to disturb the girls sleeping in my room at that ungodly hour. I didn't want to disturb myself, even. So 7am it was.
Wouldn't you know, the dryer was still going! Oh my word, I thought my clothes would have been nice and small by now, but they weren't, thank goodness. They weren't even warm. But they were clean and they were dry, so I rolled them up and packed them back into my duffel where they belonged for the time being.
The eye was better that morning, but I was still kind of sleepy from waking up so early, so I went to bed for another hour. When I woke up, I was the only person sleeping in the room. The other three girls had checked out. Although I made them seem like a three-some travel group, I think the two sharing the bunk were the only ones traveling together and the third was a solo traveler like me. I think this is the case because the third girl sleeping in the bunk below me checked out as I slept where the others were gone when I got back from folding laundry and eating breakfast.
The goal for the day was to take a boat tour of the archipelago. I plotted a route from a map of Stockholm that will take me to the docks, so off I went.
Ran into an interesting piece of architecture that later turned out to be the Royal Palace. It was on a few lists of things to see in Stockholm, and I never expected to run into it on a whim. Took a few pictures of it, of course. I couldn't resist because of the crowd of tourists taking pictures of it, so it had to be something important. The palace was on a major tourist shopping street, and as a result, I walked into a souvenir shop and bought a patch. Took care of that one right away.
Continued onto the docks and found that I was bright and early for the next boat tour. Yes, they run them in winter but only a few companies do so. I paid for my ticket an hour before the boat launched so I decided to wander a few blocks for half an hour or so. On the way, I found a small cafe where I ate a sandwich and juice for lunch. Also spent some time warming up and completing a sudoku puzzle or two. The cashier that served me looked really bored, the way he wasn't doing anything behind the cash register. When it was five to one, I left for the docks again.
The tour would last about 2.5 hours instead of 3.5 because of the amount of ice later on in the route. So I guess we turned around earlier than expected but I don't mind. I had gotten my island fix by the time we were that far out, anyway. The tour boat was really nice. The interior was fashioned in wood and looked all fancy-like. There were two levels and I made my way to the upper deck for the better views. While waiting for the ship to launch, I overheard four adults talking amongst themselves. They were obviously American because they were loud and the men sported university clothing. One wore Wisconsin Badger gear and the other Minnesota. I wonder why I didn't step in and strike up a conversation, but I'm fine not doing so. I had an enjoyable experience anyhow.
Our tour guide was named Eva. I talked with her several times throughout the trip. I said I was just traveling at the moment and spent a semester in London for studies. She said she was jealous because I and one other girl from Australia had spent three months traveling around. I pointed out that, based on our conversations, she's lived in a lot of places around the world. She had spent two years in Miami, a few years in Madrid, and even some time in Georgia (the country not the state). Then she admitted that maybe she shouldn't be complaining.
The aforementioned Australian girl was really nice. We talked several times throughout the trip too. She was really, really excited about winter in Stockholm. Australia doesn't get much snow, and she was most amazed by the fact that the ship was sailing through ice. ICE! Can you believe it? Yes, I could, actually. But she was still amazed. She also really liked the color scheme of the islands. She had a Canon camera just like my friend David, you see, and she was snapping away the entire trip. I asked if photography was just a hobby, and she said that it was but she's rubbish. Only a few good shots in a stack of 200 or so. I believe I said that it was normal (because it's what happens to David) but I don't think she heard me. She said her sister, who lives in Stockholm, was a really excellent photographer but she's too busy to give her sister a few pointers about photography. Meanwhile, Austrailian Girl was just putzing around with her camera settings. I'm not a photographer, but from what I heard, I think she's on the right track. Just putztng, keep taking a million pictures a day, and pretty soon you'll be a really good photographer before you know it.
Australian Girl (I never caught her name), Eva, and I spent some time complaining about the lack of sunlight in Stockholm winters. Eva also said that Stockholm people prefer summer months over winter months and wonder why anyone would want to visit in the winter. So the next time I'm in Scandinavia, I'll be sure to visit in the summer when the sun is out for sixteen hours and the weather is nice.
With the tour over, we bid farewell to each other and continued our merry way. This morning, I had previously read about a shop I wanted to visit on the island with the Royal Palace on it, so that's where I ventured afterward. It was only 3pm, but it was already twilight! It was also cloudy so it was hard to tell where the sun was at this time. Anyway, I wandered up and down this street and ended up not going into the shop I wanted to visit. The shop boasted crystal gifts and other souvenirs, but I only saw the crystal gifts, which were finely crafted and interesting, but nothing I would ultimately buy. I did, however, find some other interesting stuff.
Like awesome Viking figurines! That were overpriced and thus not bought by me. I also bought a stack of postcards and a few Christmas ornaments for myself that were on sale. Two ornaments featuring Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus (with blonde hair instead of grey or white). The third was a cute angel girl with blonde pictails that was too Scandinavian to pass up. While wandering, found a tee shirt I would really like to buy, but wasn't positive on the price just yet so I kept going. Found a store that sold a bunch of items for rock bands, one of them being Nightwish (and now I wish I walked into that because I'm not having any luck finding Nightwish memorabilia in Finland). The reason I passed it up was because I thought I would find Nightwish stuff in Finland, actually. The band does come from Finland at any rate. Moving on, I also found THE Coolest Store EVER.
THE Coolest Store EVER is a bookstore that features nothing BUT science fiction, fantasy, manga, and graphic novels. Indeed, I am that geeky that I call them graphic novels, and to increase that geekiness, I will correct you if you call them comic books. They're graphic novels. But seriously, I could live in this store. I kind of wanted to buy something because I was so taken aback by the fact that a store like that existed somewhere in the world, but I immediately thought of packing and whether it would fit. And after returning and taking a look at my bag, I could have fit another novel in my backpack or duffel bag. Too late now. I even passed up the opportunity to open the first volume of Scott Pilgrim. What was I thinking?
I was thinking of that tee shirt. Which I went and got before I turned in for the night. It's a pretty cool tee shirt, if I do say so myself.
Wandered the main shopping street on my way back home. It was a more interesting route than the other one I had plotted out. Besides, I got to see a street riddled with H&Ms. Way too many people like that store over here (but I can see why, really. Their clothes are just so cute and affordable).
Bought a jar of pasta sauce before I returned to the dorm. By this time, I figured I had spent enough money on food so I should take the free pasta in the hostel kitchen while I have a chance. This was the first hostel that had free anything in the kitchen besides leftovers, so I had to take the opportunity. Just at by myself in the kitchen and didn't join into any conversations. What a loner I am. I think it's time to go home because I'm losing a willingness to talk to people.
Spent the evening on Skype, being as I was the only person in a room meant for four. Kind of reveled in the fact that I was the only person in the room, except I stayed on the top bunk for some reason. Really? Really.
I had several things on my mind when I woke up. Each fighting for precedence over the other was laundry and my eye. Laundry one because I got up at 7am to go check on it. The thought had woken me up at 4am but I wasn't going to disturb the girls sleeping in my room at that ungodly hour. I didn't want to disturb myself, even. So 7am it was.
Wouldn't you know, the dryer was still going! Oh my word, I thought my clothes would have been nice and small by now, but they weren't, thank goodness. They weren't even warm. But they were clean and they were dry, so I rolled them up and packed them back into my duffel where they belonged for the time being.
The eye was better that morning, but I was still kind of sleepy from waking up so early, so I went to bed for another hour. When I woke up, I was the only person sleeping in the room. The other three girls had checked out. Although I made them seem like a three-some travel group, I think the two sharing the bunk were the only ones traveling together and the third was a solo traveler like me. I think this is the case because the third girl sleeping in the bunk below me checked out as I slept where the others were gone when I got back from folding laundry and eating breakfast.
The goal for the day was to take a boat tour of the archipelago. I plotted a route from a map of Stockholm that will take me to the docks, so off I went.
Ran into an interesting piece of architecture that later turned out to be the Royal Palace. It was on a few lists of things to see in Stockholm, and I never expected to run into it on a whim. Took a few pictures of it, of course. I couldn't resist because of the crowd of tourists taking pictures of it, so it had to be something important. The palace was on a major tourist shopping street, and as a result, I walked into a souvenir shop and bought a patch. Took care of that one right away.
Continued onto the docks and found that I was bright and early for the next boat tour. Yes, they run them in winter but only a few companies do so. I paid for my ticket an hour before the boat launched so I decided to wander a few blocks for half an hour or so. On the way, I found a small cafe where I ate a sandwich and juice for lunch. Also spent some time warming up and completing a sudoku puzzle or two. The cashier that served me looked really bored, the way he wasn't doing anything behind the cash register. When it was five to one, I left for the docks again.
The tour would last about 2.5 hours instead of 3.5 because of the amount of ice later on in the route. So I guess we turned around earlier than expected but I don't mind. I had gotten my island fix by the time we were that far out, anyway. The tour boat was really nice. The interior was fashioned in wood and looked all fancy-like. There were two levels and I made my way to the upper deck for the better views. While waiting for the ship to launch, I overheard four adults talking amongst themselves. They were obviously American because they were loud and the men sported university clothing. One wore Wisconsin Badger gear and the other Minnesota. I wonder why I didn't step in and strike up a conversation, but I'm fine not doing so. I had an enjoyable experience anyhow.
Our tour guide was named Eva. I talked with her several times throughout the trip. I said I was just traveling at the moment and spent a semester in London for studies. She said she was jealous because I and one other girl from Australia had spent three months traveling around. I pointed out that, based on our conversations, she's lived in a lot of places around the world. She had spent two years in Miami, a few years in Madrid, and even some time in Georgia (the country not the state). Then she admitted that maybe she shouldn't be complaining.
The aforementioned Australian girl was really nice. We talked several times throughout the trip too. She was really, really excited about winter in Stockholm. Australia doesn't get much snow, and she was most amazed by the fact that the ship was sailing through ice. ICE! Can you believe it? Yes, I could, actually. But she was still amazed. She also really liked the color scheme of the islands. She had a Canon camera just like my friend David, you see, and she was snapping away the entire trip. I asked if photography was just a hobby, and she said that it was but she's rubbish. Only a few good shots in a stack of 200 or so. I believe I said that it was normal (because it's what happens to David) but I don't think she heard me. She said her sister, who lives in Stockholm, was a really excellent photographer but she's too busy to give her sister a few pointers about photography. Meanwhile, Austrailian Girl was just putzing around with her camera settings. I'm not a photographer, but from what I heard, I think she's on the right track. Just putztng, keep taking a million pictures a day, and pretty soon you'll be a really good photographer before you know it.
Australian Girl (I never caught her name), Eva, and I spent some time complaining about the lack of sunlight in Stockholm winters. Eva also said that Stockholm people prefer summer months over winter months and wonder why anyone would want to visit in the winter. So the next time I'm in Scandinavia, I'll be sure to visit in the summer when the sun is out for sixteen hours and the weather is nice.
With the tour over, we bid farewell to each other and continued our merry way. This morning, I had previously read about a shop I wanted to visit on the island with the Royal Palace on it, so that's where I ventured afterward. It was only 3pm, but it was already twilight! It was also cloudy so it was hard to tell where the sun was at this time. Anyway, I wandered up and down this street and ended up not going into the shop I wanted to visit. The shop boasted crystal gifts and other souvenirs, but I only saw the crystal gifts, which were finely crafted and interesting, but nothing I would ultimately buy. I did, however, find some other interesting stuff.
Like awesome Viking figurines! That were overpriced and thus not bought by me. I also bought a stack of postcards and a few Christmas ornaments for myself that were on sale. Two ornaments featuring Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus (with blonde hair instead of grey or white). The third was a cute angel girl with blonde pictails that was too Scandinavian to pass up. While wandering, found a tee shirt I would really like to buy, but wasn't positive on the price just yet so I kept going. Found a store that sold a bunch of items for rock bands, one of them being Nightwish (and now I wish I walked into that because I'm not having any luck finding Nightwish memorabilia in Finland). The reason I passed it up was because I thought I would find Nightwish stuff in Finland, actually. The band does come from Finland at any rate. Moving on, I also found THE Coolest Store EVER.
THE Coolest Store EVER is a bookstore that features nothing BUT science fiction, fantasy, manga, and graphic novels. Indeed, I am that geeky that I call them graphic novels, and to increase that geekiness, I will correct you if you call them comic books. They're graphic novels. But seriously, I could live in this store. I kind of wanted to buy something because I was so taken aback by the fact that a store like that existed somewhere in the world, but I immediately thought of packing and whether it would fit. And after returning and taking a look at my bag, I could have fit another novel in my backpack or duffel bag. Too late now. I even passed up the opportunity to open the first volume of Scott Pilgrim. What was I thinking?
I was thinking of that tee shirt. Which I went and got before I turned in for the night. It's a pretty cool tee shirt, if I do say so myself.
Wandered the main shopping street on my way back home. It was a more interesting route than the other one I had plotted out. Besides, I got to see a street riddled with H&Ms. Way too many people like that store over here (but I can see why, really. Their clothes are just so cute and affordable).
Bought a jar of pasta sauce before I returned to the dorm. By this time, I figured I had spent enough money on food so I should take the free pasta in the hostel kitchen while I have a chance. This was the first hostel that had free anything in the kitchen besides leftovers, so I had to take the opportunity. Just at by myself in the kitchen and didn't join into any conversations. What a loner I am. I think it's time to go home because I'm losing a willingness to talk to people.
Spent the evening on Skype, being as I was the only person in a room meant for four. Kind of reveled in the fact that I was the only person in the room, except I stayed on the top bunk for some reason. Really? Really.
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