Stockholm and Helsinki

Well, my travel schedule was pretty busy for October, but it turned out there was a 3 day weekend, so I decided that I had to go up to Scandinavia to visit Hanna, one of my Finnish friends. Hanna was one of the ERASMUS students, and one of my best friends here in Wuerzburg, but she left at the end of July, so it was a lot of fun to meet up with her and catch up! And, although I've already been to Helsinki, it was a lot more fun the second time around with a guide who actually knows what all the buildings are.

But, first I had to get to Helsinki. I was going to travel with Colin, but unfortunately halfway to Frankfurt Hahn he remembered he forgot his passport, and Ryanair (with its 100-percent non-refundable policy) is pretty strict, to say the least. We got to Hahn and they wouldn't make an exception, so Colin decided to change his flight to the next morning. Of course, the person in front of him in line got the last seat, so he had to turn around and go home... too bad, but at least he was able to go with the others to Munich. So, travelling alone now, I flew all the way up to Stockholm Skavsta, and (since it was really late) went straight to my hostel, the Vandrarhem af Chapman. This used to be a sailing ship until until the 1950s when it got converted to a hostel.

STOCKHOLM: Next day I spent most of the morning trying to figure out if Colin had taken the morning flight to Stockholm or had decided to go to Munich. It turned out he went to Munich, so that was a bit of a wasted morning, but oh well, I still had some time to walk around Stockholm. I've already been here with my brother, but it was cool to see all the sights again. And the best part was I was able to have some delicious Swedish cinnamon buns. I've gotta say, the Swedes do 2 things really well: hockey and cinnamon buns.

After the day in Stockholm I did the cruise to Helsinki overnight. This cruise is legendary. It's cheap, fun, and there's lots to do onboard. I did it last time when I was here with my brother, but we were on a different line - Silja instead of Viking. I went to the onboard Sauna, and had a good laugh at all the drunk Finns singing Finnish karaoke in the bar. I did the buffet again, which was delicious all-you-can-eat food and all you can drink Finnish beer. I was so full afterwards that I had to lie down and nap for an hour before checking out the rest of the ship! I didn't take very many pictures because there was too much other stuff, but...

Here's the menu for my buffet dinner. I had at least one of everything, and (if it was good) more! The boat I was on was called the Gabriella.

HELSINKI: So I got off the boat in Helsinki the next morning (a little tired from lack of sleep) and Hanna met me at the terminal. She was nice enough to let me stay with her family, instead of alone in a boring hostel! We walked around the city and Hanna explained all the sights that I just walked past last time I was in Helsinki. One cool thing was the main town square (Senate Square), where the Leningrad Cowboys had their big concert last year. Me and Mark (my brother) were both at the concert, and when I asked Hanna where she was during the concert it turned out we were only standing maybe 15m from each other! I'm sure I would've walked right past her during the evening. Small world, eh?

We saw a lot of stuff so I won't list it all here, but one thing that was especially cool was the island of Suomenlinna, where we took flashlights and explored all the abandoned tunnels and caves. The island used to be a fortress so they would store munitions in those tunnels. As you can see from the photos it was pretty freakin cold in Helsinki, but on the plus side it didn't ever really rain. I guess I came at the worst possible time (weather-wise) since it's in between the nice weather of summer and the snow (which is more appealing than rain) of winter.

HELSINKI: Next day was pretty short because I had to fly back to Frankfurt. But, I still had time to go up the Olympic tower, get a Finland tshirt, and eat at Hessburger, my favourite Finnish fast-food restaurant. Sure, it was more than $10 CDN for a meal, but it was worth it! After one last snack with Hanna it was time to leave already. Too short a visit, but I'm sure I'll be back, and I'm sure that all the ERASMUS Finns will be coming to Canada, too, right??!