Jul 2008

So after nice chat with a couple of the guys at my hostel on to the ferry -Viking Lines, naturally me being a Viking! Nothing to be said about that really. Got as much sleep as is to be expected in a deck seat on the shopping and restaurant/bar deck which is to say none and some jobs-worth cleaner threw away my half-full food bag but otherwise OK. Arrived in Turku, Finland early in the morning. Again not much to be said to be honest. Wandered around some over the next couple of days then onto Tampere. My guidebook was right in this respect: Turku may be older but Tampere is better. Some pretty buildings and a couple good museums. But still not much. I enjoyed my night in a hotel more to be honest with you! (They had a pillow menu for God's sake!) I got to Helsinki this afternoon so we'll see how I like this. I have noticed a couple of things though -Finland's reputation for liking heavy metal is not mistaken. Everyone wears black here. Finland also feels much edgier than the rest of Scandinavia and much more like Russia than Europe -if they'll forgive me for saying that- oh and Finns do have a certain look to them, as distinct as the Swedish but I don't really know I can describe it. Wow I haven't exactly been promoting Finland have I? Becki if you're reading this I'm sorry! I love Finland really! No to be honest it's not bad, it's just not particularly exciting either. And at least it's warmer than Sweden!

in Helsinki and no time, sorry everyone!

I'm leaving Stockholm today, night ferry to Turku so to update you as I've been wandering around quite a bit more. One thing I've discovered about Stockholm is that it's essentially built in two layers, roads down below then roads say a story or two up on bridges above the lower roads. And when you're up you might never realise there was more of the city beneath you quite honestly. Went on a walk with 4 or 5 other people in my hostel a couple of nights ago and saw a completely gorgeous view of the city below all lit up although the sun doesn't set till half eleven or so so it wasn't exactly dark! Then last night after a good meal cooked by an Australian girl with some of the unlimited free pasta -of which I've been having so much it's coming out of my ears beause it's free!- a few of us went out last night too. Found a really tiny jazz bar after wandering around but didn't stay very long anyway. Ummm...went to the Vasamuseum with the same girl -for free, still being a child apparantly lol- which is a completely preserved 300 odd year old ship and one of the king's at that which capsized shortly after it started it's maiden voyage. It was pretty amazing how well preserved it was but there were almost as many tourists as at the Eiffel Tower for goodness' sake! Craziness. It occurred to me in the last couple of days just how many completely amazing people I'm meeting and places I'm seeing all the time -admittedly probably because I've made so many friends in Stockholm, much more than . However did this happen to little Millie hey?
Oh and travel towel number one died a sad death last week (well what do you expect, twas like a giant piece of kitchen roll) so on to number two and I have shockingly actually managed to put quite a substantial hole in my really thick pair of american jeans just purely from the amount of wear they're getting so I'm down to my french supermarket pair and have invested into some capris for summer which amazingly are 2 sizes smaller than these jeans which were snug in Paris! Not that any of that is especially interesting of course but hey this stuff is part of my day to day life at the moment!
Now off to prepare for my dreaded 13 hr night ferry on deck as no cabins left :-( promise to blog agan before I leave Ljubljana (the dates are on here) but not sure if will have time/money in Finland.

Talk before I'm old!
Amelia
P.S. Hopefully Finland will be warmer, fingers crossed!

as some of you may know, I haven't quite been feeling like stopping with Finland so I have decided to swing back to a few places I passed by. I've booked basically about one more month. Not all trains and stuff sorted out so this is variable but as it stands, my schedule is:

16-20 July Ljubljana, Slovenia (plus daytrips)
21-25 Vienna, Austria
26-27 Salzburg, Austria
28-1 August Prague, Czech Republic
2-3 Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
4-6 Munich, Germany
7-12 Berlin, Germany

then back home. Really looking forward to some of these places. Slovenia suppossed to be really beautiful and EVERYONE has been saying Cesky Krumlov so I'm excited!

Anyway, in Stockholm atm and the best way of describing it is nice. Boring as that sounds, that's just how it feels: pleasant. This hostel is very cool though -no shoes inside so everyone's barefoot free pasta and saunas... oh and I'm staying in the tent in Munich. Look it up if you really want to know!

I'm waiting, yet again, at the train station and I remembered a couple of things I meant to tell you. The Norway in a Nutshell tour started at 06:35 so I was at the station at about 05:45 because I was pretty paranoid I was going to miss it! Anyway so I saw my train's platform had been announced so it being so warm I thought I would just go and wait there rather than by all the shops and so on. So I head down the pretty much deserted gangway and the first thing I see is these insanely fancily dressed conductors all stood by the train but hey I'd been up since about 04:00 so my brain was just like ggnnnhhh...whatever. Then this man comes up to me and goes 'era norsk?' or whatever it is they all keep saying to me. 'No...' 'well, you have to go back inside, we're about to shoot for a movie down here' ! What??? Whyever didn't they shut the doors I wonder? I was not properly awake so I would totally just have got on that train in the middle of the shoot lol! Anyway, pretty eventfull day! The other thing, quickly because I've got a train to catch: guess where I stayed in Bergen? It's fun to stay at the... well, it made me laugh anyway lol!