One late night (or was it early morning) about a week ago I couldn’t sleep. Someone was having party in the apartment above mine and I could hear them too clearly. I was too stressed out and having too many thoughts in my mind. It was one of those nights when you go trough all your life decisions and regret half of them. It was one of those moments when you can’t decide what you want to do with your life and you can’t understand how doing decisions like this seems so easy for other people.
I was sipping tea, staring my maps and listening motivational videos. That’s something I have done lately a lot when I have no idea where my own life is going. And then between changing videos I somehow ended up doing another thing I have done lately. I opened skyscanner and searched cheap flights to anywhere.
I don’t know what was different this time. Maybe it was those screaming neighbors I could hear laughing too loudly and living too recklessly. Or maybe it was the inspirational voice speaking in my headphones and telling me to just do it. It may have also had something to do with all the international and exchange student talks my school has lately kept. And then again it may all be because of this blog.
I don’t know what was different this time but I bought the cheapest ticket to anywhere. To Gdanks, Poland and Stockholm, Sweden to be exact. Right now week later I am sitting in cruise ship writing this while a few older ladies sip coffee around me. Apparently Sweden trips aren’t that popular during winter and ice. Next week will be full of amazing solo adventures around Europe.
I do this literally every time. I end up booking my tickets without any proper planning. This same thing happened with my three months Japan trip and even with my recent London holiday. I just can’t keep myself from leaving and when I try it ends up like this. Flight tickets to foreigner country and surprised friends and family. And that’s my way of buying flight tickets and planning new adventures… With one small thought that grows to something bigger.
What about you? Do you ever do crazy stunts like this or do you prefer planning your trips properly beforehand?
Hello everyone! Today you can read about my current family trip to Sweden. I have done this particular cruise for millions of times so for me writing about it sounds quite boring. However I know there is many people out there never heart about day in Stockholm cruises.
Basically the idea of this cruise is to spend one night in the ship, be seven hours in Stockholm and then spend second night on the cruise on your way back. Very popular thing in Finland and always as fun to go. I hope you enjoy my travel stories!
The plan was leave at one pm so of course I hadn’t packed my things the night before. Bad idea? Probably. At least when I realized afterwards that I had taken three bras (for two nights trip) but no jacket or hoodie to go with my t-shirts. Don’t be like me and always pack your bags with time.
Ready to go!
So after some panicking around the home my mom, little brother and sister were ready to leave. Don’t however think that getting to the cruise would be that easy! First my grandpa drove us 20 minutes to the train station from where we took the two hours journey to Helsinki. From Helsinki railway station we got tram to the harbor. Over four hours from home to the ship but totally worth it.
The funny thing in these cruises is the amount of Asian people growing every year. I mean when I was younger there was only Swedes and Finns but nowadays almost half of the people are Asian. But good for them if they have discovered the beauty of Baltic Sea. Until now it has been our well kept secret.
Drink that I did’t drink
To return back to my long story after boarding the ship it was time to find our cabins. My mom went to luxury when she bought our trip and we slept in two different cabins. Let me say no one would have survived if we had been in four person room. I love my family but spending two nights with them in small room would have made me crazy…
So if you are now wondering what the heck would we do on the cruise here is some of the activities…
Drinking. Embarrassing to admit but a whole lot of Finns go to the cruises (and lets not even mention the ones never leaving the ship in Sweden because of hangover…) I don’t drink but my mom like any great parent did buy me a breezer that my sister ended up drinking.
Eating. We didn’t drink a lot but ate behalf of that. There is lunch and breakfast buffets in the ship. At the first day we went to the lunch buffet and I was ready to die for the full stomach afterwards. Sushi, ice cream, cakes, fries and just so much food I don’t even remember them all.
Gambling. The main activity we had on our first night was playing games to win money. Yep, gambling with family. The first night didn’t look that good in the playing for me and I went 5 euros to the minus (thanks mom for the money). However the idea isn’t get rich but rather have fun.
Tax free shopping. Perfumes, make-up, candies and alcohol.
Our mission at first evening was to buy Oreo Milka chocolate. Lats time we were on cruise it was my mom’s bright idea to buy it at the second night. That time the chocolate was all gone and we didn’t get it. This is something you can’t buy from Finland and its taste is from heaven.
Day 2: Museums, shopping and dead legs…
Between Finland and Sweden we have one hour time difference. So when my sisters clock wake us up and we started to wonder why my alarm didn’t went off we soon realized that we had woken up hour too early. Well I always receive the extra sleep with joy.
Like I mentioned about the first day one of the most important part of cruise is eating. Breakfast isn’t exception. The tables are full of food for you to take and sometimes even too much options. (PS. Pancakes look good but after seeing the small children taking them by hand I decided to stay in the adult section.)
So we ate and then was the time everyone has waited… We arrived to Stockholm and our seven hours long adventure began. That is quite short time to experience city so we had one destination in our minds. Mordena Museet. (For those who don’t understand Swedish or can’t reason the meaning: Modern art museum.) It was short bus trip and walking away from the bay so definitely recommend for everyone.
In the museum we first went to see Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Totally loved it. Colorful, photogenic and full of feminist/equality references. Those huge red balloons were just a start. After that came infinity rooms, bright colors and unusual pieces of art. Infinity rooms were my favorites (mirrors on walls, ceiling and floor. Makes it look like the room continues to the infinity.)
Look infinity room!
Funny story about problems taking the yellow photo and my shy personality. So we walked with my brother and sister to this small yellow room full of huge dots. In the middle of room there was a big box with small peeking hole in it. My sister looked in. My brother looked in. They were amazed. As good big sister I waited until they were ready, walked towards the hole and then group of small people were all around the box.
I lose my turn to group of kindergartens laughing and looking trough the hole. Great. I just left the room quietly while the kindergarten teacher ignored me and tried to make the kids calm down. Later I came back to see what was inside the box and took that photo in awe.
After leaving the museum and walking towards the shopping areas we get a lot of complaining from my brother. Despite that we continued following my sister who is the fashionista of us. She had decided the shops we visited including Victoria’s Secret and Urban Outfitters. by first look Urban Outfitters looked like over priced teen shop but I fell in love. Guess what I bought! Lonely Planet’s Ultimately Travel List book. It has 500 destinations long bucketlist of the most amazing travel destinations in world.
After the shopping it was time to return to the ship. At this point my feet were hurting so much I was barely able to walk. I am still a little bit sick so walking so much wasn’t good idea. Fortunately my family (or at least my mom) was patient and walked slowly with me.
So we were back to our ship, half dead and half anticipating the coming evening. How did we start our return trip? Of course eating! If on the first night we had amazing buffet dinner now we had even more spectacular a la carte dinner in this Italian restaurant on board.
The tasty food (but not very Italian?)
I don’t know what they use in that sauce but it was heaven. Usually the not so generous dishes get critic from me but this time it was blessing. I had enough space for the dessert. White chocolate cheese cake with berries. Once again HEAVEN.
So the eating went well and after some shopping the gaming machines called for us. If last night I lost today we had good forces on our side. I left the cruise with 28 euros richer.
One boy looked with jealously when I played with my sister. We had decided that from this game we would share the money with family. The boy told us he had lost 30 euros after we won 20. It was only 5 euros for everyone but even small money is money.
Now I am going to add one more thing to the list of things to do in cruise:
Enjoy the show. There is stage and dance floor next to the gambling are. Changing performances from Moomins disco to dance performances and drag shows are presented here. Check out before your cruise who will perform when it’s your trips time.
The last thing we did this night was see the dance performance. To get places to sit we had to go there early. That meant looking intoxicated Finns jamming on dance floor and Asian tourists laughing for them. There was band playing and they were semi good.
Changing people danced to the music. No club dancing but rather tango etc. because whatever the music is people from Finland can do that. The show ended to the singer announcing we had birthday girl in the crowd and we should all sing for her. The older lady looked pissed of for her husband arranging this.
Once again the Japanese guys in front of us had fun laughing for the scene and shyly singing Finns. After that started the real dance show. Eurovision themed powerful and fun performance started of course with Lordi. If you don’t know what Lordi is, they are the only band that has made Finland to win Eurovision song contest.
After that it was time to do some backing and end our last night on the cruise.
Day 3: The last morning and crying sky
Another great breakfast and trip towards home. Once again I tried to walk towards the pancakes but then one pair of messy hands was trying to find the best pancake and I decided to just drink tea. Why I always end up drinking too many cups of tea when I travel?
Leaving the ship is always crazy. Two nights is enough time to put all your things around the cabin, lost pair of socks to small room and panic around the ship to get out. After that fiasco and trying to not crash with the other people running away from the ship we survived to the train station.
Everything was still seeming sunny at this point but it quickly changed the closer we got our home town. Fortunately we didn’t get wet (a lot) but the weather has totally changed when compared to the perfect two days we had. Even the sky cried for our holiday’s end. (Or maybe not?)
If you liked my post, feel free to share/pin this image!
So this was my travel diary. I hope you enjoyed it. And for those who have read my blog with sharp eyes and are interested if I did get in the university… No, I didn’t. Or I still have change if someone decides to not take their studying place. This means I will probably leave to explore the world at any moment (don’t tell my mom. She doesn’t know yet.)
Hello there and welcome to my blog! Like some of you may know I went to Sweden at the beginning of this week. I am going to publish travel diary about my trip but because I just happen to be lazy enjoy first these photos I took. (The real travel diary should be out some day next week. Sorry…)
So just to tell you more information before we start I went to day in Stockholm cruise with my family. Taking this cruise is quite normal in Finland and I have done it several times but every time it is as fun.
The cruise is three days long. First you spend evening and night in sea. The second day is spend in Stockholm and after that you return to the ship and spend another night there. I hope you enjoy the photos I took.
I have been on this same Silja Line ship so many times there isn’t a much to explore. However the scenery never disappoints.
Ship is ready. Welcome aboard!
I’m totally in love with the Silja Line ships’ promenade street. Say whatever you want about our ship being small but I feel like in home here.
Listening band is always fun experience! Specially when some drunk Finns are dancing in front of you. The Asian guys next to us had fun time laughing to our fellow Finns.
No complaining in our breakfast scenery. I would spend every morning like this.
Finally in Sweden! It is so close to my home country but still so different. The building right is the Royal Palace. (Fun fact in Sweden it is called castle not palace even if there is nothing castle like in it.)
Our main attraction in this trip was Moderna Museet and Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Here you see the self portrait of the artist.
Anyone else loving infinity rooms? Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition had several of them. I am in love.
Even my brother kind of liked it and stated that Sweden has better museums than Finland.
Another infinity room. This time with water and color changing balloons. This museum is definitely made for taking selfies.
I’m not fashionista so for me find something from this girly shop was miracle. I am happy new owner of flowery toiletry bag.
Walking around all the alleys is something I want to do one day. Now it wasn’t possible because I was with my family. No getting lost with them…
There’s our ship and Silja Line logo. Time to return home.
Our last goodbyes to Sweden. I hope I will return soon. (PS. why are the islands here so idyllic and beautiful?)
If I would make one wish, it would be to see the sunset every day in new place…
Endless Path Ventures