Why this schedule for our “vacation”?
We have both always wanted to go see Helsinki. We were told that “if you take the boat to Helsinki, you might as well take another boat to see Tallinn in Estonia”, and I have a friend who plays hockey for the Latvian national team so I thought that it would be a good time to see her and see where her heritage comes from.
We hopped on the boat to Helsinki and as we got into the waters around Sweden, we were
amazed! The Archipelago is BEAUTIFUL! I cannot put into words the peacefulness of the area, the beauty of the nature, and all of the places we commented “it’d be awesome to have a cabin there!”. Should Thom and I be fortunate enough to come back to Sweden, we will make sure to come back during the time where we might get to enjoy these waters. Unfortunately this trip was during the winter months where most boats were not setting onto the water (and who would really want to stand outside in the cold like that??), so we didn’t get to enjoy these sites until we were on a covered ship behind some windows so we could stay warm.
It’s amazing how one can have a perception of a city before they even get there and then have images in their head replaced by the reality!
I’d always wanted to go to Helsinki since I travelled to Lappeenranta, Finland in 2004 for the World Championships in Bandy. The city, from what I can remember, was very quaint, old, and cute…so, I thought that Helsinki would be much the same! I was a bit off…the city is pretty
modern now, and full of…cement! I was told by a friend who is from Finland that Helsinki is very “grey”…and I was surprised to see that it actually was! Don’t get me wrong – the city does have character and has some very neat buildings and other sites that make it full of it’s own character. Being situated on the water with the water shaping the lines of the city, the streets weren’t always the easiest to follow and there were many different ‘sub areas’ that were shaped. There was the area of Senate Square with some history apparent. Then there was the area of the beach, the bay where people must hang out in the summer, the political (embassies) area, shopping, and “city” areas. We were fortunate that I have a friend there, Jarmo, who was an exchange student from when I was a freshman in high school. Jarmo met us a couple of hours after we arrived in the city and took us on a car tour…definitely the way to experience the sites
I’d say. Because of the waterfront carving the city and making it feel more spread out, going by car was a great idea. The only thing that I think would have been fun to see that we didn’t was this one island that was apparently like a “fort” with a wall around it. I guess we have left something for us to see if we can ever make it back. He took us around the outskirts of the city first so we could see how it is kind of curvy, then we went to the football field where the local Helsinki football team plays. We were fortunate that the team was practicing, so we were able to watch a little bit of that…then, he called a friend of his who works with the team and we were 
given a small tour of the facility! How cool! We were able to see a lounge for the visiting team (or corporate party area), as well as a suite for watching the game. I loved the fact that they had a Finnish Sauna IN the suite where you could watch the game! He then took us to the Olympic Stadium from 1952 and up to the top of the tower there! (Which is to be noted that it was on “The Amazing Race” when they had to repel down the wall of the tower!). GREAT place to see the lay of the land of the city. He took us many places including where a statue has been made in tribute to a famous composer. I thought it was so cool - when the wind blows, these different pipes make different noises and it becomes musical!! 
He gave us a recommendation for dinner and it was fantastic! We also got to see "Rock Church" where there is a rock in the center of the city and someone decided to carve into it and make it a church! crazy! We ate reindeer (poor Rudolph – although, the waitress assured me that it was NOT Rudolph!) and it was delicious! The story of Santa Claus in Finland is that he comes from Lapland, so it was a bit ironic that we ate Reindeer at a restaurant called “Lappi” where the workers dressed in traditional Lapland clothing.
Up early the next morning to catch the boat to Tallinn Estonia. Both Thom and I had no real expectations of the city. We were thinking that it would be a bit run down and almost poor. Wow – it was really amazing! A 2.5 hour boat ride from Helsinki and we were in a different era and different town. The City itself was pretty modern, but the “Old Town” was very interesting – amazing to me. I could have taken thousands of pictures of old buildings and neat structures!! I felt like we were walking in the old
cobblestone roads of the movie Beauty and the Beast. My souvenier score of the trip to Estonia were these “Boiled wool” slippers…I had my eyes on some from Stockholm for a LONG time (since my first visit to Stockholm in February of 2008), but they were $70! I couldn’t believe that nor could I justify that. So you can imagine my delight and surprise when I found some for just $20 USD! I grabbed those and that was a great surprise to me. We decided to sit in the square and take in the town a little more and a beer. That was a fun time and we got to see a Borat impersonator. That was funny – imagine the scene in the movie where Borat is in his “swim suit” – yeah, this guy was running around in his swim suit like that. Apparently, it was a group of guys from Norway on a Bachelor party, and his wife to be wanted him to do this little gig. Quite funny. Thom and I decided that it was not in my character to “make” him do it, nor would he do it, but it was quite funny and disturbing all at once. We headed back to the hotel room for an early night and we were quite tired from all of the walking we had done in the 
past couple of days. Our bus to Riga would leave the station at 7:00 in the morning, so we also thought it would be a good idea to turn in a bit early.
The bus ride was somewhat of an adventure with the bus driver in somewhat of a hurry apparently. We get to the bus station to check in with the driver who was a bit gruff with the whole check in process – perhaps a language barrier – perhaps not as we were not the only ones he was gruff with. We get onto the bus, find our seats (apparently the numbering scheme on the tickets doesn’t really matter), and settle in for the journey. This bus route took us on some roads that reminded us of Northern Minnesota where you could see through some trees to the Sea off to the side with a beach. Ok – so in Minnesota, that would be a lake and not the sea…but the same atmosphere anyway. Very woodsy and peaceful…unless you looked at the road we were traveling on. Sitting in the first seat behind the driver, we had this vantage point; perhaps not always a good idea. We could see that he would get close to the vehicle in front of us – a car, a truck, or a Semi – and he would make the pass. There could be a car, bus, semi, etc coming towards us in the other lane, but that didn’t seem to phase the driver; he had faith that they would move over on to their shoulder for him to get by the obstacle in our way…luckily, they did! Safely we arrived in Riga and the adventure continues.
Sarma had provided very detailed and excellent directions for us to get from the bus station to her hockey game, including some walking, some tram riding, and some exploring in a sense. We had an idea that there would be some kind of language barrier, but we didn’t realize how much of a language barrier until we tried to buy a ticket for the tram. We get to the kiosk where we should be able to buy a tram ticket just a few minutes before the tram arrives. There were a bunch of little old ladies that were ahead of us trying to buy something and having discussions with the kiosk clerk. The tram is arriving behind us and all of a sudden, it isn’t important to these little old ladies what they were after to begin with and they scurry to the tram, leaving us standing there hoping to be able to buy our tram ticket. I use the words that Sarma had written to me to try and buy some tickets where the clerk shoos us away as if to tell us that we can buy the tickets elsewhere and just to go. So we get on the tram. We see people trying to buy tickets from the driver, so I make the attempt again. The driver also shoos me away and shows me what looks like a token – meaning I must need a token to get the tickets. Sarma had told us that the “tram police” might hop on board and ask to see a ticket, so Thom and I started to get a bit nervous. We hop off at the next stop where we see the ticket selling store and attempt to buy a ticket again. Luckily, the gentleman behind the counter spoke a little bit of English and was able to help us out. With our tickets in hand we waited for the next tram to come and we hop on. Good thing we had the tickets because at the next stop, the tram police hop onto the tram, checking for tickets. Whew! We are minding our own business when our tram makes a stop a bit head of the next marked stop and we see 2 young guys sprinting around the street corner while
a guy hops off of our tram and runs smack into one of the sprinters. As the tram sits there, we watch and see that something must be going down. We think that the guy on our tram was an undercover cop going to the spot where these 2 ‘kids’ would be running. As we watch the other ‘citizen’ (maybe under cover cop) holding and using pressure point tactics on one of the guys, the police arrive in their van and haul these two guys off. What the??? Ok, this city is apparently a bit rough! We finally make it to the hockey game (after walking around the whole arena a bit trying to figure out where we were to enter the building as all of the doors were chained shut), and feel a bit of relief and safety in the walls of the arena. Sarma had a pretty good game from what we could see, and we were anxious to have our tour guide by our side!!! We made our way to Riga’s “Old Town” where we saw a different style of Old Town from Tallinn. This Old Town was a bit more worn down and showed signs of the war --- including some old cannon balls still in the side of a tower!! There are monuments there that are symbols of Freedom…it was a different feel based on the language as well – much more Russian was heard 
and obviously Latvian. Thank goodness we had Sarma there to help us!!! The city itself is full of old buildings that seem to be crumbling, and the streets are very dusty and dirty. We did get to go to the top of the church tower to see the city from the top --- we’ve done that in the previous 2 cities, so we had to do it here too! Sarma took us around to an area that was a bit “nicer” with the homes and they were individual houses instead of the apartment buildings. The houses were nice and definitely different than the architecture that I’m used to. We walked through an old cemetery too and saw many German names and various dates – many back to the 1800s! I can say that aside from the history in Riga, there is really good beer there! We went out for a beer at a bar just down the street from Sarma’s apartment and she asked “do you want a big or a small”…well, we said “Big”, thinking that it was going to be just a bit more than a pint….um, the beers were the size of my head! Seriously! I loved it! The costs in Riga were MUCH less than anywhere else on the trip, including Stockholm or even back in the States. Back onto the boat to head Holm and there were many more loud people on this boat.
While we really enjoyed our trip and all of the different sites, the history that we were exposed to, and the good company, we realized how much we really do love Stockholm.
We are going to miss this place we have called home for 6 months. I’m very glad to have these experiences, and cannot wait to do this again and get some different and new experiences. *sigh* Now, I must catch my breath before we make the adventure back to the US from this lovely land of Sweden. Perhaps I will blog once I get on the other side of the water…just because I’ve come to enjoy the written memories as much as living them the first time.
Thank you to all of my Swedish family and friends. You have made our time here most enjoyable. You will all be missed greatly.
For those of you back in the US --- we will arrive on the 13th, but we will be heading out for a family vacation shortly thereafter. I think we will see you then!Realizing where I feel at home – here in Sweden – has been a great adventure.Sad and excited to return to the States,
Kristy
We have both always wanted to go see Helsinki. We were told that “if you take the boat to Helsinki, you might as well take another boat to see Tallinn in Estonia”, and I have a friend who plays hockey for the Latvian national team so I thought that it would be a good time to see her and see where her heritage comes from.
We hopped on the boat to Helsinki and as we got into the waters around Sweden, we were
amazed! The Archipelago is BEAUTIFUL! I cannot put into words the peacefulness of the area, the beauty of the nature, and all of the places we commented “it’d be awesome to have a cabin there!”. Should Thom and I be fortunate enough to come back to Sweden, we will make sure to come back during the time where we might get to enjoy these waters. Unfortunately this trip was during the winter months where most boats were not setting onto the water (and who would really want to stand outside in the cold like that??), so we didn’t get to enjoy these sites until we were on a covered ship behind some windows so we could stay warm.It’s amazing how one can have a perception of a city before they even get there and then have images in their head replaced by the reality!
I’d always wanted to go to Helsinki since I travelled to Lappeenranta, Finland in 2004 for the World Championships in Bandy. The city, from what I can remember, was very quaint, old, and cute…so, I thought that Helsinki would be much the same! I was a bit off…the city is pretty
modern now, and full of…cement! I was told by a friend who is from Finland that Helsinki is very “grey”…and I was surprised to see that it actually was! Don’t get me wrong – the city does have character and has some very neat buildings and other sites that make it full of it’s own character. Being situated on the water with the water shaping the lines of the city, the streets weren’t always the easiest to follow and there were many different ‘sub areas’ that were shaped. There was the area of Senate Square with some history apparent. Then there was the area of the beach, the bay where people must hang out in the summer, the political (embassies) area, shopping, and “city” areas. We were fortunate that I have a friend there, Jarmo, who was an exchange student from when I was a freshman in high school. Jarmo met us a couple of hours after we arrived in the city and took us on a car tour…definitely the way to experience the sites
I’d say. Because of the waterfront carving the city and making it feel more spread out, going by car was a great idea. The only thing that I think would have been fun to see that we didn’t was this one island that was apparently like a “fort” with a wall around it. I guess we have left something for us to see if we can ever make it back. He took us around the outskirts of the city first so we could see how it is kind of curvy, then we went to the football field where the local Helsinki football team plays. We were fortunate that the team was practicing, so we were able to watch a little bit of that…then, he called a friend of his who works with the team and we were 
given a small tour of the facility! How cool! We were able to see a lounge for the visiting team (or corporate party area), as well as a suite for watching the game. I loved the fact that they had a Finnish Sauna IN the suite where you could watch the game! He then took us to the Olympic Stadium from 1952 and up to the top of the tower there! (Which is to be noted that it was on “The Amazing Race” when they had to repel down the wall of the tower!). GREAT place to see the lay of the land of the city. He took us many places including where a statue has been made in tribute to a famous composer. I thought it was so cool - when the wind blows, these different pipes make different noises and it becomes musical!! 
He gave us a recommendation for dinner and it was fantastic! We also got to see "Rock Church" where there is a rock in the center of the city and someone decided to carve into it and make it a church! crazy! We ate reindeer (poor Rudolph – although, the waitress assured me that it was NOT Rudolph!) and it was delicious! The story of Santa Claus in Finland is that he comes from Lapland, so it was a bit ironic that we ate Reindeer at a restaurant called “Lappi” where the workers dressed in traditional Lapland clothing.Up early the next morning to catch the boat to Tallinn Estonia. Both Thom and I had no real expectations of the city. We were thinking that it would be a bit run down and almost poor. Wow – it was really amazing! A 2.5 hour boat ride from Helsinki and we were in a different era and different town. The City itself was pretty modern, but the “Old Town” was very interesting – amazing to me. I could have taken thousands of pictures of old buildings and neat structures!! I felt like we were walking in the old
cobblestone roads of the movie Beauty and the Beast. My souvenier score of the trip to Estonia were these “Boiled wool” slippers…I had my eyes on some from Stockholm for a LONG time (since my first visit to Stockholm in February of 2008), but they were $70! I couldn’t believe that nor could I justify that. So you can imagine my delight and surprise when I found some for just $20 USD! I grabbed those and that was a great surprise to me. We decided to sit in the square and take in the town a little more and a beer. That was a fun time and we got to see a Borat impersonator. That was funny – imagine the scene in the movie where Borat is in his “swim suit” – yeah, this guy was running around in his swim suit like that. Apparently, it was a group of guys from Norway on a Bachelor party, and his wife to be wanted him to do this little gig. Quite funny. Thom and I decided that it was not in my character to “make” him do it, nor would he do it, but it was quite funny and disturbing all at once. We headed back to the hotel room for an early night and we were quite tired from all of the walking we had done in the 
past couple of days. Our bus to Riga would leave the station at 7:00 in the morning, so we also thought it would be a good idea to turn in a bit early.The bus ride was somewhat of an adventure with the bus driver in somewhat of a hurry apparently. We get to the bus station to check in with the driver who was a bit gruff with the whole check in process – perhaps a language barrier – perhaps not as we were not the only ones he was gruff with. We get onto the bus, find our seats (apparently the numbering scheme on the tickets doesn’t really matter), and settle in for the journey. This bus route took us on some roads that reminded us of Northern Minnesota where you could see through some trees to the Sea off to the side with a beach. Ok – so in Minnesota, that would be a lake and not the sea…but the same atmosphere anyway. Very woodsy and peaceful…unless you looked at the road we were traveling on. Sitting in the first seat behind the driver, we had this vantage point; perhaps not always a good idea. We could see that he would get close to the vehicle in front of us – a car, a truck, or a Semi – and he would make the pass. There could be a car, bus, semi, etc coming towards us in the other lane, but that didn’t seem to phase the driver; he had faith that they would move over on to their shoulder for him to get by the obstacle in our way…luckily, they did! Safely we arrived in Riga and the adventure continues.
Sarma had provided very detailed and excellent directions for us to get from the bus station to her hockey game, including some walking, some tram riding, and some exploring in a sense. We had an idea that there would be some kind of language barrier, but we didn’t realize how much of a language barrier until we tried to buy a ticket for the tram. We get to the kiosk where we should be able to buy a tram ticket just a few minutes before the tram arrives. There were a bunch of little old ladies that were ahead of us trying to buy something and having discussions with the kiosk clerk. The tram is arriving behind us and all of a sudden, it isn’t important to these little old ladies what they were after to begin with and they scurry to the tram, leaving us standing there hoping to be able to buy our tram ticket. I use the words that Sarma had written to me to try and buy some tickets where the clerk shoos us away as if to tell us that we can buy the tickets elsewhere and just to go. So we get on the tram. We see people trying to buy tickets from the driver, so I make the attempt again. The driver also shoos me away and shows me what looks like a token – meaning I must need a token to get the tickets. Sarma had told us that the “tram police” might hop on board and ask to see a ticket, so Thom and I started to get a bit nervous. We hop off at the next stop where we see the ticket selling store and attempt to buy a ticket again. Luckily, the gentleman behind the counter spoke a little bit of English and was able to help us out. With our tickets in hand we waited for the next tram to come and we hop on. Good thing we had the tickets because at the next stop, the tram police hop onto the tram, checking for tickets. Whew! We are minding our own business when our tram makes a stop a bit head of the next marked stop and we see 2 young guys sprinting around the street corner while
a guy hops off of our tram and runs smack into one of the sprinters. As the tram sits there, we watch and see that something must be going down. We think that the guy on our tram was an undercover cop going to the spot where these 2 ‘kids’ would be running. As we watch the other ‘citizen’ (maybe under cover cop) holding and using pressure point tactics on one of the guys, the police arrive in their van and haul these two guys off. What the??? Ok, this city is apparently a bit rough! We finally make it to the hockey game (after walking around the whole arena a bit trying to figure out where we were to enter the building as all of the doors were chained shut), and feel a bit of relief and safety in the walls of the arena. Sarma had a pretty good game from what we could see, and we were anxious to have our tour guide by our side!!! We made our way to Riga’s “Old Town” where we saw a different style of Old Town from Tallinn. This Old Town was a bit more worn down and showed signs of the war --- including some old cannon balls still in the side of a tower!! There are monuments there that are symbols of Freedom…it was a different feel based on the language as well – much more Russian was heard 
and obviously Latvian. Thank goodness we had Sarma there to help us!!! The city itself is full of old buildings that seem to be crumbling, and the streets are very dusty and dirty. We did get to go to the top of the church tower to see the city from the top --- we’ve done that in the previous 2 cities, so we had to do it here too! Sarma took us around to an area that was a bit “nicer” with the homes and they were individual houses instead of the apartment buildings. The houses were nice and definitely different than the architecture that I’m used to. We walked through an old cemetery too and saw many German names and various dates – many back to the 1800s! I can say that aside from the history in Riga, there is really good beer there! We went out for a beer at a bar just down the street from Sarma’s apartment and she asked “do you want a big or a small”…well, we said “Big”, thinking that it was going to be just a bit more than a pint….um, the beers were the size of my head! Seriously! I loved it! The costs in Riga were MUCH less than anywhere else on the trip, including Stockholm or even back in the States. Back onto the boat to head Holm and there were many more loud people on this boat.
While we really enjoyed our trip and all of the different sites, the history that we were exposed to, and the good company, we realized how much we really do love Stockholm.
We are going to miss this place we have called home for 6 months. I’m very glad to have these experiences, and cannot wait to do this again and get some different and new experiences. *sigh* Now, I must catch my breath before we make the adventure back to the US from this lovely land of Sweden. Perhaps I will blog once I get on the other side of the water…just because I’ve come to enjoy the written memories as much as living them the first time.
Thank you to all of my Swedish family and friends. You have made our time here most enjoyable. You will all be missed greatly.
For those of you back in the US --- we will arrive on the 13th, but we will be heading out for a family vacation shortly thereafter. I think we will see you then!Realizing where I feel at home – here in Sweden – has been a great adventure.Sad and excited to return to the States,
Kristy
I have plenty more pictures if you would like to see them --- here:
and
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