"What was she doing up North? Picking blueberries and fishing..."
Stockholm-Helsinki
Sweden was warmer than expected and we woke up a bit worse for wear and hot. Big thanks to Johanna and Antone for cooking the night before and providing Jonathan with copious amounts of rose thus providing us with copious amounts of entertainment.
Again, lucky us, we had tour guides for the day. Johanna was my other roommate in Shanghai and had grown up in Stockholm so not only was her flat in the center of the city she could tell us a bit about it. Stockholm was by far the most impressive looking city we’ve been so far. It was a beautiful day with blue skies which played perfectly off the blue of river/lake/ocean. Apparently all Scandinavian cities are built on islands where the sea meets the rivers. But the old town was small and cobblestoney, something we like in a city. And it felt very accessible; in fact, there were a few fishermen fishing literally waded out into the water in the very center of the city.
Johanna also took us for tumberoola, a Swedish street food of legend and lore during the years we were in Shanghai. Essentially it’s a piece of flatbread rolled into a cone then it’s filled with a hot dog, shrimp salad, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard and to top it all of mashed potatoes, genius.
Then we bought red trousers, which Jonathan immediately put on, very Euro indeed.
Unfortunately we had to carry on that evening to take the ferry over to Finland, 15 hours with no cabin, we were very worried. We got on the ferry early and immediately tried to see if they had any cabins free that we could snatch up, no dice, but he said we could check after the departure again. So we planted ourselves in his line of vision (so he wouldn’t forget us) then did some people watching. Ferries, are another place that are the same the world over. Where do these people come from? What are they doing? Why are they all so strange? Surely between two of the most expensive countries in the world the… fill in your own word here… of people would be better? But no, so we entertained ourselves with wholly un-PC commentary for a bit then noticed the boat was moving and immediately requested a room, we were in luck, somewhere some Fin had had one too many drinks and didn’t make the ferry.
I fell asleep to the blaring Russian discotheque above me while Jonathan got teary eyed and patriotic watching the Olympics opening ceremony.
Day 12
