Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Finland Triptober 18th

Well I haven't posted in a while, I kind of forget that I have a blog sometimes. Unfortunately, I'm in a car right now so I won't be able to put this up for a few days or a week when I'm back in oulu and have wifi. I have renamed October to be Triptober because I am going so many places this month. From the 9th to the 14th I was on a study trip for my architecture class.

We left Oulu by train at 11:50 pm. The train was really cool because I had never been on one before. We got to sleep in these cool cabins that had bunk beds in them. We were all on the same hall so we were all loud and stuff, It was like being on a high school trip. We got to Helsinki at like 9 am or something like that. We stayed in a hotel called Omena Hotelli (Apple Hotel). It was pretty weird there because there was no front desk. You just go in the building and book a room on this computer that's in there. And there is a phone in there that if you pick it up it calls the front desk somewhere else in town. It was weird. I don't know where you'd go if you needed more towels or something. The bathroom had a towel warmer. I guess it's a Scandinavian thing because they had it in sweden too. The hotel was weird too because sarah and i got stuck in the elevator. We were screaming and stuff, it was scary, but there was a sign about what to do if it gets stuck so it must happen all the time which i thought was kind of scary. While in Helsinki we walked around and looked at these old buildings and talked about the architecture and stuff. It was interesting. We saw the old university building, the library, the cathedral, the art museum which had a really cool Picasso exhibit, the house of estates, an old fire station, Eliel Saarinen's house,and an artists museum (see facebook for pictures).

After our second day in Helsinki we got on the ferry to go to Stockholm. I was expecting a small boat, but the Gabriella was a huge cruise ship. It was awesome. We ate Swedish meatballs on the ship and everything. We also bought a bottle of wine each (bad idea in hindsight) and had a little party. At some point, I got separated from everyone and I ended up meeting a bunch of really crazy characters while I was trying to find my friends. I finally just went back to my room though and they came back shortly after. We got to Stockholm around 830 am I think.

Once in Stockholm we took our luggage to the hotel (which was really nice and amazing) and took off to explore the city. Stockholm was really cool because they have alot of streets and buildings left over from medieval times. Stockholm is also a really pretty city because it is right on the water (like Helsinki). The first thing we did in stockholm was buy metro tickets and go to Drottningholm palace, which is where the Swedish royal family lives. It was pretty cool. We also saw a theatre that one of the queens had gotten built. After walking around on the cobblestone medieval streets, we went to the cathedral. That was pretty cool too, although the churches did get old after a while because they all just looked sort of the same. We saw stockholm's city hall after that. That was interesting too, especially the room where the town council meets because the ceiling is modled after the benches Ina Viking ship because Vikings used to turn their ships over and hold council under them. I thought it was pretty interesting.

We took a ferry again from Stockholm to Turku, this time it was the Amorella. This ferry ride wasn't as nice because we were on the 2nd floor and could hear the engines and stuff all night. We were also right by the water because I could hear the waves and feel the boat rocking and I was feeling kind of seasick. It was ok though.

Once we got to Turku we ate breakfast at a hotel across the street and then we took a bus tour of the city. I would have rather done a walking tour, but oh well. We did get to get out of the bus though and tour the important things like the cathedral, Turku castle and a handicrafts museum. I took alot of cool pictures during the trip, Scandinavia is really beautiful :). I think Norway is the most beautiful place I have seen so far, but I'll save that for another post!

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