Fran & Rich's Big Happy Trip: Scandinavian leapfrogging

Left lovely Copenhagen in the morning in the pouring rain and boarded our train to Stockholm. Five hours is a bum-numbing duration on a train at the best of times but accompanied by wailing children it was a true experience. Saw a great deal of trees from our window on the train and a reasonable amount of snow too! Arrived in Stockholm in one piece however and were greeted by some family friends (whom Rich hasn’t seen since 1989!). Christer and Eva (plus their now grown up children Peter and Johan) were truly wonderful hosts and made our time in Sweden very special indeed – thank you all so much!!! Did lots of touristy stuff like going to see the Vasa (an old, old wooden ship!) and going up the massive Kaknastornet concrete tower (from the 60’s) for an impressive view of the city. We stayed in a hostel bang in the centre of town which was awesome, however sharing an 11-bed dorm with a load of German students drinking vodka for two days solidly didn’t make sleeping particularly easy! Saved a couple of quid over a hotel though, which we probably spent on a couple of double espressos to keep our eyelids open!!!

En route to the station in Copenhagen – wet weather gear in full effect

Lots of logs…

Fran is actually 7 feet tall when she’s not wearing her backpack…

Kept up the ‘do a long run in each city’ tradition on one of the days in Stockholm. Emerged from the hostel in leggings and a t-shirt in blissful ignorance of the fact that it was in fact snowing quite heavily! Had a good run but did have to spend about an hour in the shower defrosting afterwards!

Stockholm in the snow

Not dandruff – honest…

Old, old wooden ship (not The Diversity…)

Tea and cake at the top of the tower with Christer and Eva

Fran enjoying the Old Town

Ice Ice Baby

Eva cooked up a very tasty elk casserole in the evening; elk tastes very similar to steak and was a welcome break from the cheese and ham sandwiches that has been our staple diet of late! Had a quick cycle round Stockholm the following morning then Christer gave us a lift to the port to catch our slow boat to Helsinki. The terminal instantly transported us back to the 80’s, as did our small but cosy cabin on the 8th deck (looking out over a liferaft!). The ship itself was pretty enormous and had lots of ‘entertainment’ in store… After dinner (and consuming some unidentifiable Swedish concoction and some pear cider), we were treated to a number of questionable renditions of musical classics from an Estonian geriatric band (including Mustang Sally) whilst sozzled Finnish truck drivers twirled about the dancefloor like Fred and Ginger. Truly a sight to behold, but not a patch on what was to follow – an hour-long ‘drag’ showdown featuring Sweden and Finland’s greatest hits from the last 20 years. Unfortunately as it was all in Finnish (our Finnish is a little rusty) so a little was lost in translation, however by the end we were immensely entertained (possibly due to the questionable Ship’s Special cocktails). Awoke in the morning in Helsinki to a sea full of mini icebergs with a stinking hangover but some great (albeit a little bizarre) memories!

More ice

Our mean machines

The ‘Party Boat’…

A bit chilly

Icy dip?

(Haven’t a clue…)

We’re in Helsinki now which from our first explorations is another beautiful city. Very cold but pretty! We’ve been to an underground church blasted out of the rock in the 1960’s which was very impressive, and visited the Olympic Stadium (where 30 seconds after scaling the tower we were enveloped by freezing fog – weiirrrd!). Our hostel’s pretty old school (in a block from the late 19th century) but nice and quiet, and relaxed which is a relief (touch wood!).