Scandavian Tour - Vodka and Ice

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24 - 08 - 08 - Uppsala

The train journey from Copenhagen was good; caught up with some sleep mainly, actually for the majority of it after a really late night. I jumped on the train at Copenhagen and changed at Malmo, I was quite glad to get off the train in Malmo as it was absolutely packed full with people so much so that I had a bike handle basically stuck in my stomach for the whole journey. I really enjoyed watching the Swedish countryside pass by my window; actually wishing for the train to breakdown so I could go and take a look around properly.

Reached Stockholm and then caught a train up to see my friend Jen; she's also cabin crew for British Airways and had a nightstop in Stockholm, though they put the crew up in Uppsala. I actually missed the first train to Uppsala because I wasn’t paying any attention; I was sitting at the start of platform 4 thinking that platform 3 was the one next to it; however platform 3 I later found up was further up platform 4! Then I was sitting on the right platform and I thought that I had more time and I just managed to squeeze on as the doors were shutting; everybody looked at me and I felt so stupid. The journey was about 40 minutes which I passed by reading my book in between the doors to the train cars as they were both really busy. I got off of the train and sat my ass down on the step at the front of the station, phoned Jen up and waited. Jen apologized for being late and we went off, I was going to be staying with her for the night and the hotel had put a little fold up bed for me in the corner of the room. I dumped my stuff off and we went off for a little wonder. Uppsala is a really nice little town, there’s a little river running though with a castle. We just headed straight for the local Irish bar where we stayed got something to eat and a few beers, it was good to catch up with Jen as it had been a while.

25 - 08 - 08

I woke up in the morning and went downstairs; I was looking forward to Stockholm as I had been told that it was a really nice city. The first thing I had to do however was find somewhere to stay whilst I was there, the main problem I had was that couldn’t book anywhere over the internet as I needed it for today and not in 24hrs time. This meant that I had to phone places up. A lot of the hostels I phoned said that they had no rooms; I was getting a little worried to be honest. Eventually I found somewhere and made a move.

I got off the metro and just about managed to find the hostel; it was well tucked away with an unclear sign pointing the way. I arrived and crashed out for an hour; I was woken by the arrival of my dorm mate, he was a Swedish guy who was in Stockholm to do his police training. The first thing I did was to go down to the port area and picked up a ferry ticket over to Helsinki, only set me back £40; not too bad when you consider it’s a 13 hour trip!

I wondered around Stockholm; simply letting myself get lost and chatting to locals. Eventually I stumbled across Stockholm's cathedral, which on the inside was beautiful but rather randomly there was a monument to St. George, who slayed the dragon, apparently he's big in Stockholm as well!!! The only other thing I wanted to see was the Viking exhibition in the National Museum. Eventually found it, walked inside and proclaimed my arrival by knocking lots of signs on the front desk with my bag! I got in exchange a dirty look from the girl on the front desk. when I asked for an adult ticket, she told me that the museum was closing in 10 minutes, I asked if I could just go in a have a look at the Viking exhibition and rather randomly she let me and for free! It was awesome, loved it, they had horse skeletons, recreated Viking villages (that was amazing; the detail it went in to!) and ancient clothes and weapons. The Vikings were the only bit of history I liked! I wondered back to the centre, trying to find the ice bar.

The Absolute Ice Bar. It's a bar attached to a hotel which is completely made out of ice, the glasses, chairs, everything! The ice is kept at exactly -50C. I put on a funny looking thermal jacket which made everybody look like an Eskimo. I stayed there for a while, chatting to people and drinking cocktails that were rather expensive then I wondered back to the hostel and got an early night sleep.

26 - 08 - 08

Woke up late, having packed my bag; ready to go to Helsinki. Last night I received a phone call from my friend there saying that my Helsinki leg would have to be cancelled due to his parents coming round; he said that he could meet up with me for a couple of drinks if I found somewhere else to stay; I got onto the internet and looked at hostels in Helsinki, they where all fully booked just like here. I went back to the port and tried to get my money back on the ferry ticket; after much negotiating I managed to get 80% of my money back; I spent the majority of the day just chilling out with my room mate

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Photos

Horse Skeleton
National History Museum