The Swensks - Blogabond

Our boat from finland is a behemoth. it contains streets casinos three thousand people 9 bars, 4 restaurants with the name captain or fisherman in them. a spa, an indian theme and a street...A STREET!!!!!!!!! The hugest vehicle ive been on. and fortunately beer only costs 5 euros a pint for nice beer. not bad...Ironically, with the boat being so big, our room/cabin is a mere rabbit hutch but without the outside view. its actually under the water. i hear dolphins, whale song and coral growing we are so deep. But thats enough of the boat...

So on arrival in sweden, i realise this holiday is not getting warmer. it is cold and it is windy and it is raining. not a good start. Unfortuantely for the rest of the time here, it is cold. no sun, fine rain and stiff winds. Rubbish.

my first impression is that sweden isnt as clean as finland. the residents seem edgier than the nerds from next door with grafitti on walls, fashionable hairstyles and dirty public transport. It felt a little like being in england. All things here are in swedish. maybe being an arrogant brit, i expected 100 percent english coverage just like finland, but these swedes are obviously content with just the one language. thats not to say they dont, should or cant use english. the homeless guy i bought a magazine from could even speak in english. How mad is that? bilingual homeless...what next? cant imagine.

Walking around the centre of town, you get a feeling of the country's rich history. old buildings that are well restored, a fascinating museum including ancient peoples bones and viking relics. fascinating stuff. honestly, it puts the trinkets and kimonos of japan in the shade by a long way. these displays highlighted a huge civilization that spread across england, america, northern europe. brilliant stuff to be able to see a replicated viking villages and graves. give me that over a calligraphy scroll anyday! the second day in stockholm included another museum, this time one of a sunken galleon that sunk 2 minutes after its maiden voyage started. Take that, titanic. 2 minutes! down to the bottom of the ocean for 350 years. it was then lovingly raised and restored somewhat by experts thus displaying this huge ship to the public...again highlighting how well off this country was back in the day.

For lunch (yup, we were up and away early today) we went to a world famous smorgasbord in some posh forest restaurant. a bit fo a disappointment cos they had one table of food. i was expecting a full-on assault of my eyes and taste-buds. The food was very nice, including more reindeer (hehe) but nothing to make me go "Ooooh", which is what i was expecting. But still, despite the cold, another impressive country that I have flown thrown. (figuratively, not literally). Now its on to yet another mammoth boat to sail across the baltic sea for 30 hours in Latvia. A country i know nothing about.

written by

adamski752 on September 9, 2008 from Stockholm, Sweden

from the travel blog: Adam's Leisurely Return Home

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