An American Thanksgiving and Dublin Part 1

The next morning (November 25), I got up early to put in some last minute studying before my test, and on one of my trips up and down the stairs, I totally tripped and landed hard on my shin, which lead to a bit of a scrape, and quite a painful bruise (that stuck around for quite some time!). I wrote my test, and it went fine, then I headed off to my first class.

When I came back from it, I had to start working hard on my French composition since I had to hand it in before 6 pm because I wouldn’t be able to hand it in on Friday since I was going to Dublin (and the building is locked after 6 pm, so you can’t get in if you try). I wrote and wrote until it was finished (luckily my 2 hour Marketing class was just a review class for the test I had already written, so I didn’t need to go to it), then I headed to my last class of the day. Once it was done, I ran around trying to figure out what format I was supposed to use for my bibliography, and rushed to print everything out. I ran to the French building, and even though it was clearly 5:57 or so, the building was already locked!!

I was pretty upset, because I had been running in order to get it done in time, so I stood there for a while banging on the door and hoping someone would answer it. Eventually my tutor (the crazy old man) showed up, and VERY reluctantly let me in (I had to beg and plead in order for him to let me go to the essay box to hand my assignment in!). Then I headed off to my friend’s flat to celebrate American Thanksgiving!

Between her flatmates and the extra people that got invited, we had 17 people for Thanksgiving dinner! It felt weird to be celebrating Thanksgiving so late in the year, but it was really nice to have so many people there (we had to borrow chairs and a table from my flat!), even if most of them don’t usually celebrate any Thanksgiving.

A photo my friend took of her house decorations!

The rest of the evening I just spent relaxing since I had such a busy day, and then I went to bed fairly early in order to get up early and pack, then catch the bus for Dublin!

Stef and I got our things together and headed off to be at the bus at 7:45 am sharp on Friday morning, just as they had asked us, and then we had a long day of travelling ahead. I slept for most of the bus ride, which took about 4hours to get to Holyhead (which is apparently in Wales, who knew we’d get to see Wales on our trip to Ireland?!), and then we got on the ferry to Dublin. It was a pretty nice ferry, but the group that I was with (my American friends, plus one girl from my school) pretty much all just ended up sleeping (there were just so many benches for people to sleep on that most of the people on the ferry were sleeping!).

We got to Dublin, and the bus driver (who was a little crazy and slightly creepy) took us to our hostel. That was when we found out that we would have to each pay a deposit for our beds of 20 Euros! The problem was not just that we had not been informed of this, but also that a lot of the 30ish students hadn’t had the chance to get any Euros yet! They ended up letting us authorize cards for the group of people we were sharing a room with, so I ended up paying the deposit for 11 people.

We headed to our 24 bed room (which was only going to have 12 people in it), and although it was a nice old room (interesting architecture), it was freezing! We put our stuff in there, tried to turn on all the radiators, and headed out into the chilly Dublin streets (there was snow!).

We found dinner at a place called Abrakebabra, and we all enjoyed what we had, then we kept exploring. 7 of us went to the Temple Bar area, and stopped in at The Temple Bar. It was a very interesting place, like a maze of smaller bars, and it was the first truly warm place we had been in ages. We stayed there for quite a while listening to the three person band that was playing, since they were pretty good, but when they took a break, I decided to head back to the hostel. I stopped on my way to get some food at a convenience store, and then I went home.

The room was so cold that night that pretty much everyone slept wearing their winter jackets, and since the showers all looked so sketchy (and we didn’t want to have to remove any layers to get in them, we pretty much all decided that we would wait until we got home to shower again.

View of part of the room from my bed.

The next morning we got up bright and early in order to take advantage of the free breakfast (toast with your choice of jam or butter + orange juice, milk, tea, coffee), and to get in as much sightseeing time as possible. No one had slept particularly well between the cold of the room and the terrible thunderstorm that had been going in the middle of the night.

6 of us girls started the day by trying to get a hold of some cold medication and some euros, and then we decided that we wanted to go to the castle. It wasn’t open when we got there, so we kept walking and found a Euro shop where everything was 2 euros or less. Then we headed off to Trinity College.

Walking down the street in Dublin.

Entrance to Trinity College.

We decided to take the guided tour, which ended up being really good because our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the college and he seemed like he truly found it all interesting as well (it probably helped that he was a PhD student there studying Irish History).

Trinity College grounds.

Snow in Ireland!

The infamous residence where a prank turned into a gunfight and someone ended up dead.

After the tour, we got to see the exhibit that they have about the Book of Kells (a fancy old illustrated thing from around 800 CE or so), and we got to see the Long Room, the biggest single chamber library room in the world? Maybe just in Western Europe. Anyway though, it was really beautiful, and all the old books were organized by size instead of topic or author!

Next - the rest of our time in Dublin.

Turku, Finland

I boarded the ferry and headed to my room. I double-checked my ticket as I was about to open my door because my door was on the window side of the ship. "This can't be," I thought, "Outside cabins are never the cheapest option." I opened the door, and light shone down from the heavens. One bed (and a convertible couch). Window. (Small) Flat screen TV. Everything was shiny, and new and beautiful, and there was no one else in sight. I really couldn't believe it, I had to keep checking my ticket, and the receipt from m reservation fee. I was incredulous that I could have gotten that for a measly 90 SEK (about $13.75 CAD).

My room!!

I hung around the room for a while, waiting to see if anyone else would show up, but when no one did, I decided to go explore the ship. It was swanky and really beautiful. I would have loved to be on it for longer (especially with that wonderful private room), but I was only going to be on it overnight. I didn't take many photos because it was pretty much completely dark by the time I got on board, so I just explored the ship, and then set up with my laptop in the piano lounge. I could only get free Internet access in public areas, but it worked out well because I got to hear some nice piano music while I was surfing the web.

I went to bed early because I knew we were getting into Turku at 7 am local time (6 am Sweden time), and the wake-up call was going to be at 6. I had a pretty good sleep, except it was a bit hard to get to sleep because there were some people partying a little in my hallway, and at one point, 2 people started having a big fight in a language I didn't know pretty close to my door.

I was hoping I could get some decent sunrise shots, but the sun didn't rise quickly enough to be very interesting, so I just grabbed a bit of breakfast and got ready to get off the ship.

Turku through my window at sunrise.

Since it was only 7 am, I decided I would walk into town. It took a good 40 minutes for me to get to downtown, but I was able to find a coffee shop that was open, so I grabbed a second breakfast (they were both small), and sat in the coffee shop to stay warm and look through my Turku guide to figure out what I wanted to do for the day.

There were lots of things in the book, so I made a list (keeping in mind when everything opened), and then set out at about 9.

First, I went to the cathedral. I loved it! It was incredibly beautiful, but much less decorated than a lot of the old cathedrals I've seen, which I actually really liked. It made me think of the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney-style), even though it didn't really look like that (I still got "God Help the Outcasts" stuck in my head). I wanted to visit their little museum, but I figured I should get some euros first, so I headed off to do that, and ended up shopping a little as well. I found this huge store that was kind of like a fancy Zellers (think the Bay with a more diverse product line).

Cathedral from the outside.

Inside the cathedral.

I also stopped by the local library. It had some really neat architecture. Half the building was really new, and the other half was the old library, which was all really cool (plus they had comfy chairs!).

The new part of the library.

The old half of the library.

Inside the library.

I went back to the cathedral, and looked through their museum (which was in a hall that looked over the congregation area). They had lots of old things up there that were pretty neat to see. Plus, there were a couple women in the church itself singing hymns that really added to the atmosphere. It sounded so eerie and beautiful! The acoustics of the building made it sound like there were a whole bunch of people singing.

One of the things on display in the cathedral.

Next I went to the Sibelius museum. Although it did have a nice, big exhibit about the composer Jean Sibelius, the majority of the museum consisted of a massive collection of musical instruments from around the world, and there were some really cool ones, plus it explained really well how the different instrument worked. They also had a huge hall in the basement called the "Organ Hall" that was filled with pianos and organs of all kinds. (I wasn't supposed to take photos in there, but I snuck a couple.)

I don't remember what this is called!! But it's very rare, and very pretty!

In the Organ Hall.

Next I went straight across the street to the "Ett Hem" museum which was a house that was filled with belongings that a wealthy couple had willed to the university upon their deaths. The original house had been much bigger, so things were pretty jam-packed into the building, but everything was recreated very beautifully, and all the furniture was really neat to look at! The original house had to be torn down because it was sitting on swampland or something, so it was no longer safe to keep it standing. I went through all the rooms about 3 times because I enjoyed it so much. (I couldn't take any photos there, and there aren't really any photos on the Internet.)

From one of the rooms.

Next I decided to go to the Art Gallery. I stopped to get a grab bag of candy before I got there (Finland has good candy stores too). Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see at the Art Gallery at all. They were just in the process of putting up 2 new exhibits (one of which was opening only 2 days after I was there!), and the rest of their collection was pretty small (although it was pretty good). Passable, but considering it cost me 4 whole euros (each of the other 3 museums had only cost 1 euro), I didn't feel like it was really worth all that.

After the art, I went to a fancy restaurant that was right beside the art gallery for a late lunch/early dinner. Apparently no one goes to restaurants at 3 in the afternoon, so the whole place was dead empty. I decided to order a reindeer fillet with vegetables in a lingon berry sauce. It was all delicious except the potatoes with cheese on them were slightly undercooked. I was hoping that I would be able to have reindeer at some point on this trip, so I was pretty glad I got the chance to try it!

Yummy!!! (Sorry Rudolph!)

Next, I went to buy what could be the world's most awesome chocolate bar. It was mint chocolate (one of my favourites along with plain chocolate or chocolate and peanut butter), and it was made by the panda company, so it had a panda logo on it! AWESOME! But I stuck it in my bag to save for later. It was a Finnish company, so I'm not sure if I'll ever find those bars outside of Finland.

I started heading back towards the ferry so that I could go visit the castle. The castle was the most expensive thing I did that day (other than eating Rudolph), but it was only 7 euros, so it wasn't too bad. I was hoping to get a student discount, but I couldn't find my card, and she wouldn't acccept it without an ID card.

The castle was really cool. There as tons to see and do there. You got to wander around and explore the castle, and it displayed things from the medieval times all the way up until the mid 20th century. The exhibits went on and on and on. I couldn't believe that they kept going as long as they did. It was really good though, I'm glad went there.

The outside of the castle.

Dungeon!

One of the displays.

I went back to the ferry terminal to buy my ticket and wait. While I was waiting, I was thirsty, so I decided to buy myself a drink. When I saw the Smurf drink, I had to buy it even though I didn't really know what it was. It was green apple flavoured pop and although it could have been stronger, it was pretty decent.

We finally boarded the ferry, and I found my room, but I couldn't get the door unlocked, so I had to go get a plastic key from the information desk. I had a shared cabin with 4 bunks. There were 2 Russian women who didn't speak English (I believe they were mother and daughter), and a Swiss girl named Julia who was studying in Sweden.

I chatted with her (she said she was relieved that I showed up because she doesn't speak Russian), and we explored the ship together before going back to the cabin.We talked for a while and then I went to get some food. I told her some stories from my travels, and then we both went to bed because we were pretty tired, and the ship was supposed to get in at 6 am.

Next - last day in Stockholm.

Stockholm Part 1

It was 6 in the morning, and I decided to go find my hostel. It was about a 10 minute walk from the train station, and really easy to find. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 8 am, so I sat down on a park bench nearby for a while until I decided it would be better to stay at the train station where it was actually warm.

I sat down on a bench at the train station, and faded in and out of consciousness until shortly before 8 when I decided I would head back to the hostel. As I was leaving the building, I passed by one of the convenience stores and decided that some food would be good. I went in and saw the rows of candy, and remembering Kaycie's candy and grossly lacking impulse control while that sleep deprived, I grabbed a bag and started shovelling all kinds of different candies into it. Then I got a Coke and a chocolate bar. That was my breakfast.

I got to the hostel, and checked in, but I couldn't get into my room until 2 pm, so I put my backpack into the luggage storage, and then hung around the hostel for a while and went on the Internet and tried to figure out what I wanted to do for the day.

I eventually decided that I would head to the dance museum that I had found a pamphlet for. It didn't open until 11 though, so I still had some time to kill. I started walking anyway though, and found the tourist information office to grab a city guide.

I ended up finding the main shopping street, and going around there for a while. There was one intersection that I found that had an H&M on 3/4 of the corners. And I found some good candy shops.

It may be a little hard to see, but there are actually 3 H&M's in this photo!

I headed to the dance museum, and I enjoyed it, but most of it was not quite what I was expecting. I was hoping there would be more of the collection dedicated to modern dance styles, but a lot of it was about traditional dances from around the world. That was interesting, but a lot of the styles didn't have (good) videos, so it was mostly just costumes to look at. Then I found that they had a decent loop of videos playing in their modern dance section, so I watched clips of everything from ballet to Broadway, from the early 1900's, to clips from just a few years ago.

Antique dance shoes.

Pretty costumes!

They had a lot of displays like this and although I found them interesting, I preferred the ballet stuff.

Then I also realized that they were showing a film about a competition at the Bolshoi Ballet in the 1960's (I think) which seemed pretty interesting, so I watched that. There were some really neat clips of Mikhail Baryshnikov in it, and just a lot of good dancing.

After the museum, I made my way back to the hostel to check in, shopping a little along the way. I put my stuff into my room and then decided to try out the little café that was in the reception area of my hostel. I tried to pay with a credit card, but for some reason the machine wasn't working. I grabbed a bill out of my wallet, but it was an old issue from a trip my grandma went on about 10 years ago, so it's no longer valid. Which meant I actually had a lot less money than I thought I did. However, it also meant I got a discount on my food because the woman working was feeling bad that it was their fault I couldn't pay with a credit card, so I just gave her all the money I had.

The food was good, but I went out right afterwards to get more money because I didn't have any. Then I walked around a little, and shopped a bit in the old town before I came back to my room and crashed for a nap.

I had a late supper (at Max again) after I woke up from my nap, and then went back to my hostel. I didn't feel like trying to meet random people in the common area, so I just went to my room, and ended up going to sleep pretty early. My room had 12 beds, but I quite liked it, although I think I shared the room with 8 guys that night.

View from my bunk - nice room.

I got up early and had to get myself checked out of my hostel by 10. At 10, I went on a bike tour that I had signed up for given by one of the women who works at the hostel.

It was pretty good, although I'm really in no shape to ride a bike, and I couldn't find my camera in my bag, so I didn't take any photos (maybe just as well to focus on my biking). We saw a bust of Astrid Lindgren in a park nearby our hostel (she used to live in the neighbourhood, so a lot of her stories take place there). We saw a plaque where the Swedish Prime Minister was assassinated in 1986, and a monument to a war hero that died after being taken prisoner in Russia. We got to hear a bit of the story of the Vasa, and then we had a little picnic on a dock. They had said in the description that it would be coffee and traditional Swedish cinnamon buns, but the buns were actually cardamom buns, which just aren't as good as cinnamon ones.

After we came back from the picnic, I tried to get my things ready to head to Finland. I did some laundry and went on the Internet and ate at the hostel café for lunch while I was waiting. Then I went on a bit of a shopping walkabout before I came back to get all my things packed up and head off to the ferry.

I got to the terminal by taking the metro, and went to buy a ticket. I asked for the cheapest one they had, and the woman told me that would be a shared cabin, so I said "Okay," and paid the 90 SEK reservation fee (the rest was discounted by my Eurail pass). I got a drinkable yoghurt and tiny chocolate bar as I waited to get on the ferry.

While waiting to board the ferry.

Next up - the ferry to Finland.

To Denmark I go

So I checked onto the ferry, which turned out to be more of a cruise ship than a ferry, and got comfortable in my room. I took advantage of the free internet, and then when I thought the ship had started moving, I headed up on deck with my camera to take some farewell photos of Oslo.

My room! (There really wasn't much else other than the bathroom.)

Bye Oslo!

After that I explored a little. There were a whole bunch of different restaurants on board, and a big store filled with clothing, perfume, make-up, booze and candy/junk food. And most of it was super excessive. Like HUGE packs of candy and MASSIVE cases of booze. And they didn't really have anything touristy which was kind of what I was hoping for. You know, the cheesy tourist crap that has the country's flag emblazoned across it 40 times? Nothing of Norway or Denmark (though I'm pretty sure that ferry is a Denmark thing, not Norway).

Part of the shop.

I mostly hung around in my room after I got some food, until I thought that it was probably sunset time. Then I headed out on deck, even though it was cold and windy and snapped photos of the sunset like mad!!

So for real, I was in love with every picture I took. It was hard to narrow down.

After that, I took advantage of the Internet some more, and then I crashed pretty early (10:30ish?). I got up fairly early as well to go to the breakfast buffet (decent, but I had been hoping for more sweet things like pancakes/waffles), and then buy some Danish money from the exchange desk.

When we landed in Copenhagen, I decided I would walk to my hostel because it was not even 10, and even though my hostel was really far, I couldn't check in until 1. I started walking, decided I was going the wrong way and went back before I decided that I had been right the first time.

Good morning Denmark!

Copenhagen!

Along my walk, I got to see a few things, and I stopped a few times (it's hard carrying such a huge, heavy backpack!!). By the time I got to my hostel, it was only about 12:30, but I was so exhausted that I didn't care if I had to sit on a step waiting to get in, I just needed a break. Google maps says I walked about 5 km, and I figure I was carrying about 30-35 pounds worth of bags, so I was reeeeeeally tired.

Some park. I think it's close to the Little Mermaid statue.

Rosenborg castle.

The building with my hostel (the windows with the blue cards are where my hostel is. I'm not sure what the rest of the building is.

After I put my stuff in my room, I decided to go explore a bit and look for food. I found a couple vintage shops nearby, and bought some food at a grocery store before deciding I was way too tired to do anything else. I came back to the hostel and sat in front of my computer until I had mustered up enough willpower to get going again.

Apparently this place cuts Ricky Martin and Nick Carter's hair because that's who was on their sign. LOL.

When I had had enough of a break, I just decided to start walking, and see what I could see. I walked and walked and walked some more, and got to know where a few things were downtown. I found a huge (6 story?) department store called Magasin (I thought it would be a mall because calling a store the French word for store just seemed way too literal for me), and bought myself a facecloth. I even got a 10% discount by showing my passport (not like that makes much of a difference on something that costs ~$4).

I thought this was funny. What a resounding endorsement of their beer!

The best part about this was not that it was Toy Story, or that it was made out of Lego. The best part was that my camera's facial detection recognized his face!!

I walked a bit more before I decided to go back to the hostel, and then I crashed at about 8 pm. I actually just came back from my walkabout and crawled straight into bed. I was so tired and sore from all the walking and backpack-carrying that I didn't get up until 8 am. Yay for sleep!

Next up - Adventures in Copenhagen!