So naturally I was looking forward to this cruise, especially since Jannica had managed to snag me a cabin so I actually had somewhere to sleep and put my bags. Unfortunately I realised the hard truth as soon as the ship took off, that while there may well be many STIs passed between shipmates on this boat, they were going to be between swinging 70 year olds, not the buxom Swedish masseuse team (they have competitions for that surely) I had imagined.
Actually it was for the best really. I was knackered after getting about 3 hours sleep the night before, and I could still taste strawberry and cream liquer from the night before. Luckily Jannica had managed to snag me a cabin so I had a bed to sleep on which was awesome. This I thought was very luxurious, right up until I realised I was on the floor below the livestock.
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| Seriously, this was the sign on the door on the level above mine. |
So I went up to the top deck, watched the sunset, and then got a guy to take one last picture of me before I headed to bed....
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| Such good intentions |
The cruise was hilarious, sort of like a mini scando vegas on a boat. They had a stage that just looked like it should have cabaret on it, but instead had a crooning Tina Turner lookalike, who sang polka music.
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| Pardon the shaky photo, I was polkaing. |
It also had a karaoke bar, which bizarrely had goths singing tunes like the Bodyguard theme really really well.
After discussing the hilarity of singing the titanic tune while on a cruise we decided to move down to see Tina Turner do her thing. Down there we found that there were in fact five people between the ages of 18 and 30 on the boat when we met two cool Finn´s Elina and Katarina. From there the night sort of escalated. I dont remember the details but there was definitely polka dancing, karaoke music, and my Jaeger was gone by 10pm.... After being so excited about having a cabin I ended up getting about one hours sleep, and ended up being the skeeziest person exiting a boat that had just housed an octagenarian orgy.
Adding to my sense of shame for my attrocious condition was that I had just entered one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. I had mainly come to Stockholm to visit my old uni mates Henrik, Boris and Ani, but man am I glad I came. Stockholm is just georgeous. Trust the swedes to make a city to accesorise their chiseled features. The city is made up of the old city on an island at the centre featuring typical ye olde euro cobblestones, thin winding streets etc. Then the surrounding areas, despite not living up to the 'old' tag of the old city, are all just as amazing.
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| Classic swedish ass |
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| Ye olde 7 eleven |
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| Nobel Museum, and me looking all smart like |
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| Town Hall, where the nobels are handed out. |
Everything about this city is just beautiful. Science tells us that the average single Aussie male falls in love about once every 2 minutes while walking around Stockholm. I also loved the number of cyclists sharing the roads with the cars with zero road rage (the Scandanavians dont have a word Alan Jones). But my favourite bit of the city had to be the underground track which they've dug out of the bedrock and decided to let artists have at it creating just an awesome public art experience. It's just small things like this that I love and that can transform a city.
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| had to be done |
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| This one had all the major historical events from recorded history along the walls, the skull for the plague was a nice touch. |
I was lucky enough to have two lots of awesome tour guides, first the Finns from the boat showed me around, and then a couple of my couchsurfers from Newcastle stayed with me. My couchsurfers are three girls (though one couldnt make it) who my friend Gav and I had an awesome time with one weekend last year, the highlight of which was definitely catching them on camera singing Waterloo.
As I said earlier, I was mainly there visiting my uni mates, Henrik (swedish accountant), Boris (Aussie plying the Aussie accent on lovely Swedish girls), and Ani (Henrik's gf and ex Lander tennis player as well). Henrik and Ani were nice enough to let me crash on their couch the whole time I was there, give me a mobile to use while I was in town, and generally just be amazing hosts. The two nights I was in town we went out for a few beers, which ended up being alot each time, which was then added to while meeting my two lots of tour guides afterwards for more drinks. This definitely didn't help my budgeting for my trip, but it was a great time. The most magic moment was definitely when Henrik ordered himself a lovely drink that would've fit right in with the shots I did in Hanko, and then managed to pair this moment of getting in touch with his feminine side with a very masculine nose pick, all caught on camera.
Anyway, it's about 4am again, and I should get some sleep. Tomorrow (today really, we're 1/6th of the way into it) is my last day in Norway, and I'll hopeully be able to update you on the amazing time I've had here in the next couple of days.
Caedyn
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