One hour in Finland

On Friday/Saturday, I went to Finland with Ann-Charlotte and Kathy from my lab. I never actually stepped foot in Finland, though. Ann-Charlotte is Finnish and was going to visit friends for the weekend. She was taking the overnight ferry and had booked a cabin so she invited Kathy and me along for the ride.

We boarded the boat Friday night and booked a table at the smorgasbord for dinner. We had unlimited beer and wine with our meal so we hung out there until they kicked us out for the next seating (but we asked them to take our picture first). After dinner, we went tax-free shopping. Alcohol is very heavily taxed in Sweden so we were able to buy some liquor and wine for about half the price we would pay at the liquor store on land. The tax-free shopping is one of the main draws to this Stockholm-to-Finland boat trip. Also, "tax-free" is "tax-free" in English, Swedish, and Finnish. (It was hilarious to hear these little kids in the elevator yapping away in Swedish....tax-free....more Swedish.) After shopping, we went to the bar and then the club (partying being the other main draw of the boat). We made a lot of interesting Swedish friends.

We docked in Finland around 6am. Not having had much sleep until that point, I pretty much slept right through it (other than mumbling goodbye to Ann-Charlotte) and woke up when we were well on our way back to Stockholm. Kathy and I had some brunch at a table over looking the water. It looked so cold and uninviting - grey skies, white-capped waters. and large pieces of ice crashing on the deck from the top of the boat. We decided there was nothing to see and we should go back to bed. We watched Napoleon Dynamite, read, and napped until we arrived back in Stockholm Saturday night.

It was a fun little, relatively last minute, trip. The water was a bit to rough for my liking for a few hours both ways - but I got over it. I'd like to go on the same trip again in the summer when I can actually walk out onto the deck and enjoy the scenery.