Jane in Finland: Tuesday November 16

And so we arrive in the beautiful city of Stockholm. It was also ridiculously expensive. Phew on not doing my exchange here!

Even though I had not slept my usual 8-12 hours as I am used to (not joking, im still catching up from my crazy summer), I was super energized for this day of sightseeing in Stockholm, SWEDEN! I had learned about the connection between Sweden and Finland in my history class and now I was able to add personal experiences to that knowledge. The flags are really similar (same cross shape only different colors).

My breakfast on the ship was the worst because instead of getting a sandwich at the cafe like a normal person, I got crackers and a block of cheese at the 'supermarket.' This purchase started my dislike of the supermarkets on the boat. I had to wait until we got into the city to get some yogurt that I was craving quite badly.

Our MS Baltic Queen- looks majestic eh?

Mummi! - a Finnish cartoon that is too cute

Mummi is everywhere and I still haven't bought something with it. I have a pretty good idea though but I will not publicize it as it may be a christmas present for some peeps back home.

Waiting for the underground train to transport us to our meeting spot for the city tour

I hadn't taken the metro since my weekend trip to Tallinn when we used the Helsinki metro so this was a bit weird and we got flustered even when buying tickets. The system was pretty confusing i must say - you get this long strip of paper with multiple passes on it and you have to stamp each one in a different way. Anyway, i was glad Kerstin was with us to help sort it out:)

Breakfast part one

Breakfast part two

This was my better breakfast - donuts and yogurt. OM NOM NOM. I was actually really content after eating that.

At the tour meeting place

Haha I took an identical picture of just those rope constructions and the shopping mall that you see in the background but Stefan insisted that pictures are more interesting if there are people - let there be people!

This is not a real person, this is Swedish art

At first, I was a little surprised by this figure but hey, anything can be modern art.

More art

A marketplace

It was chilly but we survived

City square

Observe the yellow coat child pushing the blue coat child

Our whole tour guided group stopped by this skating rink and I couldn't help but wonder if the parents of these children were getting a little nervous that so many people were taking pictures of their children. That's what you get for living in the capital of a country i guess.

One of the many churches

The swedish business walk

It's getting dark already

very cool modern construction

green=go

red=stop

flying through the streets of stockholm

One of the goals for the amazing race later on tonight (pictures are a bit out of order) : the goal was to take a picture with a personnel

In the evening of today, we participated in the amazing race and it was so much fun! We had some pretty crazy tasks but we did really well and finished 2nd. Im starting to discover more and more that so many things in life are about the process not the end result. At first I scoffed at this theory when I heard a professor say it but now I live by it. Oh the joys of growing up.

The most comfortable chair EVER - designed by a Finn :)

I first learned of these ball chairs in my Finnish art class and now we saw them in person! how exciting. But we almost fell asleep in them because they were so comfortable and we were sleep-deprived.