Exploring Scandinavia

“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

 

 

After we have already been to some cities in Sweden, Norway and Denmark my friends and I thought of going to the capital cities of Sweden and Finland as well. We decided to fly to Stockholm and go on with the ferry to Helsinki.

Our trip started on Monday the 27^th of May. We flew to Stockholm and there we did not see that much sights on that day but we were having lunch at T.G.I Friday´s and it was awesome. The weather was great and we had an amazing view to a little park. The rest of the day we were just walking through Stockholm to somehow get an overview. We had much fun with taking pictures and entering areas that did not look like the places we wanted to reach. ;)

In the afternoon we finally got to the ferry. It was gigantic and we were impressed. On board, there was a promenade with many shops, bars, restaurants and so on. We had a nice time on the ferry and enjoyed our travelling with some cocktails.

The next day we woke up in Helsinki. Our day started with great weather and a wonderful market at the harbour. There was more than enough food, souvenirs, cloths etc. After a little shopping at the market, we started our walk through the city. We saw so many beautiful places and enjoyed our stay there. Especially, sitting at the sea and eating an ice-cream was great.

 

 

 

 

After this impressing day and a little hurry in the end, we reached the ferry again and travelled back to Stockholm. We were enjoying the fine weather on deck, drunk some “Radler” and played “Ligretto”. :)

Wednesday in Stockholm was kind of an adventure because nothing happened like we expected. The day started very good with a great breakfast at the ferry but then we could not by a ticket for the hop-on hop-off bus because the machine was broken. After some waiting time we nearly missed the next bus because we were photographing some guards of the castle and Theresa had being shouted at. Afterwards we had to pay twice for our tickets because the machine had a failure. After some time it started to rain and did not stop anymore. We wanted to see the city hall, but it was closed and we couldn´t go into the famous “Icebar” neither, because there was a wedding going on.

So all together we had bad luck nearly the whole day but we made the best out of it. We had much fun with our umbrellas, were eating at McDonalds, driving with the hop-on hop-off bus through the whole city and saw many sights. Now in the end we can already laugh about everything that happened.
       
--> Who travels has a lot to tell! :)

In the evening we went to the airport by bus and waited for our flight back to Copenhagen. After an exhausting and unforgettable trip we finally reached our homes late in the night.

After this trip, I have already seen all four Scandinavian countries. Everybody was so friendly and helpful and tried to make our stays as comfortable as possible. I think the mentality of Scandinavians and Austrians is completely different. In Norway, Denmark and Finland it seems as if people are enjoying their lives much more than Austrians do. Everything is so decelerated here.

Stockholm was different. It conformed more to Vienna, because people here seemed kind of stressed like in Austria. Everything was so fast and hectic. E.g. everybody went across the street without waiting for the traffic lights to get green and several people were shouting at us for no reason.
So I felt more comfortable in Helsinki that in Stockholm, because it was smaller and more compact so that it was easy to get an overview of the city and it seemed as if the people had a more positive attitude to life.

All in all, I enjoyed our trip and had a lot of fun with the girls! :)