Cruise Time

Stockholm Archipelago
Originally uploaded by tabita.

Since we didn't really have a honeymoon after our wedding (one weekend trip to go to the embassy in Stockholm was pretty much it), we decided to go for a little cruise to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.

Destination of choice: Helsinki, Finland. We left on Sunday at 5 PM and spent the evening cruising through the Stockholm archipelago. It is the most amazing nature experience ever (OK - I've never been to the fjords, but I just can't imagine anything more idyllic). Miles and miles of little islands with little red and yellow houses. I want to buy an island - it's on my list of things to do.

Anyway, the ship was lovely. We avoided the fancy restaurants and hung out at Robert's Cafe (which seems to be the equivalent of Starbucks in Scandinavia). Dinner and breakfast. :)

We arrived in Helsinki on Monday morning and found ourselves in the heart of the city. It is a quite compact city, so we walked to everything. We saw several churches and did a lot of browsing of "Stockmanns," which is like the Harrod's of Helsinki. I bought cherries at the market. Yum. We also spent some time just sitting on a bench in the park and chatting. Sitting time is good.

My favorite "meal" of the trip was a visit to the Fazer Cafe for hot chocolate and sweet bread. Fazer is the premier chocolate manufacturer in Finland, so you can imagine the quality of the cocoa. Splendid.

Hotel was nice (for Europe) and in the morning, we partook of a Finnish breakfast buffet which was right down my alley. Lots of ecological bread and berries.

Day two brought us to one more church, which was carved out of a rock. Very cool. It also brought some actual shopping - one of my favorite pastimes (when I have the time). Picked up some gifts and swell jewelry.

Blah, blah, blah... We returned on Wednesday morning and stayed in Stockholm to visit the "Nordiska Museet" where I learned lots about my own country (weird). For example, I learned that in the olden days, Swedes mostly celebrated namesdays and not birthdays, since a lot of people didn't know when they were born. I also had some Indian food - lamb curry with nan. Good stuff. I am trying to condition my body to be able to eat Indian. It's going quite well.

Eventually, we made it back to Järna, the suburb where my parents live, where Rebecka greeted us warmly and immediately asked for her presents, which we bestowed upon her.

Flickr has more pics and words.