stockholm, part 1

Two weeks ago (has time really flown that fast?) was another one of the National team breaks here in Finland.  The SM-liiga takes a week long break from games while the Finnish National Team is part of the "Euro Hockey Tour", playing in games against Sweden, Russia and Slovakia.  They do this several times a year- once in November, once in December, and again in February.  Since so many of the players from the league are playing in this tournament, the league takes a break.  It also breaks the season up kinda nicely and gives the players a chance to refresh themselves. 

Now, it may be a break from games... but we're not lucky enough to get 3 full weeks off during the season either.  I think each break this year the guys have only gotten 2 full days off.  This month, they had practice Thursday morning, and then again on Sunday evening. 

We didn't plan on doing anything special right away, but with all of the crazy stuff that has gone on in our lives the past few weeks, we decided we just wanted to get away from everything for a couple days.  On that Wednesday, we booked a room on board the cruise ship from Helsinki to Stockholm.  We were beyond excited, and Stockholm did not disappoint! :)

So after hubs got done with practice on Thursday, we packed up, dropped Maddie off at the "Pet Hotelli" and headed to the harbor.   It is an overnight cruise to get to Stockholm.  Our boat left at 5 pm and would arrive at 9:30am. 

Our Boat :)





View of the Helsinki Harbor

from the Boat



Now, it's not quite as fancy as a giant Caribbean cruise ship or anything, but on board the boat are several restaurants, a couple bars, 2 night clubs, a casino, duty/tax free shops, saunas (is there really anywhere in Finland there AREN'T saunas??), play areas for kids... you get the picture. 

on board the ship

When we were booking the trip the day before, it was all so exciting and such a whirlwind that we did it really quickly.  We booked the least expensive cabin, figuring that we'd be spending most of our time checking out all the stuff to do on the boat.  We were just glad to be going anywhere.  It couldn't be that bad... the boats looked nice, right?  WRONG!  We got on the boat and went to drop our bags off in our room so we could explore.  Tried the first elevator, no luck.  We realized it only went up, not down (warning sign #1...).  Then, we found the correct elevator and identified that it would take us to our room.  Looking at the list of floors & what was on them next to the elevator, I discovered that not only were we all the way at the bottom of the ship, but we were below the freaking CARS!!  Seriously? (warning sign #2...)  If the ship started taking on water, the cars would be saved before us.  Hubs and I got some good laughs about this... joking that we were like the people on the Titanic who they wouldn't even let upstairs when the ship was sinking.  We got down to our floor, wove our way through the hallways, passing signs stating that they "apologize for any loud noise caused by the ice" that the boat would bump into as we passed through the water (warning sign #3...).  When we found our room at the end of the hallway, our neighbors were a bunch of college-aged kids (at the most) that were taking full advantage of the bars and duty free shops, with beer cans stacked high, doors wide open and loud music playing.  Apparently we were on the "college dorm" floor.  Aye yai yai.

But, we weren't going to let it ruin our mini-vacay.  We had been through so much lately that we just wanted to (try) and relax and enjoy ourselves.  We decided to just go with it and laugh about it.  No sense in whining about it, plus we knew we'd always look back and laugh.  There wasn't much else we could do at that point anyways (except make a mental note to get an upgrade for the way back!)

When we got to Stockholm, it was snowing pretty heavily and the fog was so thick you could barely see 20 yards away.  We had to drag our suitcases through the snow-covered streets and sidewalks and attempt to find our hotel (until hubs decided to be a hero and carry both of them).  The first thing I saw was a 7-eleven next door to our hotel.  I knew it was a sign of good things to come! 

Shortly after we got to our hotel, J took several looks around and then remembered it was where he had stayed when they were in Stockholm in August.  I swear the guy wears a blindfold when they go on trips and all he sees is a hockey puck  he doesn't have the best memory when it comes to that kind of stuff.  But, I was impressed that he remembered at all!  ;)

After getting checked-in, we hurried out to find the Royal Palace in attempt to see the changing of the guard at 12:15.  I'm pretty impressed with our map skills- we found it right away, and just in time! 

                                                                                   

 They didn't do their full ceremony that they usually do because of the weather, but it was still fun to see and to take some pictures of the Royal Palace.  After that, it was off to find some lunch... we hadn't eaten since breakfast on the boat and we were starving!  After lunch our plan was to do some shopping, since it was too cold and snowy to be outside, we figured we'd save the outdoor sightseeing (and our bus tour) for Saturday.  But where to start? So little time.... so much to do :)



 In attempt to keep this from being the world's longest blog-post (and keep me from going insane writing so much in one sitting)  I'll share the rest of our story tomorrow. Check back then for part 2 of our trip and some more pictures of beautiful Stockholm - the best are yet to come! :)