Ooops… I did it again!

by Lars

Hi everybody...

...it’s high time to say hello again. Hope you are all very well.

Like Vesna already indicated in her last entry I spent a little while in Helsinki and Stockholm again. I went there on holiday with some friends for a couple of days at the end of April and beginning of May. It was very nice and we had loads of fun and quite sunny yet coolish weather. After lingering one complete day in Helsinki we took the Viking Line ferry to Stockholm where we stayed the rest of our trip in a hotel in Södermalm.

Funnily enough the ferry was the MS Mariella which is exactly the same ship we all took on our collective trip last September (I’m sure you do remember…).

So what shall I tell you about the shipping?

The whole tour was like a blatant revival of our September journey. Ok, this time it was only a one-way ferry trip and there were kinda less people I personally knew on board the ship. ;-) But all in all the Baltic Sea crossing was a party boat ride very similar to that one we experienced a couple of months ago. This means we also ransacked the duty-free shop, participated in the all-you-can-eat Viking Buffet and had great fun in the "fun club" and the disco afterwards.

My second glance on both cities insistently confirmed my initial perception that Stockholm is more beautiful than Helsinki. However, this time it was a little bit strange to be in Sthlm again. As far as the cityscape is concerned nothing really had changed. Neither was it the Swedish King’s 60th birthday effusively celebrated in the streets round Kungliga Slottet in Gamla Stan that made me feel irritated.

But I felt like being a stranger in a foreign but at the same time so well-known city, staying in a hotel without still having a home there. Walking around in Stockholm was much more of a sightseeing activity than the daily routine it used to be at the time on exchange. Additionally, during my short visit almost all of the SSE students were flown out to the student carnival in Uppsala, and when I stepped into Saltis it really was like extinct so there was little chance to come across some new or even familiar people. To make a long story short, Stockholm is always worth a whistle-stop, but being there is not the same with all of you absent. Next time we should try to meet there together again as the culture shock might not be that heavy in case of a big reunion. ;-)

If you are interested in some more pictures of my short trip, just dip into PixVillage and feel free to indulge in reminiscences.

I wish you all a good start into the summer and an exciting World Cup 2006 for those of you interested in soccer! And by the way, if you consider filling this blog with new input, just don’t hesitate to do so – I guess we are all very curious to get some vital signs of you every now and then.

Hej då,
Lars