And after going on this trip, I have finally come to believe , that it's 'who' and not 'where' that matters.
I have been to Stockholm earlier, but for various reasons, I could not really enjoy that trip. I was looking forward to going there again, when Sneha told me that she, along with a few colleagues was planning to go. I jumped in and me n Sneha went to book the cabins in the cruise and the accommodation... We were five to start off with , but soon three more joined in and we had the magic number.
Twenty fourth, September, Eight of us started early from office and set off for the port. We were to travel by the Silja line cruise 'serenade'. Like on a flight, we had to check in before boarding the cruise.
We were welcomed on board by a photographer, who took our pictures as we entered. These pics are later displayed for sale on the ship. At the entrance of the ship were a 'moomin' and 'little my' welcoming all on deck. The silja line cruise is a lot bigger, elegant and lavish when compared to the first cruise we went on. There's a lot more entertainment on board.
After quickly checking out our cabins and dumping our luggage, we all went up to the sun deck, where we spent the first few hours of the journey. The view was serene and beautiful from up there. On one side, we could see the skyline of Helsinki, with the Lutheran cathedral and the red church looming high, and on the other side was water, as far as we could see. The sea was dotted with islands, some with little red cottages. Honestly, this view is a little too accessible to me. I live almost by the sea, so I see this quite often, but there was something nice about looking at it from high up. As we sailed along, we went past the suomenlinna island, some day , I'll write about this place too. There was a spot on the sea where the sun shone exclusively and just that part of the sea lit up in golden light. Stunning!!
Enough about the sea, we went downstairs after a photo session and after the guys ogled enough at the girls on deck.. We set out to explore the ship. Lots of restaurants, a couple of pubs, a street full of shops, now this was fun. There was this whole Italian theme going on. The food n decor was Italian, so was the entertainment (mind blowing) . I must mention here, the trapeze and the fashion show.
We settled down in one of the pubs, where the guys tried really hard to make Sneha n me believe that our drink had vodka in it. Then after a little dinner, we sat at this pub where there was a live band and a dance floor. Some of us danced our blues away, while the others made new (really entertaining) friends.
We decided to take some time off and hit the sack as we had a lot of walking to do the next day. We thought of playing one game of UNO before we go to sleep. The guys trooped into the next cabin to freshen up. I and Sneha sat talking for a while, when I realized that I would turn a year older in a few minutes. Somehow I felt strangely depressed. Maybe coz it was the first time my parents wouldn't wish me at 12 (IST). I just sat there thinking of home, and what do you know?? In walked six guys with a cake, candles, balloons et al. Was I surprised or what!! Thanks Shaikp for planning it , and thanks guys for making it special.
And then it was UNO time. We played the game like crazy for about 1.5 hours. Half the people retired, but me , Vivek, Sneha and Parvez continued playing it and we also ended up playing bluff until 2 in the night.
The next morning the cruise docked at 9:30 and we took off from there. Surprisingly, none of us knew how to get to the hotel nor did we bother to get any currency exchanged. Once we got off, we got some info and we walked to the Tramsbana (metro station) where we bought the Stockholm card, which gave us free entry to 80 museums and attractions and also free transport for 48 hours.
From here we took a bus and reached our hotel. The bus driver was really helpful in showing us the way. We were slightly lost once we got down, but we reached there nevertheless. Though I must say Kapil worked harder than the rest of us to get there.
The hotel was swell, but check in time was at 3. The receptionist (So feminine, I had goosebumps whenever he spoke) told us we could leave our luggage in the locker. He also helped us identify the places which we might enjoy seeing. Then we walked on to this beautiful square where half the guys had this yummy (according to them) lunch, while the rest of us hit MCD's.
From here we took a metro to Gamlastan(the old town) and took in all the places from a distance. We walked over to the shore and spent some time waiting for the hop on / hop off boat to arrive. There was this curious statue over there and Vivek came up with an ingenious story about the origin of the statue. From here we took the boat to the Vasa museum. Though the Vasa is a beautiful ship and all that, what amuses me is how they took their biggest disaster and turned it into a money generator.. We walked around the place for a while and then we decided to leave. Once we came out, we found out that Suman and Vivek were missing. Parvez and Kapil somehow wiggled in a second time and looked for them. Vivek came out a while later, but Suman was still missing. We decided he's a big boy and can take care of himself and moved on to the next museum across the road.
The Nordic museum,a magnificent building housed a lot of interesting articles and information about Nordic history. There was also this Swedish apple show going on, where they showcased what looked to be more than a hundred varieties of apples. Suman meanwhile caught up with us. It was amusing how he was the first one to take a complete round of the museum. I wonder if he sprinted across.
Across the road from the Nordic museum is a park, which had an amazing view, it was by a lake and had some beautiful flowers. While the others were busy taking pictures (must say we got some pretty ones from parvez's camera) , I managed to sneak a walk around the park. Some things seem prettier when enjoyed alone. Once we had enough of the park , we took a bus to Gamlastan and were planning to walk around. Unfortunately due to some miscalculations, we got lost. We got down at some random stop and walked into this beautiful campus. We later found out that it was the campus for KTH- royal institute of technology. Man, I wish I had studied in such a beautiful place.
Since we had wasted enough time, we again took a bus and reached Skansen, an open air museum, which officially stays open till eight in the night. But we realized half the places inside were closed and only got to see very few animals, thanks to our guide Kapil, who walked us through the maze.
Once we got out we realized there was no bus to go back as it was too late. So we walked to the nearest metro. On the way, we plastered our noses against the glass windows of an auto showroom and ogled at the Ferraris inside. My favorite, however was the black Maserati.
We reached the hotel, hungry and tired and sat down for dinner without even checking in. After dinner, we checked into our rooms(which were huge), and again sat down for a few games of UNO and bluff. It was fun watching Anil get excited every time he was close to winning. And even more fun helping Suman add more cards to his pack :D
After a sumptuous breakfast the next morning, we checked out of our rooms, kept our luggage in the locker again, ánd set out to our official visit to gamlastan. We first went to the city hall, where we spent a lot of time. This is where the Nobel prizes are awarded every year. We booked a tour to the top of the tower and then a tour of the hall itself. Almost all the guys bought themselves some cute n fuzzy reindeer (what exactly they'll do with them? don't ask me)
The tour of the city hall was fun an informative. We got to know some interesting trivia about the hall and it's architecture. From here we took a bus to see the royal change of guard. Which was fun, but not as grand as I had expected. Or maybe fall 1 had knocked me out of my senses.
After the change of guard and lunch , we walked back to the city hall for the climb up the tower. Half the guys rushed to the tower.Me, Parvez and Sneha, walked down to the tower when fall2 happened. And well , we happily limped our way to the tower. Since we were quite late thanks to me , the other guys took the stairs on time. When we reached, we took the elevator and caught up with them mid way. We climbed up to the bell tower, from where the view of the city was breathtaking.
Then we returned to the hotel as we had to catch the cruise at 5. We reached the port at 4:30 and rushed to check in. We were so tired that we did not bother to get up on to the deck. After a while, we all gathered in one cabin and talked almost through the night. Kapil kept us in splits for a long time, punctuated with an occasional wise crack from Manju. The return was equally fun.
The next morning when we waited to get off the ship, I don't know about the others, but I had a heavy heart. (I still can't figure out why, maybe coz I remembered it was Monday) . We returned to office planning our next trip.
All in all, this was a special trip, where we started with strangers, and made some real good friends.
