Not much to report other than T.J. won the poker tournament again. Jack and I tried to catch the end of it, but they tossed him out of the casino (Jack). Jack was quite upset, as he just wanted to pull the arm on the slot machines. We stayed on the edge of the casino doors (technically outside of the casino, but not by much). We couldn't see any of the action but knew it was down to T.J. and another guy, and T.J. had just won a large pot. I was very proud of him, and there was quite a crowd gathered around to see. He seems to be a familiar face around the place now, and we run into a lot of folks he's met in the casino.
I struck up a conversation with a woman while we were both in the library -- I was getting coffee after working out, and she was making lace. We chatted a little about it (she claims it's actually easy, but I still don't believe her). Later on, I was taking the kids to the pool, and we ran into her again. She actually let Amelia do a few "stitches" on the piece she was making, which I thought was quite cool (Amelia didn't see why I thought it was so neat and made such a big deal about it.
Just a lot of time in the Kids' Club for the kids, the gym for me, and relaxing for T.J. There's a lot to be said for sea days. Especially when the kids love the kids' club so much. Their counselors are BBQ, Milkshake and Randy (they give them funny names, as it's easier for the kids to remember. Randy just never came up with a good name.) The kids have really picked up a lot and repeat a lot of what they do. They enjoy talking like robots (from Alien Night), yell out "Hey, Cruisers" when they want to get my attention (and I have to respond "Hey, What?". And they also have a song about a monkey who taunts and alligator, and it involves blowing raspberries. Pretty funny.
Saturday, Aug. 2 -- Stockholm, Sweeden
We woke up to a gloomy (and cool) day arriving in Stockholm. We were on our own again, and we took a cab to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a Sweedish wooden warship that was built around 1628 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)). It set sail from the Stockholm harbour, caught the wind, tipped, righted itself, caught the wind again, tipped and promptly sank. It was mostly forgotten about until the 1950s, I believe, and then was lifted up, mostly fully intact, and preserved in a museum. T.J. was very excited to see it, and I must admit, it was pretty impressive. Quite an amazing amount of carvings and detail and apparently fantastically painted. It was very interesting to see, and if you're interested in boats, I'm sure you could find out more online.
From then, it was a lot of walking around. Stockholm is a lot of canals and islands (not quite as many as Venice, but it was a similar idea -- I think they said it was 2,000 islands, though many are very small. It must be quite a maze for the captain to navigate!). We walked to the old town and it started to rain. Poor Amelia was cold, and we were scouring souvenir shops looking for a reasonably priced (and not tacky) sweatshirt. We finally found one, and Jack fell asleep in the rain. We decided to abandon the sightseeing in the rain and head back to the ship for lunch. We really weren't sure what we wanted to see in Stockholm (isn't that terrible?), but T.J. and the kids decided to stay put. I walked back, so I could go and look for a House Elf (a little elf that is supposed to bring good luck to a house). I walked the 30 minutes back to town and was getting ready to cross over the canal into the old city. But there was a gigantic alternative lifestyle parade going on, and I found it impossible to cross the street, and the parade had no intention of ending. I almost joined the parade to cross over but thought better of it (didn't want to risk messing with the Sweedish police). After another 30 minutes of walking, I finally found a tunnel I could use. Now I had barely 1.5 hours to do my shopping and make the walk back to the ship. I found my elves, and a Pippi Longstocking book for Amelia, and made it back. Completely soaked and exhausted. (You know how you're supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day? That day, I walked 35,000.)
Sunday, Aug. 3 -- Helsinki, Finland
We lost an hour of sleep today, which always stinks. The kids have been just exhausted, and we hate having to wake them up every morning. We took a cruise-organized tour to Porvoo, Finland, a little village about 1/2 hour outside Helsinki. It was a quaint little town, with a lot of handicraft stores, and is one of the oldest towns in Finland (second-oldest, if I recall correctly). We were a little surprised to hear that only 5 million live in Finland (compared with 5 million in St. Petersburg alone), and that the Finnish language has no similarities to Sweedish (I would've assumed them to be similar. The town was cute, but there wasn't much too see, and soon we were off to a horse farm to see horses and have cake.
The farm was also cute, and they brought out several horses to see. They brought out a Shetland Pony, and they let both the kids take a short ride, which they LOVED. Then a little cake with fresh green rhubarb (which was surprisingly tasty -- I'd never had it before) and blueberries and lingonberries with homemade caramel sauce. Quite delicious. Then it was a bus ride back to Helsinki for a little drive around town. T.J. and the kids stayed on the bus and headed back to the boat, while I stayed in the city with another woman who wanted to stay and shop.
The weather wasn't so good -- chilly and on-and-off rain.
We wandered around the city for a few hours and picked up a few goodies. We ran across an open-air market and found a bunch of odd foods, including some sort of stir-fried herrings and reindeer burgers. We didn't eat, if you can imagine.
I'm not exactly sure what I'd recommend about Helsinki, but there's nothing terrible about it, either. The kids just wanted to go to the kids' club (which was fine by us). T.J. went to a country music show while I went to the gym and to the spa for a (mediocre) foot massage. We were going to lose another hour of sleep Sunday night (and an early morning in Russia) so it was an early night.
I struck up a conversation with a woman while we were both in the library -- I was getting coffee after working out, and she was making lace. We chatted a little about it (she claims it's actually easy, but I still don't believe her). Later on, I was taking the kids to the pool, and we ran into her again. She actually let Amelia do a few "stitches" on the piece she was making, which I thought was quite cool (Amelia didn't see why I thought it was so neat and made such a big deal about it.
Just a lot of time in the Kids' Club for the kids, the gym for me, and relaxing for T.J. There's a lot to be said for sea days. Especially when the kids love the kids' club so much. Their counselors are BBQ, Milkshake and Randy (they give them funny names, as it's easier for the kids to remember. Randy just never came up with a good name.) The kids have really picked up a lot and repeat a lot of what they do. They enjoy talking like robots (from Alien Night), yell out "Hey, Cruisers" when they want to get my attention (and I have to respond "Hey, What?". And they also have a song about a monkey who taunts and alligator, and it involves blowing raspberries. Pretty funny.
Saturday, Aug. 2 -- Stockholm, Sweeden
We woke up to a gloomy (and cool) day arriving in Stockholm. We were on our own again, and we took a cab to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a Sweedish wooden warship that was built around 1628 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)). It set sail from the Stockholm harbour, caught the wind, tipped, righted itself, caught the wind again, tipped and promptly sank. It was mostly forgotten about until the 1950s, I believe, and then was lifted up, mostly fully intact, and preserved in a museum. T.J. was very excited to see it, and I must admit, it was pretty impressive. Quite an amazing amount of carvings and detail and apparently fantastically painted. It was very interesting to see, and if you're interested in boats, I'm sure you could find out more online.
From then, it was a lot of walking around. Stockholm is a lot of canals and islands (not quite as many as Venice, but it was a similar idea -- I think they said it was 2,000 islands, though many are very small. It must be quite a maze for the captain to navigate!). We walked to the old town and it started to rain. Poor Amelia was cold, and we were scouring souvenir shops looking for a reasonably priced (and not tacky) sweatshirt. We finally found one, and Jack fell asleep in the rain. We decided to abandon the sightseeing in the rain and head back to the ship for lunch. We really weren't sure what we wanted to see in Stockholm (isn't that terrible?), but T.J. and the kids decided to stay put. I walked back, so I could go and look for a House Elf (a little elf that is supposed to bring good luck to a house). I walked the 30 minutes back to town and was getting ready to cross over the canal into the old city. But there was a gigantic alternative lifestyle parade going on, and I found it impossible to cross the street, and the parade had no intention of ending. I almost joined the parade to cross over but thought better of it (didn't want to risk messing with the Sweedish police). After another 30 minutes of walking, I finally found a tunnel I could use. Now I had barely 1.5 hours to do my shopping and make the walk back to the ship. I found my elves, and a Pippi Longstocking book for Amelia, and made it back. Completely soaked and exhausted. (You know how you're supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day? That day, I walked 35,000.)
Sunday, Aug. 3 -- Helsinki, Finland
We lost an hour of sleep today, which always stinks. The kids have been just exhausted, and we hate having to wake them up every morning. We took a cruise-organized tour to Porvoo, Finland, a little village about 1/2 hour outside Helsinki. It was a quaint little town, with a lot of handicraft stores, and is one of the oldest towns in Finland (second-oldest, if I recall correctly). We were a little surprised to hear that only 5 million live in Finland (compared with 5 million in St. Petersburg alone), and that the Finnish language has no similarities to Sweedish (I would've assumed them to be similar. The town was cute, but there wasn't much too see, and soon we were off to a horse farm to see horses and have cake.
The farm was also cute, and they brought out several horses to see. They brought out a Shetland Pony, and they let both the kids take a short ride, which they LOVED. Then a little cake with fresh green rhubarb (which was surprisingly tasty -- I'd never had it before) and blueberries and lingonberries with homemade caramel sauce. Quite delicious. Then it was a bus ride back to Helsinki for a little drive around town. T.J. and the kids stayed on the bus and headed back to the boat, while I stayed in the city with another woman who wanted to stay and shop.
The weather wasn't so good -- chilly and on-and-off rain.
We wandered around the city for a few hours and picked up a few goodies. We ran across an open-air market and found a bunch of odd foods, including some sort of stir-fried herrings and reindeer burgers. We didn't eat, if you can imagine.
I'm not exactly sure what I'd recommend about Helsinki, but there's nothing terrible about it, either. The kids just wanted to go to the kids' club (which was fine by us). T.J. went to a country music show while I went to the gym and to the spa for a (mediocre) foot massage. We were going to lose another hour of sleep Sunday night (and an early morning in Russia) so it was an early night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once we get back home, I'm going to post pictures in the appropriate spots on the blog here, but the internet connection is slow, and trying to upload pictures now doesn't work so well...
I may try, but if you don't see any pictures, check back on the posts in a week or so.
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