Finland is WINLAND!
My first class of the year was cancelled, so suddenly I had two days off and a great idea - to go to Finland. Stangel loved the idea, and off he went online to book tickets for a Helsinki cruise, two nights onboard one day in Helsinki, back on Wednesday in time for school. There are two companies who do Finland cruises, and the one that still had tickets was Silja Line, which was kinda a sign because it has a seal for a mascot, and seal is a Stanja-approved animal (just as ferret and tortoise). It WAS a sign, apparentlly, as we booked one of the cheapest cabins available (below the waterline and five decks away from all the action), but they messed up or something and instead we got a much better cabin with a view of the action. Another great idea was to borrow mom's camera, which make this post heavy on food, tourism and me wearing clothes.
Before going any further, I'll explain what a Finland Ferry is. I believe I have done it before, but I can do it again. Finland Ferries are kinda like Family Friendly Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy. It all comes down to inexpensively and for a short while leaving your ordinary life behind and having your own cabin to have sex in, like a giant floating mall where you can have some privacy too. Works for parents with small children who can be stored in the playroom while their parents drink wine or use the cabin, works for young people who want to partay and buy inexpensive alcohol. There is a tax free store, you see, and while you are in no way allowed to consume the booze in your cabin, everyone does it anyway. The tickets are really inexpensive, so you pretty much save money if you go for a one day tour and buy a lot of tax free beer.
There are shops, of course, selling things that are boring and ugly at once and souvenirs. There are restaurants and cafés and they have entertainment too (Stangel and I missed the midnight show both ways, it was a Tribute to Queen there, and 80's Tribute Show back). They had some extra entertainment on the Promenade because Silja Line was turning 50.
Okay, and here's the illustrated story. Comments below pictures.
The route, on our way back. The red dots is how far we've alread gotten. My addition is where we are about to go. The green dot is a place where the ferry has to go because otherwise it will not be allowed to sel stuff Tax Free. There are some strange rules about Finland in Sweden both being in the EU, but the litle green dot not being. Something.
The Promenade. It's 140 meters long and it has EVERYTHING. Like ATLANTIS NIGHT CLUB CASINO and glass elevators and everything. I'm always so disappointed when I board a ship, because I always expect them to look like Starship Titanic (that game was simply fapalicious) and they never do. They look like 80's architecture (Stockholm bus terminal, Södra Station, you know). Anyway, as you see, there are cabins facing it and we had one of them. It wasn't just a Promenade cabin, it was also a cabin very close to a stage in the center and a place where they had bouncing acrobats, so we could watch them from above.
Here is the view from our window. Threre are three acrobats, as you maybe see. They were from the Moscow Circus. They were not the only Russians there, roughly 75% of all the travellers were Russian. There was so much Russian on board that the passengers spontaneously spoke Russian to each-other, without ever trying English first. People asked me and Stangel whether we were going up or down in the elevator in Russian.
We left Stockholm behind and it was cold. Then we did stuff all evening.
We took photos of my clothes. There'll be a lot of that theme in the pictures. Since I was going to school straight from the ferry, had to pack a school change of clothes. But when I went from home to meet up Stangel in Stockholm, I passed by a thrift store and ended up consuming a little, so when we grew bored, I could change clothes and we'd take pictures and we had fun.
Hereby presenting Tanja's grown-up look that on this photo looks more like Tanja's Japanese schoolgirl cosplayer look.
We went to the nts-nts-nts bar but it wasn't open yet.
IT'S A TRAP!
We tried to figure out the unfamiliar camera in the cabin.
I posed. This is one of my new thrifted items - the stripey dress. Yellow with black stripes is the visual signature of the jazz band I dance for, so there. My back doesn't bend lol.
We walked up and down the Promenade and photographed a banana-seal.
We gave in and bought tea and cake.
I ate a cherry sexily.
This is my favourite necklace and it broke later, but it was in bed and I can put it back together.
We consumed some more (as your understand, the shipping company doens't get it's money from the faring fees, but from people getting bored and boying food and ugly sweaters onboard) and drank a Guiness and a cider. We tried to read a Finnish newspaper that someone left at the table and found this photo of K Fed. The dotted line is my attempt to explain what's going on with his suit.
Then we had more tea, and then we went to sleep. Here is my nightie, documented because why woud we not take a picture of it, when we took pictures of everything else?
In the morning, we woke up early after not getting too much sleep and went for the breakfast bouffe that wasn't as good as the one as the other shipping company's that we had on our way to Petersburg during the Great Transbaltic Stanjatrip. That day we ate and the morning and then we weren't hungry until in Petersburg at 10 pm.
This is Stangel outside the Cathedral. We visited three churches in Helsinki. One was the Cathedral that's Protestant. The other moved while we were walking to it and it turned out to be an Orthodox church despite having "normal" crosses on the exterior. The third was Protestant, despite Orthodox crosses. Guess they swapped.
This is Alexander II. I demonstrate on my fingers.
This is Stangel on his way to the church that turned out to be Orthodox and that also moved when we were looking away.
We walked a lot and I froze and we were going to find Internets and drink coffee and Stangel wanted to find the train station and we walked a street called Fredrik Street and SUDDENLY ...
TORTOISE!!! HALO THAR!
AMAGAD TRAM!
AMAGAD SALE!
AMAGAD ONIME!
/r/ rule #34
Taken for HJ.
The absolutely cool Opera house. Loved it to pieces. Next time I'm bringing Jonne (and sexyback, by definition) and we'll go there straight from the harbour. As it is now, I did't get much time to see it.
Helsinki was a pretty boring city. I liked it's open spaces, we don't have that kind of squares in Stockholm. But I mostly liked them because they remind me of Spb, and then I might as well go to Spb.
Back on Silja Serenade, went to the Tax Free place and bought a bottle of Bacardi for Jonne (like it's his birthday the day after that) and a tiiiny bottle of cognac (isn't it called brandy in English? my dictionary says it isn't, I'm confused and too lazy too look up more) called Camus because it's an important tradition to drink in the cabin. Camus was thiiis tiny and quite disgusting. We saved most of it so that I could take it to school today and see if bad coffee-machine-coffee and disgusting cognac made a drinkable mixture. The coffee was just about as bad as normal with Camus in it and Camus was definitely more suited for coffee than single.
Admire Stangel's socks, they're a Christmas gift from me.
I changed into my school clothes. Admire the socks, they're a Christmas gift from Stangel.
We had tea and cake.
I impersonated.
We took a photo of an ad for the ferry's youth club. What we think they say:
- *giggle giggle giggle lol lol lol*
- WOW, she's only had ONE XIDER and she's ALREADY sooooo DRUNK!
- Wonder if she's legal, she looks legal, better be legal.
- Haha, payback for stealing my boyfriend!
Then I changed again because I had new woolen shorts I had to wear and Stangel took pictures.
Then we impersonated a fashion blogger (me, on picture) and a Center Party voter (Stangel, I don't have any good pictures of that, though) and had more tea and were tired and went to sleep.
AWWW!
Before going any further, I'll explain what a Finland Ferry is. I believe I have done it before, but I can do it again. Finland Ferries are kinda like Family Friendly Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy. It all comes down to inexpensively and for a short while leaving your ordinary life behind and having your own cabin to have sex in, like a giant floating mall where you can have some privacy too. Works for parents with small children who can be stored in the playroom while their parents drink wine or use the cabin, works for young people who want to partay and buy inexpensive alcohol. There is a tax free store, you see, and while you are in no way allowed to consume the booze in your cabin, everyone does it anyway. The tickets are really inexpensive, so you pretty much save money if you go for a one day tour and buy a lot of tax free beer.
There are shops, of course, selling things that are boring and ugly at once and souvenirs. There are restaurants and cafés and they have entertainment too (Stangel and I missed the midnight show both ways, it was a Tribute to Queen there, and 80's Tribute Show back). They had some extra entertainment on the Promenade because Silja Line was turning 50.
Okay, and here's the illustrated story. Comments below pictures.
The route, on our way back. The red dots is how far we've alread gotten. My addition is where we are about to go. The green dot is a place where the ferry has to go because otherwise it will not be allowed to sel stuff Tax Free. There are some strange rules about Finland in Sweden both being in the EU, but the litle green dot not being. Something.
The Promenade. It's 140 meters long and it has EVERYTHING. Like ATLANTIS NIGHT CLUB CASINO and glass elevators and everything. I'm always so disappointed when I board a ship, because I always expect them to look like Starship Titanic (that game was simply fapalicious) and they never do. They look like 80's architecture (Stockholm bus terminal, Södra Station, you know). Anyway, as you see, there are cabins facing it and we had one of them. It wasn't just a Promenade cabin, it was also a cabin very close to a stage in the center and a place where they had bouncing acrobats, so we could watch them from above.
Here is the view from our window. Threre are three acrobats, as you maybe see. They were from the Moscow Circus. They were not the only Russians there, roughly 75% of all the travellers were Russian. There was so much Russian on board that the passengers spontaneously spoke Russian to each-other, without ever trying English first. People asked me and Stangel whether we were going up or down in the elevator in Russian.
We left Stockholm behind and it was cold. Then we did stuff all evening.
We took photos of my clothes. There'll be a lot of that theme in the pictures. Since I was going to school straight from the ferry, had to pack a school change of clothes. But when I went from home to meet up Stangel in Stockholm, I passed by a thrift store and ended up consuming a little, so when we grew bored, I could change clothes and we'd take pictures and we had fun.
Hereby presenting Tanja's grown-up look that on this photo looks more like Tanja's Japanese schoolgirl cosplayer look.
We went to the nts-nts-nts bar but it wasn't open yet.
IT'S A TRAP!
We tried to figure out the unfamiliar camera in the cabin.
I posed. This is one of my new thrifted items - the stripey dress. Yellow with black stripes is the visual signature of the jazz band I dance for, so there. My back doesn't bend lol.
We walked up and down the Promenade and photographed a banana-seal.
We gave in and bought tea and cake.
I ate a cherry sexily.
This is my favourite necklace and it broke later, but it was in bed and I can put it back together.
We consumed some more (as your understand, the shipping company doens't get it's money from the faring fees, but from people getting bored and boying food and ugly sweaters onboard) and drank a Guiness and a cider. We tried to read a Finnish newspaper that someone left at the table and found this photo of K Fed. The dotted line is my attempt to explain what's going on with his suit.
Then we had more tea, and then we went to sleep. Here is my nightie, documented because why woud we not take a picture of it, when we took pictures of everything else?
In the morning, we woke up early after not getting too much sleep and went for the breakfast bouffe that wasn't as good as the one as the other shipping company's that we had on our way to Petersburg during the Great Transbaltic Stanjatrip. That day we ate and the morning and then we weren't hungry until in Petersburg at 10 pm.
This is Stangel outside the Cathedral. We visited three churches in Helsinki. One was the Cathedral that's Protestant. The other moved while we were walking to it and it turned out to be an Orthodox church despite having "normal" crosses on the exterior. The third was Protestant, despite Orthodox crosses. Guess they swapped.
This is Alexander II. I demonstrate on my fingers.
This is Stangel on his way to the church that turned out to be Orthodox and that also moved when we were looking away.
We walked a lot and I froze and we were going to find Internets and drink coffee and Stangel wanted to find the train station and we walked a street called Fredrik Street and SUDDENLY ...
TORTOISE!!! HALO THAR!
AMAGAD TRAM!
AMAGAD SALE!
AMAGAD ONIME!
/r/ rule #34
Taken for HJ.
The absolutely cool Opera house. Loved it to pieces. Next time I'm bringing Jonne (and sexyback, by definition) and we'll go there straight from the harbour. As it is now, I did't get much time to see it.
Helsinki was a pretty boring city. I liked it's open spaces, we don't have that kind of squares in Stockholm. But I mostly liked them because they remind me of Spb, and then I might as well go to Spb.
Back on Silja Serenade, went to the Tax Free place and bought a bottle of Bacardi for Jonne (like it's his birthday the day after that) and a tiiiny bottle of cognac (isn't it called brandy in English? my dictionary says it isn't, I'm confused and too lazy too look up more) called Camus because it's an important tradition to drink in the cabin. Camus was thiiis tiny and quite disgusting. We saved most of it so that I could take it to school today and see if bad coffee-machine-coffee and disgusting cognac made a drinkable mixture. The coffee was just about as bad as normal with Camus in it and Camus was definitely more suited for coffee than single.
Admire Stangel's socks, they're a Christmas gift from me.
I changed into my school clothes. Admire the socks, they're a Christmas gift from Stangel.
We had tea and cake.
I impersonated.
We took a photo of an ad for the ferry's youth club. What we think they say:
- *giggle giggle giggle lol lol lol*
- WOW, she's only had ONE XIDER and she's ALREADY sooooo DRUNK!
- Wonder if she's legal, she looks legal, better be legal.
- Haha, payback for stealing my boyfriend!
Then I changed again because I had new woolen shorts I had to wear and Stangel took pictures.
Then we impersonated a fashion blogger (me, on picture) and a Center Party voter (Stangel, I don't have any good pictures of that, though) and had more tea and were tired and went to sleep.
AWWW!