Northern World (Scandinavia)

March 28 – April 6, 2007

We started our Scandanavian adventures in Stockholm, the trendy but surprisingly tranquil capital of Sweden. It was a stunning city that surprised us on a few levels.
1) We thought there would be snow and ice around still, virtually all gone.
2) There was so little traffic and so few people around during peak hour or any hour!
3) Best metro in the world, some of the underground platforms are decorated very elaborately.
4) Much fewer blondes than Davo imagined.

The highlight was the ice bar. A bar made completely of ice… ice walls, ice tables, ice couch (covered in reindeer skins) and ice glasses to hold your vodka. It was -5C inside and they gave you special coats to wear to keep you warm and make you look very cool.

We caught a 12 hr ferry across the Baltic Sea from Stockholm to Turku on the west coast of Finland, just like the Vikings would have done centuries ago. It was an amazing journey, weaving through one of the biggest and most beautiful archipelagoes in the world, under the bluest sky you could imagine. While most people were inside getting hammered, starting with shots at 8.00am, Fi and I were enjoying having the top deck almost entirely to ourselves for most of the journey. We sat and enjoyed the sun, the fresh Baltic air and imagined that we were Vikings… Vikings wrapped in sleeping bags with ipods!

We were met in Finland by our friend and excellent part-time tour guide, Heidi, who provided us with amazing hospitality for a few days. She took us on a hike through the Finnish woods, on moose alert, which could have been like the bush at home, except there were Christmas trees instead of gum trees and the lakes were covered in ice! We made a fire and Heidi showed us a traditional Finnish bush tucker recipe called stick bread.

We spent a couple of days in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, wandering through the open air markets, before heading north to a small pine cabin in the middle of the woods. It was just like what you’d imagine a small cabin in the middle of the Finnish woods to look like. It even started snowing just after we arrived.

Although we didn’t see any moose during our trip, we ate some. Moose burger! We also had reindeer kebabs, reindeer salami and a moose, reindeer, mushroom and finlandia vodka pizza. The beers were a highlight despite the inflated prices. The pick being Olvi, the last remaining Finnish owned brewery.

We never thought we’d say this, but it was good to get back to England where it was much warmer!?