09/19/2015

Wssh… today was a busy day. Almost missed the boat to Helsinki. 

Royal Canal Tour

Woke up early in the morning for this early morning boat ride at 10:30am. Guess what? I was really tired, and I ended up sleeping on the boat for the second half of the ride. 

Stockholm Palace (Stockholms Slott)

I don’t know. I start to feel like all palaces are the same, after selling the one in Paris. Haha 

Skansen Open Air Museum (Skansen)

This is one of the most interesting places I have been to in Sweden. This is a zoo and also a site to preserve all the culture of Sweden. Swedish parents are really good parents. I saw a lot of parents bring their kids and babies just to travel today, no matter how young their kids are. I am really happy that they have such a culture. This zoo/cultural preservation center has all the animals that currently live or lived in Sweden and other museums that show the actual lives of Swedish people in the past. People actually wore costumes and dressed like the people for the era they represented. In those “factories,” workers actually used the machines to make things in the old fashion way. I found that really interesting that they not only displayed the machineries and stuff, but also find people who know how to operate to work as live demos. 

Well, because this museum was too awesome, I went back to the airbnb place kind of late and packed kind of the last minute.

Unfortunately, even though I checked google maps ahead of time to see how much time I needed to get from the airbnb place to the pier, I actually couldn’t have made it in time by walking.

Half way to the pier, I actually hopped on a taxi, and asked the taxi driver to take me there even though it was within walkable distance.

LOL I made it to the boat the last minute, and wow! I had my own cabin even though I only paid 33 euros.

33 euros was actually a round trip ticket from Stockholm to Helsinki, but the single journey ticket is actually 88 euros. Of course, I would book the 33 euro round-trip ticket, and I purchased a dinner buffet for another 33 euros.

The view on the boat was absolutely amazing and the food in the buffet. Mmm… XD it was fantastically delicious. Unlimited  red wine, white wine, soda, salmon, fish, salad, roasted beef, macaroons, … haha