Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden

Yesterday we pulled into Helsinki, Finland in the late morning and got to sleep in a little before we went on our High Speed Helsinki tour. It was on a rigid inflatable boat (think military or Google C-Trek) with two large outboard motors, or in other words it was like sitting on a leaf with bottle rockets attached. We sped all over the bay and stopped at some spots for sight seeing, Dane was in the front of the boat and I was in the back. We even got to see a fleet of icebreakers and get a short lesson on how they work. There were ships from the 60's, 70's, 80's and a modern one and I guess they are nuclear powered or something like that. And then they have things in the back which can tow another boat, so the icebreaker goes destroying all ice and tugs the other boat behind. Fun. Dane says he was expecting something special in how they worked but they are just tough and weigh a lot. They break the ice just by sheer weight and can break up to a yard of ice at full speed (15 knots) or a maximum of 12 feet at slower speeds. Then we sped off to an island and ate a nice snack of sausage, salad and beer. On the way back to our boat, the driver did about 100 figure eights right next to our ship at mach 1 - it was awesome. And let me tell you - those Fins - they sure do love their saunas. EVERYONE has not one but two saunas - an electric one and another one but I couldn't hear what. The driver said that it is literally possible for the entire population to be in their saunas all at once, should they call such an occasion. Crazy. Our driver was funny. But his nose hair was longer than his moustache. :-s

After that we went to town and went shopping and found some more clothes for me and a dress. Not my favorite - I found a dress by Guess that I really wanted but Dane vetoed it. Instead he approved a mumu. Just kidding. We found a fun dress and were able to walk around town in the process. We went to the bow of the ship to watch us depart Helsinki, which was awesome! It's really LOUD when the Captain blows the horn, which he does...A LOT! Then we lazily ate dinner and got ready for the Indonesian show but we ended up staying in the bar all night long talking to another young person named Hal who is literally going through the same situation we are as far as closing on a house at sea and all the complications that go with that. Hal was a great guy and we enjoyed telling stories till 1 am. We were all sad because we were missing the "Dirty Disney" party that was going on in the OB for one of the officer's birthday. Stoopid liability issues with guests in the crew area. Lame.

We got to sleep in this morning, which was awesome!! In fact, we slept in so late it was lunch time by the time we ate. We were in Stockholm, Sweden so it was our day for the ice bar tour. Once at the bar we were given special coats with hoods and gloves and led into a bar that is kept at 23 degrees. Cold! But so fun - good music, fun lights and great drinks. We were able to get two down before it was time to leave. Good times. Then we walked around Old Town Stockholm and even got to see the changing of the guard. We got some drinks at a sidewalk cafe and munched on a Swedish cheese plate which was awesome. Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the ship where we went to the bow again to watch us leave Stockholm, which I guess is about a million islands - an archipelago (sp?) so it took about 4 hours for us to get out to sea. After the bow got cold we resumed watching the ship weave through the islands in the spa. I love that spa. Then we got dinner and now here we are blogging. After this we will go to the Dessert Extravaganza which we hear is awesome.

Tomorrow I have another detox session, then we get to watch Star Trek because we talked them into playing it another day since we were disposed the other day when it was on, then we will get ready for our last night on ship, which I hope is fun. We have to pack tomorrow which is lame. But we still have another two days in Copenhagen, so it's not so bad. Once we get off the ship in Copenhagen around 8am on Tuesday we will go on a tour before arriving at our hotel. Dane and I decided to just walk around and chill out on Tuesday and scout out a fun place for Wednesday night. Wednesday we will visit Tivoli Gardens then find one last place to whoop it up before spending all day Thursday flying back home.

First thing I'm doing when I get home is ordering a Pagliacci pizza.