Survivor Ellesmere

I flew here from Stockholm this morning. Waiting to check into my flight I was surrounded by a peewee boys hockey team from outside Chicago (but close enough to have the accent) coming home from a tournament. Memories of Might Ducks aside, their parents yelling across the airport to eachother and their children made them irritating. Also, SO much luggage. I don't understand why you would need so much crap on any trip. (This is not counting their hockey equipment, I can understand that. I = smart.)

The highlight of my last day in Stockholm was surprisingly the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a ship built for a king in the 1600's, which was actually very badly designed, so that it sank twenty minutes into its first trip. They found it in the harbour in the 70s and spent many years restoring it before opening the museum to display it. It was really cool! And so crazy ornate. Those seventeenth century kings really liked their statues on their boats.

The rest of my day was mostly spent wandering about a couple of parts of Stockholm, looking at the pretty scenery and the pretty buildings. Stockholm really is a beautiful city. You should visit it.

Helsinki so far has a very different feel. It feels much more Eastern Europe post-communist-y, which it isn't. I'm chaulking it up to the fact that it was part of Russia for so long. This shouldn't make it feel post-communist-y, but it's the best explanation I have. Also, free internet in cafés! An unexpected bonus of Wayne's Coffee.