Wednesday, January 04, 2012

The Mitchie Chronicles: IKEA, My hatred of boats, Tallin, Stockholm, Snow and the McDonald's Incident

So, it's been 8 days since my last entry.  There wasn't really much any happening after the 27th.  We just stayed at home, went to the nearby grocery and then IKEA.

My impression of IKEA is a mall in itself where you can buy almost anything: furniture, food, clothing, cooking stuff...you name it they have it.  They usually place an IKEA store in the outskirts of cities mainly because the complex needs a huge area, especially their parking.  The store was like just three stories with the showrooms and their cafeteria are on the top most floor, the store itself where you buy the stuff on the second floor and the warehouse area where you get the furniture you've chosen in the showroom, and the cashiers and the mini-grocery is on the first floor.  I like the way they segregated the place.  It made shopping there really easy.

The next day, we went to Tallin, Estonia.  It was more or less a two-hour boat ride...a boat ride from hell from my point of view though.  I have motion sickness, especially in boats.  I could feel the slightest twitch of the boat whether it would tilt left to right or would make a turn somewhere.  I would feel it when it jumps a wave.  Looking out the window made it worse so the whole ride going there and back I refrained from looking through the window.  Needless to say, I really didn't like the boat-ride there.  The boat was moving a lot and although the seat that we were in was alright by most standards, to me the feeling wasn't really pleasant.  I felt really sick going there.  Unfortunately, the only way to get to Estonia from Finland is via boat.

Safely on land, I fared much better.  After checking in and had a decent lunch, we went to Old Town where to me everything was more or less picturesque.  There were old-school shop signs and people more or less dressed for the cold the old fashion way.  It was really nice to see.  In the town center, there were shops all around.  Although the shops there were of the present day, the hussle and bussle would still remind you of the olden times market day.  Oh...We also saw real reindeers in the Town Center whom we named Rudolf and Olops, the other reindeer. (See pictures here)

We stopped by McDonald's to grab take away dinner and was also hoping that their McCafe was offering cannoli.  Unfortunately, they didn't have cannoli so I just got myself hot chocolate to heat myself up a bit before the walk towards our hotel.  Even though it was take away, nice lady at the counter squirted a lot of whipped cream on my hot chocolate, so I wasn't able to put the cap on it until I mixed up my drink.  So I sat down and started to mix.  When I was about done, there was a guy who was drunk who came to our table and started babbling.  I looked at my sister to see if she understood him but she looked at the guy, shook her head to indicate that we didn't understand him and whatever it was he wanted, we didn't have.  To my surprise, they guy just grabbed my hot chocolate and went his way.  I was shocked to do anything but stare at the open space where my drink had been.  My sister gave me money again to buy a new drink since fighting with a drunk is pretty useless.  On a good note, the hot chocolate was good.  It was very rich and creamy...although I wasn't able to mix the whipped cream properly for fear of the drunken guy coming back and taking it yet again.

The next day we went around New Town.  And to my utter enjoyment, it started to snow.  My face lit up when I saw small snowflakes falling from the sky.  It was complete bliss.

Needless to say, I really couldn't care less where we were going because I was really enjoying every snowflake that fell on me.  I was like a kid with a new toy on Christmas day.

Then it was back in the boat for the two hour ride back to Helsinki.  The weather was calmer but it didn't stop the nausea from coming.  The good thing though was that I wasn't as sick as the voyage going to Estonia.  I said goodbye to the snow which was coming in heaps when we left the city...but despite the boat ride and my McCafe experience, to me the trip to Tallin was a success.

We spent New Year Eve and the morning of New Year back in Helsinki which was pretty much uneventful.  The apartment building where my sister lives was pretty deserted and I think firecrackers aren't allowed in the residential area.  You would need to go to an open space to light up all the fireworks that you have.  We pretty much just had Media Noche and went to bed 30 minutes before it was officially New Year in Helsinki.

The next day, was another boat ride for me since we went to Stockholm, Sweden.  This time, it was a much longer ride - 16 hours- on a much bigger boat - a cruise ship called Silja Serenade.

I pretty much stayed in our cabin for the duration of the trip going to and from Sweden.  Although going there was pretty much very smooth and I barely felt it, the ride back was really nauseating.  It was moving a lot and we were delayed an hour.

Stockholm pretty much look like Estonia and Finland.  We just visited their museums (the Vasa and the Royal Palace).  But it was pretty much uneventful except for the fact that everything closes at 8pm there.  They apparently do not have a night life.

How we found that out was mostly because of a quest to find hot soup and rice since we have been eating nothing but burgers for the passed couple of days.  We left hotel at around 7:45pm and arrived in the city center at around 8:10pm and saw that every restaurant, bars and shops were already closed.  we were actually lucky enough that there was this Korean Restaurant that was still open.  We were lucky to get the soup and rice that we were looking for but we needed to hurry back to the hotel so that our soup wouldn't grow too cold.

Then, here we are again back in Helsinki.  And what have I found on my return to the Laplands?  Snow!  It showed the whole time we were in Stockholm and the snow was about 5 centimeters thick!  The playground and the park was completely white it was a pretty sight to see.  Although, I'm as excited at seeing the snow on the ground.  I rather see it fall down from the sky.  On the ground, it's just ice compiled together.  When it was falling, it has a very beautiful shape.

Tomorrow, starts my journey back to Manila.  My two weeks stay in Europe was pretty much worth it.  It was short but it was really worth going.

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