Stockholm, Tallinn and Halloween

Hello everybody, as mentioned before we went on a student cruise to Tallinn two weeks ago. Since the boat left from Stockholm we decided to go a few days earlier so we could explore Stockholm. The train left from Oslo central station on Friday from where it was a 6 hour journey to get to Sweden’s capital city. With almost one hour delay we arrived at our hostel around midnight. The next day we explored Stockholm’s old & new city centre. It’s quite different from Oslo’s city centre but it looks nice.

In Norway you can get beer at the supermarkets during weekdays until 20.00 and on Saturday until 18.00. Wine and liquor can only be bought at premium prices at the state run shops called Vinmonopolet. In Sweden this is quite similar however they already stop selling alcohol on Saturdays at 15.00. Since we discovered this at 14.25 we hurried to find the nearest Systembolaget, unfortunately we were not the only ones who still wanted to buy some alcohol at the last moment. When we arrived there was a queue of almost 40 people waiting outside to get in. Once most of the people currently in the shop had paid the bouncer let the next group in. After diner and pre-drinking at Stockholm University we went downtown to see more of Stockholm’s nightlife.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hostel to head for the harbor to board the student cruise. The public transport towards the harbor was packed with hundreds of students just like us. Despite the fact that around 2000 students had to board at the same time, checking in went quite fast. The cruise offered a lot from sauna’s and Jacuzzi’s to restaurants, bars and a small casino. In the evening we had dinner at one of the restaurants and went to check out the bars on the boat. The next day we arrived in Tallinn around 10 in the morning. The old city centre looks quite nice; you can check the photos on picasaweb. Coming from one of Europe’s most expensive cities, the biggest difference we noticed were the prices. Everything is only a fraction of what it costs in Oslo. At 18.00 we had to be back on the boat to go back to Stockholm. A few days after we returned from Stockholm & Tallinn we discovered Norwegians are very much into Halloween. They dress up and party just as a lot of Dutch people do during carnival. You will see the best outfits around.

That’s it so far, you know where to find the photos.