Finland for a day

By now you've seen the photos and heard bits and pieces about the whole cruise-to-Finland mini-adventure on my birthday. There are some memories and observations I want to record that won't fit in an instagram post, so here we go:

~ First, let's talk about these cruise ships! We traveled on a legit, huge cruise ship, with several restaurants, bars, and a dance club. We had a pretty short time aboard, from around 8pm till 6 or 7am, so for us, with kids, it was just enough time to let the kids play in the ball pit area and then get everyone to bed, with a very early wake up call. I can hardly imagine who's taking advantage of the pricey dinner or breakfast buffets. LOTS of people, however, were taking advantage of the bars and clubs. ALL NIGHT LONG. People arrived and boarded in clubbing clothes! They were there for a night on the town, but on a boat. I imagine many of them only booked a ticket for passage and didn't even have a cabin, because they were still drinking as we got off the boat the next morning (gag). I can't really wrap my head around it. On the return cruise, since it was my birthday, Nathaniel and I figured we should go have a drink and listen to the band. It was PACKED with people, but the music was... I'll be generous and say "mediocre". It was some Finnish actor who the 50+ year old ladies in the crowd clearly adored, crooning some schmoopy songs with a live band backing him. There were loads of 20-somethings on the boat as well, but they must spend their night drinking in the disco instead. Too bizarre. I can imagine it all working out better on the slightly longer cruises to Estonia or Helsinki, when you're on board from 5pm till 10am, and have time to eat, party a little, and still sleep before reaching your destination.

~ We saw some familiar faces on the return boat the following night... but we didn't run into them at the museums around Turku. Where did those folks pass their day? Did they get a hotel somewhere to sleep it off so they could party again on the return? Interesting... and gross.

~ We packed minimally for the trip. Two nights and one day away, so everyone took one change of clothes, and one set of pjs, with the plan to put whatever we wore on to the boat Friday night back on for the quick journey home early on Sunday morning. We were able to get everything we needed for the seven of us into two carry-on sized suitcases. I also had one shopping bag filled with food for a picnic dinner and some snacks. I was struck by how little we were able to get away with taking (although two rolling bags probably still sounds like a lot to someone without kids). I'm grateful for the phase in life at which this whole sabbatical came. Having no kids in diapers, or even prone to accidents has been a godsend. I'd have had to pack six extra outfits for Rachel "just in case" if we'd taken this little weekend outing two years ago. Or a whole pack of diapers if it was a year before that. If I were home with a stroller at my disposal, there are likely times I'd have toted it along "just in case" for Rachel even now, but not having one has been totally fine! All the kids walk miles with us on our outings, and the distances have seldom been an issue. It's amazing what you realize you can do without when forced to do without it! I would never be someone to discourage anyone from taking a baby somewhere. Parents are super humans and babies are versatile. Taking a baby on sabbatical and on every one of the excursions we've made could totally be done, and the photos would be adorable. But I'm grateful not to be juggling that extra work this year.

~ Turku! Ever heard of it? Me, neither, till a couple weeks ago. It also goes by Åbo in Swedish. I did a little quick research after we booked our tickets to see how we should spend the 12 hours on shore, and thankfully there was more than enough to do. Meg remarked toward the end of our day, "If we lived here, it would have taken us at least a week to do all of this!" So true! At home here in Stockholm, we hardly ever cram more than one museum into a day. In Turku, we went to three museum and a Cathedral (plus eating, some brief park stops, and an extra bit of walking to pass by another church that wasn't open), all in one day! The fitbit wearers tracked us at OVER 12 MILES OF WALKING that day. That sounds like a lot for me, but when I look at the littler kids and realize they walked it all as well, I'm in awe of what rock star travelers we have!

~ Nathaniel's instagram post gave a good overview of the sites we saw. We started with a lengthy walk along the river, hoping to find a cafe open for breakfast, but nothing was open at 8am in that part of town. In fact, we scarcely saw another human being once we left the harbor. I had some snacks in my food bag that could have worked, but we grown ups were desperate for coffee, and I wanted to save the snacks for potential emergency food needs later, so we kept trekking along. We finally spotted a grocery store on the other side of the river with a little barge/boat that drove back and forth, carrying passengers for free, in lieu of a bridge! Fun! Finding food in the store itself gave me some flashbacks to the first grocery runs in Sweden, when I didn't know where to find things and couldn't read any of the signs... but it wasn't too hard to find pastries, and they had a coffee machine and some tables. Hooray!

At the start of our shopping, we noticed a pallet with a pile of buckets, and the few other patrons in the store all seemed to be carrying a bucket each, some loading their groceries into them. As we sat and ate our breakfast, it seemed like each person who checked out had a bucket... So as we were wrapping up, I saw the cashier with a free moment and asked her what the story was with the buckets, whether it was common here for people to use buckets in lieu of shopping of bags? She said, no, the store had just opened two days prior, and the first 500 customers could have a free bucket! I, of course, saw no need for us to start toting a bucket around as we began a day of sight seeing in Turku, Finland. My kids saw things differently. "Can we get a bucket?" "Can we EACH get a bucket?" Ugh. No for SURE to the latter. Nathaniel said yes to ONE bucket. So, if you look at our Finland pics, keep an eye out and you'll almost always be able to spot a bucket somewhere in the shot. (To be fair, the bucket came in handy for putting the kids' jackets in when they didn't want to wear them.)

~ We started at Turku Cathedral, both because it opened earliest, and because it was the far point of our exploration into Turku, so everything after that was moving us closer to boarding our return ship that evening. The River Aura runs through the city and nearly everything we wanted to see was situated along the river, which made for pretty walking. The second stop was Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, "the museum of history and contemporary art". There was a line forming outside the museum before it opened, which seemed impressive. When they unlocked the doors, however, nearly everyone but us headed straight to the cafe! As I was buying our tickets, I remarked that the cafe was very popular and asked whether it's like that daily. Turns out they have a special brunch with live jazz on Saturdays that draws a big crowd. The museum ended up busy enough, but the cafe was hopping!

Despite the odd combination of history of ancient Finland and contemporary art, it was a great museum! The history section was an area of actual excavations that you could walk through, with maps and information about what it would have looked like during various phases of Turku's history. They had an interesting section with skeletal remains of animals found in the dig - mostly livestock and domestic animals, but also seals, etc. There were a couple big doll houses representing what buildings would have looked like during different eras. Rachel could have played with those all day long! Other hands on displays were scattered throughout. Very cool. The contemporary art display was a new one that had just opened that weekend displaying the work of Maria Prymatšenkon - bright, colorful, cartoonish images of animals and imaginary creatures. Really interesting for a quick walk through.

After grabbing some lunch, we walked a few blocks out of the way to see St. Michael the Archangel Church. I had read online that it would likely not be open, and it wasn't, but it was beautiful from the outside. (Both the Cathedral and this church are Lutheran. I looked up whether there was a Catholic church we should hunt down, but there's only one in Turku, and it's modern architecture didn't inspire me to go out of our way for it).

A lengthy walk took us nearly back to the harbor where Turku Castle is located. This was probably my favorite thing we saw. It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but they have done a great job of restoring it and providing displays taking you through all the architectural phases of the castle throughout history. The people working in the castle are all dressed in period costume, and apparently put on little activities during the day. We stumbled upon a group of ladies in costume - in the chamber where ladies in waiting would have spent their days - dancing in a ring. When they finished and we applauded, they insisted that some or our group join them for a dance, so Nathaniel, Ruth and I danced while the other kids watched from a safe distance.

Our final stop was a Maritime museum, explaining the history of boat making in Turku, with examples of all sorts of boats, from very small to incredibly large. In the summer they have several large boats that you can explore for an extra ticket price, but we were still in the off season, and didn't have enough time anyway. We did get to climb in a few small boats, and see lots of cool boat and lighthouse and Finnish navy related stuff. The gift shop was small but fantastic. Everyone wanted all the things.

By the time we wrapped up and walked back to the harbor to check in for our cruise home, we were exhausted and collapsed on the floor of the waiting area till it was time to board.

~ Overall, this was a unique and cool experience. I'm glad we did it. Nathaniel is all jazzed up, thinking maybe he/we should do another one to a slightly more distant port. The short nights were definitely one of the most challenging part. Given our short remaining time in Sweden, I think it's very unlikely there's another cruise in our future unless he ends up going with Arthur while April and I hang out here in Stockholm when they visit in June. That said, he did rave about it so much that Liz and Whit, who arrived in Stockholm this past Wednesday, boarded a ship yesterday evening (Thursday) to Estonia for a quick cruise there and back. We'll see them again Saturday morning for the remainder of their visit!