Author: Benjamin Trotter

Helsinki City Tour, and IAN?!

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So today I went to the city to take a bus tour around the city. It was really cool because it was in one of those double decker buses and it took you to all the nice places around the city. Now, I bet everyone is going to start thinking that I am making up some of these stories.

I was walking down one of the main streets in Helsinki, having my map out trying to check where I can go and find a tour bus. All of a sudden I hear, Ben! I look up and it’s Ian, who is from UT and dated the french girl Carine during the 2001 year. How random is that?! So he says that he has moved to Finland with a girlfriend and he is learning Finnish and was headed to an interview. So I gave him Miia’s phone number for him to call and perhaps we will meet up together before I leave back to Stockholm!

Sitting in the Finnish Sauna!

After the go-cart racing, we headed for Jyrki’s father’s summer home in the countryside of Tampere on a lake, ate a nice snack and then headed for the sauna, which was inside the summer home. They put wood in the fire to heat the room up, and we sat inside drenching ourselves with sweat, then running out to the lake and feeling the nice cold water. We did that for almost an hour making us so relaxed that we wanted to go straight to sleep. We then dried off and cleaned up and headed back to Miia’s apartment. Saunas are great!

Race Car driving in Tampere, Finland!

Today we drove to a place where you could drive really fast go carts. They weren’t the normal go-carts that go just a measly 25mph, but super go-carts that can get up to 60mph!! It was so hilarious. I got in the car and straight off I ran through a huge puddle and got soaked. Of course I thought that all the protective clothing that I was wearing like the gloves, helmet, and overalls would definitely be waterproof, but I soon felt the nice damp feeling in my seat meaning that I had really soaked myself already in the first 3 seconds of driving. So, I went full force trying to catch Jyrki, Miia’s boyfriend, around the track, of course TRYING to miss the puddles, but for those of you who know how well I aim, you can imagine how I managed to hit EVERY single puddle, throwing mud and water up on my helmet glass and on my overalls. I was just glad that even though I spun out I didn’t flip the little cart!

Quick Jaunt to Estonia for the day with Miia!

I am boarding the cruise ship Silja to go see Miia in Finland today! I will return on July 9, mama’s birthday.

Technology is so amazing. I am in the middle of the sea somewhere between Finland and Sweden and am able to check my mail and write these articles!! How cool is that??? Anyhow, this boat is really cool and I am enjoying the trip.

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When I got off the cruise ship in Helsinki, Finland, I saw Miia and her boyfriend waiting for me! It was soo cool to see Miia after two years now. Miia and I met during my year abroad in Japan and we studied together in Tokyo. We then went to get tickets to take a boat over to Talinn, Estonia for the day. We got on the jetfoil and hopped across the water to Estonia and spent the day looking around at all the medieval places. We then found a real Medieval restaurant that served traditional meals that would have been served back in the Middle Ages. The atmosphere was so cool and the food was really interesting! The weather turned bad and started to rain so we headed back to the port to catch our boat back to Helsinki. Once back in Helsinki we drove back to Miia’s apartment for a nice much needed night of sleep.

Gamla Stan & Mikael!

Today we went to the city center to look at Gamla Stan, or the Old City. It is really cool, because the oldest buildings are lining the street with all types of shops of traditional goods, tacky souvenir shops, and tons of foreigners. After we walked around there for a while, we decided that the weather was perfect for a nice panoramic view of Stockholm from different areas on the hill. We went to different places to take some really nice pictures of the city and then headed back down to go back home for dinner. On the way through one of the subway stations, which of course, Stockholm being a big city, there are several, I run into Mikael. Of course, it was about time I run into someone that I know randomly again, because it’s only been like eight times throughout this trip that I have run into people I know!! Mikael was an exchange student last year at my University from Sweden, and he lives in Stockholm. Walking through the station I never thought I would run into him, but low and behold I see him. We talked about how his trip was back from the states and decided that we should try to meet before I leave Sweden. Fun fun, I really love travel.

IKEA & Mula

Today we headed for Sweden’s largest IKEA store and looked around with Sofia, Rickard’s sister. She’s moving into a new apartment they just bought in Stockholm so we looked at the furniture she bought. We then went home and waited for Rickard’s mom to come home so we could go out to the stables and ride their horse, Mula, an Iceland horse brought over from Iceland for it’s interesting trot. It was a lot of fun to try to control this horse in the *tilt* that it rode in, it looked hilarious because it runs really fast without bumping you up and down. Lots of fun.

Sailing Trip pt. 2

Today’s weather did not permit us to use the sail, so the motor had be run for us to get to Martin’s parent’s house on the archipelago. We *sailed* all day and finally made it for a great barbecue meal at his parents. I don’t know what got over me, but Rickard and Martin are practically twice my size and I out-ate both of them! It was almost to an embarrassing point as for those of you who know me, you know I am not the fastest eater, and everyone was sitting finished for almost 25 minutes before I finished my last piece of steak… yummm. Anyhow, we then went back down to the boat and played cards until nighttime — which still is not dark enough to know that it is so late, and we went to bed.

Sailing Trip!

Today, Rickard and I got together our things and set out to Stockholm to walk around and get stuff for our sailing trip with Martin and Sara. I have never been sailing before, so I was really excited to get everything started. We met them on the train, and took the train south of Stockholm, then a bus to the harbor where we found an amazing blue sail boat complete with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a shower! Of course, Martin did not own this huge thing, but the brother of the ex-president of Volvo Sweden did! Martin is an avid sailor and transports boats to different ports. It was a very nice boat, and we bought dinner and started on our way. We sailed until 11 that night and found a nice little harbor to park our boat so we could go to sleep.