Stockholm - Brollop madness

Still on the ferry, trying to get the blog up to date. Through the window, the northern sun is wrapping the Swedish archipelago in a warm yellow glow. The view is balanced by the disco of doom, which is now plowing through a bunch of very old and bland "hits" from the 60's and 70's. I was a bit worried when I thought the photo obsessed pelican was doing the rounds again, but it turned out to be a troupe of flouro clad dancers, of worryingly indeterminate gender. It's surprising what constitutes relief sometimes.

Anyways, back to the story. We left Kiruna the day after the mine tour (turns out that there is not a lot else to do...), and our little group started to split up. Hugh headed off to England, with Rob to follow the day after. As a parting gift Kiruna gave Hugh a dose of food poisoning, which looks to be even less fun when you're on crutches and an airplane. We split from Hugh at Stockholm airport, I can only assume he is still alive.....

For the rest of us, it was back to Stockholm for a last look. Rob, Ro and I headed out for the final dinner that night, then the tour became just Ro and I. Rob had a couple of days by himself before joining up with Hugh again (assuming he survived!), while we were heading out to Tallinn on the ferry the next evening.

Stockholm is presently in the grip of Royal Wedding Madness, otherwise known as Br öllop. The wedding is next weekend, and the city centre is filling up with a bunch of stages, dance areas, markets and other stuff related to the wedding. It appears the Swedes love an excuse of a party, and the wedding is a good excuse. On the upside for travelling tourists, they were also offering cheap icecreams, and free wifi in the city centre. Happy Times.

Once we checked out Stockholm, all we had to do was catch the ferry to Tallinn, and apparently simple task that we made a complete pig's ear of. We decided to not use the transfer bus (times weren't convenient), or the local bus (schedule was confusing), but instead took the train. The train, in it's defense, was ok, but the real kicker was that my map was incorrect, so that a walk that appeared to be a simple 1.5km walk (my current total baggage load is 27kg, and Ro's is similarly on the edge of her ability) turned into a 3km death march, complete with wrong turns up car entrances, a rock in Ro's shoe, and a horrible feeling that we would miss the ferry. We ended up making it, just, which at least meant we didn't have to battle any queues in checkin. And so I'm now in a surreal ferry nightclub, getting the blog up to date over a dodgy internet connection. I'll add some photos when I next get access to a good connection (apparently Tallinn is pretty wired), and try to make a bit more sense in the next few entries.