Travelog for: Gary Boldie

I woke up when the seminar was over and we headed for somewhat more interesting places. We went to check out the Rock Park at Heureka which is a Finnish Science Center. We saw Banded iron ore, quartzite, gold ore... and so on and so on! In the summer there's also all sorts of plants next to it. It would be cool to see the place from the inside too, they have all sorts of interactive exhibitions there.

After learning about different Finnish rocks we did something more "casual": visited IKEA. The huge store with all sorts of fun stuff for home. It's a Swedish brand but known in many parts of the world. It's famous for huge variety, cheap prizes and not always good quality... I'm not that much into shopping so I didn't pay much attention on what she got. My mentor I mean. She is into shopping so heaven knows...

When we got back home it was late but we still had so much energy (probably due to the sleep during the seminar) we decided to play soccer with Alfie's brand new football (his birthday present). I wanted to be the goalkeeper and the others (Alfie, Roo, Ewan and Vladimir) played more or less together. It was fun! 

They've announced the Winners of the Golden Bears 2009! And I'm not in it!  Darn...

Congratulations to the winners (in last pic)!

I'm going on a cruise to Sweden! We took the buss to Helsinki and there it waited - Silja Serenade of Silja Line - our ship! We went straight to the upper deck to see the views, which were amazing from so high up  We waited for the ship to depart so that we could see the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress and the Baltic Sea 

This is our cabin on the 10th floor/deck. There's 2 beds (of which the other can be drawn down from the wall/push back) and a toilet + shower. It's called Promenade as you can see the promenade from the cabin window. I checked the safety regulations on the wall so that I'd know where to go in case of emergency. So this is our headquarters on this trip 

We spent the evening at Silja Land which is a place for kids (and toyvoyagers) to play. There was a ball pit and a pirate ship and games and videos - we didn't get bored. I did think I was too old for games but apparently the fresh sea air gets into my veins... 

We were too excited to sleep - we woke up around 05am Finnish time (04am Swedish time). We went on the deck to watch the sunrise - it was totally worth waking up already! The promenade was empty and we could look at the huge map in peace. The map shows our route and the lights show where we are at each moment. We went back to our cabin to count our money and plan our day with the Stockholm map. At 07 Swedish time we finally got some breakfast at the Buffet. There were all sorts of food - we couldn't take a pic of them all, nor could we eat everything (there was so much of everything!)  

After the breakfast we noticed the sun had risen and we were getting really close to Stockholm. We ran - or rolled as we were so full - on the deck to see the views. There were lots of small islands before we saw the harbour. I'm feeling the itch on my paws already - soon we'll go on shore!

Here we are! In the capitol of Sweden, Stockholm! First we went to see the Royal Palace and its surroundings. It was huge! The first building on this site was a fortress with a core tower built in the 13th century by Birger Jarl to defend Lake Mälaren. The fortress grew to a palace, named Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") after the core towers' spire. Nowadays it's the official residence of the Swedish monarch (their private quarters are elsewhere though). It neighbours the Riksdag, Sweden's parliament, which can be seen in pics 2 and 5. The crown princess Victoria will get married next year. She had to ask permission of his father and then the government to get married  That's the law for the royals in Sweden.

Next we went to Junibacken which is a house full of fairytales! There are houses and forest that look exactly like in certain children's books by swedish authors like Astrid Lindgren - whose statue is on the yard. In the house there was for example a Moomin house and the house of Pippi Longstocking. And a forest from Elsa Beskow's books. It's made so well that even a old bear like me enjoyed it 

Next to Junibacken were Vasa Museum and Swedish Museum of Natural History. We didn't go  to either one unfortunately. I would've liked to see the huge warship Vasa from 1600.

We walked back to the city center and saw a lot of statues on the way. The building with a lot of gold is the Royal Dramatic Theatre. This was a long day with long walks, I'm sure we all will sleep well tonight...

On the ship we bought some candy from Tax Free and played a while in Silja Land. Then we went on deck to see the Baltic Sea again. Soon we were back in bed and all snoring... 

We're back home! This was an exiting trip that made me feel ten years younger  I'll definitely tell my grandchildren about it 

This is vappu. Also known as May 1st, Labour Day, May Day... My mentor had bought us traditional Finnish vappu-delicaties: simaa (mead), munkkeja (doughnuts) and tippaleipä (funnel cake). We also got balloons 

It's a tradition to dress up in disguise for vappu, so we did so too: I was a princess like Alfie, Roo was a prince and Vladimir was Triton (the king of the sea) - all royals! Vladimir was so amusing with his trident - he used it as a fork! We all laughed at each other's dresses 

It was a fun day!

My mentor takes part in the "Giant May Release" by setting free three toyvoyagers. Here we oldies meet the newbies: (from left to right) Roo, Vladimir, me, Ewan, Alfie - Cordelia Cow, Jou Lu and Dr. Ykskorva. My mentor is going to release Dr. Ykskorva with a helium balloon! She's crazy! A doctor with a princess balloon!  And Dr. Ykskorva is really looking forward to it!  Crazy centipede... Well, I hope him all the best - and that he'll get far  The other two my  mentor will release in more earthly fassion