Stockholm/Helsinki

Where do I even begin?? Yesterday we were in Stockholm, where I managed to find both Anna and Jenny who I haven't seen in months, which was great. Stockholm is a gorgeous city, I can't wait to post pictures of the buildings and streets. It kind of reminds me of the north end of boston, with cobblestones and colonial-style architecture. Helsinki is very 30's modernist style, because it's a newer city (finland wasn't even its own country til it broke from sweden like a hundred years ago or something) but mixed in with cobblestone streets (KILLING our shoes!) and old stone buildings. All 3 capitals so far have been very different from one another in terms of the way the city looks and feels, but they're all similar in how nice the people are. They're not outgoingly friendly, but even our waitress, who was alone in the large tex-mex restaurant we ate dinner in tonight (I tell you, it felt soooo good to eat american food and listen to johnny cash and not feel so foreign,) was smiley and kept thanking us every time we ordered or asked for something.

Tonight we're in a real hotel, instead of a hostel or on the cruise ship which we took overnight from stockholm to here, and to which we're returning tomorrow night. OMG that ship had a sauna, which consisted of an amazing steam room, a not-so-hot tub (for cooling off) and a sauna in each locker room. it was soooo nice, it's the first chance we really had to relax since starting the study tour (we've been getting up at 6:30 and 7 every morning, and bussing and walking around nonstop looking at more chairs than my brain can handle all day, until we finally pass out around midnight or later after staying up with everyone, because that's the only free time we have. Like i said, tomorrow we're back on the cruise ship, which is basically a floating casino (our room was so dark and small that we thought it was 3 am when the alarm went off). I wish i had more energy to post about the Swedish national museum, Alvar Aalto's house & studio and all the other things we've seen in the past couple of days, but honestly it's all blurring together right now, so I'll have to do it later when I have my pictures uploaded and sorted. We're getting up at 6:15 tomorrow morning for yet another full day (our second to last one of the study tour! :( the last day is the Ikea factory though!!) I've been eating so much food though that it's more than cancelling out the energy i've been expending staying awake this long, (despite the nap we all accidentally took before walking around Helsinki looking for somewhere open for dinner) but when we get back to copenhagen it's back to bikes, walking, and having to pay to feed myself. But right now, all I can think about is how glad I will be to take a shower in a bathroom with a tub instead of a phone booth. And i'm really really REALLY excited to go to bed, so, goodnight!