Helsinki, Finland

Well, it's been at least 5 countries since I've written.... hopefully today I'll get a few posts up and back-track a little. My poor parents (and I'm sure many of you) have been eagerly awaiting another post.

Today's our first full day in Finland. We were told to expect to freeze as this is the furthest north we've gone so far. I brought extra layers especially for this portion of our trip. Well.... so far, completely unnecessary. As you can see from this pic, it's sunny and blue skies are a common theme of the trip. It's a little sharp.... an autumn breeze blows most the day, but in general, not nearly as cold as I thought.

We took an overnight ferry here from Sweden.
Pause for a second.. conjure up an image of what you think a ferry might look like.
It's probably similar to what we imagined. A mid-size boat... cheap snack stands, a huge group bunk room, gray metal, nothing extra or fancy.
So when our coach pulled up at the harbor in Stockholm and this was the only ship in sight, we were ecstatic.
Ready for some of the stats on this thing?? (Rhetorical question, i'm telling you either way)
13 Decks.
over 8 Restaurants
Spa center, Sauna
Hot tub, waterslide
Casino
Cabin rooms with 4 beds and a full bathroom
Tax Free stores
Club
Yeah, i'm sure you can imagine what 43 college students on a surprise one-night cruise looks like.
We'd all been wearing traveling clothes, so most of us changed and got dressed up for a nice, classy dinner. (more about other food later.... seriously, i measure the passage of time by the amazing meals I have along the way) My group of 10 found a place with a meat focus--I say it like that to differentiate it from the seafood place next door or the pasta one farther down. Some people had steak, some salmon (yes, i realize that's a seafood... don't get legalistic on me, i didn't say exclusively meat), and I had lamb cutlets. YAY!!!!
After dinner we went to the top deck where the club was and joined in the karaoke for awhile. And of course we went dancing later that night. But first... because we never pass up a chance to get dressed up... all the girls went back to our rooms and changed outfits for the 3rd time that day.
So there it is, the short, condensed story of our unexpected mini European cruise.