Mariehamn - Östhammar - Tyresö - Mariehamn

I have 2 weddings in octobre. And no dress to wear! What to do? What to do? Go over to Sweeden for shopping! There is a small lovley boutique in Tyresö that need to be checked out.

So I ask my boyfriend what his brother is doing that specific weekend. He lives in Tyresö. I could drop in for coffe or in my case, tea if he is at home.

Then I was on the internet looking through my blogs and saw that pysselgrottan had a sale. There is not much from my pottering caterory, but I had to check that out anyway. Don't you think I found the sweetest piggy bank! In shape of a cow :) There was 14 left and I thought about it, took it to a colleague and asked it that is something we could need at work. She thought it would be nice, so I ordered a bunch plus a bunch of impuls orders :)

I know the owner so I checke the box "will pick it up at the store" ans aksed her if it was okay if I dropped by on saturday. It was okay! :) So I added Östhammar to my plans. The fact is that they are not right next each other. Östhammar is to the north, and Tyresö is to the south. So I didn't know what time I would have for shopping. The "I can then take some time to look at stores in Stockholm" was removed from my plans :)

This heart is outside pysselgrottans shop. She is moving her shop, and still building on it, so I have no pictures of the shop.

To the trip. I began at Mariehamn at 8 am. Or I got up at 6.30am to get ready and be at port 7.30. It wasn't just me that wanted to go to Sweeden! If I put it like that. I had had my breakfast at home and my plan was to sleep the two hour trip. Accept for a half an hour that I would spend in the taxfree, just befor going to the car. The greatest idea! It wa like: Eyes closed - we are in Sweeden! :)

On the way to Östhammar I had to take a picture of the same sign as last time :) A warning sign of a pig! What? Are there running pigs loose or what? I don't understand :)

It rained the whole time I was drinving. Don't worry, I stopped the car while taking pictures :) Here I tried to take a picture of the water on the windscreen. It didn't work :)

This church I like. So I had to take an other picture of it :)


After this I also drove by the clocktower I took a picture of last time :) But I didn't stop for a picture this time.

When I came to Östhammar me and Vero had decided that I would meet her at her house. This was the first time I was there. And the second time I met her :) So I had a rosé-vine to her as a gift :) At first she showed me her new shop, it was not ready, but most of the stuff was already there. After that we had a cup of tea. I had a licorice tasted one. I have tasted one before, that I didn't like, but this was good! And yes, it was a tea of my choise :) I thought I wanted to give licorice tea an other chance :)

We talked and the time kept on going, so all of a sudden I watched the time and realized it was time to go. But first I gave a bracelet for her to fix, one to shorten, and two to make :) I have confidence in her! So I know that they are going to turn out great :) I look forward to get them in my mail! Probably somtime next week :)

After leaving Östhammar behind me I drove with lots of help from my GPS to Tyresö. I saw this lovley building, it could be a church. This time I did not stop to take a picture. I looked at the road, took the camera, pointed it to the window, and clicked the button.

Therefore the pictures I got was not that good ;) But still I like them, it is something that I like about them.

Both in Finland and in Sweeden we have speed-cameras. I don't know, and don't care that much, wich other countries have them. But in Finland and Sweeden they are different from each other. I think that a speedcamera should not be easy to spot. You are supposed to drive as the speedlimit no matter what. (I'm not saying I am an angel, doing that all the time....) I don't think speedcameras have to be warned about. Still they are. Anyway. The cameras in Sweeden, the camera on the picture, is NOT easy to detect! I should take a picture of the cameras in Finland also. This is interesting, wonder what cameras in other countries look like...


Here is an other camera. Easy to see?

Here is a great example of what happenes when you take a picture without looking what you take a picture of.

It was a nice looking building. On the other picture, I took two on the same time, just to have one good picture, I get rewarded with a side ;) Haha!

To this point I was almost alone on the road. I stopped fooling around when there got more trafic. And whan I got to the freeway I didn't even think the thought of taking pictures from the car! I'm not stupid :)

After a long drive I finally got to Stockholm. In Stockholm there was sometime so much trafic that the trafic stood still. That is when I took the chance to take pictures :) I would never try to take pictures from my car in Stockholm otherwise! It is a big city (for me, maybe not for people from countries with BIG cities) and I used all my concentration to follow the GPS and where the road took me. For instance, one time the GPS told me to keep left, so I moved to the left roadway, driving there for a while until I found out that the roadway I came from ALSO keeps left, hm...

I think Stockholm is a beautiful city. As it was a cloudy day it doesn't show. Plus, pictures taken from the car maybe not show Stockholm from the right side :)

Here I tried to take a picture at Globen, seen in the left corner :D What a total miss of me ;) But I like the clouds on this picture!

When I got to Tyresö I was hungry, needed to go tho the bathroom and wanted to find some clothing. So I took it in order of importence. First I searched for a toilet, then some were to eat, and then to the stoore :) While being in the store M:s brother called and told me not to eat! They were about to make some food so I could eat with them. What was I to say? I ate 15 minutes ago. To bad.... I had spoke with him the moment I got to Tyresö, just to let him know I found my way there and not got lost.

I walken in one store, the boutique I was thinking of, that was too fancy, the next shop, not wnough fancy, next, same result....back to the boutique.....Nothing! Finally I found a pair of boots! Brown and so nice! I tried them on, and when I got home I tried them on an other time. The quality is not that good...it looks like I have been wearing them for years....but they only costed 100 SEK, that is about 10 €, so not that expencive. They were on sale, otherwise I would go back!

Anyway, after a disaster of shopping I went over to M:s brother K and his girlfriend L. I spent about 2 hours there, after that I had to leave to catch the ferry home. But I had the time to take 121 pictures of their golden T! T is the one in the picture above :) Also I got some tea, a orange tasted tea, I think it was. It was good either way :) And to that I got L:s wonderful pizza-bun! K didn't fancy them, so he told me if I liked them I could eat them all :) If I wouldn't have been so full from my dinner earlier I would have! Well, everyone with their own taste....but this was wonderful! I asked her for the recipie :) I have to try and make them myself!

The time really fly when one is having fun. All of a sudden I had to leave them, I had stayed to the last minute. I clickt the port in my GPS, and it let me know I was going to be at the harbour about ½ hour befor the ship would lay out. I told them I message them if I get there in time. Otherwise I have had to get back and sleep over. It was the last ferry over.

When driving trough Stockholm again I could see that the weather had cleared up. And now I got a better shot of Globen :)

For those that doesn't know Sweeden or the location of the places I visited, I give you a map. Start and stop are on the same spot.

Here is the whole mileage. It was 360 km, roughly. I didn't check that the start, stop or the via ponts are at the exact spot where I was.

I took me about 4 ½ hours only to drive :) And I want to do this again :) I could go for a roadtrip in Sweeden! I don't know if I'm that interested in the northern Sweeden, but the southern :) Hope I get to do this sometime :) But not this year or before april next year. Then we have other plans :)

Weekend cruise to Tallinn, meeting a friend

Okay, this is the story :) Me and my boyfriend M went to Tallinn on my birthday on a weekend cruise. All of which you can read in the blog before. So I will just skipp that! This is our cruis ship, that we came to Tallinn with, we took an other ship home.

Anyway. M wanted to go to a casino, so we went. From there I went to meet up with my friend. I'm not the kind of women that worry too much. I can walk from place A to place B with no survellance, I'm a big girl. I don't get into strangers cars if they would offer me candy :) And often when I'm meeting friends in forigne cities I get the stranges of instructions. Once I got the "We meet you at the christmastree".... which one? I could think of three different! But they didn't specify. We found each other at the right christmastree after no confusions :) I just picked a place on the map and figured, there could be a christmastree, and I was right :)

This time though, I was going to meet my friend where there was a lot of flowers. Shurley I would know! Hm...well....no! Any other guidelines? No? Well....it's at the old town. Okay, lets go to the old town to begin with :)

On my way I saw this pigeon :) I stayd for a photoshoot. First the pigeon in the pod. Then I sat down, still on my feet, I guess it is called squat. Anyway, I waited.

And got rewarded! The pigeon decided that I was no treath and took his/her bath. He/She also got some company.

Bathing

More bathing

Then there came a bike along and scared the pigeons away. But I could not be squatting there all day could I? I have never heard or used the word squat before :) It's a funny word!

Well, I came to the old town of Tallinn.

I waw some flowers. Could it be them? Well, why would it? These are not growing there, these are for sale! Anyway I took a picture for evidence.

It turned out it was theese flowers my Habibi was talking about :) I never would have guessed! I thought she ment a growing flower arrangement!

Here is a lovley tower :) I had to have to take a picture of it!

I walked where the road took me. I was looking for a plaza that I found on the map. So I walked and walked I came to this.

Here we have flowers also. This could really be the place she ment!

Lovley flowers! I waited there for a while looking at the map. I was still confused, there was supposed to be a plaza here? But it wasn't, why? I looked at the map, then on the streepsigns, then on the map, and realized I was one street of.

I left the flowers and walked to the plaza. Here is a street I thought was nice.

The plaza. Or a bit of it. I never took a picture of the plaza, it would not have been a great picture.
But for some reason I think streets would look nice in a photo. They hardly do... This looks quite booring... In real life it looked nice!

At one side of the plaza there is this church, that I don't know the name of. On the left side of the church there is a road. From there Habibi and her parents then appared, but not yeat though :) I still had some time to buy a buttle of awful contents. I thought it was like juice, but it was like wather with some taste and the taste of sugar was strongest.

I tried walking all sorts of streets. Around the plaza.

This I found in one corner. If grafiti is gay? Does it mean being gay is wrong? I thought we would be mor liberal and understanding about theese things, that marrieges between same sexes are more okay than it used to be. This sign tells me it is not. What if being gay would be cool? Is it then okay to do grafiti? Or how does this work? I don't like the message this poster sends out. It doesn't tell people grafiti is wrong, it tells people that being gay is wrong...really!

This on the other hand I liked :) Russian dolls, I don't remember their names. There are smaller and smaller dolls inside. When you open one, there is an other inside that you can open to find an other inside and so on :) The woman in the middle is Tarja Halonen, our president, and the man to the left is Barack Obama, the president of the USA. Those I liked :) I didn't buy them, what would I do with a bunch of Tarjas or Obamas? But it's a fun idea!

Same churtch, watched from a street.

Ah! Here is a picture of the plaza :) Almost. I took a picture of the wall. I think I found the roofs nice, or something like that.

Yet a picture of the tower. This time straight up :) I have to do something while I wait! I probably have to say that I am capable of taking 121 pictures in less than two hours, so I didn't have to wait fot that long for Habibi to get there :) Even if it seems like that, according to the number of pictures.

I walked up one street and found this pretty well. I wat there for a while waiting, then she called me to ask where I were. I told here I was at the plaza, and she knew where that was so we decided that I would stay there and she would come to me.

After fining each other and after a big hug. We went looking for a coffe shop. A café. To be more specific. I took a picture of the cake choices, mostly because I liked one of the names :) The cake we chose is not in the picture.

Habibi asked me to write down the name of the café, so that we would remember it. It was a cozy café, well worth an other visit some times. I told her I have my camera, I can just take a picture! As I sat in the sofa inside the café and the name is written to be red fron the outside this is the result :) Habibi pointed that out when we were there, and I promised to take a picture from the outside. That we forgot, beccause while we were sitting in the cozy café it started to rain. It stopped before we got out of there, but it rained a little bit so I had put away my camera so that it would not get wet.

The rain was welcomed. It was a HOT day! It was too hot! The rain made it cooler :) More barable.

Before we left I took a picture of the whole café. When it started to rain it filled up with peolpe and we figured it was time for us to leave. We had already finished and there were a lot of people and not that much empty chairs.

After the coffe, or we had smoothys with our cake :) We decided to go shopping for clothes. We also met her parents, that were sitting at a open air café enjoying some drinks.

We went to one store where we looked at clothes and sunglases. I bought sunglases, but I don't know where thay are now.... anyway, beside the counter this counter was. I asked if I could take a picture of it and that was okay. It is beautiful :) I thinkg the name of the store was metro. But I'm not sure. I didn't find clothing to me, but I found a beautiful and cheep jacket for my sister :) It was exactly her! So I bought it :) She loved it! I have no picture of it though

Habibi was only in Tallin for the day, so we had to watch the time all the time. Then we met up with her parents and headed for the harbour. This picture I took on the way to the harbour, I like the building.

What else did we do? Oh yes, we strolled for a while at the harbour market. There are a lot of stuff to look at. And a lot of food for you to taste. And of course they want you to buy it too! I bought some Estonian candy. I can't say that was my best buy. Probably I could have saved the money for something else. But it was an experience that too :) I then had them to work for my co-workers to have on their coffe break :) Well, it was not that bad! It did get eaten ;)

A weekend cruise to Tallinn, Estonia

My boyfriend, M, asked me if it was okay if we took a weekend cruise to Tallinn the 14-15 august. There was going to be a pokertournament in Tallinn that he wanted to check out, and the 14th happenes to be my birthday, so he thought we could celebrate that too on the same time :) I thought that was a great idea! I looked forward also to check the pokertounament out. I have no photos, because cameras weren't allowed. Or that is what I understood, I never asked. We didn't stay for that long. Just so that I can say I've been there :) M had to go two times, because he went one time by himself when I was with a friend. He asked if it was okay if he went, and I understood it one way and wondered, "why is he asking? Of couse he can go!" but he meant "is is okay if he goes now or is he supposed to wait if I want to go too?". Then we had an argument over the missunderstanding which lead to me telling it is okay, I can go by myself. And he understood I really wanted to go, so he came with me.

Enough of that!

The cruise ship was Silja Victoria. We got omboard at 1 am. We had been to a houseparty just before, because we thought it was no idea to go to sleep if we have to get up at midnight and get ready. The houseparty was fun :) It was not my friends but M:s, but still I enjoyed it.

Then we walked down to the harbour were we had left our car and our luggage. It is not fun to carry around a lot of luggage unnecessarily. So this was a great solution. And we wanted the car in the harbour so that we could get home when we got back :)

We had a cabin with two beds, of course :) But I think that there are also cabins with 4 beds. There usually are.

I had to take a photo of the sign telling passangers to be quiet after 11 pm. The estonian language (topmost) is such a funny language :)

We came to Tallinn, I think it was 9 am. We got of the boat quickly after having breakfast first. This is the ship.

And for the thirsty ones, don't worry! From the harbour it is only 50 steps to the nearest bar ;) Haha

Outside we took a taxi. I sat in the back and read the taxi fares. I thought about it for a while and then took a picture of it :) If I would then wonder about anything.

We took the taxi to our hotel, the Tallinn city hotel. But we could check in at 3 pm, so we left our luggage and went for a walk. M wanted to go to the casino. He has been in Tallinn much with work, but this area he didn't recognize. So we went walking in one direktion. We walked and walked and then he reconized where he was! We walked in a BIG cirlce ;) Just because he didn't have time to wait until I found us on the map. Well well, walking is never bad.

At the casino one has so register. M has his own card and I had mine. Mine had clearly expired, because I have used it one time, in Riga, 2 years ago, maybe. It was the Olympic casino. In the casino one can not take pictures.

Yet I did, in secret, but only from the bathroom. This sign was therefore in the bathroom. "Smoking forbidden. Penalty 1500EEK (100EUR)". Wow! In Finland if you smoke were it is forbidden you get thrown out. Here it is 100€. That is a LOT of money!

I took a picture of this sign during morning. We went back to the casino later same night. Then M played some blackjack, and in the same table was a gentleman, who had had one (or five) too many. He took his cigarett and his lighter and lit it. M turned to me and asked if one can smoke there. I got surprised, maybe there are smoking areas, and that this is one. It was not the case. A guard came and took him away for a while. Later he came back and the guard handed him his change, apparently they took 2000 EEK and he got the rest back. I don't know. He played a few hands. Then he took his cigaretts, and his lighter. The dealer quickly reminded him that there was a no smoking zone. If he wanted to smoke he could go to the smoke area. He did that a few times.... maybe time to stop drinking....and MAYBE time to stop playing! Maybe time to go home! M stoped playig after a while. It is not fun playing with a person like that. One time he had to wait for a long time during a hand (I asked, is that even custom...he told me no, it's not) while he had to go and take out some more money.

Back to the bathroom. I thought the sinks were just lovley :) I had to take a picture. This picture is taken with my phone.

And the wall is the same small tiles that my parents have in their shower! I had to take a photo of it ;)

For the note: I believe the reason one can not take picture in a casino is that people that do not want to be linked to casinos or want anyone else know that they are playing might get on one photo. Or celebrities, pokerplayers, people that want to live a normal life and still go out and have fun. I don't think taking photo of the toilet in that.



I left M at the casino, because he finds it mor amusing than me. I can be there for a while, then I find it boring. So I went to see a friend that also was on a cruise to Tallinn, her boat arrived at noon I think. I will have a different blog for that. This will be long enough as it is! So we jumpt that and I leave her at the harbour at 5 pm when her ship takes of. She and her parents were on a daycruise.

I then looked at the map and decided that the hotel was at a special spot :) It turned out that I was right! I started walking and saw this funny looking house! It has the Djurgården colours. Djurgården is a place in Stockholm Sweden, it is also the name for a football and icehockey team. M and his brother and father are Djurgården supporters, so I thought this was fun :)

Also, you may not swim in the harbour ;) What shall I do if I fall in the water?

I then saw this funny house :) And after later checking on the map, this is where I should have tuned right, instead I walked straight. But I found my way after a few blocks. And as I said, the hotel was where I thought it would be :) There I met up wit M and we checked in.

We brought our luggage to our room. And then right after that we went for dinner.
If you think that the picture is funny and strange. It is edited. M have been lying on the bed closer to the window, but I edited him away :) I'm quite proud of the result!

We ate at the hotel restaurant. At first we looked at the menu and I had a hard time choosing between lamb or schrimps (I think it was). Lamb can be very delicious but also dry and taste like wool. I took a chance with the lamb anyway :) First we got these apitaizers. Small bred with a mix of cheese and fish roe. M doesn't like roe, but the cheese helped much he said. It was delicious!

We also got small breads and butter. I didn't take a picture of the bread, I had no attention of doing that. But then M asked me how it is possible that on my plate there were no crummies, but on his plate it looked like Hiroshima! So I had to take a picture of the Hiroshima on his plate :)

I have no answer to his question though :)

M ordered, surprise surprise, a hamburger :) He told me he has never tasted a estonian hamburger before. It was the most strange hamburger I've seen :) To me a hamburger has a steak of minced meat. This doesn't have that. It is like a minute steak in the middle of two bread. M thought it was good though :) And also onionrings on the side is never wrong!

As I said, I ordered lamb with potatoes. The potatoes had a fancier name, but I forgot that. I was surprised that I have no sallad on my plate. So M was cute enough to give me some of his :)

The meat....oh the meat! It melted in my mouth! It was so good! It was so delisious! There are NO words! I could eat that every day! It was a sause to it and garlic on the side. Perfect! I drank wine to it. I love wine, but this time. I loved the meat more :) Mmmmmm! Can I have one now please?

To dessert we had a rhubarb-cheescake. With strawberries. It was something special with the strawberries...but I don't remember. The strawberries was my favorit on this! I love cheescake, but I don't think the rhuburb should be mixed with cheesecake. It was okay, but that is all.



After dinner we went outside for some fresh air. I wondered if a liquor store wa open that hour. I wanted to try out some new tastes. And it was my birthday, I wanted to celebrate. M didn't think so, it was after 6 pm. I mumbled something and was a little disappointed, I had been in a liquor store and found some things I would have liked to taste. Over the street I saw a R-kiosk. We have those in Finland too. I didn't think about it that much. But all of a sudden I realized, it sais "alkohol" on the side. Do thay sell liquor? What? They don't do that in Finland. I talked M around and we went over to have a look. Oh yes, they had their own liquer corner :)


After making our purchases we went back up to our rooms for shower and rest. And also to taste what we bought. I found this Caribba cola. It seemed interesting. Well, it tastes like rum and cola :) Surprised? Haha.

Then we made us ready for the casino. After registeing in at the casino I went straight to the bar. I ordered a strawberry mohito. I had one in Riga and they are wonderful! There was a change of personal, I gave my order to one but another made my drink. Well, I don't care as long as I get it :) This was saturday night. My birtday still. The bartender hands my drink looks at me and sais: Happy birthday! I get happily surprised! :) Thank you, I say. She explains that the drink is on the house. I thank her again and walk over to M and tell him what just happened. I asked, how did they know? I didn't tell...is it written in my face? Then we got an idea. There was a change in personal in the bar. It might have been the girl in the register that came to the bar, that is the only way. She must have seen it is my birthday and see me go straight to the bar. There is no other explanation. We didn't stay for that long. I played on machines with the lowest limits, so that I could play for long and not loose much.

We weren't there for such a long time. A few hours, M was about to play some poker. But then he got tired of waiting. That is not like him while being at a casino, so I have a feeling he did it because I get bored at casinos. I didn't this time. But I was not letting a chance of getting back to the hotel slip through my fingers :) Still, I made sure it was what he wanted. So that we wouldn't get to the hotel and he would be all "oh why didn't we stay, it would have been fun playing some poker" :)


The next day we went down for breakfast. I didn't bring my camera for that. But I took a shot of our room door as we left the room for checkout at noon. We had our room right beside the elevator.

When I turned around this is what I saw. The elevator :) M has been on this picture too, but I edited him out.

After leaving our luggages we went shopping. M:s least favorit thing ;) Haha, but he strolled with me until he got bored and waited for me in a chair.

After that we went to Amarillo to eat. Everything on the list is so much cheeper! There is an Amarillo in Vasa, Finland that we have been to much. I had to take a shot at the drinklist. 12cl of minttu for 3,50€? That is cheep!

They had some special something. Here is the whole list :) Just so you can see I'm not joking.

We ate a main course and dessert. For under 30€! I can come here often :)

I had made my shoppings and I felt sorry for M who didn't like to shop and wanted to go to the harbour. So we did. We took a taxi to the harbour.

I had to take a picture at this pinc limo :) Taken from inside the terminal.

We got to go home with Baltic Queen. Here is her.

And by the way, no cars in the elevator! Or what does this mean?

I had to take apicture of this. We tried to find our cabin. We followed the numbers in order. All of a sudden M stops, turns back and looked at the doors. He looked at the door, 8335 and the naighbour door 8371

Then we looked at the ticket. Cabine 8359. Where is that? We vandered in the hall for some time before we found the map I took a picture of. Oh, so simple, some numbers are in the blue area and some are in the other coloured area.....sigh. Why make it simple, I wonder.

Our cabin at last :)
I edited Magnus from this picture too, he took a rest on the bed :D

We then went to the tax-free. I had to take a picture of this bottle for my dear sister Puffs :) I wanted to MMS it to her right away, but M said that it is expencive to do that fom an other country, so I didn't. It is 1,75l :)

After that we went to eat something. We loked at the menu and both chose a hamburger. I hadn't had one during this trip :) And M just likes them. When I was about to take a picture he said he wanted one with the lid of, so I took one of those.

Here is my meal :) Hambuger and fried potatoes, with a shot of ketschup ;) It was good. I didn't have any bad food on the trip. All food was great!

I love food :)

It was a great trip :) We then tried to use our discount card for beer and cider. But it was only from the tap so we didn't get any discount. My cider, my favorit cider, was so cheap we didn't need a discount ;) I don't remember the price, but M payed and afterwards asked me what was that cheap. It tunred out to be my cider, my favorit cider :) Can we go on that trip again? Just for food and drinks ;)