Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Copenhagen to Stockholm

Day 4: Copenhagen to Stockholm: After a short ferry crossing, we arrive in Sweden and head north to Stockholm, Sweden's capital city. (Breakfast and Dinner included)


Hotel: Angby Camping
Bags to the bus: 7:15, Breakfast: 7:30, Bus departs: 8:00

I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't fall back asleep so at 6:00 I got up and took a shower. The bus left at 8 for Stockholm, I was sitting with Cathy today, who I had not yet met. One of the things I like about Contiki is getting to know new people from different places. I try to change who I sit with a lot as it helps to develop relationships.

Che introduced us to what would be our day song, Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi, which had just won Eurovision. Although we think he chose the song beforehand he did try to imply that the idea came from a conversation some people had at breakfast about the Eurovision contest. Most people did not like this song, though it seemed to grow on most people by the end. He also explained a bit about the trip, that we're all on two different tours. One, Scandinavia, does just the Scandinavian portion of the trip and returns to Copenhagen after Helsinki. The other tour, Scandinavia and Russia, goes on to Russia after Helsinki. Those going to Russia (me) would get a new Tour Manager and Driver in Helsinki, along with a new bunch of people who are doing just the Russian portion of the tour. On this tour there were 19 people doing just Scandinavia and another 19 doing just Russia, the other 27 (minus 1 since apparently someone left for a "family emergency" from Copenhagen, we think he was really just not into roughing it on this tour) of us were doing both portions of the tour.

After an hour or so we were on a ferry to Sweden. From the ferry you could take pictures of Korberg Palace, which was used in the movie Hamlet. Because of a line for the bathroom when the ferry was almost docked I almost missed the bus. Karl did, but he walked off and was able to get back on the bus. Apparently once they wave on the bus the bus can't stay any longer. After the ferry Dion explained to us about the different jobs on the tour and other cooking related things. The options were cooky, dishy, aqua girl, aqua boy, coach packer or tent erector. I decided to be a cooky, so I would help Dion with cooking meals. After that Che went over the list of optionals for the Scandinavian portion of the trip, I decided to do all but the all you can eat pizza and 10 pin bowling, I would later change my mind and do this optional.

At 12:30 we had our first service stop for 1 hour. It was at a mall and it was recommended that we get something at the grocery store. The mall was insanely busy and the grocery store was HUGE and they sold not only food, but clothing, lumber and everything in between. I ended up splitting a package of rolls with Lis, Jilly and someone else (maybe Nancy) and got some Turkey (that's what a stranger in the store told us it was), apples, bananas and apple juice. I ate my lunch on the bus, which wasn't the most convenient thing to do, I would have to do my shopping quicker next time.

At 4:10 we had a 20 minute stop and then finished our drive to our Stockholm campsite, arriving just after 6:00. The Top Deck bus we saw in Copenhagen was also staying at this campsite, and was right behind us pulling in. This evening I would be sharing a cabin with Leah D., and Cathy. The three of us would also be cookys with Kirsteen and Patrick. After putting our stuff down Leah D and I went to the shop on the campsite to get our shower tokens (you had to buy shower tokens to work the showers). Since the tokens only lasted 5 minutes we decided to get two for each day. Then it was off to help cook.

Dion had us make a salad, cut some veggies and make chocolate mouse (dessert). While preparing dinner the Tour Manager from the Top Deck tour came over and chatted with us, she seemed to have a lot of spunk. We found out that they only had 14 people on their bus and that they had an extra day in Stockholm, but were staying at the same campsite as us in Oslo. Then we served dinner, spaghetti. It wasn't mom's sauce, but it was ok. Poor Ralph sat on the fence to eat his dinner, and the fence broke making him spill his dinner on the ground. After dinner I ended up chatting with people at the campsite, and finally made it to my cabin to find Cathy and Skye talking, I joined them and didn't get to bed till midnight. I had hoped to go to bed a bit earlier since I felt a cold coming on, but I had a nice time talking to everyone, sleep could wait till I got home. So far the group seemed pretty tight, which was really nice.