A cruise ship. 1,000+ uni kids. Stockholm. Riga. FUN.

This past weekend was indeed one for the books; and one for the blogosphere. Seeing as study abroad doesn't come around all the time I decided to take advantage of every travel opp I could get my hands on. So I bought a ticket to go on this cruise sailing from Stockholm to Riga. Complete with about 1,000 other uni kids, the boat was sure to be rocked! It was in two words: party central!!! :D Like all fieldtrips, we started with a bus ride: a 9-hour bus ride from Oslo to Stockholm. We began at 8 am only to arrive in beautiful Stockholm at 4:30 pm. Of course, since we are in the Northern Part, the sun has begun to set at around 2 so we arrived in the twinkling of night. We went to out pre-arranged hostels and chilled for a bit. Augmante, the trip planner for our group, was in our room, which was good for us as we weren't as lost :) We settled down then decided to attack Stockholm; we were to meet the rest of our Oslo group at some city square to walk over to a club to enjoy the night. As we mosied on down to the meeting spot, we had a nice little dinner and coffees at an adorable cafe. You enter thru this brick entrance, immediately walk down a flight of stairs, and voila, you're in the cafe. It was called "Art Cafe", complete with local art for sale peppering the ledges and tables. I had a lovely laks and spinach quiche, black coffee and a raspberry pastry that I swear, tasted like home-made Toaster's Strudel. After we gorged ourselves we went to the meeting point to head to the club. 

The club was called "Metro" and it was insane. You walk in and long curtains of red hang from the ceiling; the bar is a giant circular one with two bartenders circling around dispensing liquid courage; you walk past and see the dancefloor, which is surrounded by a terrace-like almost green-house frame; past this are stairs that lead up to another bar and lots of cozy, plush seating. We had a great time: alcohol is so much cheaper in Sweden than in Norway so we were indeed taking advantage of our newfound wealth. After, we took a T-bane back to our hostel to recharge for our next assault on Stockholm.

We started the next day with free buffet breakfast at our hostel. This would've been really nice had it not been for the ticket-woman coming up to me when I was going up for seconds saying, "Billet?", which means "ticket". I told her I gave it to her and she said, "Oh, fire...", which means "four" referring to the group I was with. I repeated this, gave her an eye and went back to my tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs. After frokost (breakfast) we dropped our bags off at City Hall at the bus and proceeded to walk around before we had to come back. Stockholm's City Hall is famous for hosting the gala dinner for the Nobel Prize every year, so it 

was nice to have a look around. After that we took a mosey down to Gamle Stan which is the "Old Town" part of the city. Here we saw the Cathedral and the Slottet, or Parliament. Across the water we saw a giant building and on it said National Gallery - a museum! So we headed there to see the current exhibits. Inside was great, the exhibits were huge containing many pieces that carried over large spans of time from medieval religious art to modern contemporary painting. My favorites were of course the sculptures; this museum had some of the biggest ones I've ever seen, massive pieces that filled entire room corners. The most interesting part of the museum, however, was the design section. Like many people know, Sweden is the creators of Ikea and many other note-worthy artists in the field of design, so it was a nice surprise to see two wings dedicated solely to Swedish design, separated in early modern to modern and modern and beyond. It was neat to see things like old t.v. sets, gold lameed chests, cups, plates, and chairs. The bet part though was the Absolut vodka bottles; those Swedes really do love their design!

When we were leaving I notices something out in the window; it was SNOWING!!! What a perfect day right? Museum, free breakfast, touristy photos and now snow! I was alone in my enthusiasm as everyone else was more than perturbed. We decided we didn't have much time left so we headed to a cafe to have lunch and relax. We went to this cafe that was owned by some Swede who, beneath his name said, "Jeweler". I guess coffee, jewels, and food do go together in a Swedish mind :D It was a nice bookend to our tourist stint in lovely Stockholm. 

We got back on the bus to head to the boat for our first night of craziness. We arrived and already the other party-seekers were entering in droves onto the boat. We arrived and checked in to our humble bunker-like rooms ready to be stuck on a boat with 1,000 other uni kids. Of course, one of the first things we wanted to check was the alcohol. We went to the duty free and already the store was packed, being controlled by boat security. Thinking it was better to just buy at the bar tonight we went to the main nightclub area and chilled a bit before the dancing started. But before the DJ came on, we were in for a treat: some cheesy cruise performances. The women came out in ice-skating costumes and the men in pseudo-stripper ensembles. The dances were those you see in some retirement special cruise deal to the Caribbean. It was highly campy and not in the good way; we just sat there and admired how in to it others were. After a few shots, the DJ started and the dancefloor pounded with the energy only a boat full of energy and alcohol filled 20somethings could offer. After a good 4 hours I had to call it a night; after all, we would be in Riga, Latvia the next day and I needed to be well-rested for the next night of partying away.

First off, I've never known much about the Baltic states, let alone even considered traveling to one of them. But this was a visit that I thoroughly enjoyed. We set off in the morning around 9 on a guided walking tour of the Riga, the capitol of Latvia 

with Aleks, a native Latvian who studies at the uni there for Astrology (how cool :D). We first went to an area of town by the water that was to be demolished and rebuilt later. It was known as the artist area where a bunch of warehouses doubled as workspaces and manufacturing buildings. Here, Aleks said that Riga's most popular and exclusive club was; it was interesting to see a club in a warehouse with various expensive cars parked outside. It was a stark dichotomy: the rundown structure kissing the modern, materialist culture. From there we made our way to the old town. On the way we passed Embassy Street that contained various national embassies. We also saw some hints of the vibrant art noveau architecture that Riga is known for. We passed by a monument I called the "Woman with the Three Stars"; it was built during Stalin's communist era and stands as a monument to Latvia's history of Communist rule. Aleks took us to this one building built for farmers but since they didn't have the knowledge or desire to maintain it, it was given over to scientists and folklore scholars to serve as an observatory: it is one of the only buildings left over that still has the Communist sickle symbol on it. After a failed attempt to get us to the observation deck (the key they had was the wrong one!), we made our way back to Old Town via an open air market. I should inform you that while this all happened, we were greeted by a pleasant Latvian hailstorm that smacked us gently in our wind-burned faces. After the tour, we arrived at this shopping center where we had, due to Aleks' advice, some authentic Latvian cuisine: an assortment of dumplings with sour cream, salsa, basil and juices. Det var så deilig! It was really good that, of course, we had to have seconds. After a delicious meal, we headed to the liquor store to buy some cheap (and legit) Russian vodka. We made our way back to the ship but not before going to a nice cafe where we had coffee, chocolate cake, and a lovely assortment of rich truffles. Full of sugar and insulin, we jittered our way back to the boat to nap before another night of great partying. Of course, our Latvian good bye wasn't complete without another taste of hail. 

After some quick power naps, we got ready to head to the nightclub again. This time the atmosphere was especially static-like. Everyone knew that this was our last night on the ship and thus we were not going out without a bang. The drinks flowed, the shots were tossed back and the good times came. The dancefloor pulsated with even more energy than last night; myself, Erik and Jessica decided to go upstairs to the other dancefloor where they were playing more techno-house-trance. The boat rocked back and forth, which made for an interesting aerial view of the house partyers. With every to came a fro, and we all drunkenly struggled to keep our composure and groove on the floor. We all know I love to dance and this was my ticket to enjoying my last

few hours on the Baltic Sea. After I figured I was alone as 

everyone had called it a night, I went back downstairs where the early morning DJ set was nothing but pure techno awesomeness. An interesting thing I encountered was a wonderful Spaniard who danced with me and everytime we would meet up again he would start cheering me on to gyrate and dance, rhythmically clapping to the synthesized sounds. Dancing my heart out until 5 am, I crashed in my room to sleep off the night and get ready for the bus ride back to Oslo. 

The trip back was...well, I slept the entire way! Arriving back in Oslo, I reminisced about the great times I had, the sights I saw, and thought of the next time I would visit those magical places. It was an amazing experience that I will forever cherish in my memory of Studying Abroad craziness! Til neste tid...

Ha det bra,

Jon