I love Europe. We got off the train in Helsinki and there was an actual tourist information centre. They spoke English and were helpful, two thing we have happily been reacquainting ourselves with in Scandinavia. I will never take friendly people for granted again. Probably.

Helsinki is a cool city full of cool people. It well may be Europe's centre for tattoos, piercings and death defying haircuts.

Being museumed/churched out we mostly walked around enjoying the maritime feel of the city. Great food markets down by the harbor, selling and cooking. Every kind of berry you can think of they have in delicious bucket loads. The other staple is fish, all types of the slimy things. I had my first taste of salmon in my CHICKEN paella. Trickery. Better than Moose meatballs, Whale casserole or Reindeer steaks, I just can't come at that.

We have entered the realm of cider. Many fabulous flavors in the supermarkets and pubs. To make sure we are getting enough culture, nightly pub (must be showing the olympics) visits have been essential. No more binge drinking for me, now a daily thing. Must be growing up.

Looking out to sea from Helsinki there are islands of all shapes and sizes everywhere. One of the islands holds a world heritage fort, Sumolleni??????. Being good tourists we took the ferry over to check it out. It's been owned/used by Sweden, Russia and Finland to defend whoevers territory it was at the time. Very pretty over there, really wild. I spent most of my time making sure I didn't step on any of the little frogs hopping about.

From Helsinki we caught a train inland to Tampere, a pretty little city. They have the Lenin museum and a very cool espionage museum. Both great, but what's better is they show their movies in English with Finnish subtitles. We finally got to see Batman.

Back to the coast for an overnight ferry from Turku to Stockholm, Sweden. The ferry was massive, felt very much like a bad cruise ship, happily it wasn't too painful with our cozy, tiny cabin. We steered clear of the rather sad looking clubs/bars and watched the many islands of the Turku archipelago pass us by. As it turns out my fear of sinking was unwarranted.

Stockholm is delightful! The city is made up of islands all connected by bridges. Centres around the island of Ganna Stan, the old town. This is where the city started, so the Royal Palace is here surrounded by cobbled streets and gorgeous old buildings. Of course with this comes hordes of camera wielding tourists.

We had 3 nights here and had a great time. We decided early on to stop converting currency. $10 for a sandwich is not a bargain in anyone's books. As well as lots of wandering the various islands we enjoyed a boat cruise around the islands, headed to the worlds oldest outdoor museum and checked out the Vikings at the history museum. Emmett also took pity on me and took me to TGI's for some ribs. Earned him some big points!

People no longer stare at us here which is just lovely after 3 weeks of being an attraction. People are speaking to us in the local languages, I've even been asked for directions a couple of times. Blending in :)

A quick train took us to the second city of Gothenburg which I instantly took a shine too. Again the city is centered around a harbor with most of it being cobbled pedestrian streets. More laid back than its big sister, with a gorgeous old town of its own.

On arrival we found out one of Sweden's biggest music festivals was in full swing. We had missed Florence and her Machine the previous night but Blur were playing their final show that night. We could go or eat for a week, we decided to go. A lovely walk took us to the festival park....but there were no tickets left! We walked around trying to find a couple but the only scalpers looked like they would kill your grandma. We didn't want to help fund their chosen activities. The people watching was sensational though. Big business for the gypsies/Roma/travelers in the empty bottle collecting stakes. They would have made a fortune.

A final train through some beautiful scenery had us in Oslo, Norway, which must be the most expensive city in the whole universe. We arrived just in time for the woman's handball final staring Norway. A big casual outdoor cafe was showing it live so we joined the throng. A non fancy pizza and beer each set us back $75 euro. Back to not converting.

Oslo itself is a nice city, great harbor area, but not as pretty as the other Scandy cities. Mainly due to those friendly Nazis destroying the old town as punishment for their resistance. More beggars than we have seen, mainly Roma, some roaming drug pushers and prostitutes. A definite seedy side.

So all up it seems the rumors about Scandy are true, it's expensive and the people are beautiful, men and women. Bikes are absolutely everywhere which may help explain why they all look so fit.

Tonight we meet our Topdeck tour, our group for the next 15 days to head up to the Arctic. I really hope there's no muppets. Or at least not many anyway.