Oct 20 / Matt

Down and Out in Stockholm & Helsinki

O scathful harm, condition of poverte!

I’m going on holiday next week, for the first time in too long. It’s a boys holiday, first time in over 10 years. Being a boys holiday we have decided to ‘slum’ it by staying in hostels, first time ever. It’s going to be a new experience so I have decided to find out as much about the trip as I can using the pool of knowledge that is the internet.

Our itinerary:

26/10/10 18:05 - Ryanair flights from Stansted
26/10/10 21:20 - Arrive Stockholm
26/10/10 22:00 - Check-in to City Lodge Stockholm
26/10/10 22:05 - 29/10/10 20:00 - General debauchery
29/10/10 20:00 - Ferry to Helsinki
30/10/10 08:00 - Arrive Helsinki
30/10/10 08:20 - Check-in to Hostel Stadion
30/10/10 08:25 - 01/11/10 21:15 - General debauchery
01/11/10 21:15 - easyJet flights from Helsinki
01/11/10 22:20 - Arrive Gatwick

As you can see, quite an intensive schedule for a 6 day trip. Right, time to research!

Weather

First things first, I’m an Englishman, what’s the weather going to be like? Looking at the 10 day forecast for Stockholm (http://uk.weather.com/weather/10day-Stockholm-SWXX0031), it’s going to be 3°C with a 60% chance of precipitation. Looks like I will need a hat, scarf, jacket and gloves, I’m glad I checked.

Our time in Helsinki is more than 10 days away so we will have to work from historical data. The BBC offers some valuable information (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/city_guides/results.shtml?tt=TT003520). Apparently the average temperature is around 3°C with average precipitation at 68mm, reinforcing the need for the aforementioned attire. Furthermore, the BBC also state that there will only be approximately 2 hours of sunlight suggesting the need for a bag of carrots and night-vision goggles (though customs may question this in my hand luggage).

Stockholm, Sweden

A quick search in Google Images reveals that Stockholm looks like a beautiful place:

A search for Sweden just reveals images of flags, maps etc however a search for Swedish is definitely one for the male population.

An excerpt from the omni-present Wikipedia reveals that “Stockholm (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈstɔkː.ˈɔlm] ) is the capital and the largest city of Sweden”. How outstandingly dull!

Turning to Google Local, I search for Bars in Stockholm:

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The first on the list looks particularly intriguing, and particularly relevant. Well worth a visit to wet one’s whistle methinks.

Then moving onto Facebook for more research, I find a Stockholm page with 63,870 likes. The fans seem to be thinking along the same lines as myself:

The ‘;-)’ at the end clearly shows that Marco is up for mischief. Maybe I’ll bump into him at one of the many bars recommended by his Facebook friends…

City Lodge Stockholm Hostel

So we’re staying at the City Lodge Stockholm (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=City+Lodge+Stockholm), it’s near the big writing saying Stockholm on the map which means it must be central.

A search on TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g189852-d577584-Reviews-City_Lodge_Stockholm-Stockholm.html) shows some positive reviews which is encouraging. They range from “Great central location. Has everything you need. Nice buffet breakfast” (buffet breakfast, always good) to “a dream comes true” (a little much).

Finding further information on HostelBookers, I see that there is a curfew of sorts, “You party on the town and relax at the hostel. From 11 PM, we keep silence indoors.”. Good god, it looks like I will be sleeping on the streets like a true down and out!

The Ferry

YouTube has answered all my questions here:

“Drinking” game on Helsinki-Stockholm Cruise - I prefer to open beers with my hands…

On the Silja Line ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm - the related video from Claudi1983 entitled “Cruise: Stockholm - Helsinki May 2007″ probably gives a truer reflection of what this ‘cruise’ is really like.

Helsinki, Finland

In the interests of fairness, I look to Bing Image search for my pic of Helsinki and it doesn’t fail to deliver:

As you can see, there are boats and buildings.

A Google Image search for Finnish throws up interesting yet very different results to Swedish. Perhaps our stay in Finland will be more… militant.

Once again I’m on the hunt for bars:

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I like the sound of the last one this time, el Boogie. Time to throw some shapes!

Wikipedia is, of course, number 1 for Helsinki. My eye is instead drawn to WikiTravel, “Helsinki (Finnish) or Helsingfors (Swedish) is the capital of Finland. Founded in 1550, the “Daughter of the Baltic” has been the Finnish capital since 1812……” Zzzzzzz! Equally boring.

Come on Twitterati, what do you have to say about Helsinki?

Airport? WiFi?! Oh please.

Hostel Stadion Hostel

As you can see (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Hostel%20Stadion%20Hostel) our hostel is located inside the Olympic Stadium, sounds good. We are staying in a 13 man all-male dorm, not so good.

What do the reviews say? Well, it’s a mixed bag. Booking.com gives an average of 3.5 stars out of 5 from 41 reviews and TripAdvisor only 2 stars from 10 reviews. I’m willing to go with the majority though let’s drill down a little further: