Cruissseee time!

Cruise time....

Within a few days of me coming to Finland, the IBM team decided on a two day cruise to Stockholm. Given my old self, I was tempted to say – hmm – I need some time to settle down, you guys carry on. But armed with my new context, I chose to head out.

We left on a Friday evening and spent two nights on the Cruise, with a day at Stockholm.

That Friday was a full day. Thursday: Buy Gifts for Young Tamanna who was celebarating her birthday on Friday, book cake. A fair amount of work – calls, writing RFI responses…

Friday:6 AM – 8:00 AM– Wake up, tea, pack bags 8:00 – Check out of Hotel – take taxi to my new apartment 8:00 – 8:30 Dump luggage, set down things 8:30 - 4:00 Looonngg day at work – conference calls, meetings, India, Finland…sighhh <12:00 – pick up Tamanna’s birthday cake> 4:30 – rush back – still taking calls on the phone 5:00 – race to the Harbour to catch the Ferry

Whew – long day, finally settle down in my cabin – met Laxman and Chaitanya(Young Lad2)– natives of Turku – poor folks – in a team of about 10, they are the only ones living in a different city!

Deepak, Young Lad1 – my comrade in arms to have fun on your stay – resolve to make the most of our time on the Cruise. A young lad of 27, with a hearty laughter and a carefree attitude.

We began the cruise by taking a walk around the decks, doing the typical Titanic poses. :)

Jokes, casual banter…great leg pulling filled the evening.

Finally, we pulled out the cake and the gifts we had purchased for Tamanna. We managed to get to a place where we could light birthday candles; To celeberate your 6^th birthday on a cruise to Stockholm – with not one, but two surprise birthday cakes! Rakesh’s wife, being her usual hospitable self had managed to pack some snacks. So imagine this – we are a few kilometers out into the sea – between Helsinki and Stockholm, eating Paani Puri, cake and pulling each other’s legs – 11 people in a small 5 feet by 5 feet cabin!!

It was a blast!!

The Little Imp who Made the Cruise Special !

We finally set out for dinner – a most sumptuous bouffet dinner.

The Bombay Dancers.

The cruise had decided to promote India as a theme as they were launching a new cruise that would go all the way to India. So the India them was sprinkled through out the ship – Incredible India posters as we entered on the jetty to large 30 feet Ganesha posters hanging from the ceiling! The highlight was of course the Bombay Dancers – a troupe that was especially flown in from India. They performed Bollywood dances on both nights – which the crowd absolutely lapped up!!

Casino time! After dinner and a show at the Bombay Dancers, a few of us got to the Casino – where they also had live music playing on one side.

Of course, innocent bystanders we were (!) and just sat by and watched. After a while, we resolved that we would need to play our hand at the casino. In the meanwhile, the live band was playing live music and some of us went dancing on the floor – mostly 90’s music.

It was close to 12:00 and Deepak and I kept wondering if this was the only place we could dance that evening…and upon making enquiries with the bartender, discovered that the ‘Club’ was on the 13^th floor right on top.

We made our way to the top – and suddenly the whole atmosphere changed. There was loud House Music playing, psychedelic lights and a young hip crowd dancing away on the 13^th Floor! The right time as the night was just beginning here.

We ran into a couple of Patrick’s local friends here. Patrick is big young Finn who likes to live the life…and so were his friends. So we chatted about Clubs, Dancing, Women (!), what works, what doesn’t.

We had our fair chance at the floor as well – at both the Club and the first Dance floor – alternating between the two – I also had the experience of asking a woman to dance with me - one of those pretty young things. I discovered how easy all of this is, compared to India.

We finished up by about 2:30 – and spent another 45 min talking to friends in one of the cabins. Finally we headed to our bed…looking forward to our visit to Stockholm…that would begin in just a few hours time.

Our Saturday begin with a bouffet breakfast – sumptuous yet again. Mostly comprising a lot of bread, various kinds of cheese, eggs…well – you get the idea.

We got out to the city of Stockholm – taking the bus to the City Center. The bus dropped us off at the City Center – and we just missed the City Tour Bus. However, we bought tickets to the next one – which was about two hours away.

So we took that time to walk around the city.

The City of Stockholm

The city of Stockholm, I must admit – had a little more colour and life than Helsinki. The streets that we visited – so reminiscent of old Europe- Cobble stones, small streets, old buildings…

One interesting place was the Old Royal Palace – and we managed to catch the change of Guard as well…

The Viking Kutumbh Mitali began the buying of the famed Viking helmets. Following her was Young Deepak and myself. We decided to adopt Bincy on a lot of pleading from her side…:)

The Viking Family had to follow a Code of Conduct – wear the Helmet at all times; speak in

a most chaste language and stand by the Family! Ha ha ha – so this was our team – two 30 + year olds behaving like 20 somethings and the 20 somethings behaving like teenagers! We roamed the city with our helmets, with passers by asking if we were returning from a party, making touristy purchases.

The Prime Minister of Helsinki.

ON our way back, we had to ask a few people how we could order a taxi. A couple of girls (well – they seemed to be prettier in Stockholm rather than Helsinki – but I cant quite make up my mind), managed to help us. As we were standing by the square, they squealed in excitement – pointing to this innocuous couple walking with shoppiig bags – not more than 30 meters away from us. Turned out it was the Prime Minister of Sweden…out for shopping with his wife – accompanied by just two gaurds. Compare this with India – with about 20 cars in two…roads jammed..you get the idea…:)

Anyway, the Viking Family returned to the ship to yet another long night of Wine, Dancing, Juwa and….

After a repeat of yesterday’s menu for dinner (!), and seeing part II of the Bollywood Movie (the Dancers), we walked over to the Gambling tables.

I spent the better part of an hour, just standing and seeing how people were playing – and finally decided to try my hand at the roulette table.

I played very cautiously for about an hour – making a marginal win…with low stakes…and then of course, was willing to raise my stakes. In less than 15 minutes, Deepak and I managed to win about 70 + Euros, and lose it all :)

Bincy took more than an hour and half to do the same :)

However, the rush of seeing the dice turn on the wheel, waiting with bated breath to see where it would land, planning how we would place our bets – odds, evens, rows, colors was quite the experience!

Deepak and I went back to the Club, danced a bit more…had a couple of close shaves in terms of dancing with the women – learnt a bit more about being open, adventeruous, and then headed back to our cabins; but one thing was sure – we were going to try out more of the Clubs back in Helsinki!

But all good things come to an end... the ship returned back to Helsinki by the morning. Back to work, and regular life...but with a little more appetite to enjoy Life ;) See pictures here