Homeward Bound

I sit in the Communications Centre at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam where I finish this blog at last. Not much to say about today except that I made my plane, and I am now enjoying my 6 hour layover here. Blogging has made it go that much quicker! I run out of net time in 5 minutes, so I will be brief. This has been a wonderful experience. However, yesterday I found Helsinki to be a lonely place, and I am excited to get back to my friends and family in Toronto (The layover is torturous!).

I will continue to blog here, and when I am up to it I will supplement these posts with more pictures! I will find ways to show everyone images of Scandinavia and the great times I had here.

This is my last post for the trip but I will see you all very soon.

Tack, Kiitos, Spasiba, thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoyed reading this as I did writing it (And living it).

The Doctor will see you very soon

Unfortunately, today is the day I find myself in a holding pattern, and Helsinki, while being a nice place, is, by my hotel manager's own admission, "A small town". And as cities go, I can view it right now as nothing more than a very nice waiting room. I start the day by filling up on food at the Smorgasbord buffet (I actually find the lox here too salty!).

The hotel offers to buy my last 100 Euro Travellers cheque at a 5 Euro charge, but I have heard Forex only charges 2 Euros, so I head over there, and it is correct, except they only pay 98 cents on the Euro for Travellers cheques! So I save 1 Euro for my troubles. Which is fine, since I have to do laundry before I go home, and every last Euro helps when laundry costs 10 Euros a load! At least I have someone to take care of it for me, and I wait it out back at the hotel, which is a 10 minute walk from the laundromat.

Tonight is going to be no fun. My flight leaves at 6:15 am so I've established that I need a 3:30 pickup to get me to the airport the requisite 2 hrs. before departure (As it will turn out, Helsinki airport is small and I could have cut it much shorter!) I plan to go to sleep between 9pm and 10pm. To accomplish this, I discover movie theatre a block from my hotel, and they are showing Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest at 6:15, which is the perfect time, the movie will end around 9pm, and should exhaust me as it's probably a fairly busy movie. I also find a Nepalese Indian retaurant near the hotel called Pikku-Nepal. I will eat at 5pm, catch my movie at 6:15pm, and be in bed by 10pm. Dinner and a movie sounds like an evening.

Having reclaimed my clothes and mostly packed, I eat lunch at a cheap (8 Euro) pizza buffet, stuffing myself on salad, Chicken Wings, and lots of Pizza along with all you can drink Soda. No amazing culinary experience, but a cheap thrill.

I walk about 10 minutes, to Finland's most famous building, Finlandia Hall, which was designed by Finland's foremost architect, Alvaar Alto.


I found out about the 2pm tour last week, so this week I am in time to catch it. It's a bit dull, but it goes nicely into the technicals of the architecture, although it puts the hall into an historical context, several European and North American leaders met there in 1975 to make acords on Economic cooperation. Knowing I was Canadian, the tour guide went out of his way to mention that Pierre Trudeau waved to his mother from a passing limousine, and it was a moment she never forgot. Whatever one's opinions on Trudeau are, he had that effect on people. I saw him once on a flight to Toronto, and was a bit starstruck. Didn't say anything though.

I learned on the tour about the Alto vase, which is apparently a popular design in Finland, and is a popular gift. I bought a vase for myself, hopefully it will look nice in my new apartment, it is quite expensive. There was one in a beautiful flaming red colour, but for the same size it was double the price!

I had hoped to do a Sauna in my hotel before dinner, but unfortunately, free time for men is 7pm to 8:30. I had already arranged my movie plan. If I wanted, I could have booked a separate timeslot for 14 Euros for an hour and a half. Sauna will have to wait until I return to Finland.

Dinner was very good, and for 12 Euros I ordered the Lamb with Saag (Spinach), which was very tasty, and came in a Thali plate with Rice, Naan Bread, raita and a somewhat watery Daal. The Mango Lassi was very good too.

Pirates was the perfect movie to see. At 2 1/2 hours it's stuffed with comedy, drama, humor, some occasional action, great effects and look and Depp is still fun to watch in this role. I have often said I wasn't wild about the first, but it's only because everyone had built it up to the point where I was bound to be somewhat disappointed! For this movie my expectations were for some silly and very loud fun. I was not disappointed, and was exhausted by the end. Sleep was not a problem, I fell asleep just after 10pm.

Exit Visa

It is my last day in the hectic, overcrowded city of St.Petersburg. As the city gears up for the G-8 summit, I feel happy to be making an exit, the city is too hot, too busy, too mosquito infested (St. Petersburg was built over a swamp, much like Washington D.C.) This means one last joyous hostel Breakfast (My egg actually peels well this time!)

I pack and leave my large bag in the luggage room. I am not doing any sightseeing today, only buying souvenirs! I start at the other end of Nevskiy Prospekt, buying some Russian Dolls, the kind that you open and there are 5 dolls, each one within a larger one. St.Petersburg souvenir shops are full of them.

I also browse the Passazh department store, which had a nice bag section

(I need a travel bag to carry extra stuff in - souvenirs, gifts etc.), but I realize that all the prices I like there have 1's in front of them and are 1,000 rubles more expensive than I thought! I am still willing to look for something, but the 3 ladies in the shop talk to each other and completely ignore me!!! Maybe it's cause I look like a punk in my Small Cute Dog T-shirt, but I am pissed off and leave without buying, deciding to go across the street to the other major department store, Gostinny Dvor, where I find a better and more importantly cheaper selection of bags. I am eyeing some tennis bags, and one of the ladies in the shop is extremely helpful despite us having virtually no linguistic common ground! The racquet bag would be nice for squash but I am looking for something bigger, and she seems to know it - "Bolshoi?" she asks? I know it means big and I say yes. She brings me a cheesy looking bag but well constructed, and it actually says "St. Petersburg", and has pictures of the raised bridges(A site I unfortunately never stayed out till 1:30am to witness)! I say Souvenir, and the woman understands that word. I know Gostinny Dvor is having sales everywhere, and I try and ask her if there's any discount but she doesn't understand me, until I realize that the symbol for their sales is "%", and so I get a piece of paper and write the percentage symbol on there. She and the other lady laugh and shake their heads the negative. I am disappointed, but at least I enjoyed being able to communicate an idea to them.

A bit more shopping takes me to the Yelitseev's deli where I look at Vodka and Caviar.

I buy a very small jar of Beluga caviar for a small fortune and some Vodka that the woman assures me is of high quality and is not an exported brand. Yelitseev's was recommended as the place to buy these items in the eyewitness guide, so I suspect I have chosen well.

I also crash a small store in an alley called Sekunda where there is supposedly some good Soviet artifacts, but all I find are some coins. Nothing I want to take back with me that I wouldn't lose. So with that done, I head back to the hostel, stopping for some fast food Bliny on the way (These are crepe-like pancakes with meat and tomato filling). I also have a Shwarma Pita as the Bliny are really small. Having collected my bags from the hostel, I make my way back to the train station via the subways, and after 35 minutes and a half litre of sweat, I am at my train to Helsinki.

On the way out of town I get a last view of the horror that is the St.Petersburg suburbs. Otherwise, the train is a pleasant experience, my seatmate is a goofy Finn from Tampere. He's been travelling in the Urals, and he spends most of the trip in the Bar car, except during the customs inspection, when they close the bar car and toilets for an hour between Vainikkila, Finland, and Vyborg, Russia. The border process really is a formality, I hand the conductors my passport and it gets handed back to me stamped 2 hours later, no questions asked. The Finn border guard even remembers me and asks if I had a nice time in Russia. The Finns are very friendly people, and despite the fact that we didn't talk much my seatmate offers to email me photos from Lapland. I expect him to give me his e-mail address but when her is exiting one stop before me, he wants mine, says his is too complicated, and I just don't feel the desire to write it down. So we simply part, but I can't help feeling that I've snubbed him.

Arrival in Helsinki is nice, it's very cool and I heck into my hotel, which has a sauna I hope to use and a free internet station in the lobby! I get into my room which has a nice, modern, Scandinavian design, but it's small, and I connive a slightly better room because the in-room safe isn't working.

I have dinner at a funky Bar Restaurant called Zetor, designed by one of the designers behind the Leningrad Cowboys (You can surf the web to find out more about this strange Finnish cinema/music phenomenon). The food is all very Finnish, and I order a Finnish antipasto, which includes Marinated Garlic cloves, a creamy Roe Foam, Grava Whitefish, creamy garlic herring, onions, Reindeer liver pate, and Reindeer Carpaccio. Very tasty, and I follow it with Reindeer stew which comes in a massive serving and I can't finish it.

It's now about midnight and I walk back to my Hotel. Tomorrow is my last day in Scandinavia, and I want to get an early start.

St.Petersburg as seen by a tasty morsel

I wake up covered in Bug bites. I knew there were mosquitos, but I had no idea how bad they were. Everyone in the hostel has it just as bad, even the ones who bought the "Mosquito Repellent Things" from the hostel (I have Muskol in my bag, should have put it on).

As an aside, I am still scratching at these bites as I sit in the Amsterdam airport blogging right now.

My first plan is to go to Peterhof. No, it's not the episode of FAMILY GUY where Peter and David Hasselhof magically switch bodies (Although if Seth McFarlane reads this blog I suspect he will steal my idea). It's a palace outside the city, with beautiful furnishings and fountains that are world-renowned. I have the crappy hostel breakfast early in anticipation of catching the 9:30 hydrofoil to Peterhof (Hydrofoils are cool!). There's a middle-aged American there (He's motorcycling around the world). Our conversation goes something like:

Him: What have you got planned for the day?

Me: I'm going to check out Peterhof.

Him: No, you won't.

He tried to get there yesterday, but it's been closed because of the G8. In case I didn't mention this in an earlier entry, the streets have also been cleared of any pesky homeless people (Perhaps the government has re-activated the old Soviet labour camps to strore them for a couple of weeks). So I decide to go to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which contains the cathedral of the same name, where many of the tsars are buried. It's nicely designed, but I find myself rapidly losing patience for these sorts of things, and I wander the fortress, through the Neva gate. It has a very nice view looking across the water at the Winter Palace, but the view is made ominous with the knowledge that the fortress was a prison, and prisoners walked out here were being transported to another prison that could administer capital punishment.

After this I visit a St.Petersburg History museum which actually has some English in the exhibit. There's some cultural value in it all, but I'm tired and hungry (And my feet are killing me). I find a recommended fish retaurant in the neighbourhood and chow down on their special Pike Perch, along with a bowl of piping hot Solyanka (soup). All is excellent, giving me the energy to walk the bridge back to the palace embankment, where I shoot more photos of The Bronze horseman statue, and St.Isaac's cathedral. I also think I stumble upon a location from the Goldeneye tank chase sequence, another movie I will have to watch scenes of when I get home. One place in the movie I really wanted to go was the Statue graveyard, but I think it's just a set, because none of the guidebooks mention it. Looked really cool in the movie.

I catch a subway to Pl. Alexander Nevskovo, near the Nevsky monmastery, and am denied entrance to the monastery, since I'm wearing shorts. Fortunately, I can still visit the Tikhvin cemetery and the graves of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, and most notably, Dostoevsky (I am reading Crime and Punishment, so I did want to pay my respects).

At the hostel, I need my sleep, I get an hour to nap, and then I change close, and set out at 6pm for the Mariinsky Ballet theater. I almost don't make it because my tram takes a while, but I get to the theater five minutes before the performance, and manage to score a ticket in a box (Not the absolutely highest either) Unfortunately, I go into the wrong box, and by the time the correct patrons have booted me, the show is already starting, so I watch the first 35 minute act from the box while standing up.

At the first intermission I get my seat sorted, and get an English program. The ballet is called The Legend of Love, and it tells of an Arab Kingdom ruled by a Queen. Her sister, the princess is sick, and the mystic who cures her takes a cruel price by taking the Queen's beauty, which she sacrifices willingly for her sister. When both women fall in love with the same peasant worker, he is smitten by the younger sister, and the two run away together, but are caught and the peasant worker is only allowed to have the princess if he can tunnel through a mountain and bring water to the thirsty, drought starved people. Ultimately he looks to be succeeding at making the hole, and the Queen decrees that he cannot marry her unless he abandons the people and stops digging the hole. He can't abandon the people who need him and the Princess understands his sacrifice, because the people are happy. The ballet was originally performed in 1961. So it's a nice, and insidiously socialist message. You have to sacrifice for the state because she sacrifices for you. At least that's what I got out of it. But the ballet itself was magnificent, the costumes were beautiful, the music and the choreography all were spectacular.

It let out at 10pm and I went to 1913 restaurant, because the Eyewitness guide said it was cheap and very good quality, but it's only cheap if you just get the appetizer they recommend (Potato Pancakes)! I got the appetizer, a main course (Lamb), and 2 half-litres of beer, which ended up costing me a 1,000 Rubles ($45 Canadian). The meal was delicious and the service was great, but to compound my cost, I lost track of time, the neighbourhood was a bit sketchy, and by the time I finish eating, public transit will be closed! So I had to pay for a taxi, but it was worth it, as the meal was great and St.Petersburg by taxi is an experience in itself!

My room was a little friendlier tonight, there were just 3 of us, myself, a Swede named Magnus, travelling the Trans-Siberian, and a brit travelling the world for a year! We chatted a bit then slept (Tonight I am wearing my insect repellent!). I am sorry to have missed Peterhof, but it's nice sometimes when those decisions are made for you. I'll see it next time I'm in St.Petersburg!

Blog-skiy

If you are ever planning to travel to Russia, take a few minutes before you arrive to familiarize with the Cyrillic alphabet. I will say that being able to read in Cyrillic, an alphabet not too far removed from our own, helped me massively in getting around St.Petersburg, and by the time I left, I was handily able to decipher street signs, restaurant and store signs, subway station names, and so forth. Absolutely necessary and a minor investment of time.

My second day in St. Petersburg was to be my Hermitage day. With all the fears about the G-8 conference mucking things up for the tourists, I resolved to go there as fast as possible. First let me start with my hostel. Sleeping there is not luxurious, although net time and bottled water are cheaper there than anywhere else. The air circulation in the rooms are terrible, 5 people to a room (But no bunk beds so at least it feels spacious. Breakfast is served from 8-10am. Since I can't fall asleep after I wake up at 6 am (Usually in a pool of sweat), I roll around for a while until I summon the strength to rise from bed and take a shower (Since there is no hot water, three of the women's showers on the ground floor (I am on the 3rd) have a generator, so I have to make the long walk down, followed by the long walk back up, but the showers are refreshing after sleeping a night in the St. Petersburg hostel!

Breakfast follows - an impossible to peel hard boiled egg, a slice of dull cheese, decent tea, instant coffee (I avoided), a vile drink the Russians at the hostel generously call "Juice", stale baguette, and bowls of some Sugary O cereal that is really not worth the discussion. It makes me want to get out, which I do, heading down to Ploschad Vossitania, about 8 mins walk from my hostel to catch the #7 tram (I will later realize this could have been picked up 1 minute away from my hostel! The #7 follows Nevskiy Prospect, the major shopping street, all the way to the palace embankment, site of the Winter Palace, also known as the Hermitage. The palace square is enormous, and across from some imposing government buildings, all no more than 3 stories in height (There really are no skyscrapers in St.Petersburg, everything is horizontally big). I notice some NBC crews busily scooting around setting up chairs not far from the Obelisk in the center of the square.

I line up at 10am for the 10:30 starting time, when the museum opens, everyone runs through the main courtyard, and it's a feeding frenzy at the ticket booth. It's 20 mins. later before I get in. I start up the Jordan staircase and I'm instantly transported into a world of unparalleled royal opulence. Catherine's architects designed a building to reflect superb taste in art, coupled with a sense of worldly experience, whatever is not wholly original has some basis in other great architectural works. Take the Raphael Loggias, for example (Why do I keep thinking of Robert Loggias!). This is a series of 19 archways, beautifully painted onto canvas and laid over multi-leveled walls and archways. It is meant as a replica of the Loggias in the Vatican apartments and the effect is striking! The detail is intricate and varied, there is little exact repetition.

The architecture is stunning but the collection is equal to its space, and every period and artist seems to be represented! Picasso, Rodin, Gaugin, Monet, 2 DaVincis (Davinci only painted 14 paintings on canvas in his lifetime), Rembrandt, and more. Just when I think there's no Van Gogh, I turn a corner and there he is. No Dali, but it wouldn't fit in anyways. I spend 4 1/2 hours in the museum, finding some odd temporary exhibits (including Quebec artist Riopelle, The 10 commandments printed on a bound book made from Matzah?).

I wander, get lost a couple of times, make decisions as to what to see and what not to see (They say if you spend 10 seconds on each item in the Hermitage you'll be there for 17 years!). A few years ago I saw a film called RUSSIAN ARK, a movie all shot in one single take that moves through the Hermitage for 98 minutes, culminating in a spectacular dance sequence. I made a little effort at the end to find this ballroom, and the old Baboushkas that watch the rooms were confused at first with what I was asking, but eventually, one of them said Sakhurov, referring to the film's director! Apparently it was the room we were standing in, a big room, but it looked bigger in the movie! Now that I've been to the Hermitage I can't wait to watch the film again.

Eventually I am exhausted and I leave the Hermitage to get lunch. Out in Palace Square, my first celebrity sighting, Matt Lauer is doing a remote unit live from St.Petersburg in anticipation of the G8. I watch him tape a few minutes, snap some pictures. He asks if there's any Americans at one point, and I meekly shout out "I'm Canadian", which he either doesn't hear or care about. I don't feel like stalking an NBC morning show host, so I move on to Pushka Inn, which I've heard is inexpensive and has good traditional Russian food, and I order a plate of Pelmeny (Beef dumplings) and a glass of Mors (Cranberry Juice). The night before I had Kvas with dinner, Kvas is another traditional fermented (But Non-alcoholic) Barley drink. It wasn't the kind of thing I'd drink more than once. But the Mors was nice, and the Pelmeny was excellent, dripping with melted butter. I just walk around for a while after this. I find St. Petersburg to be a very hard city to figure out for Overground public transit, although the Subways are easy. I decide that a nice low impact activity is a canal tour, so I walk down Nevskiy Prospect (I have a hard time getting anywhere else!) to Anichkov Most(Bridge), and hop on a boat tour. The tour guide gives the commentary in Russian only (There are no English tour boats as far as I know), but the ride is nice, we go right out onto the Neva River, crossing over to the Peter and Paul Fortress on the other side, and passing the NEVA fountain in mid river and the imposing old buildings on Vasilevsky island. After the boat ride, I head to a different neighbourhood North of Nevskiy Prospect where I've heard of a good Vegetarian restaurant. It takes 30 minutes to walk there, but it is good, and dirt cheap, I get a big serving of Spinach Lasagna with several salads and a Pepsi Max for 188 rubles, which is about $8 Canadian!

Afterwards, I wander back to Nevskiy Prospect, and wander into a Kitschy Bar-Restaurant called Propaganda, which is designed like an old bomb shelter and has Soviet era posters on the walls. I figure this is a good place to order a caviar plate and a shot of Vodka. It ends up costing 3 times as much as dinner, but the experience is worthwhile, as the Vodka is very smooth and I get to sample 3 different caviars,Black, White and Red. All are delicious and the presentation, in Oyster shells, is nice. Unfortunately, the toast I am given to eat the caviar on is soggy from too much butter. Walking bak to the hostel along Nevskiy prospect, I stop at another Internet cafe to blog some more, not realizing how late it's getting (It's 11:30pm but still light out!)

I arrive back in my hostel just after 1 am. All the other beds in my room are occupied, and everyone looks like they're sitting up reading and waiting for me! (I know this is not the case) However, upon my return, everyone is ready for bed so I shut the lights to recharge for another day in St.Petersburg.

In Russia, the sights see you!

Had to open my first day in Russia with a Smirnoff-ism. I am actually typing this as I prepare to leave St.Petersburg. Waking up and getting to the train was easy. I even had time to grab copious amounts of bottled water and a bit of breakfast. That American guy is at the train station.

"Uh, have I got the right ticket?" He asks me. "It says we're routing through Vannikila but the signs suggest the train is going through a different city."

"I'm pretty sure we're ok", I say and have a look. Sure enough, the first city name on the board for this train is Pietra. I'm pretty sure I know what's going on. "Pietra's not a stop on the way. Pietra's how the Finns say St.Petersburg."

"Oh".

He's in another car and fast asleep, sparing me further such conversations. Our train leaves on time and is incredibly dull, passing by farms and forests that I could see in Canada. When we're approaching the border, officials are on checking my passport, and I embarass myself by trying to impress them with Russian. Problem is, they're the Finnish authorities! I relax and try to enjoy the ride, surrounded by a Spanish tour group. I tried to ask their guide a question at one point, but she basically shunned me. I guess if I'm not paying you, no need to treat me like a person?

Finally, the Russians come around and take away all our passports! I am a man without a passport for about 45 minutes before they finally bring them back stamped. No questions asked, I am now in Russia! And the views are really interesting. Run down farms, decaying Soviet collective factories, the countryside is strewn with them. We pass through a small city whose name escapes me, and eventually we start approaching St. Petersburg through Slumlike suburbs of blocky, dull apartment buildings. Weeds abound, and long streets stretch north to south as far as the eye can see. So far, nothing particularly impressive as we reach Ladoga station. I had a pow-wow about an hour earlier with some French backpackers so I would know where I was in relation to the city, and I have sketched out a basic route at this point for getting myself to my subway by hostel.

The route takes about 30 minutes from the train by Subway (On the way I marvel at the massive soviet era constructed stations) arriving at the hostel door, which is locked, and has a note on it in Russian! I am completely confused but I can see the note mentions an office on the street next to this one, so I head for it. It's some kind of bank or travel office and I walk out completely confused. A stranger finds me and tries to show me where the hostel is, which I explain that I know (He doesn't really speak any English). He walks me back to the hotel, and this time, someone's holding the door open for me! I have arrived in St. Petersburg, albeit somewhat sweaty! I even have about 1000 rubles, thanks to an exchange service on the train.

With my bag stowed in my room and containing nothing of value, I set off for the Nevsky Monastery (With the intention of stopping at a bank first to exchange 200 Euros in travelers' cheques). I find the bank, but I have to wait 45 minutes for service, and then they're not sure they can do it for me without my passport! (I am carrying a copy, the original is at the hostel!) But after a long time, I get my cash, quite a lot, about 6,000 rubles, and I return to the hostel first, since I know I'll have to pay them at some point in Cash. I give them theire money, and shift my plans by heading West down Nevsky Prospect, in the direction of the hermitage, since the Nevsky facility is now closed to the public, my plan is to visit the busy shopping street of Nevsky Prospect, followed by trips to two mammoth churches there, Church on Spilled Blood (Named as it was built on the site of the Assassination of Alexander II), and Our lady of Kazan. Spilled Blood is beautiful and multicolored from the outside, on the inside it's also beautiful, but Kazan is far more striking with its architectural exterior beauty, with a semicircle of columns hiding the fact that the building is actually a dull East-West layout, and spectacular acoustics (I arrive during a service, and feel guilty for treating the service as a tourist attraction where I am surrounded by baboushka wearing women, and booming Russian Orthodox priests sing with power and dignity. A choir chimes in beautifully from up on high and I stay for just long enough to get a taste. Then I am back out onto Nevsky Prospect, a street covered with neon to erase the bland image of communism with KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds and so on and so forth. You would believe capitalism had always existed here. Cars, buses and trams speed by coughing up exhaust, a mix of new luxury cars and old Lada beaters (Some new Ladas, too.)

I stop in at a recommended buffet called Olki Palki, and order the full buffet, eating in a fake plastic Russian Forest. The food is ok, but heavy and I can't eat too much. I think I spend the rest of the night blogging. Tomorrow, I am going to the Hermitage. The city seems perfectly safe and it's unfortunate I have no one to experience it with.

When you're bored with Helsinki...

Tallinn, Estonia's right across the water! This has always been my plan to do my second day here in Tallinn, and fortunately I have 2 friends to do it with. Lucy and I go downstairs to wait for Brenna. I have a perception that she is never less than prompt, and I am not disappointed today as she arrives at the hostel at the 9am time exactly.

The 3 of us walk over to the terminal. Lucy already has her ferry at 10 am booked, but unfortunately, it's sold out. Brenna and I have to wait for the 10:55! We tell Lucy that we may see her in Tallinn, but we know we probably won't. We share a coffee break and Lucy gets on the boat as Brenna and I find a park near the harbour to relax in while we wait for our boat. It's fun hanging out with fellow Canadians, we have common frames of reference. We chat for a while and then we head for the passport formalities. I go straight through, but Brenna's is a mosaic and the Finn guard admires it for about 3 minutes before telling her he doesn't have her entrance point. After a barrage of questions he lets her through. Once we are on the boat, Brenna zones out and I start into Kakuro. We arrive at Tallinn at 12:30,pass throgh another passport control (Yay! Another stamp on my passport! Brenna's stamp is so light the Tallinn part is barely visible, a shame, considering the collection she's building up. Once we're in the harbor we start the Rick Steves tour,walking through a gate to the old city (Cobblestones, old
buildings, souvenir stores, the usual.

Of course, we have no Estonian money, so I brave the bank machine to take out about $50 worth of Kroon, Brenna the same. The walk is nice, taking us past churches, lookout points, old town halls. We stop for a beer at a seemingly authentic brewery (Although it looks a bit too clean to be truly old). On top of the beer I order the garlic toast, which is said to be an Estonian specialty. It comes on black bread and it's quite delicious so we order another appetizer, the Estonian Fried cheese, which unfortunately is the same fried cheese you'd find anywhere in the world. That the cow was Estonian doesn't distinguish the cheese.

After our snack, we wander the tour some more, occasionally getting lost. Talllin also has a new area that is building up with skyscrapers to resemble a Western city. We see it from one of the lookout points. There are some nice sights, but we're pretty much done. Brenna, who was planning to stay 3 days and is now making a day trip of it, is counting her lucky stars, because it's clear to both of us that Tallinn is not a 3-day event. When we wrap our tour, we are walking down the Viro road towards the new city, and we decide to split up for an hour. It's a bit of a shopping time, I buy some Juniper trivets (These give off a sweet fragrance, which is even stronger when you put something hot on them). I also find a sticker that Says "Tallinn Estonia", and buy it for Brenna, she could only find Tallinn ones, and she decorates her journal book with a sticker from every country she visits. We have dinner at 5pm in a restaurant that I believe translates to "The Golden Piggy", and is heavy on the pork (It's even baked into the bread in small quantitiies) I have a Pork roast which is quite good, and Brenna's Salmon is also excellent, and we have lots of time to walk back to our 7:30pm ferry.

Returning to Helsinki, Brenna and I say our farewells. I had fun with her and hopefully we'll get to hang out again when she moves to Toronto this fall.

I'm now in prepare for Russia mode and my room, now a single, has all my clean laundry. Sorted and folded, I separate the things I'm not taking with me to Russia into the Dufflebag portion of my backpack, which hopefully I won't need as rain protection over there! As I'm leaving to put my dufflebag in storage at the Scandic where I'll be staying when I come back from Russia, I see Caitlyn and Rachel in the street, and they tell me that their hostel in St. Petersburg has been closed by the government during the G-8 summit which is starting tomorrow! I am obviously alarmed, and the three of us try calling my hostel, but I can't figure out how to make the call. We head back to the hostel, where we run into Kim and Alexandra, a couple of locals (Although Alexandra is from New York), and they offer us the use of their computer and their phones to contact Russia. A neighbour, Nisa, is using the computer, but she's done very quickly, and I start by checking my work e-mail, where I would receive a cancellation if one was forthcoming. Fortunately, there is no cancellation! I am still not sure, so we call the St.Petersburg hostel, and everything is ok. Unfortunately, they have no beds available for the girls, so we call around, and finally, we get a farily central room for Caitlyn and Rachel.

We are buoyed by the kindness (and eccentricity of strangers). On the way home, we talk about what must be going on in Russia (Is it chaos? Craziness?). The woman at the girls' hostel seemed genuinely distressed. When I get back, I grab my bag again, and this time I make it to my hotel, where I drop the bag into a locker. But when I get back to the hostel, there's some bad news. The Chechen Rebel leader has been killed by the Russians, and the security situation may not be stable there. Caitlyn and Rachel decide not to go. They don't feel safe and are going the Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania way instead. That American guy I met yesterday is going, but he seems a bit dull and not someone I see myself hanging around with. He has absolutely no idea about the Chechnyan situation. Lucy and I try to give him a bit of a primer on it. I say farewell to Lucy, hopefully we'll keep in touch. I get to sleep at around 1:30, too bad considering I have to wake up again at 6:15!!!!!

Quite a Long way from Cairo, Lots of miles from Vietnam

OK, if anyone gets that reference and why it is relevant, feel free to post it in my comments. So I wake up on my boat. And for the first time this trip, I am mildly hung over! Hooray! I can still feel gross after a night of drinking - it just has to be in combination with motion sickness produced by sleeping on a boat. The boat is huge, a 13 story city, I am on Deck 2 (Below the cars, fortunately they don't move while I'm sleeping, and the Pixar myth of sentient cars is just that, a myth). Deck 7 is a huge mall with a 6 story atrium, very cool actually, although I wouldn't be buying anything there.

This time I forgo the shipboard breakfast (Wasn't thrilled with it on DFDS), and focus my energies on getting packed, soon the boat is disgorging its passenger and car complement into the busy harbour in Helsinki. And once again, I am on foot with my backpack on my back. Once I am turned off the harbour road, I step into a relative ghost town...Helsinki is deserted, at least the part I'm in. I feel my way through the streets using my map, and unsure of myself, I ask the first sympathetic looking person for help, a young Asian woman, who responds that she works for Silja, the boat company I came over with, and she doesn't know the city well enough to help me!

It's ok, though, I am pretty confident I have it right, and 3 minutes later I'm at my hostel door. I immediately drop my backpack and take my daypack with me and set off to the city center.

I make my first stop at the Scandic Simonkentta, 5 minutes from my hostel, to tell the manager that I want to leave a bag with them for the day. No problem, Hotel staff seem very helpful. From there I head over to the train station where I pay for and collect my rail tickets to St. Petersburg. Good, everything is in place.

I head to nearby Cafe Strindberg and enjoy a Jam Pastry with a Latte and I people watch as I drink my coffee and eat my pastry. Little quiet moments like these make a vacation worthwhile. When I get up to continue my walking tour, who should pass me but the Asian girl I met over an hour ago! She is happy to hear I found what I was looking for and that's about it! Still, small town, I guess.

I am in search of Internet cafes (I am doing stuff other than blogging, in case you hadn't figured that out!) At noon, Stockmann's department store opens and I get 15 minutes of free Net time with my bottled water purchase! Nice. Stockmann's also has an excellent free men's room, unlike in Stockholm, where it's like Urinetown (Officer Lockstock sez Ya Gotta Pay to Pee!).

I move to Helsinki's excellent market square, where I am supposed to do a Rick Steves self guided walking tour, but I'm distracted by the wares on sale from a number of vendors here, as well as the awesome smelling food being dished up at the market. I shell out 8Euros at one stand for an excellent grilled smoked salmon with potatoes and salad. My belly full, I begin my walk which takes me through Senate Square and the Lutheran church which presides over the harbor atop some very steep stairs. inside the cathedral a confirmation is about to take place, but I sneak a peek inside anyways, the cathedral's interior is huge and the acoustics are a marvel. From there, most of my walk is a bit boring, taking me back into the downtown area, past places I've already been! I notice a few more details now though, and I find a branch of the library open, where I can do some more blogging. Eventually, the tour brings me to the Church in the rock, which was actually a church built into a massive rock. Again, great acoustics, nice looking church, lots of brass. I pass Finlandia Hall, which is supposed to be an architectural wonder. I will take the tour there when I return to Helsinki next week.

I take a bus up to the supposedly striking Sibelius monument. I have known about Sibelius for 16 years. Here's how. In 1988, John McTiernan directed DIE HARD, still probably my favorite movie. He used pieces of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Ode to Joy, as an homage to Kubrick, who used it in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, to underscore moments of violence. McTiernan passed on directing the sequel, and Renny Harlin, a Finn, took the helm. For his classical homage, he chose Finlandia, the seminal work of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It's the music that's playing at the film's climax as the planes land. Sibelius is a hero to his country and a monument of steel pipes with vinelike designs has been erected in a park in Stockholm to pay homage to him. The monument would have looked nicer lit up at night. I take a quick look, a few pictures, and return to the hostel.

At the hostel, I confirm I am in a dorm room, not in a private until tomorrow. I don't get to know most of the guys I am sharing a dorm with. I do chat briefly with one American guy who's trying to get to St. Petersburg but hasn't sorted out his Visa issues yet. Guy sold his car to travel for a year!

I rest and am about to go for dinner, but I meet some fun women from the UK and strike up a conversation with them, as 2 of them are headed for St. Petersburg on the same train as me, and the other one has just come from teaching English there for some months! We all decide to go watch the world cup together at a sports bar (By now, I have not heard from Brenna). I head to the sports bar with Lucy, who is from Cambridge, while the other 2 - Rachel and Caitlyn from Belfast, head off for a bit to eat. The line is long, but Lucy and I get the table no one else wants in the bar downstairs (The real party is upstairs, and we have ok, not great views of the TV.) Unfortunately, Caitlyn and Rachel see the line and don't join us, I don't blame them, the lines were pretty bad, and they ended up seeing it at the Molly Malone's (I've since seen identical Irish pubs in Tallinn and St. Petersburg!)

Lucy's a great companion to watch the game with. Not a very big football fan, she says, before going off into a rant about what's wrong with the game, England's game, the fans, etc. I have a hard time following some of her detail but both of us talk about the experiences of watching the games abroad, me across Scandinavia, her in Russia. Lucy's prediction of a high scoring game after the early French goal doesn't pan out as yet another game goes to penalty kicks! Still the action was pretty good for the most part, and Zidane's dramatic ejection kept things interesting.

After we went for Shawarma. Lucy's also going to Tallinn tomorrow, so we make plans to meet the next morning. I head for bed but she stays up to chat with some Aussies who are hanging out in the common room.

How to misread your Karaoke audience

Waking up the next morning without any particular hangover was a surprise. Although I suppose I drank over quite a long period of time. As I pack my bag, I receive a shock when my sunglasses case contains...nothing! Gary has witnessed me losing my favorite Serengetis before, and he knows I don't react well. This time I find my calm happy center, and decide that I am going to pack my bag and then figure it out. I know I wasn't out with it with the guys last night, and I look at a photo I had another tourist take of me after I left Tivoli, and I'm holding what looks like my glasses in one hand!

Encouraged by this, I decide I must have set them down when I did a quick internet session the night before. Sure enough, when I check out, I ask, and there are my glasses!

A good start to the day, as I run into the brits from last night, and we set off for the train station to stow our gear. The day ends up being a lazy shopping day in Sergel Torg, a busy shopping plaza near the train station, which is fine with me, after a quick breakfast at Sushi Coffee (The Sushi Bar is downstairs, the coffee bar upstairs, I wonder how many potential customers are turned off by that combination?). I hang with Ian M., who's an accountant like me and has a similar sense of planned fun, and Ian B. and Andy go off to browse the record shops. I end up the tour guide a lot of the time, it's pretty clear that of the four of us I have the best sense of Stockholm's overall layout. They leave a bit earlier than I do for faraway Skavsta airport, and I hop my bus for the Silja boat that will bring me overnight to Helsinki. On boarding the ferry, I feel a trickle on the back of my leg, it's some other backpacker unknowingly spilling his drink on me. Enter Mitchell, the York Student from Nova Scotia backpacking through Europe. We chat a bit on the gangway, have our photo taken together (By accident), and he tells me about the ship (He's been on it before). We say we'll see each other later, but I never see him again. Exit Mitchell.

My room is good enough, below the car deck with no window, but I don't pretend to be royalty or anything. I pretty much spend my time doing the walking tour. I watch the boat pull out and head for the free-for-all 32 Euro Smorgasbord buffet offered by Silja, with Smoked Salmon, Roast Beef, Taco Salads, Breads, Cake, Ice Cream, caviar, Wine, Beer. It's a massive spread. I am seated at a table with An older guy who looks like the Finnish Gary Busey, and a couple in their late 30s with a 7 or 8 year old son. After a bit of awkwardness, we start chatting, The Busey guy is Hese (His real name I forget/can't pronounce) and the man and wife are Jari and Mina, the son (His not hers) is Samu. We get to talking about hockey (A mutual Canadian/Finn enthusiasm), especially because his name is like Jari Kurri, of course other Hockey playing Finns like Saaku Koivu, Mika Hakkinen and Teemu Selanne come into the conversation. Asking them questions about culture, like what Finns drink, they tell me about something called Kosku Korven (Or Kosken Korvu). I see it on the drink list, and when I identify it, Hese buys us all shots. Then we are up on the deck and they are still supplying me with drinks. While admiring the view, I notice a familiar red ship about 2 miles ahead on the water, it's the Viking ship bound for Helsinki, which I know Brenna is on, so I e-mail her to tell her that I'm in pursuit (Also to see if she has a date for World Cup Finals in Helsinki the next night). I meet up with the family later on in the Atlantis nightclub, where Samu is captivated by the Kids' show, which features musical numbers for MADAGASCAR, BOB THE BUILDER, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ICE AGE 2, HARRY POTTER, and probably a few I don't remember. Samu shows how observant he is by pointing out that the Harry Potter wands are being levitated with strings. Meanwhile, I find myself strangely attracted to Harry Potter, who is clearly not concealing a wand under the robes.

From there I head to the Karaoke club where Hese is preparing a Finnish number. The club is quite crowded and after combing through the book, I decide that I'm going to try HEY YA! by Outkast. The room answers with deathly silence during the song, and at the end there is some mild applause. I think at this point I should say: "Maybe you guys aren't ready for this yet...but your kids will love it". Yeah, that kind of awkward. Mina tells me it was "very different". That wasn't obvious enough...Having had another drink and being exhausted/tired/full (I think I ate my weight in Smorgasbord). I stagger up to my room and off to bed. I hope I wake up in time to see the Helsinki approach.

Heading for Russia - slow blogging ahead

I have been having a slow go of updating. I am leaving in 1 hr for St. Petersburg Russia, not sure how much freedom to post I will have once I am there but will try. Helsinki and Tallinn updates may not come for a while.

All is well here.

UPDATE - am now in St.Petersburg, and the blogging is easy. Will try to post more tonight but still no photos.

In this episode, a Duck bites Steven on the toe...

It just seemed like one of the more notable events of the day, although it was an eventful day on the whole. I meet up with Brenna early in the morning and we go for Coffee in Gamla Stan, finding a nice Cafe where we have quiche/panini, and we chat for a while, figuring out what to do for the day. I think all along I am steering us in the direction of Skansen, Stockholm's open-air folk museum, which is a mixture of old buildings from around Sweden, as well as a zoo full of Scandinavian animals.

Wandering through the park we come across a parade of ducks, Brenna decides to feed them her peanuts, and suddenly we're swarmed (Think the deer Gary and I encountered in Nara, Japan). After enough peanuts the ducks start going after anything that looks like a peanut, including my second biggest toe on my left foot! (I am wearing my sandals today). Skansen has lots of neat animals (Bears, Elk, Seals, birds), buildings from all over Scandinavia, and some neat craft demonstrations (We watch Glass-blowing). Brenna is looking for a place to print her e-ticket to Helsinki (She is on the Viking line), and I take her to Sergels Torg, a really cool, Soviet looking square I was in the day before, where I hear there is a cafe with printing abilities, but alas I am misinformed. It's all the same SIDEWALK EXPRESS stuff like in the train stations where you can't do anything except email, chat and surf.

We split up with plans to meet again in Helsinki on Monday morning to go over to Tallinn together. After a bit of bookshopping, I head over to the Stureplan district to check in with the Silja Lines office and get a confirmation of my status for tomorrow's boat to Finland. Once I have that I try to get to the public library for free internet, but it's already 5pm and closing. I have a Stockholm card that gets me into many attractions for free and I need a way to use it. Everything closes at 5pm, but fortunately the VASA museum is still open, so I go back to the Djurgarden Island where Skansen was, and get a 30 minute window to view the VASA, a massive Swedish boat that capsized 20 minutes into its maiden voyage. A huge disaster, but also the best preserved ship of its time. Still, the ship is a massive failure, and in the shadow of the ships computer simulations test your engineering skills to see if you could have designed the VASA to stay afloat!

Basically museum-ed out, I wander over to the other main attraction on the Djurgarden island, that's Tivoli, the amusement park. My Stockholm card gets me in for free, but not on any of the rides, so naturally, I shell out for 8 tickets, that's just enough to ride the 2 roller coasters and the spinner. Fun, but amusement parks need to be a shared experience and I am feeling a touch lonesome.

My Stockholm card gets me back onto the ferry towards downtown Stockhom, but I see that it is making a stop first at Skeppsholmen, the island that has my hostel, just on the other side. I walk back to my boat and sit down, alone again. Behind me some British dudes are drinking scotch and talking somewhat loudly but in a funny way. One of them quotes one of my favorite rap songs by Ice Cube: "I didn't even have to use my AK, yes I have to say it was a good day". Everntually one of them asks if the palace is what we see from across the river, and I chime in helpfully that, yes, it is the palace. My friendliness earns me a spot at their table and an equal share of their Scotch (I make a mental note that I am buying a round at some point this evening). Ian, Ian and Andy are University mates off for a run weekend in Stockholm. They were at a big Rock Show the night before, which included The Raconteurs(Jack White's new band), and many more unforgettable artists (I just forget who they are right now). After the boat we go to the hostel bar, and eventually we end up back at Stureplan where we get some good bar advice from a bouncer (A place called Atlas). The bar is quiet at first but fills up with the fans who just saw Depeche Mode performing live. Music, Movies, Philosophy, Women, are all the topics as beer and cider are consumed. One of the Ians is exhausted (I am pretty wiped too)and we all agree to head back to the hostel, stopping first for some street meat at a local hot dog vendor's stand. After getting ice cream at the hostel, I go to sleep.

Apparently the guys went for a midnight swim after I went to bed. I would have been fast asleep by then. Oh, the duck bite doesn't hurt.

The Stockholm Syndrome

Hi Everyone, why do I always post about cities long after I've left? I'm now on a boat from Stockholm to Helsinki and I recognize I'm 2 days behind on my blog. Having just scammed 25 mins. of extra internet time I feel it's my duty to update on my adventures, I have met many new people in the past 72 hours. Start from my waking up on the train from Oslo.

Remmeber how I mentioned the 2 German girls that I had met on the bus to Åndalsnes were on my train to Stockholm? Well, running into Leah again, I suggest we hook up for the morning to tour Stockholm. They're game, but they're also the self-catering type and want to picnic while I'm checking in at the Chapman (My Hostel, a converted old boat docked on the island of Skeppsholmen). They're saying goodbye to a young woman with a Canadian flag sewn to her backpack and I strike up a conversation with her, Brenna, from the 'Peg, studying in Halifax, moving to T.O. I have all of these vitals and she's looking for someone to have breakfast with, so we split from the German girls (They will meet me at my hostel at 9am (It's 7am now), and Brenna and I strike off for Breakfast, finding the best options at the local McDonalds (BK last night, McDonalds this morning, I am slumming big time for food). Brenna has just met the man of her potential dreams on a DFDS boat from Oslo to Copenhagen (The one that sailed 24 hours after mine!) I hear the whole story and so on and so on! She's changing a lot of her trip plans to meet up with this guy back in Copenhagen. Sounds cool, I hope it works out for her. They seem to have both fallen pretty hard, but travel is an intense experience. I want her to join the German girls and I tonight, but we get to her hostel and she has to wait an hour to check in! So we make a date to meet up the next morning at 9:30 and I book for my hostel.

After a long walk, I arrive at the Chapman Hostel, set on a boat overlooking the Stockholm old town of Gamla Stan. The location's near ideal and the view is spectacular. The room's what you would expect and I'm disappointed to be bunking with people again but my roomies seem fairly laid back. About a minute after I get out of my hostel the German girls are already there and we head for the old town of Gamla Stan. In true travel nerd style, I find a walking tour in the Rick Steves guidebook (The girls have been to Copenhagen before, but thanks to Rick, I find new things to show them). We follow the walking tour, I get a bit lost, and ultimately we end up in Södermalm, which is the young, hip area on the south side of the river. After a lot of walking and some nice views of Stockholm, we end up back in Central downtown on Kungs GardenStrade, a grand open area with fountains and cafes. The girls relax and I am planning to split with them there. I say my goodbyes, pass them my e-mail address (We talk of echanging photos) and I head for Gamla Stan again for the changing of the guard. On the way I see a sound check for what sounds like a nice open air concert, so I head back again to tell the girls, but they're already there. I head over to watch the pomp and ceremony of the guard oparade, as they approach the castle, full marching band in tow. At the square where the ceremony takes place are hundreds of tourists snapping photos enthusiastically and I am no better.

The ritual over and Gotland's guards properly installed as the protectors of the palace for the day, I set out back to the KungsGardenstrade to see the concert and say my last goodbyes to the Germans. The folk group playing is actually quite dull, but they are succeeded by an Indigo Girls style duo, Swedish but singing in English. The songs are very good, and after the show I buy their CD. Ask mne nicely and I'll break it out sometime back in Canada.

Looking for a place to eat lunch, I stumble across the fruit market of Hotorget and the underground market, Hotorgshallen. There's a fish restaurant with a great fish soup there, according to Rick, so I buy it, despite the fact that it's close to 30 degrees outside! It's delicious, full of fish and seafood, and there's complimentary refills!!! Having had my fill of fish soup I head back to the harbor and take a ride through the canals and islands of the Stockholm archipelago, it's a nice ride but the boat is not great for sightseeing, it's hot as hell, and the pre-recorded narrator is some stuffy English guy. However, every few minutes Waterloo by ABBA comes on, forcing me to rock my head back and forth to the music!

After the boat tour I take a quick trip to the National Museum which has an OK art gallery but nothing spectacular. I can finally check into my room at the Hostel, so I do, since it's a 2 minute walk to the hostel from here. At the hostel I take the time to do my laundry, since it's been a day and a half since my climb, and my clothes from that are pretty heavy and nasty. It's a chance to relax, do some e-mailing and posting. After I am cleaned and settled, I head back to Gamla Stan. There's an organ concert I've heard about at the Royal Church, my chance to see it and hear a grand pipe organ. First I head to the Zum Franciscas resturant for dinner, which is on the opposite side of the harbour from where my hostel is, and it's supposedly one of the oldest restos in Stockholm! I order a traditional Pytt Y Panna, which turns out to be the exact same Corned Beef Hash I love at home! Who knew it was a Scandinavian traditional dish! After this I head over to the concert, arriving slightly late and tired out from the efforts of the day and the large beer I had with my Pyt Y Panna. I fall asleep several times during the concert, and I am not the only one. The music is beautiful nonetheless, and I was glad I went. After the concert I walked around Gamla Stan, took a few rides on the Stockholm Underground, and finally returned to the Hostel, getting to sleep at around 1am.

If you're reading and want to say hello, feel free to post in my comments section or send me email!

Up and Down

Nesaksla is the peak just outside of Åndalsnes. It stands 715 meters. Am I actually going to climb this thing in 1 hour? how am I going to do that? The answer is very painfully and on a very steep incline. First, I wake up and have the Rauma Hotel's breakfast buffet, which is a similar spread to what I had in Stryn yesterday, complete with caviar tubes. All proteined up and ready, I start off for the very well marked entry to the Nesaksla path. I think of all of the climbs I've done with Gary, Stuart and Howard, and most recently Tev. This is Mont-St.Gregoire times 2, with more challenging ridges and steeper inclines. It starts off challenging, with long stretches up through trees, and soft dirt, until I start scrambling on rocks. There are many chains set into the rocks to hold onto, since in many places the path is just a steep rock climb.

I am generally terrified of heights. I do these types of hikes to confront that fear. Usually I do them with someone, and that's the real folly of the hike today. I'm on my own. And I am starting at 7:45am. And I do not see another living soul! At a certain point it dawns on me that my shoes, while good, are not gripping me adequately. I tie in tighter. After 15 minutes of hiking I am sweating large buckets. I have a 750ml bottle of water - is it even enough? The climb is treacherous but manageable. Won't the descent be far more dangerous? Are there bears in these woods? What's the square root of Pi?

Anyways, I get a hold on and keep climbing. After 45 minutes, I am doing nothing but scrambling on rocks. After 60 minutes, the treeline starts to fade away. After another 5 minutes, I start feeling the wind blowing, no longer blocked out by trees and bushes. And then I am at the summit, and it is the reason I came to Norway. I feel totally alone in the presence of Giants. All around me are snow capped mountains, lakes that stretch as far as the eye can see. The summit has a little hut where I imagine people camp overnight. I sit in it and eat my trail mix.

After 15 minutes of photographing what feels like everything 3 times over (I even manage to get a really good shot of me!), I start the descent. And here the real pain begins. Scrambling up rocks is easy. Scrambling down them you sometimes have to do in crab style. So I spend the next 90 minutes scuttling down the hill, scraping my palms. I fall only two or three times, but in safe places (And all occuring within a few seconds, the worst one happening when I slip on a wet rock and lend on my ass, while my hand falls into the mud spit out by a drainage pipe. Really more gross than painful, and I shake it off. Gradually the town becomes closer, and it's only when I'm within 200 feet of the entrance to the path that a couple in their '50s comes walking up towards me. They are locals, climbimg the mountain is no big thing for them, but they were surprised I had done it, and apparrently 3:10 is a decent time to finish it. They were the ones who would have found me if something bad had happened. At least someone was walking the trail. The rest of my day was spent cleaning up and getting out of Åndalsnes. I caught a train to Dombas at 3pm, which winds its way up a very scenic route, and at Dombas I changed to an Oslo bound train. It's from there I'm making my overnight train to Stockholm.

Back in Stockholm, I don't have much time free, so I blog for 30 minutes, slum it big time on food (1 whopper please, large fries!) I hop my Oslo train, where I am supposed to be sharing a cabin with another person. He's actually been switched to another cabin, so I have my own lockable room with a bed on the train to Stockholm. At some point I head over to talk to the conductor. On my way, a pretty blonde girl smiles at me, she looks familiar, but I can't place it, so I smile back rather stupidly and move along. After chatting briefly with the conductor (Something about a bathroom being closed in my area) I start back up the train, and I see the same blonde girl. Her head's partway out the window and we're going 80 mph. "Are you sure that's safe?" I ask. "I don't know, it's fun" she answers in German-accented English. Then I see her friend waiting for the bathroom, and I remember that they're the two girls from the bus who we took each others' pictures at the waterfall. We chat a bit, they left Åndalsnes as soon as they got there. They spent the day back in Oslo and are heading back to Stockholm, from where they'll take the train to Småland (It's a region in the South of Sweden, but to me it always meant the kids play area at IKEA - By the way, while everywhere else IKEA is the Swedish Flag's colors, in Norway, the IKEAs are red and blue, Norways's flag - Savages...). Småland is the home of Astrid Lindgren, author of the Pippi Longstocking books, and this is a pilgrimage for these girls to see the area that's where the books take place.(They are really young, 18 and 19 years old, names Magdalena and Leah).

I say I'll see them later and head to bed. I have only slept in beds on trains 4 times. Twice on a round trip from Toronto to Montreal. I never felt secure and couldn't sleep. Once on a train from Jasper to Vancouver. Couldn't sleep then either. That night, on the ride into Stockholm, I sleep like a baby.

More than just the Nutshell

Hi everyone, I apologize for what feels, at least to me, like these posts are rushed. I only find myself with so much time to post, and usually only have access to pricier machines when that comes up. I'm working off a mcahine that doesn't offer a USB connection, so, no pictures yet. I will try to add these when I find friendlier machines.

I think my last post got as far as my leaving Stryn. I write now, three days after that, from Stockholm, which is burning under a sweltering sun. Funny to think how hot these Northern Summers are! I left Stryn's hostel after a nice little included breakfast of Cereal, meats, cheese, pate, and breads and crackers. My personal favorite inclusion in breakfast is the Caviar tube, which you punch open and it squeezes out a concentrated caviar paste, which sounds gross but actually tastes like lox. Since that's plentiful here too, I don't miss the taste of lox, but still enjoy the caviar.

I reach the bus station. The downhill from the Hostel is far less grueling then the ascent. The sky is still fairly grey and I worry about what the weather will be like when I reach Geirangerfjord. Sognefjord, which I visited on the Norway in a Nutshell tour, was nice, but I am far more interested in the Geirangerfjord which is said to be much grander and is a UNESCO world heritage site. To get there, I have to take an hour long bus from Stryn to Hellesylt. I think I made a mistake in not taking the bus all the way to Hellesylt the day before, as Stryn was essentially useless to me (Couldn't ski or swim there). I catch my bus (It is just me and the driver all the way), and he takes me through more mountains until we reach Hellesylt, a lovely little Village under a waterfall (There are Waterfalls everywhere here, this one particularly picturesque). It's an hour to board the boat, so I write postcards, do some Kakuro (An excellent time killer), and eventually board the boat where I get a space up in the front.

The fjord is spectacular, with high walls that can barely be seen to the top through the mist (Which actually clears right after we start, affording spectacular views), and the mountainsides are dotted by ancient, abandoned farms (These cliffside ridges are apparently the most arable in Norway, though families had to tether the childen to keep them safe!) We drift through blue water as our pre-recorded guide points out all the farms and waterfalls (I am jaded by waterfalls by now, but the Geiranger still manages to impress). The Ferry lets us off at Geiranger, a touristy town at the other end of the fjord with some luxury hotels and restaurants. I help myself to a plate of locally made sausages, served with potatoes, turnips and beets, quite tasty, and I wash it down with some Norway Beer.

Then, finally, I am on the bus to my evening destination, Åndalsnes, the Northern gateway to the fjords. The bus starts up and we are on the move up Eagle's Highway, another one of these winding edge of your seat switchback climbs where the bus makes 180 degree turns on a cliffside. I think we reach 1500 meters above sea level before we turn into the mountains and away from the cliffside. The bus driver indulges us in the local photo op, a photo stop at the top of Eagle's Highway overlooking the fjord. We are on our way again, passing through more mountains. We cross yet another fjord on ferry, stop to photo a waterfall, and head for the final sight of our journey, the Trollstigen highway. I am not entirely sure what it is until we pull up to a massive tourist stop (Troll themed junk everywhere, and cafeteria with bad hot dogs) I can see that the road drops off into the gorge directly ahead of us, with the sign noting a 10% grade. With 20 minutes before the bus leaves, I make a run for the observation deck that overlooks the gorge. At a full clip, it takes me about 7 minutes to get there, I take some pretty pictures and am back on the bus in time. The drop into the Trollstigen is nerve-wracking but our driver does this several times a week so I trust the guy. The highway is practically one lane, and at some points we pass double decker coach buses going in the opposite direction. In the middle of this descent we stop at another massive waterfall, where we have more photos (I get two cute young German girls to take my picture with my camera (pay attention, they will come up again later), we chat briefly and are back on the bus.

The rest of the drive is uneventful, and I check into the hotel, a nice little (read very little) room above a modern looking restaurant (And it includes frokost - that's breakfast). Thanks to the Tourist information, I find out about the hike I am planning to do tomorrow (Lonely Planet says it's a 715m vertical climb, can be done in 2 hours!)

I also find out about a beach, only 10 minutes away on foot! I want to swim in the fjords, so I start my walk towards this mythical beach. I get lost first in a heavily industrial area, but then I stumble into a suburb of Åndalsnes and find the beach deserted but for a German couple and a few kids. The German goes in and it seems to be fine. I follow, it's cold but refreshing (Shells everywhere and various plants make the experience not so desirable, but it's great being out there in the middle of the mountains, swimming in cold water that was part of an ice floe maybe only a few hours ago?

After cleaning myself off back at the hotel, I have the "biffsnakker" a meat and veggies stir-fry dinner at a restaurant on the edge of the lake, call home to friends and family (My card will be useless after tomorrow), and head up to the Åndalsnes Grand Hotel's pub to watch the World cup match. Sad to see Germany lose, especially like they did with the 2 goals at the end of second overtime. Still, they gave it a good run. The people at the pub are energetic, but the ones I talk to are fairly closed up and don't chat. I head back to sleep, plans to challenge the summit the next day.

Off the Grid

Don't have tons of time to post tonight, my train leaves for Stockholm in 30 mins. I'm writing tonight having finished my jaunt through the fjords of Norway, which started Monday when my alarm at 7am to make my 8am bus didn't quite wake me up. So I awake with a start at 7:30am in Bergen, throw all my junk into the bags, forgo a shower and dart about 5 blocks to make my bus. I have about 8 minutes to spare, and I use it to buy myself a Wienerbrod (Danish) and a Smorrebrod (Sandwich, this one with Smoked Salmon and scrambled eggs). So I am going to be on the bus from 8am to 3pm in the afternoon, I need to stock up. It's on the ride that I realize there are no non-Norwegian people I can see. I am moving off the tourist grid, which excites me, travelling deep into a new country. I am excited about the sights I will see. I use the bus ride to finish most of the Stockholm set police procedural I am reading, THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN. It's a good, light read, despite being about Mass Murder and Sex Crimes. I am headed up to Stryn, changing buses in Førde. Why Stryn? It's all about a photo I saw in the Lonely planet's traqvel guide, with people bathing in a beach in the shadow of the fjords. This is just a really cool idea and I want to be there. So the bus brings us over fjords, through mountains, on ferries across water, and the scenery for the entire time is unparallelled. Unfortunately, arriving at Stryn is a different story. The sky is grey and rainy and my Hostel is about a kilometer up the side of the mountain. The tourist information center offers me a shortcut which only gets me more lost. Tired and sweaty, I finally reach the hostel. It's pretty quiet, and I may actually have my own room! I heas down to the town, it rains some more, and there's little to do and no decent restaurants. I settle for what ends up being a half decent pizzeria, and finally, I make my way back up to the hostel, but it's still raining hard, so I cave and get a cab. Back in my room, I now have a roommate, Ingar. One quarter gypsy, and a Norwegian, Ingar has just come up from a wedding in Bergen, and is planning to tour the fjord region and meet up with some of his army buddies. With nothing to do, and nowhere to go, he breaks out his stash of highly potent alcohol, and the two of us spend the next couple of hours drinking Orange Juice mixed with whatever it is he's got, he tells me 96% alcohol, but I have my doubts. Now drinking with a gypsy is always a dodgy situation. He is also shoring up his gypsy cred by financing his trip by selling stuff (I read through his price list, which includes the new Neil Young (on cassette), magic tricks, a shave, a haircut - hey, a one night stand for only 100 kroner!) We all have our pre-conceived notions, I already have to room with him, I don't want to have a problem with the guy because I wouldn't drink with him. I manage the situation as well as possible. I get the glasses, I watch him drink before I drink, etc. At some point some Malaysians come by and we hang around. Around then, I'm getting sleepy from the alcohol (And the day's exertions). I fall asleep with the Malaysians still in the room (Good thing too -Ingar broke out the hash around then). Rest assured I wake up the next morning with all my possessions, vital organs, etc. I learned a valuable lesson about tolerance for Gypsies (Although I learned it from Bromwell High already). Ingar's a good chaqp and we said goodbyes the next day. He told me to be careful. I wonder if I come off sometimes as too trusting. Fact is, I kept my guard up the entire night. The fact is, you have to sleep in a room with a complete stranger, you manage that as best you can.

I didn't see many sights that day. The next day was far more rewarding. I'll post that later, I had better get back to my train or my clothes will go to Stockholm without me.

PS - I have updated "The Nutshell", my last entry, so you should go back and have another look if you haven't already.

The Nutshell

I'm writing now from the hostel in Stryn, Norway, a small town in the fjords south of Trondheim. I got out of Oslo ok yesterday morning, just without very much sleep. Today I am doing "Norway in a nutshell", the touristy, cover it all program that gets tourists the very basic Norway package in one day. I threw my gear together and got of my hostel and to the train station relatively fast. A word to describe the Oslo train station - Dodgy. There was a man checking me out in the 7-11 where I was buying a quick breakfast. I turned my back from him and he seemed to tray and move behind me at all times, keeping a distance until he could approach. Which he never did. He wandered out of the 7-11 without buying anything, presumably to stalk someone else. Oslo has a real drug problem, and you can see it in the train station. I saw one guy being escorted out by the cops, shaking on a bad trip, and just yesterday, I saw some guy shooting up at the train station bus stop. All cities have it, I was just at the place and time to see it in Oslo.

Getting out of the city at 6:30am was an excellent move, I board a relatively quiet train (The 8:11 train is a tourist zoo), and the ride to my first switch, Myrdal, was relatively relaxed and I was able to catch up on some sleep (in 15-second increments). As the train progressed the lakes, mountains and trees grow starker as we climb above the treeline. We peak at Finse, a train station about 4,000 feet above sea level. The larger peaks are ice-capped, and a few hardy shacks dot the landscape (I could not imagine existing here in winter, never mind living here for a prolonged period). We arrive at Myrdal and switch to a special train that takes us from the dizzying heights at the top of the mountains, down to sea level where we will catch a ferry through the Sognefjord. The train descent is nice, not as dizzying as I had anticipated, and we break in the middle to view a waterfall which is nice, but made somewhat cheesy by the dancing sirens they bring out to entertain tourists. They dance on rocks 100 feet away from the crowds in the middle of a waterfall. That has to look weird on a resume.



I'm going to post now. This place is a bit expensive to blog from and there's a line forming behind me. I'll finish the nutshell and catch up on Stryn soon.

And I am continuing this now in Andalsnes, but I will have to make it short as I just discovered free internet and I have to catch my train in 20 minutes!

So We continue along the spur down into the Flam Valley at a very sharp angle, eventually reaching the port where all teh tourists board a boat. I am one of the few backpackers, and it's hard being jammed in with all my gear. I spend the 2-hour ride from Flam to Gudvangen snapping photos of fjords, waterfalls (I think I shoot way too many photos of these), and chatting with an elderly British couple and a guy from San Diego (His wife, sitting next to him, is not talking, they are having some kind of fight). It's a beautiful ride and a nice view of the fjords. I will say I think the Geirangerfjord, which I saw the next day, is far more striking, but that's for another post. When we reach Gudvangen we are loaded onto buses to the town of Voss, which is on the Oslo-Bergen rail line, and we wind our way on this massive bus up one of these switchback valley roads that turns back and forth at 180 degrees along a cliffside. We are rewarded with a 10 minute photo stop at the Stalheim hotel. I am really hoping we can make the 4:41 train at Voss to Bergen but I know it's not going to happen. We arrive in Voss at 4:55, one hour before the next train is to leave, so I go into Voss with three young women who work at the American Consulate in Frankfurt. We browse for souvenirs, chat, and have snacks at a local shawarma shop, where they get hit on by a drunken brit. Once we're on the train to Bergen, we decide to hang out for the night. I'm staying in town and they're catching the overnight back to Oslo. So I check into my hostel ("Crowded House" - I'm a fan of the band and couldn't resist). I get a simple single room, just enough. We meet at the funicular at 8pm an go up to the top of Mt.Floyen for a picturesque view of Bergen, followed by dinner at Peppe's Pizza (A chain, but a good chain, and I have been Jonesing for Pizza). After soft Ice Cream, I see them to the train, and head off to reconnoiter the bus station. I will have to be up early to catch the bus to Stryn at 8am. Bergen is a beautiful city, but I've seen the central area in a few hrs. and I'm generally done. I head back to my hotel to get some precious hours of sleep before I head off into the fjords!

And with that I will leave my blog character two days in the past, cause I have a train to catch!

Visit Sunny Oslo!

I am now writing from a Net cafe just around the corner from my hostel. I have the entire block in use tonight. The side facing west has my hostel. The side facing south is the net cafe. I am doing laundry on the Northeast facing side (My block is more of a triangle, carved that way by the Anker River that runs through the heart of Oslo from the lakes North of the city down to the Oslofjord. I arrived her by boat on Friday Morning after a late night in the ship's dead disco lounge. After posting my last message, and being unsure of whether my photos were saving to this nifty photobank I just bought, I went and complained to the service desk because the Net cafe's sign said they could handle USB, but clearly they couldn't. Fortunately, Lars, the purser I complained to is a tech geek, and when he heard about my technology he wanted to see it, so we used his laptop, and my photos worked! So I am trying to put some of them up on the blog so you can see me smiling and having a good time (And you can all be insanely Jealous!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Have I lost you yet? I'll finish off my boat stories. After the net stuff, I went and checked out the disco, which was doing Karaoke lounge from 10:45 to Midnight. Only one other person there seemed to be into it - Laura, a young British woman with a baby. I think she goaded me into it, and then I realized she's the DJ's wife, visiting from England. And she's a great singer. She gets up and does a Teriffic LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY, which I follow up with my Sub-par WALKING IN MEMPHIS (And the Karaoke has the Cher lyrics, fortunately I know the Marc Cohn version pretty well). She follows it up a few minutes later, I forget with what, and she goads me into singing again. I offer to share a duet with her, and pretty soon we're Travolta and Olivia on SUMMER NIGHTS. The audience eats it up, and eventually a few others join in, a Spanish guy with a spot on LA BAMBA, four very shy Norwegian girls doing GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN! Another guy is hanging with the DJ, I learn later that he's the guy in giant Parrot suit that entertains the kids on the boat, and DJs their party (I could hear it from the net cafe, imagine CRAZY FROG AXEL F on a loop). He does a really good NEW YORK NEW YORK. He needs reassurance, so I tell him that if Simon Cowell were here he would say "you sound like someone doing Karaoke on some boat cruise". So it's ok! I finish off with COMMON PEOPLE by Pulp and WONDERWALL by Oasis. The first is fun, but doing justice to the second one is impossible.

After hanging with the DJs and realizing the Disco is getting worse, not better (One person on the dance floor, count 'em, One!). I head for bed. Food is very good on the boat, the breakfast is a Smorgasbord and the Coffee is served in the containers where you use a plunger to strain the grounds through the water and get a stronger taste. Dinner was good, but the Rack of Lamb I had was a bit tough, I believe it should fall off the bone. But I'm just spoiled.

I arrive in Oslo and Hike my way up from port. I instantly notice two things here that I didn't have in Copenhagen - Heat, and the Sun. It's beautiful here, compared to Copenhagen, a nice city, but Oslo is different, Urban yet set into the mountains and trees. It hits me right away and I will find many other who say the same thing. Oslo looks like it could exist in British Columbia!



I hike up to the city center from the harbour in about 20 minutes and find Tourist info, get my usual map and info, and continue hiking north towards Anker Hostel, my home for the next 2 nights. 10 minutes later I have arrived and stowed my larger backpack in the luggage room. There is a walking tour of Oslo leaving in 10 minutes, so I run out to an ATM to get Norwegian cash, and I am back in time for the tour, which is informative in a way that none of the guides are. Our Italian born tour guide, Grazia, takes us (there are only 3 of us, including Grazia) up the Anker river past old factories, mills that have been converted to residential areas, we see lush Waterfalls running 15 minutes walk from downtown. Again I'm reminded of the Vancouver parks (I think Capilano has the waterfalls?). She also takes us through the hip area of Grunerlokka, the residential Gronland (Named because it was the place many Greenlanders moved to when they came here)and others that I already am struggling to remember. She also pointed out one area called New York that was an area for new immigrants during Oslo's industrialization. The 2:30 tour ended, and I think I spent the next hour calling home to family and friends. Afterwards, I walked around the center of the city, including the King's palace, attractive, but not open to the public (The less said about Lunch the better everything's a small fortune here), down to the Fortress, Akershus Festnung, which has the Norway resistance museum and another castle. But I hear it's not so interesting, so I ankle for a quick return to the hostel to get ready for meeting Ketil, a local I met when he was at hot docs. He was with June Chua, a writer and documentarian I know through some of my brother's friends. We met outside his theater in Grunerlokka (He runs a Movie theater that shows documentaies only) We went to a local pub to watch the Germany-Argentina Nail biter, then we go for Mexican. After about 4 or 5 pints each, we are still going, and we head for a very trendy nightspot where the intellectual bright lights of Norway seem to be gathered. Apparently the 40 something man a few tables down is the Prime Minister of Norway! Ketil is a very good host, and we are chatting with him and his friends Schute, Tereza, Ehlen and Linda (Apologies for any spelling errors). I enjoy the fish out of water status, but again, I feel very comfortable in a laid back patio atmosphere, that feels like...B.C.! I will learn the next day that next door to this bar, in fact, is the Canadian Embassy. Tired and more than a little inebriated I stumble back to the Hostel. Ketil walks with me, I hope he doesn't think I was going to get lost! I slip into bed but not without first calling my girlfriend who is in New Jersey to say hi (2am (Oslo time) and drunk is always the right time for that, isn't it?)

Despite a mild hangover, I managed to pack a lot into today, starting from when I headed down to the harbour for 9 am, only to find out the Nobel Peace Center opens at 10am. In search of cheap food options, I find an ICA grocery store that will heat a mini-quiche for me for under 20 kr. It's small but tasty, and less than 5 bucks! I have it with a banana and the combination is actually filling.

I visit the Nobel peace centre first. It's a beautifully desinged installation that uses technology innovatively, more than any other museums I know as it tells the story of Albert Nobel, presents very futuristic AV displays for all of the peace prize winners and does it in new and original ways. Definitely worth a visit when you are in Oslo (And you should go!)

I took a ferry over to Bygdøy island (Actually Bygdøy is really a peninsula), rto visit the museum complexes there. They have a museum dedicated to the Con-tiki raft (I skipped it), a museum that houses FRAM, the ship Amundsen sailed to the South Pole. The ship is well preserved, and stepping into it you feel yourself standing in a piece of exploration history. While there, I quickly lunch on a lox and egg sandwich that is delicious and reasonably priced. I skipped the maritime museum, and the open air folk museum, likely similar to the one I'll visit in Stockholm. I saw the remains of three found viking ships as well as some of their artifacts. 2 of the 3 ships are interesting and some of the artifacts are pretty cool. On the ferry back to Oslo I chatted with another Canadian who also sees the BC parallel (He says it's like coming into Cranbrook.)

I take in the National Museum, with its landscapes and Munsch-rich collection, enjoying the company of an Australian family with a 2005 Rick Steves guide. They need my help because some of the paintings in my walking tour description aren't in their previous year edition, and some of them have been moved. I think the Steves' guidebook has been my most valuable icebreaker on the trip.

After the Museum, I head for the Vigeland Sculpture Park, and take in the lifelike sculptures of the many ages of man erected in Frogner park. I also go a little nuts at this point when I realize frommy guidebook that the tilework surrounding the fountain is a 2 mile walking maze and I decide to follow it. I attract the gaze of many parkgoers, who must think me completely insane as I weave, wind and turn on the spot. A few get it, a lot just stare (And most just ignore my shenanigans altogether) I get through in about 40 minutes (I am cutting corners), and finish up at the monolith. The Vigeland park is fascinating and deserves a better summary, but I have to get going soon. I stopped off at Krishna's Vegetarian cuisine for food, it's a reasonable counter in the West end, near Vigeland Park, that serves a tasty Indian meal (and complimentary seconds), for a reasonable 90kr.

I finished off my day with a trip into the mountains over Oslo, culminating with a quick visit to the ski museum so I could climb the Ski Jump tower for the best view in the city of Oslo. Before I left I caught the penalty kicks between England and Portugal. Oh well sorry England. I have to go pick up my laundry, pack and go to sleep so I can be up and out early tomorrow.