Sprinting to the "Finnish"

While our trip is starting to wind down, it is by no means going down without a fight.  We are currently in the middle of a jam packed six day stretch which started with a flight from Tel Aviv to Helsinki, then a train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, a train back from St. Petersburg to Helsinki with a ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm that night, a flight from Stockholm to Bergen, a train from Bergen to Flam, then one last train from Flam to Oslo where we will stay for two nights.  Sleep in a bed has become a luxury and we are definitely running on empty, but you can sleep when you’re dead and we’re determined to make the most out of this final stretch.

We landed in Helsinki and were in for quite a shock.  For the first time since leaving the frozen tundra of Hanover New Hampshire in mid-March, we were cold.  Spring has certainly not sprung in Helsinki due its extreme northern coordinates.  Because of our flight debacle, we arrived later than planned and did a short walk around the city before deciding to get some sleep knowing that we could see the rest of it on the rebound after St. Petersburg.

By 6:15 the next morning our train was pulling out of the Helsinki station and mother Russia was in our sights.  The 3-hour ride got us into St. Petersburg with a full day to take advantage of everything the city has to offer.  First we stopped by the Winter Palace, one of the more famous destinations in St. Petersburg.  We were very upset to find out that the Hermitage, one of the most famous art museums in the world which is located in the Winter Palace, was closed on Mondays (one of the problems with only spending on day in a certain location).  Following this disappointed we were greeted with a pleasant surprise.  We entered  St. Isaac's Cathedral not thinking much of it, but were overwhelmed by its majesty once we crossed through the doors.  Seemingly every square inch of the interior of the cathedral was covered with some type of art whether it be a fresco, mosaic, statue or carving.  It was definitely one of the more impressive displays of art and architecture that we have ever seen. 

Next we headed over to the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood, which has the traditional Russian onion domes.  The inside of this church was once again very impressive, with mosaics of Christ and his apostles covering all of the walls and ceilings.  After seeing all of these impressive sights it was made clear to us that Peter’s goal of creating a city to help Westernize Russia was accomplished.  The train ride, walking, and sightseeing wore us down, and we took a nap before heading to dinner. 

It was a strange feeling walking to dinner at 10pm while the sun was still up.  I can’t imagine what it’s like in a month at this latitude, when night time lasts for 45 minutes.  Our destination for dinner was a traditional Russian vodka room that offered over 200 different types of vodka.  The beef stroganoff, vodka, and music that must have come from a Cold War propaganda movie gave us a sense of what life was like under the Iron Curtain.

Before we knew it, we found ourselves back on the train at 6am the following morning to return to Helsinki.  The temperature had warmed slightly from two days ago which made this go around much more pleasant.  We stopped for a while in the square in front of the beautiful Helsinki Cathedral and utilized the free city wide wifi Helsinki provides (I guess socialism has some benefits) while taking in views of the harbor, where we could just see the Silja Serenade, our vessel that would take us to Stockholm later that night. 

The Silja Serenade was enormous.  It housed multiple restaurants, bars, a casino, and shops.  It was a floating city.  We were very excited for this overnight cruise, having heard great reviews of the trip.  Once aboard, we took advantage of the warm weather and headed to the top deck where we were given great views of the Helsinki harbor.  The winds whipping across the Baltic drove us back below deck to our luxurious C class berths, which were located at the very bottom of the boat below the two car decks.  If the ship were to go down I knew that we would be caged in and left to drown, just like the lower class passengers on the Titanic, while the civilized people would be comfortable aboard a spacious lifeboat.  But, we did not plan on spending much time in our room, so it more than served its purpose. 

Our first stop was the all you can eat/drink buffet.  Being on a budget and not spending much of that budget on food, whenever we have entered an all you can eat environment we tend to over do it, which we most certainly did here.  After five plates and a few dirty looks from the people sitting at our table, our stomachs were on the verge of exploding.  The only cure was a quick nap before sampling the ship’s nightlife.

The food coma was more powerful than we thought.  We slept through our alarms and didn’t wake up until midnight.  Given the reputation of this party boat, we figured that things would just be heating up when we hit the deck.  Instead, it was more like a ghost town.  I guess there are not many people taking this ferry on a random Tuesday in the beginning of May so we decided to test our luck at the casino.  All that needs to be said is that our luck from Macau did not follow us to Scandinavia.  Determined to still have fun despite the adverse conditions, we headed to the ships nightclub where we had a very interesting encounter with a self-proclaimed alcoholic Finnish man.  He was very into dancing and kept encouraging us to “do more”, while coming closer and closer.  He gave us a lot of insight into Finnish culture, and told me that “Finnish men hold hands and kiss all the time.”  A few minutes after that, he asked Alex if he wanted to take him home, and it was at this point that we determined it was time to call it a night and retire to our bunks.

The next morning we made a quick exit from the boat and set off to see Stockholm before taking off for Bergen that night.  We walked through the collection of islands that makeup the city, and soaked up the sun along the beautiful waterfront.  When strolling through one of the city’s parks we noticed everyone was eating these incredible looking burgers.  After further investigation, we found out that they were all from a place called Max.  We hit Max hard, and wolfed down the amazing burgers in the scenic park.  

Following this we walked more around the Old City, visited the Royal palace, a cathedral, and rode the Katarina elevator up to a very cool bar that had great views of all of Stockholm.  Being further south of Helsinki, it was much warmer here and spring had just begun.  All of the flowers were in full bloom and it seemed that all of the Swedes were taking very long lunch breaks so that they could be outside and take in the beautiful weather that had finally arrived after a long cold winter.  We really liked Stockholm’s vibes, and it was unfortunate we did not have more time there. 

But there is no looking back, only going forward.  Norway and its fjords are beckoning.