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.
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.
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