September 21, 2015

 

 

Wasting a day again

Finally the 6 night string of one nighters is over.  We’re off to Berlin today for a four night stay which will seem like heaven. The flight connection will be a little tight so we plan to be at the gangway at 7:30 for an 8:00 docking. The Anastasia rolls into Helsinki right on time and we are behind only 3 other people to disembark.  If we spoke Russian we would know that the first class passengers were assembling in another hallway.

We glumly watch as about 75 people get off before us and we know that the passport control line will be way backed up, and we’re right.  The lines are long but we keep moving steadily.  We get through at 8:30 and have booked a driver to get us to the airport for a 10:55 flight to Riga, Latvia and then on to Berlin.  At 4:00 AM this morning it occurred to John in one of those wake up thoughts that we told the car company that we would be arriving on the Princess Maria, not the Anastasia.  So a hurried text to the company at 6:45 and hope for the best.

No problem.  The driver was there with a little sign and we reach the airport at 9:05, almost 2 hours before flight time.  We’re on Air Baltic and have a 3 across on a 737 to Riga and then 2 and 1 in a Dash-8 to Berlin with an hour layover in Riga.  Pat isn’t feeling well on the second leg so Mary and John pair up while Pat has a recuperative nap.

We gain an hour on the way to Berlin so arrive at 3:00 local time. Today we have been on a ship, two airport buses, a cab and two flights, and have been crammed and stalled and ignored and generally pushed around.  The plan was to get an air bus to Alexanderplatz and then walk 20 minutes to the apartment but there is no way we are going through any more punishment.  We catch a cab for door to door service and it is the best 26-euro investment of the trip so far.

We had called our VRBO renter, Ina, when we landed and she is waiting outside for us at the apartment.    It is a lovely 2-bed, 2-bath in the Mitte section of what used to be East Berlin near Alexanderplatz.  High ceilings, spacious bathrooms, a full kitchen and best of all a washer/dryer.  Mary begins the laundry service immediately sorting out two weeks of packed and repacked and repacked clothes to get load number one in the washer.  John gets all the computer connections established and Pat begins work on getting the lay of the land.

Once organized we go along a canal and under a major street to get to the neighborhood supermarket. Our mission is to load up with breakfast and beverages and all is accomplished.  Mary turns the washer into a dryer (there is a learning curve with our euro washer/dryer combo) and moves to the next phase before thinking about dinner.  The laundry equipment is pretty small so we can envision about 5 three-hour loads in our future.

Dinner is next door at the “Rotisserie Weinbar” primarily because of ease of access.  There are some big groups coming in with reservations and we are relegated to a raised counter in front of the kitchen.  Mary and Pat split a roast chicken and John has the ribs with gratineed potatoes.  Our server is very attentive and personable when around but she gets absolutely slammed and we don’t see her as often as we should by our standards.  The food was good but there was no follow through, a salad was missed, the wine order was a mistake and there was no one to fix it.  Our server was a victim of the system tonight. 

Home to bed after a day that was only devoted to getting from one place to another.  Not fun but this will happen again in the next 8 weeks.

What did we learn today?  We reinforced our belief that the American system of restaurant service is far and away the best in the world for the owner, the staff and the customers.  If anyone falls into the “greedy owners should just pay the servers a living wage so we don’t have to tip” camp, please see us after class so we can explain how and why it works for everyone.

September 18, 2015

 

Finishing Finland

Happy Birthday Pat.  We have tried to buy a foreign language birthday card for this day but it was not to be.  Apparently we’re more birthday obsessed than most people.  Mary got her some chocolate truffles which is more appreciated than a card.  All three of us get the slightly discounted breakfast buffet at the Café Killa next door to the hotel.  We postpone our next activities as a thunderstorm moves through.

There is a general work stoppage today as part of a national labor movement. This is the first one in Finland in a generation.  The public transportation system is shut down and there will be lorries moving from the harbor to Parliament between 11 and 12 today.  Europe continues to be faced with immigration and global labor issues as low priced shippers and workers move into the EU, primarily from Eastern Europe.

Our path is the labor movement path today as we march down the Esplinade towards the harbor.  This is a beautiful stretch of city center with widely spaced traffic lanes in each direction and a pedestrian parkway down the middle. The sun is shining off and on for the first time in a week for us which makes us appreciate Helsinki a little more.  It is different than most European cities in that it doesn’t have a thousand year history.  It was created out of nothing by the Swedes to provide a buffer between trading rivals Sweden and Tallinn.  The good news is that the city was built by design and was based on the architectural style of Paris. There are tall majestic apartment buildings with a lot of active sidewalk cafes in spite of the 55-degree weather.

We can see some of the protesters gathering in the main square, and some other splinter groups along the esplanade.  It seems like more of a party than a protest as we know them.

We emerge from the esplanade at the south harbor and market area.  There are a few vendors on the plaza selling Lapp delicacies (fish, lingonberries and reindeer) and tourist trinkets.  This is where the Presidential Palace, Swedish Embassy and other big-shot government buildings line the plaza and harbor.  The drawing card is the Orthodox Cathedral on top of a hill and as we drag ourselves up the steep steps we find that it is closed for renovation this week only.  We make do with the Lutheran Cathedral that is very Protestant bland but impressive in scope.

We walked down here in the parklike center of the boulevard and take the shop lined street-side back.  These are very fancy stores and restaurants and the well-to-do of Helsinki are undisturbed by the all-day labor protest as they sip their sparkling wine and salmon soup. We are prepped for the big labor rally and see the police out in force as we approach the main square. Alas, there is almost no one there. It was scheduled for 11:00 to 12:00 and apparently at 12:00 everyone got on with their days. In fact, the obvious protestors who are still around are walking around with trash bags picking up little scraps of paper—very polite.  We were going to suggest that they should be out marching down six lanes of the main thoroughfare blocking traffic and shouting slogans.  They need to work on this.

We stopped at Stockmanns to grab a quick sandwich from their deli to get us to dinner later. We haven’t been south on the Steamroller and take this opportunity to just wander without a destination.  You can definitely see the Parisian influence with lines of six story apartment buildings with retail on the ground level.  After a couple hard showers this morning we have been enjoying bright sunshine but heavy winds this afternoon. We like sun better than rain.

We make it back to our hotel at about 3:00 where we pick up our luggage and start walking once again to the port.  This is the next leg of our one nighters with an overnight ship tonight to St. Petersburg Russia, a night at the Sokos Vasilievsky Hotel and another overnight back on Sunday night. This is the most adventurous part of our whole trip and we have been a bit nervous about it for a long time.  Fingers crossed.

We get a few drops of rain on the way to the ship and we check with Uber to see what’s available. They have jacked up their rates to encourage more drivers to hit the streets because public transportation isn’t functioning today. While they are asking us if that is OK it stops raining and so we keep walking.

We booked this months ago and all goes according to plan.  To visit Russia you need a visa which takes months and many hoops to jump through, or you have to take a registered tour and never be out of the sight of your tour guide.  There is one loophole—you can book this cruise on the Russian St. Peter line that buys you 72 hours of unescorted time in St. Petersburg.  That’s us.

We get checked in and board right away for a 6:00 sailing.  Our cabin is the budget variety which means we throw our stuff in there and head for a lounge.  There are places to plug in our electronics, beer and cocktails, piano players, singers, guitar players and other assorted bits of entertainment to get us into the evening. 

We do the ala carte restaurant for Pat’s birthday dinner.  She has the Chicken Kiev, Mary has the salmon and John has sturgeon for the first time.  We have a bottle of wine, chat with our St. Petersburg native server and all-in-all a good experience.  We move to the casino where there is a group of Japanese guys at the blackjack table so we watch for a while. The dealer is on a roll of 20’s and 21’s and he is raking in a lot of chips.  One of the players bails and moves to an empty table where he can play three seats by himself.

We head back to the Columbus lounge for the second half of the floor show.  We have women Russian dancers that are half ballet and half Rockettes, and a little ballet fellow jumping all around the stage.  Then there is a guy singer (pretty good), a clarinet player and then a change of costumes and repeat.  It was all high energy and we had fun with the whole thing.

The boat is gently rolling which will make for easy sleeping tonight, even in our cramped quarters.  We peel off for bed since only one person can be standing up in the cabin at once.  Russia tomorrow!!

What did we learn today?  Levis makes an ultra-taper leg jean (largest size, 33-waist) that we’ve never seen in the US.

September 17, 2015

 

 

 

Surfing the Baltic

Breakfast is a monster at our hotel in Tallinn this morning.  Hot and cold, savory and sweet, meats, eggs pastries, lots of coffee and the killer “cake of the day.”  You have to love these Radisson types.

We have a 10:30 ferry back to Helsinki this morning and walk through the continuing drizzle of our lives.  Pat has a rain poncho that makes her look like an isolated soldier from the Korean War.  Stylish and yet functional.  We are now ferry experts and find the perfect table in the perfect lounge for crossing.  It’s good to be us.  We’re also happy we took the time to include Tallinn on this trip.  It is very different from Helskinki and we think a better experience than a good seat at a Twins game.

We walk back to our little imitation hotel in Helsinki and our rooms are already ready at 1:00.  We drop our stuff and take advantage of a break in the rain to begin our Helsinki walking tour. There is a challenge with street names since bi-lingual Finland has all the street names in both Finnish and Swedish.  Out anchor is Mannerheiminitie which we have renamed the Steamroller.

There is a cool monument right across from Stockmans with three naked guys swinging sledges on an anvil (be careful) that is pockmarked with bullet holes from WWII.  We detour to revisit the train station, a local architectural treasure and return to the Steamroller to continue our walk to the north.  This is culture row with museums, galleries, music venues finally passing the under-renovation Parliament building.

Our furthest point is the Temppeliaukio, also known as the Church in the Rock. This non-denominational house of worship was literally blown out of solid granite and sits neatly underground on top of a rocky hill.  There is recorded new-age music playing in the church and if we could listen to music in this environment all the time, we would listen to music all the time.  You feel like you’re inside the speaker.

We get our bearings and begin to walk back towards the hotel.  We nose around in some neighborhoods and shops along the way veering off a block or two if we see something interesting.  Like our Aussie friends Don and Jan, we might think this is “just another big city,” but it is starting to grow on us.  Especially if we’re not wet.

We take a break for a couple hours before squeezing into our room for a cocktail before dinner.  We have a couple sips left from our nightcap last night and surprisingly our front desk guy has ice cubes.

Our mission tonight is to find “Zetor” a Finnish Traktor restaurant that either celebrates or insults rural Finland lifestyles.  It has disappeared (we later learn it is in an alley across the street) so we go with what we know and head back to “9” where we ate last night.  It’s packed.  The other recommendation we got last night was for “Rafla” which is next to “9.”  It is a touch more upscale but still comfortable.  Pat and Mary both have the cheeseburger with Tallegio cheese and John has the lamb meatballs with mashed.  Mary has been talking about a burger she had in the north of Wales since 2006.  She now says that this burger is perhaps as good as and maybe better than that one.  That makes it all worthwhile.

We stop at a place on the way back called “pJAZZa” which is an Italian/jazz joint that has some sort of jam session going on.  Pretty fun but one drink and we’re toast for the day.  There’s a break in the rain which will slow down the growth of moss on the north sides of our bodies.

What did we learn today?  Levis makes an ultra-taper jean--largest waist size - 33.  Must be for Europeans.

September 16, 2015

 

 

One Nighters

We are categorically opposed to one-nighters, speaking in the travel sense.  When you stay in a place for one night you spend a too-high percentage of your time dealing with moving around.  It’s frustrating and draining.  So here’s the deal--we have six one-nighters in a row. We have a couple more towards the end of the trip when we have difficult connections but this is the worst stretch.

Our schedule calls for 3 nights in this part of the itinerary but we wanted to spend a night in Tallinn, Estonia.  We could have done it last night but since we were meeting Pat, who would be tiring rapidly, it didn’t seem prudent.  We could have done it Thursday night but we have a firm travel date on Friday afternoon so if there were weather or labor disruptions we might miss the boat, so to speak.  The result is that we have Helsinki-Tallinn-Helsinki in this stretch.

We let Pat sleep for a while and John goes to “Roberts Coffee” for a couple cups to get us rolling. There is allegedly coffee in our lobby but the office doesn’t open until 8:00 and the coffee appears sometime after that.  Eventually Pat pops up and she and John go next door for the discounted breakfast buffet while Mary mills around in Stockmans. 

It is raining once again (the headline of the trip so far) which means Pat goes back for a nap and John and Mary hang out again at Stockman’s.  This is the flagship of a monster retail operation and this store rivals Macy’s in New York and Harrods in London.  Not much of a foreign experience but we have time to explore Helsinki over the next couple days.

We have a 1:30 ferry to Tallinn and we need to board by 1:00.  It is a two hour ride each way and about $70 round-trip so the time and cash investment is about the same as a good seat at a Twins game.  The Finns consider this ferry to be a party barge, at least on weekends, and make the easy 50-mile run for cheap beer and food in Estonia.

Being good walkers we decide to walk the mile+ to the ferry terminal.  We have left our big suitcases with the Helsinki Hotel and just carry overnight bags. We have already purchased tickets on-line and use the automated check-in service.  The boarding is easy after zig-zagging for ten minutes down chutes and hallways and ramps. We were concerned about the style of seating but we find a table for three in a lounge at the window in the front of the ship.  We share some sandwiches, chips and beer and the whole experience is very civilized.

We’re in a Radisson Park Inn in Tallinn that is walkable, even in the drizzle, from the ferry terminal.  Our room here is about the same size as our combined rooms in Helsinki but 25% less in price than either.  Mary is pleased.

We do the Rick Steves walking tour through the old town of Tallinn.  Tallinn was a power during the middle centuries of the second millennium AD rivalling Stockholm and Copenhagen.  The old town is wonderfully maintained from the town walls to the main square and city government buildings.  There is an upper town, the historical seat of Estonian national government, and a lower town where the traders and city government held sway.  The heads of the respective governments would meet on the steep path between the towns when there were matters to discuss.

 

The big deal in addition to the town hall is the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.  The Russians have had their toes in Tallinn for more than a hundred years with true domination between the end of WWII and 1991.  During the occupation Russians flooded in by the tens of thousands in an effort to create an ethnic presence as well as a political one.  The Cathedral is a very visual representation of that presence as it sits across a plaza from the Estonian Parliament Building.

There is a service in a side chapel when we visit with the Priest popping in and out of altar doors which represent the separation of the physical from the spiritual.  There are 4 ladies singing and it sounds like a full choir—the voices of angels.  It is really moving.

Our next move is back down the hill for beer and dinner.  Our pick is the “Hell Hunt” or Wolfhound.  The beers are good, Mary has a Herring platter with potatoes and vegetables, Pat the yellow curry and John the Salmon pasta.  Beers and dinners total $36 Euros.  We could like it here.

It’s a nice evening stroll back through town to our hotel.  There are plenty of people moving around and it seems very vibrant.  We grab a bag of ice at the bar and finish the day with a nightcap in our room.

 

What did we learn today?  Prices in Finland are about 70% of Norway and Estonia is half of Finland.

September 15, 2015

 

 

Bye-bye Norway

Does it ever stop raining here?  We have read some of Norwegian author Jo Nesbo’s books and as an Oslo snob he likes to beat up Bergen over the rain.  According to Nina the Bergen Burghers don’t care much for the Oslo folks either.  It is a northern west coast city and like Portland and Seattle it will get its share of weather.  It is just dripping a little as we are down earlier today to attack the breakfast buffet.  Mary is fully into Herring and salmon at this point and she reminds John to leave a little for the other guests.

We drag our luggage down the hill to the bus terminal for an 8:15 Flybussen to the airport.  Everything is right on time and we get to experience rush hour traffic from the center heading east to the airport.  Everything really moves well here even though there aren’t multi-lane expressways.  We have seen two stop signs in Norway since our arrival and a couple traffic lights in the center cities.  Otherwise every intersection is a round-about or a yield.  Because the flow is pretty even—no big rushes of traffic on green lights--the merging into and out of traffic circles is very smooth.  We like it a lot.

We’re on our way to meet Sister Pat (a relative, not a nun) in Helsinki, Finland.  We have an hour to Stockholm, and hour layover and another hour flight to Helsinki.  We also lose an hour on the way which will make it late afternoon when we reach our destination.

Since we’re now in the back of the plane where we belong Mary grabs a little of her “flight medicine” from the duty-free in Bergen.  That makes a nice addition to the in-flight coffees on both our segments.  All is uneventful, all connections are smooth, and our luggage arrives promptly.  It would have been nice to have clear skies to catch the great views in and out of these port cities but there isn’t much we can do about that.

We grabbed the Finnair bus from the Helsinki airport into the city.  It really looks very big and very pleasant.  Pat is waiting at the bus terminal when we arrive.  She has already checked into our hotel for the night and sort of knows the ropes.  Guess what?  It’s drizzling. 

Pat guides us the 10 minute walk to the hotel and we find check-in on the 6^th floor.  The elevator holds the three of us and our two suitcases with perhaps an inch to spare.  We sacrificed room size for budget and location on this stop but little did we know.  The room is the size of a cruise ship cabin and the bathroom is smaller.  The bathroom is one of those unique Scandinavian designs which incorporates the sink, toilet and shower all into the space of the shower.  There is a curtain you can pull across the bathroom door and clothes hooks to keep your towel dry while you shower.  We think of ways to combine all of our activities into one which is funnier in concept than in reality.

Pat is dragging with jet lag—she arrived this morning--and while we want to take a little walk around town she needs to get a bit of a nap.  The guy at the front desk has recommended a couple “pub” style restaurants for dinner tonight, both about 3 blocks away.  We looked into a few windows and decide on “9” for at least a beer and to check out the menu.  We still aren’t sure and then the place starts to fill up and we see some pretty good food appearing from the kitchen.

We have another beer and Mary gets the chorizo pasta, Pat has a chicken yellow-curry stir fry and John has a salmon stir fry with noodles—all excellent.  Once again we are lucky to find some really good food without the effort of a dress-up restaurant.

Still drizzling!  Do we need a spot for a nightcap on the way back to the hotel?  After looking in a few spots we stop at a pub across from the hotel and grab beers.  The two guys tending bar have very little interest in being there and as more people come in they tend to move slower and pretty soon there is a line at the bar.  Now even slower.  We have to leave before Mary gets into supervisor mode.

We make plans to meet Pat in the morning and curl up on our army cots for the night.  Hello Finland!

What did we learn today?   You can use your phone in selfie mode as a mirror to see if you have any spinach in your teeth.