Arriving in St Petersburg

In my head, the train left at 5.48am so catching a taxi at 5am for a 5-10min taxi ride was perfectly sensible.  Both I and the taxi driver were early so I arrived at the train station at 4.59am and was on the train by 5.06am.  Just as well because the train actually left at 5.12am.  Oops.

I'm felt like I was in a James Bond/Mission Impossible movie.  Half the train looked liked dour and deadly assassins, I expected one guy to peel of his face and reveal he was really Tom Cruise at any moment, and there was a weird meeting between a man in one of those Russian furry hats and a be-suited skinhead.  Then there was the steady stream of people wanting to look at my passport.  None of them smiled.  Once you enter the border zone, there's barbed wire fences, bright lights and the train seems to emit bright sparks from the track (probably something to do with the electric train, but in my Bond filled head it was so the snipers with guns pointed at us the whole way could see anyone attempting to slip from the train).  So, in summary, I didn't sleep on the train.

I did think about what a lovely country Finland is - not the dull country cousin of Sweden that I had expected.  Helsinki is a very lovely city - I imagine it's even more fabulous in Summer.  I'll have to come back....

Taxi drivers are the people I trust least in the world.  Even less than politicians.  So the taxi that I had arranged to meet me came as a pleasant surprise.  He gave me a running commentary as we drove through the city.  I had purposely got a train so goddamn early so that I would have time to do things when I arrived.  So, first of all, I had a nap. 

Then I went to the Russian Museum.  This is a museum of Russian Art and I was a bit disappointed really.  The art was theoretically very good but there was little that made me think.   Russia has a hugely turmultuous and violent history - yet none of this comes through in the art.  The 20th century with it's huge political upheavals is represented by portraits and still lifes.  I'm sure there is art that is intended to protest, to shock, to criticise whatever the current regime might be.  But it is not on show at the Russian Museum.

A quiet day in Helsinki

My room at the Hilton Strand looks over the water.  So I was quite surprised when I opened the curtains late in the morning to see people walking around and not a drop of water to be seen.  Then I realised that it was frozen.  A perfect opportunity to walk on water!!!  So out I tentatively went and then wandered over to the fishermen to take a photo.  They make holes in the ice with large hand drills (the drills are about as high as a person), then sit and fish.  It didn't look like they'd caught anything yet.  As I left the ice, a family arrived with sleds and some kind of snow-scooter.  Oh to be 8 years old again.

I hadn't learnt much about Finland history so the National Museum of Finland was first on the agenda for the day.  It spans prehistoric time to the present, but I find pre-history rather dull (people lived like cavemen everywhere) so walked through that part very quickly.  Then it skips to the middle ages (I don't know what happened to the thousands of years of history in between - or maybe I just missed that).  Finland was 'Christianised' by Sweden at the beginning of the middle ages and stayed part of the Swedish empire until the early 1800s when it was ceded to Russia as part of some plan by Napoleon to isolate England.  It became a Grand Duchy of Russia and began to establish a bit of its own culture.  It wasn't until 1917 that it declared independence from Russia.  Interestingly, the United States was one of the last countries to recognise its independence (after Sweden and Russia).  The exhibits from the 20th century are basically about pop culture and that's the same everywhere pretty much.  So all in all I was a bit disappointed.  Because there isn't much national history, the museum focusses on furniture, religious artefacts, clothing and a section on Sami culture.  These are pretty boring when they're not part of a bigger story.

I'm not a fan of military history - the battle of this, General that - but I have studied the world wars from the perspectives of a number of countries and I'm always interested to see where the countries I visit fit in.  I think that was part of my disappointment with Sweden, they were neutral in both.  There was nothing on the wars in the national museum and I wasn't up to visiting the war memorial museum, so I googled instead.  Finland was part of Russia during WW1 and so has no story to tell, but it makes up for it in WW2.

Russian invaded Finland on a pretext (as part of an agreement with Nazi Germany) and took a significant part of land.  Whilst other European countries were sympathetic, none provided military aid.  So they turned to the Nazis who assisted Finland in ejecting the Russians from their country.  Great Britain then declared war on Finland.  Which all seems a bit unfair really.  German troops stayed in Finland for most of the war, until Russia attacked again and as part of the peace treaty demanded that German troops be expelled from Finland.  So then the Finns had to go to war with the Germans (who were mostly in Lapland).  As they retreated, the Germans burned everything so there is now very few buildings in northern Finland from before the war.  Finland had to pay significant reparations to Russia.  This also seems a bit unfair - Russia invaded Finland and then got reparations as well.

Ok, enough with the history lesson.  I headed for the market after the national museum but it was closed so I had a blini at Kappeli instead.  Kappeli is an old restaurant/bar/cafe where artists used to hang out (every city has one).  Blinis are a Russian dish - a pancake with beer as the main ingredient.  I had mine with gherkin, sour cream, red onion, mushroom salad and a beer on the side.  Which the waitress poured into a wine glass.

Goodbye Harriniva, goodbye - 30 degree temperatures

It's my last day here and I went out for a walk this morning in the -30 degree air.  It was nicely refreshing.  My eyelashes were covered in ice in minutes; the eyebrows took a little bit longer.  But I felt comfortably warm the whole way.  I think I'm getting used to it.

Yesterday we had a free day.  I decided to give cross country skiing a try - and so did everyone else in the group so it was quite nice to have company along the way.  We had no guide and no instructions, but we'd googled and found an youtube video the night before so we were experts.  I had to ask how to put the skis on....  After one person fell over in the driveway, we decided to walk to the beginning of the track.  It's a nice 3.2km track (4.6km if you count the bit that we walked) and we were soon skiing along nicely.  I only fell over once, and that was when I was trying to walk my skis around another group of people.  It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning.  One half of the group did an hours extension, but I knew I had snowshoeing planned for later and needed to conserve my energy.

That evening we had a taste of Finnish foods menu.  Everything was delicious.  The starter was a selection of fish dishes (smoked salmon with lightly horseradished cream, lightly salted white fish (salmon), smoke fish and herring in a mustard sauce) cold smoked reindeer (the best reindeer I tasted all week), warm smoked reindeer liver with a mushroom, onion and some kind of cream salad, and Lappish potatoes (boiled with parsley).  For me, the starter was the highlight of the meal.  The main was grilled char (another type of salmon) on vegetables with butter sauce and roasted potatoes, and dessert was a cloudberry compote with ice-cream and cream. 

So I was nicely stuffed for my evening snowshoeing activity.  We headed out at about 9pm in -25 degree temperatures and we struggled to find a snowshoe with bindings long enough to deal with my humongous boots.  We headed south along the river and it was pretty easy going.  Then, while the fire was getting started, we went bush.  Following no trail we wended our way through trees and tree stumps.  I had imagined that the snowshoes would sit nicely on top of the snow and I'd feel as dainty as a fairy.  In reality, me feet sunk up to the knees in the snow - sometimes further - with just about every step.  Tough going.  We went down a small ditch and I fell in - the first of three times.  Instructions for getting up when you have fallen over in the snow wearing snowshoes:

1) stop laughing (this can take quite some time)
2) roll around in the snow for a bit (it's good for your skin) ending up face down
3) get to your knees (this is easier if a fellow snowshoe novice allows you to put your hands on his snowshoe)
4) if you can manage to get up from here more power to you, but most likely you will need someone either side of you hauling you up.  I managed to get to my feet once by myself, but had help the other two times.

I had a bit of trouble with my snowshoes falling off several times, but it was a great adventure through the forest.  Conversation between the two guides:

guide A: should be go over that ditch?
guide B: it looks like a stream, it might be running water underneath
guide A: I'll test it [jumps in with both feet]

It was fine but there was no way through the trees on the other side so we walked down the ditch for a bit.  Somehow, I ended up leading the way - which is a b*tch because no-one has packed down the snow a little bit before you.  Unsurprisingly, this led to my second fall.

We had a nice break for lingon berry juice and biscuits beside the fire before we headed back following inland tracks.  I'm not entirely sure that our guides knew where we were going but we ended up back at the hotel about midnight.

The hotel had nicely arranged for me to be able to keep my room and my outside gear until I left at 4pm, so I walked to Sweden this morning.  Some of the group had done it the day before by following the river, but I decided it would be easier going on the road.  It was nice walking past houses and about a kilometre down the road there is a bridge.  The hotel is next to the river Muonio which is the border between Finland and Sweden.  There's a sign in the middle of the bridge which shows where the border.  So I walked across and walked back.  There's a customs building on the Finland side, but there didn't seem to be anyone about.

Then it was back to the hotel to have lunch, pack and end up here - at the Kittila airport waiting for my flight back to Helsinki.

Dashing through the snow

On a one reindeer open sleigh
O'er fields we go
Laughing all the way...

I had expected the reindeer sleigh ride to be sedate and a little bit boring.  We'd been warned that it could get quite cold as you don't do anything so I had extra layers on.  Our first transport was more modern as we piled into a minivan to get to Torassieppi.  We visited the old homestead which still has quite a bit of the original furniture and equipment.  It was originally built in 1847 by two Russian families (brothers) who adopted the Sami lifestyle.  Once they got to 13 kids and 7 kids, they decided that it was simply too crowded so the sawed the house in half and moved part of it a couple of 100 metres away (I don't understand how this made any more room?)  The same family have been there ever since until recently.  For some time it was the post office in the area and the family ran a reindeer taxi service.  It would take about four day to get to Kittila (the drive that took me an hour) so they had hotels along the way.  I think the taxi service ran until the 1950s at least.  The last owner was quite a well known artist and has some very nice tapestries.  But it is now owned by the hotel where I am staying (it's more of a lodge than a hotel really).

We then moved to another building where we had a slide show about the life of reindeer and a bit about the Sami reindeer herders.  There isn't enough food for more than c.200,000 reindeer in the winter so they have an annual round up and cull in September (I think).  I felt much better about having eaten Dancer, Prancer and Blitzen when I heard this.  The reindeer are marked on their ears to identify who they belong to - each person has their own pattern - and the Sami can tell the difference from quite a distance away.  The reindeer are very quick.  They race them like horse except instead of riding on top, you ski behind them.  The record for the fastest reindeer is one kilometre in one minute and 16 seconds (for a horse, it's a bout a minute).  The problem is that the reindeer are still semi-wild so they might decide to go in a different direction than the skier behind them wants.

After practicing our reindeer lassoing skills on a wooden reindeer, we then hopped into our own sleigh each.  You can't really steer the the sleigh but you can make it go faster by hitting the rope across its' backside.  We started off all tied together but when we reached the track with no forks in it, they untied us and let us loose.  Mine walked along nicely and then decided to put on a bit of speed by breaking into a trot which I hadn't expected so I may have let out a bit of a 'ooooo'.  It was very exciting when we got to a downhill slide (almost a 'woooohoooo'). 

We had lunch in a canvas kotta (some kind of potato and reindeer stew - it seemed a bit rude to be eating our transport's cousins), and then back into the sleighs for the return trip.  My reindeer was very well behaved and I had an uneventful trip home.  The others, however, kept trying to go off the track (to the shouts of 'nee nee nee' ) and one poor reindeer fell over and then the reindeer in the sleigh behind it tried to climb into their sleigh.  I was talking to one of the other guides a few days later and mentioned we'd had a bit of trouble with the reindeer - she'd heard all about it so I guess they are usually better behaved.  It made for a very exciting and laughter filled trip.

Back at the hotel, we got to saw off our own bit of reindeer antler, use the soldering iron to write something on it and make it into a key ring.  Our guide, Scotty, bought us all a drink so I had another hot chocolate with minttu.

Flying/Bouncing across the snow

If you ever get the chance to go snowmobiling, do it!  But wear a sports bra. 

We started the balmy Wednesday morning (c.-12 degrees) in the bar again to watch another video on snowmobiling then, once we'd been issued our helmets, hopped on.  There were two to a snowmobile, but because I'm by myself I got one of my own.  I'm told that if you are going across fresh snow, it's a nice smooth ride.  But we were following trails and going quite slow (about 20kmh) to start with.  I'd told our guide (Scotty) the night before that I had a tendency to crash things so he made me take the snowmobile behind him.  This turned out quite well because it meant that I could follow where he went and (hopefully) find the not so bumpy bits. 

The snowmobiles are like large jetskis.  The handlebars have heaters in them as does the accelerator on the right hand handlebar.  You almost never use the brake - taking your finger a bit off the accelerator slows it down very well, but it's quite sensitive and takes a bit of getting used to so you don't kangaroo jump down the trail.  The helmets have visors, but you can't take them all the way down otherwise they freeze over.  The visibility with them part way down was pretty crap too so I left my up - very breezy on the face.

The first bit of the trail wends its way through trees and we stayed at about 30kmh so that we could enjoy the scenery.  It's also means you're less likely to have an accident.  Our first stop was the top of a hill where the trees are almost entirely covered in snow.  I took the opportunity to make a snow angel.  It's quite a long way before you get to the first lake where the speed limit is considerably higher.  Scotty waited until we had all caught up and then shot off across the lake.  Being a good student, I followed.... I may have even shouted a bit of a 'wooohoooo' as I sped across the ice (the bikes are limited but I got up to about 110kmh).  It's actually less bumpy and easier to control the snowmobile when you're going quicker.  It still bounces a bit but you give it a bit of freedom to move otherwise you spend the entire time fighting it. 

There were quite a few lakes that we had to cross before lunch so I had lots of adrenaline to keep me warm.  Lunch was at another hotel in an enclosed teepee (I've found out it's called a kotta here) and was fried pork, reindeer luncheon, cheese and mayonnaise on flat potato bread with a very nice hot lingonberry juice.  We had a bit of a look around the hotel and it has a large (comparatively) swimming hole but none of us were brave enough too go in.  After lunch, we had to suffer the hardship of going back across all those lakes....  Scotty let me go first on one of them so I got to experience the crossing without the spray of snow in front obscuring the view. 

We were travelling quite quickly so we did an extra loop through some really nice forest (all the forest is nice - there's something about trees covered in snow).  We got back to the hotel at about 3pm having covered about 70 kilometres during the day (most trips do about 50km). 

I'm not sure whether I enjoyed the huskies or the snowmobiles more.  The huskies was a 'wow, this is amazing' experience whereas the snowmobile was a 'wooohooo' experience.  But I didn't hit a tree in the snowmobile so I think that might win by a small margin.

Huskies - the return journey

We spent the evening in the cabin playing cards, eating dutch liquorice and dutch drinking nuts.  I was very pleased that I'd chosen to sleep upstairs as the room was toasty warm.  So much so that I slept in and missed feeding the dogs in the morning - but I was on time for breakfast at 8am.

I volunteered to help with the dogs after breakfast.  What this means is that I scooped dog shit.  Frozen dog shit.  So you need a long metal rod with an ice pick at the end and then you scoop it into a shovel.  It was hard work!  Then we had to hook up our dogs to the ropes and that was quite hard work too.  They're very strong and it's difficult to convince them to go where you want them to.

I think we must have got on the sleds at about 10am and the trip was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen.  The sky was clear and as we started there was a pink hue around the horizons.  As the sun slowly rose, the trees caught fire.  Hillsides of trees bathed in white bathed in pink takes your breathe away.  We could only take photos when we stopped which wasn't often so I haven't got great pictures, but I don't think a photo would do it justice anyway.  As the sun got a little higher, the light turned a bit less pink and the trees turned a more yellow red.  I think I spent most of the morning smiling - one of those times when you just want to laugh because everything is so beautiful.

And then you hit a tree.  In a few places the track is ice rather than snow.  This was one of those places and there is quite a camber going the wrong way on that particular corner.  So I could see the tree.  I could see I was going to hit it.  But there was nothing I could do.  I think I threw myself off the sled at the last minute and landed splat on the ground.  I now have a nice bruise on my wrist.  The dogs and my sled kept going as far as the person in front of my and then the dogs started fighting so I had to trudge up to them and shout and clap my hands to keep them apart.  It took a bit of time to separate and untangle them, but then we were off again.

We stopped for lunch in a little lean-to and cooked our own reindeer or pork sausages over a fire.

As we headed out towards home, a mist came down and what had been a reasonably comfortable -30 degrees turned very very very cold.  We had to stop for about ten minutes to let another group through and for one of the dogs that had been hurt in the fight to be picked up by a snowmobile.  I had to jog up and down as my hands and my feet were starting to lose feeling.  I was quite jealous of the dog.

We unhooked the dogs and took their harnesses off when we got back to the hotel, and then we go a peek at some tiny three week old husky puppies (awwww).  A nice long hot shower was next on the itinerary which was bliss. 

Dinner here seems to be a five course affair every night so we had soup (sweet potato), salad, fish, chocolate mouse and a kind of cheesecake with a sponge base, followed by cheese.  They say that you need a lot of calories when it's so cold, but I think I may be overdoing it slightly....

Lapland husky safari - Part I

So here I am, at the coldest (and possibly coolest) part of my trip: Lapland.  It hadn't occurred to me that we would disembark onto the tarmac, but indeed we did so I was very happy that I'd forgotten to stow my down jacket into my check-in luggage.  It's just a short walk to the terminal (about 50 metres) and it wasn't that bad, but the air was very cold.  Somehow I managed to miss the people there to pick me up, so I got my very own taxi driver to take me (about an hour's drive away).  I think he spoke very little English (and my Finnish is limited to a few words) so it was a very quiet journey.

I've been to the snow, see it fall to the ground in Edinburgh, I've even seen it in the desert in Chile.  But nothing like this with forests of pine trees sagging with the weight of the snow interspersed with large tracts of whiteness.  I don't know whether there's lakes or fields underneath, but it looks like it'd be fun to run through (or walk as it'd probably be hard going to run - something I would soon find out for myself).

Not long after I arrived, I was taken out to the gear room and issued with an overall snowsuit (think large onesie with hood), two pairs of mittens (the outer are waterproof), hat, Balaclava, socks and quite possibly the largest pair of boots that I have ever worn.  This is because they have and inner which is half an inch thick and you are also supposed to have a bit of air flow for warmth. I ate lunch (Rudolph kebab) and then, feeling very intrepid, I donned gear when it was dark and went wondering around the grounds and down to the river (don't walk on it, you might fall through). 

At dinner, I met the rest of the group: a German couple with very little English, three sets of Dutch people, and a kiwi and british couple who live in Australia.  Dinner is worth describing.  Cheese soup, followed by a salad selection.  Then a large slab of salmon on a bed of vegetables.  Dessert was an ambrosia type thing.  It's cold, I need all the extra padding I can get, so I ate well.  We met our guide, Scotty (from the Netherlands) and our guide for the husky safari (Piita) who gave us instructions for the next day.

We met at the bar at 10am (an auspicious start to any day) for a video on how to drive the sled, then put on all the gear (I had my merino long johns, merino shirt and hoodie, and alpaca wool scarf, a second pair of socks (thanks mum :) ) as well as the gear we'd been issued.  The sled is like a long rocking chair that you stand behind on two pieces of wood (covered in tyre rubber) extending out the back.  Most people have four dogs - two at the front and two behind them. 

After another brief instruction session, we were off.  It's quite bouncy in a jarring kind of way so you have to keep your knees bent.  You also have to break a lot so I spent a lot of time balancing on one leg while going around a corner down a hill.  The dogs all bark when you are stopped and it's noisier than a room of thirty children after a litre of coke each.  But once you are going, they are quiet.  And all you can hear is the slide of the sled across the snow.  And then you look around you and it's pine trees covered in snow.  Or trees with no leaves covered in snow.  Or just large expanses of white.  And then you realise that you can't feel your thumbs anymore.

Lunch was in a snow covered teepee (it's most likely called something else here but idk what).  There a fire pit in the middle and the smoke goes out the hole in the top. Coffee and tea followed by fried salmon on pita breads with chives cream cheese.  Delicious.  Then it was back on the sleds and onwards to our luxury wilderness cabin.  It was more hilly on the second  leg so I had to do a bit of work going up the hills (just like a skateboard).  It was just as well as my thumbs were freezing again after lunch but the warmed up when I did a bit of exercise.  One of the other people fell off (the kiwi bloke) which was amusing but also a bit difficult to know what to do to help.  He kept righting the sled, but then the dogs would run and it would tip over again.  And the guide couldn't help because he needed a tree to tie up his dogs. 

We arrived at the cabin in early afternoon and tied up all of our own dogs and took off their harnesses.  It's called the luxury because it has running water and electricity.  It used to be an old farm house, but has been adapted and another floor added.  It's quite warm with the heaters and fire going, but the floor is cold.  My bag had been protected in the sled, but everything in it was icy cold and my jandals (flip flops) were frozen in a weird shape.  We had afternoon tea and then it was dark.  Time to drag on all our gear again and go and help feed the dogs.  They get soup (water with some goodies in it) and then a mash of meet and biscuits.  I was in charge of ladling out the second course - it was a large ladle and quite heavy.

Before dinner, most of us decided to make use of the sauna.  Piita had given us instructions, including where to roll in the snow.  There were quite a few of us in the sauna - some au naturale, some in swim suits.  They were all talking about rolling in the snow but none were doing it, so I decided to lead the way.  It was +80 degrees in the sauna and -30 degrees outside.  So it was a quick hop outside to the snow, an even quicker roll in the snow and then back inside the sauna pronto.  But it felt fabulous.  Everyone should try it at least once. 

Dinner was reindeer meat, mashed potatoes, gerkin and some kind of small red berry followed by apple pie for dessert.  The guides were going out for their sauna and I asked Piita if she would roll in the snow.  I don't remember her exact reply but it was something along the lines of "don't be silly, it' -30 outside!!".

Dipping into Helsinki

I haven't done much traditional sightseeing so far in Helsinki. Not a single museum.  Yesterday, I started with a late morning swim at the Yrjonkadum Swimming Hall.  This pool is open on alternate days for women (and men the other days) and bathing suits are optional.  In fact, they have only been allowed at the pools since 2001.  So I took my time getting changed and took note of what other people were doing.  This is not the occasion when you want to walk naked across the room and then discover it's bad form to do so (it's not).  There's no frolicking.  Just two lanes for swimmers and one for walkers.  The walkers seem to be a bit of a social occasion as they slowly walk two by two up and down the pool.  It's a nice way to swim, I think we need a pool like this at home.

Two churches were next.  I've visited a lot of old churches so I chose to see the newer ones in Helsinki.  The Chapel of Silence which is in the centre of Helsinki and is run by Social Services.  Anyone can drop in and enjoy the peace, have a coffee and chat to one of the social workers if they feel the need.  The Rock Church was excavated out of the rock and solid rocks now form it's walls, complete with a little trickle of water down one wall.  It was an interesting building. 

I ended the day with an ice hockey match.  The Jokerits (Helsinki) were playing the Blues (nearby Espoo).  It's a great game to watch.  Like ice dancing without the sparkly dresses.  Um and the occasional smashing someone from the other team against the wall.  The crowd was great.  There seems to be a mosh pit at each end from which each team's fans jump up and down in unison and shout and sing.  Then there was the zombie moment that seems to mean something to the Jokerit team.  Having decided that I would cheer for the home team, I was very happy that they won.  It was a close game with the Blues coming close to equalising right down to the final seconds.

Today I walked out to the Cable Factory where there was an antique fair on.  There was some really nice (and really expensive) things.  I was quite taken by some paintings by Elvi Maarni.  A bargain at just 4,500 Euros each.  I settled for a pair of earrings.  At just 5 euros, I think they are more second-hand than antique, but I like them.  Think I'll wear them out to dinner tonight.

This afternoon, I caught the ferry to Suomenlinna Fortress.  The fortress is build across two islands and you can walk around the old cannons and through some of the tunnels.  It has a church on it (dedicated to Alexander Nevsky - you remember him?) which also doubles as a lighthouse.  It had been lightly snowing on and off throughout the day, but it started snowing more heavily while I was on the island with the snow settling on the ground rather than melting.  By the time I got back to Helsinki, the streets were covered in a sheen of snow, making everything look a um whiter shade of pale.

Now, where was I?

That's right, I was on a boat which arrived in Tallin at 11am and I made my way to the hotel where I dropped I bags and walked into the old town.  I've seen a few old town's of late and this one was just as quaint and pretty.  The Christmas market in the square was super-touristy but the Christmas tree with hundreds of notes (letters to Santa? messages of goodwill?) attached to it was cool.  I had a nice hot spiced apple wine in a little ye olde Estonia cafe while I waited for the walking tour to start at midday.

The guide was entertaining and had some good stories to tell about Tallin and Estonia.   I'll repeat a couple:
- Skype was invented in Estonia (the software -  the company was formed by a Swede and a Dane) and they have a huge industry in software and technology - complete with their own silicon valley just out of Tallin
- Tallin used to be two towns.  The lower town was full of merchants and craftsmen.  If you could escape the upper town and stay undiscovered in the lower town for a year and a day, you would be free.  The two towns therefore hated each other and a wall was built between the two.  [This sounds like shit tour guides say to entertain the tourists, but I'll go with it anyway.]
- There is a cathedral named after Alexander Nevsky, who was a Russian hero for defeating crusading knights by luring them onto a frozen lake.  The ice was strong enough to hold foot soldiers, but the knights with their horses and all their armour had clearly had too much cake and the lake cracked and they sank.
- The current president (Toomas Hendrik Ilves) regularly tweets and is apparently quite funny/insulting.
- It's a very new country.  It had independence briefly between the two world wars and gained independence again in 1991.  Do you remember when two million east Europeans formed a chain across the country in a protest for independence?  I only remembered when once the guide started talking about it.  That was in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
- The country declared independence in 1918 and was immediately attacked by Russia and Germany.  Incredibly, they won.  They were occupied by the Russians, then the Germans in WW2.  The Russians then bombed the shit out of Estonia even though the Germans has already left.  They wanted to send a message.

The walking tour was two hours long and a very interesting way to spend my hours waiting for my hotel room to be ready.  I had booked tickets for the Opera (La Traviata) so got myself all dolled up in my dress.  Then added jeans cos it was too cold.  The singing was great, the sets were great, and the costumes were great.  It was three hours long and I'd intended to get dinner afterwards....but all the restaurants were closed so I went to the supermarket instead.  

I'm on a boat

Heading out into the night and places unknown.  Well, towards Tallin in Estonia, but I've never been there before so it's unknown to me.  As I sit here drinking my glass of bubbles and waiting for my fried perch to arrive, the lights of Stockholm have faded and there is now only blackness, the occasional navigation light and, if I lean close to the window, the white froth from the bow wave lit from the boat's (it's really a ship) lights. 

Stockholm is a very elegant city.  Its Christmas decorations elegant and refined, its buildings stately and straight (with the odd exception in Gamla Stan), and its streets and footpaths clean and litter-free.  But I preferred Amsterdam with its wonky houses, chocolate penises and streets bleeding red with the remains of fireworks.  I enjoyed Stockholm, I possibly would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been sick, but it's museums are for looking whereas Amsterdam's are for playing.

Today, I went to the exception, the ABBA museum.  You get to sing and dance along with ABBA (holograms) on stage, shake your booty in a music video and other interactive exhibits.  It was fun - but a bit small for the price tag which was twice that of most other museums.  You also get a look through the Swedish hall of music fame - apparently there are some very good music producers in Sweden, and of course, musical geniuses like Europe (it's the final countdown!!!!)

I also visited the Modern Art museum.  They had a Duchamp exhibition and as I wandered through, I was struck by how dated it is.  Coat hangers arranged is no longer innovative and a urinal in an art museum is no longer shocking.  At times I've pondered the function of art - usually for a work essay - and one of them, I think is to shock us.  To jar us from our view of what is acceptable and to take what is hidden and secret and bare it for all to see.  To take what is ordinary and boring and present it as beautiful and worthy of acclaim.  But what then?  What about when it stops being shocking?

Another of the exhibitions was intended to do so.  It even came with a warning on the packet.  Cindy Sherman's photography is indeed intended to shock and possibly offend.  Naked wooden dolls (they look like mini crash test dummies - and the kama sutra dolls from the Nemo museum in Amsterdam) in somewhat degrading sexual positions, a picture of a model of a vagina with tampon cord and the like.  I raised an eyebrow at these but it was the clothed pictures that I am still thinking about.  The series is of 'centrefolds' except it is of women looking scared and vulnerable - and with their bodies largely covered.  She received a lot of criticism for these pictures, they were seen as anti-feminist.  I haven't read the blurb, so I'm not sure what she intended.  But as they replay in my head, I find so many possible meanings - all very feminist.  And this is one of the other things that I think art should do:  keep replaying in our heads, thinking of it's meanings and possibilities.

So I've finished my very leisurely dinner; sat in the cigar bar drinking bubbles, listening to the piano bar and inhaling second hand cigar smoke (I know it's bad for me, but it smells so nice); looked through the shops including supermarket (it sells alcohol, cigarettes, and chocolate); and now I'm watching the show in the Starlight Palace.  This might be the only cruise I do until I'm 90, so I figure I should see what it's all about: men in skintight leather suit pants singing and shaking what their mama gave them, apparently.  Followed by a UB40 covers band.

I'e skipped a day so I should tell you what I did on Monday.  I headed out of town.  I'd wanted to see the island of Birka, but it's closed for the winter to I got on a train to Sigtuna instead.  It's a nice little lakeside village with an impressive collection of rune stones.  These are memory stones erected about a 1000 years ago to memorialise people who had died and also the person who had erected the stone.  Sigtuna itself was the home of the king at one point, and he divided his lawn up into equal sized sections (it was a big lawn) and asked all of the noble families to build there house on these sections - right where he could keep an eye on them.  Today, the roads still follow this structure.  There are information boards and a nice walk through the town, some old fallen down churches and a bit of a wooded area which looks over the town and the lake.  This is the spot where my camera fell off the park bench and died.  Bugger.

Having had a couple of average and overpriced meals the previous nights, I decided I would eat at the hotel again where I knew I would get very nice food for about the same price.  I tried the seafood bouillabaisse as the waiter said that it was exquisite.  It was. 

A foggy day in Stockhom

Yesterday's forecast was rain-free so I planned an outdoor excursion to Skansen outdoor museum.  In my head, I think I pictured sculpture-lined avenues and museumy-type things  (vases and such) artfully displayed in a bucolic setting.  What I got was a cross between a zoo, a historical village, and a historical farming community - all dressed up for Christmas.  I was delighted to see a range of Nordic animals: wolves, foxes (I think of them as British, but apparently they speak Swedish too),  lynxes, seals, owls, reindeer, elk, and horses.  But no bears.  Sensible animal that they are, they're hibernating.  The museum covers quite a large area and I'm sure it's fabulous in summer - and I did enjoy it - but quite a bit of it is closed for the winter.  I'm fairly certain that the views back to the city are spectacular, but all I saw was fog covered shadows.

There's a large park and a collection of museums on the same island, but I spent the rest of my afternoon at the Vasa Museum.  Back in the 17th century, the Swedish king (I forget which one, a Gustav probably) decided he wanted to beat his cousin the Polish king at war and commissioned a battleship to be built.  You might be thinking battlestar gallactica (no? just me then...) but it was in fact a sailing ship with two gun decks (quite innovative for that time).  If you've seen the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean, you'll have a good idea of what it looks like as it was modelled on the Vasa.  The Vasa was launched with great fanfare and it turns out it wasn't so much 'innovative' as ill-designed as it listed in a slight breeze about one kilometer into it's journey, water poured into its open canon hatches and it sank leaving just its masts peeking out of the water.  Presumably they were still proudly flying the Swedish flag.

It wasn't salvaged until the 1950s and because there's not much salt in the water round here, much of it is still intact, including the c.30 poor souls who died aboard her.  A treasure trove for archaeologists.  The ship has been largely preserved and some of the artefacts and skeletons are still on display.  Apparently the bodies were found with their clothes and hair and stuff so they can tell all sorts of things like what diseases they had and what they ate.  The bodies were buried after the salvage but then dug up again when we had better science (DNA etc.)  You can't go on board (unless you're a Nobel prize winner so there's still hope for me, right?) but there's a replica of the gun deck and the tiller which I thought were quite interesting.  The film about the salvage was quite well done.

I'd caught the ferry to the island, but it was a nice evening so I walked along the waterfront and the back streets of Gamla Stan.

An evening with me

Written in a pub last night:

(I walked past this place on the way back to the hotel.  Apparently it has an impressive selection of beers - especially local - so I've ordered a Landsort on the advice of the waitress.)

My hotel is owned by a one of the ABBA members and used to be a movie theatre.  It now has shows and concerts in theatre (sadly, the next show doesn't start till February) and has a cafe, bar and a restaurant.  I popped down to the restaurant for a quick bite to eat on my first night.  You know those moments when you sit down at a restaurant and then look at the very pricey menu?  This was one of those.  So I threw caution to the wind and ordered a $15 pear cider and a $47 venison dish (living on the edge....)  There was some to-die-for nutty brown bread to start, and then my venison came out - complete with explanation of everything on the dish: thinly sliced potato cake topped with a strong, parmesan-like cheese from the north of Sweden, some vegetables including mushrooms, a cabbage like thing that I forget the name of and possibly carrots?  The venison was medium rare (I was told that was how it was served, not asked how I'd like it.  Fortunately, I like it medium rare).  It was very nice, if a tad chewy.

The hotel has run with the movie theme.  On my second night, I had a light dinner in the cafe and the walls are full of pictures of what I think are famous Swedish people.  One of them looks like a young ummm you know, that Swedish guy that is in all the movies?  The one from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  The hotel room has a nice big television and a selection of DVDs that you can borrow for free.  A very good thing too.  I felt like shit with a head cold (similar to man flu, but worse) so I saw the pharmacy, the supermarket and two movies yesterday.

I'm still feeling quite sick, so I had a slow start today and didn't head out until about midday.  My feet are my primary means of transport again, but it's more a a slow amble between stops rather than pounding the pavement like Amsterdam.

(The beer is quite nice - not much of a 'beer' aftertaste.)

I was headed for Gamla Stan (the old town) but ended up walking around the outside of the island as I had the National Museum in my sights.  Which is closed for renovations.  The route to the temporary exhibit took me past a bird feeding pontoon - a first for me - surrounded by ducks, swans and some black bird with a white forehead.  I then got distracted by the parliament buildings and wandering the streets of Gamla Stan - very touristy, but quite pretty.

(I like this pub, it has little hooks under the tables for your coat.  Where I'm sitting sandwiched between two other groups of people while I wait for a table in the restaurant to be free.)

One of my 'rest stops' along the way was a German church which had that quiet calmness that churches often do.  [I've just googled and the church is dedicated to St Gertrude, a patron saint of travellers.]  Then I stumbled across the Nobel museum.  I'd seen it on the map, but didn't click as to what it was about - Nobel Prize winners.  Duh.  It looks good from the outside, but is actually only one floor of the building.  I stopped for hot chocolate in the cafe where the chairs are all signed by Nobel Prize winners.  I spent several hours in the museum including watching short clips about various winners and a guided tour and it was pitch dark when I left (at 4.15pm!!!!!)

(I've changed seats for better people watching and have just noticed a very large collection of whisky.  Tempting.)

I'd heard that the Fotografiska museum had great views of the city so I headed there on my way back to the hotel.  The gallery itself had some interesting exhibits:
- a photo documentary of the 'Arab spring'.  It was all in Swedish but I got the gist of it and a number of the photos were also on the walls.
- a series of nudes by Paolo Roversi.  The subjects were clearly models, but they hadn't been photo-shopped like they are in magazines so you could see their occasional flaws.  They were stunning.
- photos by Edward Erwitt who likes dogs and children so there are lots of photos of those.  Along with some iconic photos such as Jackie O crying at JFK's funeral, a series of photos at nudist weddings, and some great photos in Paris.

Then I ended up here.  At Akkurat where my beer is empty and my table is free so I'm off to eat some mussels and chips.

Farewell Amsterdam

My last day was a fairly quiet one.  Packing and a leisurely breakfast before I headed back into the city around lunchtime.  I went through Dam Square this time which I had seen by night a few days earlier.  It was just as touristy by day.  My goal was Central Station and the ferry across to the northern parts of Amsterdam.  When I asked someone where I could buy tickets for the ferry, I discovered they were free.  This was terrible news.  I had been here for five days and I had yet to make use of the *free* ferries!?!?  Off to the NDSM wharf I went.  There's a small collection of old boats there, including a graffiti-ridden submarine, a boat hotel, a green peace boat, and a bit red boat with a tower on it and a warning that reads "DANGER.  Intense sound  signal operates without warning." 

There wasn't that much else to see so I wandered through some abandon ship building yards before getting back on the ferry.  The wrong ferry as it turns out.  I could have waited for another one and made my way back by water, but I decided to go exploring instead.  I ended up in Jordaan, the old Jewish area and found one of the little inner gardens that the nuns (I think?) used to use.  They're pretty hard to find.  The trip back took me past Anne Frank House and the very long queue outside it.  Back through the tunnel though the Rijksmuseum and lost again for a bit before I found my regular coffee spot. 

Getting to the airport was quick and painless.  The pedicure was bliss.  I'm now typing this on the plane to Stockholm and reflecting on Amsterdam.

It's a great city.  I loved its tall skinny wonky houses leaning on each other like old ladies after too many G&Ts, its many many flower shops dotted over the city with a surprisingly vibrant display of colours for this time of year, its friendly and helpful people, its museums and art galleries that are designed for you to interact with the exhibits, its many parks, its very good coffee, and its amazing New Year's fireworks.

What makes me happy

Determined to avoid the queues, I woke before dawn and headed for the Van Gogh museum before sunrise.  Impressed?  (Sunrise is 8.50am.)  I arrived as the ticket office was opening and had time take the obligatory picture of the IAMSTERDAM sign and grab a coffee to drink in the queue before it opened at 9am.  It was well worth it.  I was right at the front of the queue and about the third person into the building.  For a few lovely minutes I had those lovely paintings all to myself.  The audio tour was an extra 5 euros but it was very well done.

I think I was smiling for most of the gallery, except when I was nearly crying.  I was smiling because I was glad to be there, and because it's hard not too when you're surrounded by Van Gogh's paintings with all their colour and light.  The audio tour explains the paintings, but mostly gives you a glimpse into Van Gogh's life.  Snippets of his very close relationship with his brother Theo with whom he exchanged hundreds of letters.   Theo supported and encouraged Vincent in his art - and sent him money regularly.  The sadness was that Van Gogh has periods of mental illness, and he knew he was mentally ill, but could not overcome it.  In some of his paintings from the asylum, he brings colour into what I imagine was a very dark place.  In the end he killed himself with a bullet into his chest.

The queue to the Rijks museum the day before had been ridiculously long - even for those who already had tickets.  For some reason today there was none at all.   The Rijks covers Dutch art from the middle ages to the twentieth century.  It celebrates the great Dutch artists such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.  My sister would have loved it, but for me it was a bit like the Louvre.  I could appreciate the brilliance and innovation of these masters, but only in a theoretical sense.  They didn't put a spring in my step like Van Gogh did.  There were large cards at various points explaining the details of various important pieces which I found very helpful.  There was quite a bit of ceramics, vases and furniture which I just can't bring myself to think of as art (the cool new stuff, yes;  the old stuff that the queen probably has in her sitting room, not so much).  I didn't really like the twentieth century stuff, although they did have a political poster from the 70s on display.  It was a full frontal of a naked woman in front of a cow.  I'm going to write to the Davids in the Labour party and suggest it for the next election.

I returned to the hotel in the early afternoon and rang the restaurant to confirm my booking.  Five minutes later I got a call back from the reservation service to tell me that actually, the restaurant was closed.  Feeling a bit pissed off and a bit sorry for myself, I took the only appropriate action: I had a nap.  Half an hour later and feeling much better about everything, I got on my bike (yes, I hired a bike thinking this would be a good way to get around on NYE) and went down to my local supermarket. 

Bubbles, several cheeses, fudge, chocolates, cashew nuts, bread, some little red Dutch berries and yoghurt were my feast for the night (just about all of my favourite foods).  I spent a bit of time in the executive lounge first drinking wine and eating nibbles (really really really nice chocolates, chicken tenders, spring rolls, some nice cheesy bready bites) and watching the fireworks from that side of the building.  Then back to my homemade feast (except I was kind of full by then, so only really picked at it), bad television and more fireworks.  I was going to go up to the cocktail bar for midnight, but I was all nice and comfy in my jammies so watched the fireworks from my room instead.  It's on the 14th floor so it's a damn fine view. 

NYE fireworks in Amsterdam is amazing.  Just about every street has it's own display.  I'm pretty sure that all the households in each street pool together their life savings and go wild in an attempt to have fireworks that last longer than everyone elses.  Most just kept going and going and going till 12.30, about half kept going to 1am, but the winner - still going at 2am - was just outside my window.  I love fireworks, and I probably had one of the best views in the city.  It rained most of the night and I imagine that it would have been a nightmare trying to cycle home through the fireworks madness, so in the end, I was quite glad that I hadn't gone out.

New Year's Day and I decided to put the bike to use.  I decided to head out of the city along the Amstel to Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.  The woman at reception told me I should come back and do it in summer, but I'm quite pleased that I did in now.  In summer, I would have to share it with hundreds of other cyclists.  But I had it all to myself - along with the occasional walker, runner, or other cyclists in proper gear on a bike with 15 gears to my one.  It's all pretty flat but there was quite a head wind in places so it was quite slow going on the way out.   At one point, a runner passed me (he was going very quick....)  It's an interesting cycle through a less 'scenic' part of the city and then it's fields and sheep and naked trees and the wind in my hair (quite cold wind actually).  It was a great feeling.

As it was New Year's day, most things were closed at the village, but I found a spot for a coffee and then took a few pics around various parts of the town before heading back on the other side of the river.  The wind was behind me this time so it was a quicker trip - or it would have  been if I hadn't got lost.  This unplanned detour did take me past some quite a large group going for a swim in one of the canals.  I had thought this might be a good idea when I was planning the trip in sunny New Zealand.  I'm quite pleased that I came to my senses.