BALTIC CRUISE: HELSINKI, FINLAND

Thursday, May 28th 

Our last port stop was in Helsinki, Finland. I had not done much research for Helsinki, and I was going to pay the price.

Helsinki doesn't have much to offer as far as major tourist attractions. They have a market, and about 4 churches. I decided to visit the church that was farthest away first, Temppeliaukio. (I'll call it the "T" church."

We boarded the bus into Helsinki from our boat. They dropped us off at what seemed like a random location. We stood at a tram stop for 5 minutes trying to figure out which way it was heading, and if we needed to go that direction. We walked 1 block and discovered we were right in the heart of town, where there's good transportation everywhere. Ha! 

Instead of taking any of that transportation, we ended up walking. We walked 25 minutes only to discover that the church was closed! It didn't open until 10am and we were there at 8:30. Boo.

We didn't want to waste any time, since we only had between 8am-2pm in Helskini. 

We jumped on a tram and headed back to the main square. 

We stopped in a cafe to get some free wifi, and a drink first. Then we walked for about 30 minutes around the Esplanade. 

We came across the Lutheran Cathedral first. In the summer, these steps are where the sunbathers go to catch a few rays.

Nearby, is the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. Nick wasn't interested in seeing inside more than one church, so we kept that for the T church.

Next, we walked through the market to Market Square. 

We hopped back on a tram (in the wrong direction), switched trams, and hopped on the right one to get back to the T Church. (That was a 12 Euro mistake. Oy!)

It was free to enter. The ceiling has a 13-mile coiled copper wire! 

It was certainly one of the most interesting churches I've ever seen.

On our way back, I spotted this church from a tram. It's called the Kampii Chapel of silence. It's intended to provide a quiet place, in one of the busiest squares in Finland. 

I talked Nick into walked inside. 

We found it was too quiet! We were trying not to make any noise, but every sound was magnified by the silence. 

We were "churched" out by that point, so we caught a bus back to the boat. 

We decided to take up a round of golf while the boat wasn't moving. We tried to keep track of score, but lost count. I think I won; Nick think's he won. :)

Each night we were seated with these two gentlemen. They were so fun and entertaining. We gave them big hugs on our last night together. 

Friday, May 29th

The last full day of the cruise was spent on the boat. We started off with a sushi class. Nick was going to do the class as well, but it was $25/person. He wasn't that excited about it, so it wasn't worth it to him. 

The class was hysterical. There were only 5 of us. There were 2 Chinese women, a loud American man, a Scottish woman, and me. The Chinese women were terrible at making the sushi. The man thought he was an expert at Sushi because he'd made it once before. The Scottish woman and I were laughing through out the whole class. 

We got to take the sushi back to our rooms, and eat it for lunch. It was so good!

We wandered around the boat after that. The wind was howling, so it made it difficult to do a lot of outdoor activities. We'd hoped to climb the rock wall, but that didn't happen.

We jumped in the outdoor jacuzzi at one point. We were then joined by about 6 young guys. They seemed like they all knew each other, but they had all just met on the boat. We had a lot of fun talking to all of them. Some of them had just graduated from college, and others were in their 30s. It was a funny age range, but it all worked.

Nick went to bed because he wasn't feeling 100% and I walked around the boat to see what activities were going on. An older woman, Karen, stopped me. She said she had seen me standing in front of a church in Finland. Someone pointed at me and said, "Oh, that's Joey!" And the back of the bus started commenting on my outfit, and how it all matched. I just died laughing! 

That night I finally got Nick up on stage! The jugglers performing asked for 5 male volunteers. I immediately threw my hand in the air and pointed at Nick! And they picked him! 

They each took a turn sitting in a seat at the front of the stage. Each time the juggler would walk behind them, they would jump up out of the chair like it had shocked them. Nick jumped up and pretended like he was going to walk off the stage. The last gentleman acted like it didn't hurt him at all. They let everyone else sit down, and then proceeded with a juggling routine with the man in the middle. They gave him a long cigarette, a hat, and glasses. They were able to knock all the items off his head without touching him! It was very impressive!

They had one small show in the centrum, before the night was over. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but it was impressive. They had arial dancers swinging through the air. 

Later that night, we went to karaoke. We'd heard that it was pretty entertaining from the group we met in the hot tub. I finally met just about every young person onboard while we were listening to the singers. I was so sad that we hadn't gone to karaoke before that night! And that we hadn't met them sooner. There were so many good people onboard!

Saturday, May 30th

We had to disembark around 7:30am. I was SO sad. I kept pouting all the way to the bus stop, and then into the city. It was fridgid that morning and slightly rainy. 

We stopped in the main square for some coffee to warm up, while we waited for our free walking tour of Copenhagen. 

This is how excited Nick was for the tour. :) 

I was still pretty pumped for the walking tour. Haha!

Our guide met us at 11am in front of the City Hall. He was very informative, but he kept foaming at the mouth. I couldn't watch him talk it was grossing me out.

Notice the clouds. It poured on us the first 5 minutes of the tour...

And then we had beautiful, clear skies! 

We walked all over the city. 

At the half-way point, we took a bathroom break and grabbed a hot dog. We decided we'd heard enough history for one day. We were pretty pooped. We'd hoped to do the walking tour and then the zoo; but we were okay with calling it quits. 

This hot dog was delicious, but not as good as the Hairy Pig in Sweden. 

We made our way to the airport so we could enjoy our Lounge Passes from Amex. We slept, and enjoyed some wifi for a few hours before our flight.

We had the most amazing cruise experience ever! We met so many amazing people, saw some amazing cities we might not have ever seen before, and had such a relaxing time. 

I can't wait for our next one!

BALTIC CRUISE: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Wednesday, May 27th

Nick and I both were so excited to visit Russia. How many people can say they've visited Russia? We knew this would likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

When we pulled into the port, it was dark, cloudy and pouring rain. We had been warned that Russia might have bad weather, from a friend that had previously visited during the same time of year. She had a horrible experience because it was pouring rain and cold. We were prepared for the worst!

In order to exit the boat, cruisers had to obtain a visa months in advance, or chose to do a guided tour. We opted for the guided tour with Alla Tours; they're ranked #2 on Tripadvisor.

We exited the boat, spent 20 minutes going through customs, and met our tour guide, Angie, before 7am. Phew! We boarded our mini-bus with 12 other people and we were off! 

Nick and I were at the very back of the bus and couldn't see much of what the guide was talking about. When we got out for our first photo op, our guide moved the other guests around so we could have a better view. We were so grateful! Some of them were using seats at the front as holding spots for their purses. (Ugh! Don't get me started.:))

At our first photo op! Nick on the Neva River with St. Isaac's Cathedral dome in the background.

We got to visit the metro. It's about a kilometer underground and one of the cleanest in the world. There are literally no rats and no graffiti.

We hopped on at the Sadovaya station and rode to Zvenigorodskaya stop. It took us underneath two rivers and runs at about 70 mph. It was almost deafening it was so loud even with all of the windows closed. 

We met our driver down the street from the metro exit because the traffic was so bad. It was a national holiday that day in Russia.

On our way to our bus, we saw a McDonalds! It even had a walk-thru window! I've never seen that before!

Our next stop was an hour away at Catherine's Summer Palace. (Just one of her summer palaces)

We waited about 20 minutes on this staircase, while tours were directed through the Palace. Our crowd pushing skills we've learned in Italy came in handy here. :)

There was gold dripping from every corner of the palace. None of this is real, since the Nazi's vandalized all of it in WWI. 

The red stripe you see in the background was painted tin foil. That was a new thing back then. :)

"I love goooollld."

Our tour guide was so funny. She gave us secret words, or "KGB words," to use for different needs. If we needed to use the restroom, we would say we were"Russian," because we were Rush-in' to get to the bathroom. We would say "Pushkin" if we needed to elbow our way through a heavy crowd, and no one was the wiser. :)

We all took naps on our drive over to the Peterhof summer estate. I have never been so tired or hungry as I was that day. I could not WAIT for lunch!

 We stopped on a random parking lot. Our tour guide jumped out of the van and grabbed two large grocery bags from a random girl. Our lunches consisted of: an apple, a juice box, a small savory pastry, a sweet pastry, and a chocolate bar. I had only had coffee that morning, so I was starving. I ate my lunch in about 2 minutes, and I could have easily had a second serving of everything! (At the end of the tour, they asked for comments or recommendations. I said, "More food! We're big people.")

While we were stopped in the parking lot for 2 minutes, one of the tourists in our bus jumped out to take more photos. Her name was Daisy, and she was very energetic. She was 55 and Chinese, but dressed like she was 7 years old with pigtails. She was always the first one off the bus, and the last one on. She probably took a picture of every possible thing we saw. She had not just one camera, but TWO! I've never seen anything like it. Unfortunately, she became the running joke of our bus. An Irish fellow on our tour laughed because she was in every photo he'd taken in Russia. She would run up to every possibly photo op and pose while her husband snapped 1000 photos. I tried very hard not to get her in my photos.

We meandered through the gardens of the summer estate. 

We had these earphones on the whole day, so our tour guide wouldn't have to shout at us all day. We felt like secret service. :)

My favorite part of the gardens were the magic fountains. They would spray water randomly. Kids LOVED this. They were standing on either side of the fountain daring each other to run across. Most of the kids were smart and would run with their umbrellas up, so they wouldn't get wet. haha! This girl was so happy she made it across before the water turned on.

Although, they thought it was random, it was actually controlled by a man in a both behind the benches. 

Next we rode on a hydrofoil boat 30 minutes to the Hermitage. We met our driver there, and drove to the Peter and Paul fortress. I fell sound asleep on the ride. Nick had to wake my up when we arrived. 

Inside the Peter and Paul fortress is this church. It's the burial ground to many Russian emperors including: Peter the Great and Nicholas II. I was fascinated not by their graves, but their stories.

I begged our tour guide to take us to the Church on Spilled Blood. She and Alex, our driver, drove us by. She said this was the best location for a picture. Normally, they take guests inside the church, but it's closed on Wednesdays. 

Our second to last stop was the Hermitage Museum.

By this time, most of us weren't paying much attention, and we were seriously lagging on energy. It was beautiful though!

This was a coo-coo clock. It's not running anymore but it was THE most impressive clock I've ever seen.

This fresco was delivered to Russia on the original wall it was painted on! Yikes! 

Nick standing under a vase. Haha!

Our last stop was a tourist spot with souvenirs. I didn't buy anything, but the people working there were very pleasant. Our tour guide joked that they were girls that were left behind on their cruise because they didn't have visas. Haha! 

Alex and Angie were so nice! They put up with a lot from our group! We loved Russia even though we were exhausted from the 12 hour tour. 

I'm so glad we made it back to our boat on time! That would have been some serious trouble without having visas! I didn't want to sell souvenirs the rest of my life. :)

That night we had another delicious meal onboard, and then went to a marriage game show in the main theater. Nick thought it would be funny to volunteer us for the show. The director was asking for an old couple, a newly married couple and a wild card couple. We were supposed to be the wild card. We went up to the front of the audience to compete with 2 other couples. The women had to say, "Tarzan, tarzan, where is my tarzan." The man would reply with, "Me Tarzan. You Jane." And then beat his chest like an ape. Haha! The first two couples were hilarious. We didn't put much effort into, so we wouldn't be picked. It worked! They had the most awkward questions on that show like, "what do you do to turn on your wife?" Or, "where's the craziest place you've made 'whoopi?'" I've never been more thankful in my life, for not being picked! 

Our last stop would be Helsinki, Finland...