Eastern Block Party - Belarus and Poland

So we leave Moscow on another sunny morning (got pretty lucky with our weather in Russia!) for an anticipated long drive to our next country, Belarus.


A fairly uneventful drive was punctuated by the dodgiest lunch stop so far. We had to stop a 'hotel' (that's being generous) as there was no where else to stop on out drive - Russia needs to work on service stations!. Now apparently Contiki actually used to do a night stop there but ended that after complaints about the, shall we say, ladies of the night? Turns out the hotel is frequented by truckers and well truckers need company . . .


We had lunch (more chicken kiev - yay . . .) in a weird dining room with a stage. The walls were painted with strange pictures of cowboy types dancing and women. I wonder what goes on on that stage! Next we made a short drive to the border where we got to wait in large queues, get stared at by border guards, wait ages for them to do god-knows-what with our passports until we were finally free to enter the amazing BELARUS!!


Okay, I'll be honest. Prior to this trip my only knowledge of Minsk was that Phoebe's boyfriend went to live there. Driving into Minsk was a bit odd. I mean, I really felt like I was in Eastern Europe, which is hard to quanitfy but imagine very soviet era, Eurovision-esque, posters showing happy little Belarussians. Minsk the city was actually designed as a model city by the Soviets after WW2 which is why it seem modern with wide open streets and imposing buildings.

Soviet era statues in Minsk

We had our hotel changed at the last minute but apparently this was good as we were closer to the town (not that I planned on going a-wander). So everything in Belarus was a bit dodgy. Starters the hotel - I'll get to the worst later but lets say it has a certain clientele who are looking for a certain something at 1am . . .

When we arrived we went to our rooms, more odd spaces with more crazy built in wooden beds (these were everywhere - really wish I had taken photos!) but it was only for one night so I got refreshed and headed downstairs to change the last of my Russian cash in to Belarussian roubles. We were only spending the night but I had about £10-15 worth left so I figured I spend it on a few drinks and then buy some items from the supermarket to use up the rest. Now firstly, the exchange rate is crazy. Belarussian money is worth nothing, todays exchange rate to the £ is12857.52440! So my few Russian notes turned into a pile of Belarussian ones. My biggest note was 20000 (but they go up to 5MILLION!).

Money money money

So I took this huge pile of notes to the next door supermarket to buy a few things (I knew dinner would be awful - it was) and it was so cheap it was impossible to spend the money and when I did I was handed back an even bigger pile of smaller notes! It would be laughable if it wasn't the way people had to live. Our city guide told up everyone is paid in US$ and all big purchases (cars, homes) are in US$ too as the currency is unstable. Not that they earn much anyway, but more on that later.

After our strange dinner, which began with some odd kind of terrine, we met with our local guide who was going to give us a short walking tour of Minsk (I nearly bailed as I was feeling iffy but I'm glad I manned up and went - some girls just went to bed. So you go all the way to Minsk and sleep without seeing any of it??).

The city is quite beautiful, it was mostly destroyed during World War II and the Soviets rebuilt it as a modern cities with wide sweeping streets and parks. There is also a metro system there and we saw lots of churches. There are also lots of security people - they are paranoid! Large groups meeting are banned, our guide needed special dispensation to take large groups around. Also guides often have 'minders' so they don't say the 'wrong' thing. 

Belarus has not exactly embraced democracy, I came to understand the president is pretty much a dicator and by the sounds of it is a bit of a playboy (I seem to remember he arrives at work at about 10 and leaves early afternoon). People are really poorly paid, they are lots of fancy expensive flats being built in the city that its residents could never afford. Belarus seems to be still suffering from years of occupation but hopefully with young people like our tour guide things might change in the future.

At the end of our tour we visited the Island of Tears memorial which is in memory of those lost during the Afghan war. It is built like a little church with four entrances and surrounded by huge figures of weeping women. It's a very moving place, quite eerily quiet.

Later we sat at a local bar and had 80p beers (yay) and bought dodgy souvenirs from dodgier

 guy (and I left my bank card in the cashpoint - bad idea in any country). Before hitting the 

sack, although we were rudely awoken by the local 'girls' ringing all our rooms at 1am offering

 'sex massage'. Nice.

The next day we were heading back in the EU and Poland. Our lunch stop was the town of

 Brest, famous for it's part in WWII. Odd place, inside there are GIANT statues and as you walk 

through the star shaped entrance Soviet type music is blasted at you. Oh, and they had squat 

toilets, not my cup of tea! Really strange place . . .

We continued on our journey and after another fun border crossing we finally made it into the 

Polish capital Warsaw. I'd been to Warsaw already a couple of times but it was nice to be

back in the EU and have some sense of normalcy! Starting with a proper hotel with real

beds! We enjoyed our first night in with pizza and cough syrup (we were all getting sick by this 

point!).

The next day we took a whirlwind city tour where we saw the Euro 2012 stadium, the Chopin

memorial, Warsaw Uprising memorial, Holocaust memorial, Palace of Science and Culture and 

the old town.

One side of the holocaust memorial

Okay, quick Warsaw facts! Pre WWII, Poland had a huge Jewish population and as a result

when the Nazi's invaded they ended up have a huge ghetto where the Jew's were forced to

live and where Jew's from other parts of Europe were forced to go. I won't give you a history 

lesson but I recommend you read the book The Pianist, or watch the film, there is also a book

called 'Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust' which explains it better than I ever can. The ghetto 

was a staging point for sending people to concentration and extermination camps and was

gradually made smaller until it decided it should be 'liquidated'. The people inside bravely fought

back with the primative weapons they had but the place was eventually raised. Most of

the city was in fact destroyed and what is actually the 'old town' now is a post WWII 

reconstruction made from photographs and paintings. The area that was the ghetto is now

full of tower blocks from Soviet times and is a popular place to visit for Jewish people - 

while we were there there was a youth group from Israel visiting.

Whilst in Warsaw I sampled (for the first time) the famour Polish perogies! They are like

little dumplings either baked or fried, yum! I spend the afternoon wandering around and doing 

little shopping before our final group dinner. We then headed back to the hotel to change and

went out for some last night drinks at a local cocktail bar called 'Paprazzi'. I really wanted to stay

up late but my illness was taking it's toll and I had to admit defeat at midnight and hit the sack, 

ready for the long drive back to our starting point, Berlin!

Next time, Ich Bin Eirn Berliner, highlights of Berlin in 12 hours while sick and the joys of 

drunken people walking into your hostel room...

Back in the USSR

Blogger does not like me, keeps deleting what I have written. Hence the time taken to write this - fingers crossed no mishaps today!

Anyway, back to Russia. Our final morning in St Petersburg was at our leisure and we were dropped of at the beautiful church of the spilt blood. It was built in the spot where Alexander II was assassinated (hence the name). It's covered in enamel and gilt both inside and out. Definitely a must see.

We then had a bit of time to hit the local souvenir market (and haggle badly) and a quick lunch before hopping back on the bus for our night stop in Novgorod.

Novgorod was once a really important town, it was actually the capital of Russia if I remember correctly. Now it's not much of a muchness! There is a small kremlin there with some interesting buildings and a church which has some really pretty bells that a guy actually uses a little hammer thing to play. We stayed in a slightly dodgy hotel (nothing new there), had another dodgy dinner and then hit a local bar later for air hockey, conversing with locals and dancing like crazy to dodgy dance music in a room that looked like the back room in a youth club.

The following morning it was an early one for our drive to Moscow. We dropped off in a place called Klim for lunch where we had the choice of McDonalds or KFC for lunch (we were truly getting the Russian experience - see?) and had the fun experience of trying to explain what we wanted - us no Russian/them no English. But I guess we gave them a fun story to tell when they got home that night!

We landed in central Moscow in the early afternoon, slightly cranky and tired after another long ride on Russian roads. We went straight to the Kremlin to meet out tour guide and see our meeting point for the next few days. 

St Basils

Our guide was actually insane I think, lovely, knowledgeable but insane. She talked a lot - I like to think I'm polite and I was interested but I usually had to switch of after 10 mins (she could go on talking about one thing for over an hour). It was a minus point to Moscow and the whole tour to be honest. Our tour manager also used to give way to many facts (and then get important things like times things opened wrong!).

We then went on a tour of the metro - which basically meant getting rushed around at a ridiculous pace, jumping on and off trains and praying we didn't get lost! The Moscow metro is pretty amazing though - tons of artwork, communist insignia and imagery, chandelier and general gorgeousness. We were told while we were there that there is a push going on to remove all of this to move away from the communist past. This would be really sad so I'm glad I got to see it in its current state!

The tour ended at our hotels metro stop and then a not so fun walk in the Moscow heat to our (tiny) rooms. Dinner in the hotel that night which involved walking through a Russian wedding reception (weddings everywhere in Russia!).

The next day was out 'biggie' in Moscow - fitting a ridiculous amount in Contiki style. We started with a trip to the Kremlin which meant we got to stand in a really big queue even though we had tickets, joy! We visited the armoury  museum first which was amazing but unfortunately was not a place you could get away with taking pictures of. It houses thousands of artifacts from the Tsars - amazing clothes, carriages, decorative items, jewels, icons, paintings, silverware and of course some of the original Faberge eggs. A must see in Moscow. (Thankfully we got places with a different tour guide as groups were limited in size - the group who were with our city guide didn't even get all the way around - the woman talked wayyyyyyy to much). We then walked around the grounds a bit and saw the government offices, including the presidents (well the outside of it).

We were free for lunch so went to explore and ended up at 'Chatty Chicked' kebabs - chosen as we assumed we would find ordering easy. Not so much, but it turns out kebab is kebab in many languages! We were then going to visit another church in the city which had great city views but typically it was closed! 

We met up later for a trip to the statue park. This is a place that houses the last remaining communist statues and signs. Most were pulled down when communism fell and a group of people rallied to preserve them for posterity. Unfortunately this (as with the metro) may not last much longer. Russia seems desperate to escape it's communist roots.

Stalin, something wrong with your nose . . .

After the park we headed to the Moscow circus to see some, well, circus stuff! It was pretty fun and what was expected - animals, clowns, acrobats etc. Some of the girls got upset about the animals being whipped - and whilst I don't think they need animals for these shows they looked pretty well cared for in general. If you are overly sensitive about animals I wouldn't go. 

We then headed back to the hotel for an optional trip to the club Pacha. It was a mad rush to get ready but we did it! We had all paid a stupid 120 Euros for entry, a VIP booth and the rest would go on a bar tab (got our own toilet and bouncer which was nice). The idea was good in theory but when there are bottles of vodka on the table people get silly (and greedy). So it just over an hour about 5 bottles of vodka were gone. Our TM noticed that some of us had been sensible and gave us the last bottle to share - ha! And the people who had been stupid earlier ended up getting very messy!

The next morning was a chance to go see Lenin's body in the mausoleum - the alarm went off and my roommate and I exchanged glances and decided to pass. Only 4 hours sleep did not bode well for another busy day!

So after a few more hours sleep we headed into town and attempted to force down a lunch (v hot/hung over/not good) and then I went searching for some souvenirs. We met up with the others later that afternoon and learned that we didn't miss much at the mausoleum and inside St Basil's was no where near as nice as church of the spilt blood. I felt less bad about being lazy :). We then headed to a military museum which is normally only for Russians but our guide had contacts. It was quite cool -lots of planes, missiles and tanks outside (the boys loved it). Inside there was a huge selection of uniforms and display (unfortunately could understand any of the explanations). The best room was what I will call the 'Nazi' room - full of flags and banners the Russians captured and boxes full of thousands of iron crosses. Our guide Galina did explain this room but she waffled so much I stopped listening, otherwise I would tell you more! There was however also the wreckage of a crashed American spy plane in the museum.

Some kind of missiles

We ended the evening with yet another bad meal (as if we were to expect any more!) and heading home for an early night. Two full on days had taken it out of me so it was time to say goodbye to Moscow and Russia and get ready for out 7am (eek) departure for Belarus and its capital Minsk.

Thoughts- not a huge fan of Moscow. Nowhere near the character of St Petersburg and a lot more busy. Glad I have been but if I get the chance to go back to Russia it'll be St P all the way!

So next installment, Who wants to be a Belarussian Millionaire?

And then they died, everyone dies in Russia ;)

So the time has came to continue the story but, first a quick note. I don't write this blog for anyone in particular, it's mainly for prosperity and so that I can remember what I did in the future. However I am curious if anyone reads this (other than the two people who had told me they do - you know who you are). So if you want, don't be shy, leave a comment at the bottom, regardless I hope this is interesting and/or useful to you :).

Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul

So day 2 in St Petersburg beckoned and began with a visit to the Fortress of St Peter and St Paul which is as old as the city itself and was originally a fortification. First a note as to the name of this post. Our amazing/lovely/crazy tour guide Anna told us many excellent and interesting stories (I wish I could remember them all!). But her stock phrase at the end of most stories was 'and then they died, everyone dies in Russia'. Today's adventures cover more of Imperial Russia and indeed, they did die :) Anyway, back to the story . . . on the way there we also got to experience our first bribe! We had to cross over a wooden bridge that was prohibited for vehicles over a certain weight (we were way over). Solution? Wait til there are no police around and slip the guard a few Roubles, love it!

The bridge: Rules? What rules!

Tombs, including that of
Catherine the Great

Tomb of Nicholas II

Within the fortress is the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul, this is where most of the Russian emperors and empresses are buried, and the place is full of tomb like sarcophagus's (which actually only date to the 19th Century I think). Something interesting I also learned is that Orthodox churches do not have pews or organised seating like you would see in a Catholic/Protestant church, however the Tsar had his own special little seat of course ;). Interestingly, the remains of the last of the Romanov's have recently been moved to the church and now are housed in a chapel just outside the main part of the church. There is also a small exhibition about the Romanov's including pictures of the last family - it was really sad as the children were so young when they were murdered.

Inside the cathedral 

Next it was time to head to the world famous museum, The Hermitage. It is one of the largest museums in the world and was originally founded by Catherine the Great - but in the beginning it was only for the personal use of the family and not opened to the public until nearly 100 years later.

The museum is housed in 6 different buildings and is MASSIVE. I cannot state that enough. It is also full of tourists (and annoying ones at that - St P was full of cruise ship tourists who pushed and pushed! So I started pushing back and being very rude and I found that a successful strategy to get to see what I wanted). The museum has an extensive collection that covers many periods of art and antiquity and we only got to see a tiny bit. You can also tour the apartments of Nicholas II which have been left pretty much as when they last inhabited them almost 100 years ago. So, here are some photos for a taster of what it was like, you weren't technically supposed to take photos without permission, but it's Russia baby and I learned in a way anything goes:

Hall containing portraits of famous army generals from the war with Napolean

One of the 2 Da Vinci Madonna's on display

The Raphael Loggias - an exact copy of a gallery from the Vatican. So perfect that when the original was destroyed they came and copied this one!

Apartments of Nicholas II and his family

After the Hermitage we had some free time to explore. First we had lunch - found a small Russian chicken kebab place where we had to practice our communication skills, thankfully 'kebab' and 'coke' seem to translate into any language ;). Next we headed to the Museum of Anthropology, otherwise known as 'the museum of the deformed babies'. The museum houses lots of little exhibitions with displays about mankinds development (and they are clearly quite old) and all the labels are in Russian, except when you get to one gallery. Yes, it is a gallery full of deformed, pickled babies (or babies body parts and the odd animal too). The fact that this was the only gallery with English labels says a lot ;). It was pretty gross and also really sad - there were a lot of babies who seemed fine apart from a hare lip. Funny how something quite easily fixed now would have been so devastating in the past. Again, you weren't supposed to take pictures but my friend managed to sneak a few and I stole this from her:

You've seen one, you've seen them all.

That night we had a (baddddd) included dinner at the hotel, where they gave us sweet potato and chilli flavoured vodka. Yeah, thanks for that! Then most of headed to the ballet to see Swan Lake. I'll be honest, I'm not a ballet fan, and for the vast majority of the time I had no idea what was going on. But I can say I have done it now! We were not at the best ballet either (you could tell - they were out of sync quite a lot!), just a tourist one full of cruise ship cronies. The 'proper' ballet would have cost twice as much, but to be honest I would have paid it was it cost 60 Euro for the not so great one. But, more champanski was on hand so that helps (and for those who care/know they did the 'happy' ending, so in this case, no one did die).

That evening some of us took the chance to see more of St Petersburg at night and watch the bridges come up (fueled by vodka and champanski of course!). It was something of a 'ghost tour' too - we saw the places of many deaths, including where Rasputin was killed! We then headed onto the right side of the river and watched the beautifully lit up bridges rise in sequence. St Petersburg is a beautiful and incredibly romantic city which I think rivals the best anywhere has to offer, I hope I get to go back and watch those bridges rise again ;).

Where Rasputin was murdered

The next morning was our last in the city, but I think I will leave that for next time . . .til then.

Санкт-Петербург - Part 1 - a champanski haze!

It was finally time to leave the relative familiarity of Scandinavia and head into the unknown territory that is Russia. First instructions of the day were to buy lots of water to brush our teeth with etc as the tap water in Russia can be a bit iffy. Some people took that to the extreme and when we made out final stop in Finland I think we had enough water to maintain a small town stacked under the bus! 

So we then headed to the border control and were given a slew of instructions - no smiling, certainly no laughing, turn off your phones, hide your valuables . . . scary stuff. The Russians take their border seriously! Thankfully we had a female, blonde bus driver who spoke Russian (yeah we lucked out there) who managed to get us through the border in record time (they wanted to take all out bags off the bus and search them but she managed to get us out of that one). And then we were in!

First Russian flag!

Straight away the roads deteriorated and it began to look like, well, you would expect Russia to look! The countryside was mainly trees and reminded me of the backdrop or a wartime move like Defiance or Inglorious Basterds. We stopped briefly in the little town of Vygborg which has changed hands from the Finnish to the Russians numerous times in it's history and has in consequence a slightly European air compared to other Russian cities. Then back on the bus and we headed into beautiful St Petersburg!

So first, a history lesson. St Petersburg was founded in 1703 by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great. It was not in fact named after him but after his favourite saint. Peter the Great was very keen to modernise Russia and he saw the way to do this was to become more western, more European. As such he founded the city of St Petersburg and enlisted architects to build a European style city and this eventually became the capital of Russia and remained so pretty much until the fall of the Tsars with the death of Nicholas III in 1917. The city has an incredible history of decadence and excess with palatial homes built for the rich all over the city (they actually call them 'palaces' but they did not usually house royalty). Then on the other hand there is the sad history of the city, including the 2 year siege during world war two in which more than a million people died. Put plainly, there's a whole load of history here, my kind of place!

We began our visit by checking into our hotel, the originally named 'Hotel St Petersburg' a fabulously retro hotel which looked like it hadn't been decorated for a good 30 years (I'm serious). I tried not to think too much about the peeling wall paper, aged bedspreads and cabin style beds (they were not proper beds, sort of wooden frames attached to the wall, argh wish I had taken photos!). Interesting fact about Russian hotels - they take your passport off you! Yay, so in a country where there is every possibility you may be stopped and asked for ID by the police you are handed a piece of card with your name on it and the hotel name. I guess it is one of those things that is a hangover from communism. I actually expected more things to a bit odd like this but other and having to pay for toilets (which we had to do a fair bit in Scandi), but it really wasn't far removed from any other European city.

Today we also met out local guide, Anna. Okay, Anna was insane and an alcoholic. When we first met her she had been propping up the bar already for a few hours with her signature bloody mary drink and can I say she is an awesome drunk! Anna grew up under communism but became and adult just as it was ending so had a fascinating insight into how things were to live under that regime. One story that springs to mind was families would sometimes wait years to buy a simple piece of furniture, you would join a list and have to wait until you got to the top. Unless of course you knew someone, the black market thrives in a communist economy.

That evening Anna took us on a city tour, showing us some of the sights and giving us an orientation of the city. She also introduced us to our favourite Russian word - champanski!! This is just what the Russians call sparking wine of any kind, not a special drink, but the Russians do drink it with vodka in it. With that, we stopped in one of St Petersburg's beautiful squares and drank champange and vodka out of plastic cups - which was way more fun than it sounds! (On a side note I also learned that adding '-ski' to a word is a way of making a noun into an adjective, so now you know).

From this we headed to an optional dinner in a local restaurant. Well local-ish, as was the way with Contiki it was more of a tourist place and they served up fairly gross looking Beef Stroganof, which I don't like at the best of times. But we also got our favourite champanski and vodka, which I seemed to get the most of on our table, so it was a very merry night in St P!!

The next day we had an early start to get to the Peterhof Palace and Gardens to beat the tourist rush (which was a good thing as as were were leaving it was heaving). Peterhof is called the Russian Versailles due to it's extensive gardens and opulent style. The weather was a but drizzly but that didn't dampen our spirits as we explored the many fountains and gardens; let's just say the Tsars were not afraid of gold leaf. It was one of many occasions in this city where the sheer wealth involved in creating (and maintaining) something blew us away.

The next stop on this whirlwind of a day was to be the memorial to the siege of Leningrad (as St Petersburg was known during the communist days). The monument is built on what I can only describe as a large roundabout which a column and statues rising from the middle and you go underneath and underground to a museum of sorts where there is a video and a selection of artifacts documenting the lives of people during the siege. It's incredibly sad and amazing to believe that anyone actually survived. During the siege the average ration was 200g of bread per person, per day. This was for people who were doing hard physical labour, and not forgetting the harsh Russian winter. In the winter, so many people would die bodies had to be left to freeze on the streets as the ground was so hard they could not dig enough graves to bury them.

Not the best photo!

Next we hopped on a canal boat tour of the city - St Petersburg was built around a river called the 'Neva' and canals were created for access across the city so it has a Venice-like feel (okay I've never been to Venice but is is what I would expect Venice to feel like!). As a consequence St Petersburg is also a city of bridges and every night in the summer the bridges all rise to let shipping traffic through (so you need to make sure you are on the right side of the river or it's an expensive taxi ride the long way home!). And it was time for more Champanski! The boat was a nice way to see the city and we also saw our first wedding of the trip - Russian couples flock to the city to get married in the summer because it is so beautiful.

We followed the boat tour for a trip to a souvenir shop that sold Faberge eggs. Faberge was a jewellery company that was commissioned by Nicholas III to create an Easter egg for the Tsarina, the result was so successful they were to create a whole series of eggs (until the fall of the Tsars of course) some of which we were lucky enough to see later in the trip. They are generally enamelled, jewelled and often contain little trinkets hidden inside such as miniature coaches and boats. The shop continued the champanski theme (and vodka and some random liqueur made of prunes or something like that!). I guess they think getting you drunk makes you buy and they were probably right. We were also introduced the the wonderful world of Matryoshka dolls, the traditional stacking dolls that come in every possible size and permutation you could think of.

But the day wasn't over! Next we headed to the Russian folklore show 'Feel Yourself Russian'. Cue cassock dancing, traditional singing and generally fun times. And you guessed it more champanski! (we were beginning to get used to this). I thought that this would have been dull but the dancing and singing and costumes were pretty amazing and gave a glimpse into Russian culture from the pre-communist days.

So the day was over but still so much to see and do, let's leave it there for now and continue another day ;)

Whatever floats your boat!

Leaving Stockholm turned into a fun little jaunt, it just so happened to be gay pride festival whilst we were there and it also happened to be the day and time of a gigantic parade! We tried 2 different ways of getting around it but we were always thwarted. We ended up literally having to push the bus right through the parade (with a little help from the Swedish police) . . .as we had a ferry to catch!


Yes, we were about to board, the love boat. The love boat (as we called it) is a ferry that travels from Stockholm to the Finnish capital Helsinki. 


The boat was a revelation - it was a proper cruise ship - shops, bars restaurant, casino and all! We boarded mid afternoon and most of us headed straight for a nap - the late night in Stockholm was catching up with us! The cabins were in the bowels of the ship (only the best for Contiki - not!) and the top bunks had pull down beds which when you moved made the bed in the next room rock, nice!


That evening we headed for the buffet restaurant where we had an 'all you can eat' smorgasbord. Very Scandinavian (obviously), lots of cold meats and sea food and on tap beer and wine, yeah! Later we hit the 'nightclub' on board where we mingled with the locals and danced the night away. Of course staying up til late was clever of us . . . especially when my roommate freaked out in the morning and woke us up 2 HOURS early as she thought we were late, oops . . .

So . . .we arrived in Helsinki and I felt sooooo tired (had about 4 hours sleep due to aforementioned incident!). We first headed to a monument to the famous (apparently) Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, it looks like a load of organ pipes stuck together, okay that's a bad description, see photo. No idea who he is but it's kind of a cool thing to see.

We were then dropped of and given the rest of the day free, yay . . . Okay no offense but after the joys of Stockholm and Oslo Helsinki was not the most exciting place, also it was a Sunday, traditional day of nothingness across the world. Can I reiterate I was REALLY TIRED, but being a trooper I resisted the offer of an early ride back to the hotel and tried to explore Helsinki. First we headed to Suomenlinna, which is an island fortress. You have to take a boat across and once there there is a museum and other buildings you can look around, it's really big. Next we headed back into the city and checked out the two cathedrals, but they were closed :( To compound my annoyance my bank card also decided to stop working, for some reason Finland does not like Lloyds TSB. Of course I was off to Russia and needed Roubles and needed dollars to buy a visa for Belarus (more on that later) so I was in desperate need of access to cash so I had the pleasure of using my credit card to withdraw money and pay a £30 fee. Ouch.

Next we tried to head back to the hotel but unbeknownst to us they had changed the pick up time so we had to wait an hour! Did I say I was tired already? So when we got back I barely had time to change clothes before I had to go to a meeting for out journey into Russia - filling out entry forms and getting our hotel list etc. Finally at about 9pm (long day!) we were able to go and grab some dinner, and yes they got my order wrong!

So Finland and I didn't have the best of first impressions, if someone can ever convince me to go back they can try and change my mind. But, onwards and upwards. Next morning it was time to say goodbye to lots of friends who had been with us since day one and head towards the slightly scary experience of the Russian border.

Stockholm Syndrome!

Famous baby statue!

After a nice little airport delay (!) we landed back in the capital Oslo. In the Contiki spirit of trying to fit as much as possible in, with varying degrees of success, we headed straight to the famous Frogner Park. Okay, apparently it's famous but I had never heard of it. Anyway. It's primarily well known because Vigeland Sculpture Park is located within it - the sculpture park consists of bridges, fountains and statues all to do with 'the human condition'. Some of the sculptures are a little, saucy shall I say? Or at least open to interpretation. 

With the rest of the day to explore Oslo we headed to the town hall to see where the Nobel peace prize is given out. The town hall is a really unique building, from the outside it looks rather utilitarian and stark but inside it is full of the most creative and unusual artwork. The walls are covered in paintings (on the actual walls, not in frames) of Norwegian folklore and history -worth a visit. Next headed to the National Gallery. Not a massive art gallery fan if I'm honest but couldn't turn down a chance to see Munch's 'The Scream'. So I went! Was a nice gallery, some interesting paintings, a few by Van Gogh, some old icons and such like. 


We rounded the day off with a walk along the beautiful riverfront and some dinner. The riverside had some amazing bars - I only wish we had of had the energy to come and enjoy the nightlife! I'd say that's a fair reason to pencil in another visit to the city again sometime soon though :).


The next day - Stockholm baby!! We headed early into Sweden - got excited when we saw Ikea and tried out some Swedish fast food at 'Max' - where they have surprisingly healthy options including a no carb burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf! 


We were actually staying in a hotel - good in theory but we were a fair old distance from the city centre! The stay did not start well when another room mix up resulted in another room change (including a 10 minute stop in a broken lift as we went to sort things out). That evening we headed into the city for a walkabout dinner - we ended up going to this food court kind of place where we had a massive plate of chinese food for about £12 - which is cheap for Sweden! But it was awesome, wish I'd took a photo! Oh and we also saw the place where the bank used to be where people were held hostage and the term 'Stockholm Syndrome' came from. I think it's a McDonalds now!

We then headed for a drink in a pub and I learned to ask the price of a drink. I paid the princely sum of £14 for a cherry flavoured beer - ouch. The alcohol taxes in Scandinavia are a killer! Then it was home for a few 'room drinks' and ready to explore the city the next day.


The following morning we took the coach again into the city and most people went for a tour of the town hall - this one is where the rest of the Nobel prizes are given out. I'd been told it was a bit dull so me and Rachel headed for a walk around the old part of the city - this was actually a great idea as there was hardly anyone about and you could get a real feel for the history of the place (note the city is not actually that old like most Scandinavian cities -well not compared with places in the UK and the rest of Europe I mean!).

Later that morning we watched the changing of the guard at the royal palace - it was baking hot and there was a huge crowd and it lasted 30 MINUTES! Really. It was fairly cool though - lots of shiny hats and swords and horses and such like. They really do like the pomp and spectacle of their royal families in Scandinavia.








Next we headed over to a Museum called Skansen on an Island just a bit east of the main part of the city. Skansen is an open air museum -  a bit similar to Beamish for those of you who have been there! There are old buildings from all over the country that have been recreated - including a little town area. It is also part zoo and has things like bears, although it was really hot so most of the animals were sensibly hiding away. I will say they looked well looked after and had plenty of space and appropriate environments. From there we headed to the Vasa museum. Vasa was actually a warship built for one of the kings of Sweden for a war against Poland. The ship was also meant to show how powerful Sweden was. It failed miserably. On it's maiden voyage the ship sailed less then one nautical mile before it ceremoniously fell onto it's side and sank. The ship had in fact been built far to tall and with not enough ballast to keep it afloat. This combined with an unfortunately windy day and and the fact the lower gunports were open in order to give a ceremonial salute caused water to flood into the ship and it to sink to the bottom of the harbour. Many people died - not least because families of the crew were allowed on board for the journey out of the harbour and also most people could not swim. The mast was so tall it actually remained sticking out of the water and had to be cut down. The ship was salvaged in the 1960's and restored and the museum now houses the ship including reconstructions of some areas - well worth a visit, it's amazingly huge and covered in the beautiful detailed carvings of the time.

That night we had dinner in the hotel and met some of the 'newbies'. The tour was a modular one where some people leave halfway and then more join, we had to points this happened - Stockholm and Helsinki. The new people were mostly a little jetlagged and decided not to join us for our jaunt to enjoy the Stockholm nightlife and the beautiful people of Stockholm.


What they say about Scandinavia is very true - the people are gorgeous. Stunning. Beautiful. Now that said I think you get gorgeous girls everywhere but so many gorgeous guys is hard to get used to! In Stockholm the men were very 'metrosexual' - all pastel colours and tailored shorts. Everywhere also has 'face police' - you need to look the part to get in. Our TM arranged in advance that we would all get into one bar (which had a cheap happy hour - yay) to avoid any embarrassing situations . . .

It was great to get out and enjoy some nightlife in a city - first time we had really done it this tour. There were enough of us to enjoy that 'group outing' feeling and there was a nice outdoor area and dancy bit inside (I really wish I could remember the name!). As with all good things they start to go a bit awry . . . some people there were very drunk (and quite early), my feet gave in on me - I didn't want to leave but I HAD too, one of my friends got thrown out for no reason. Ah, fun times. Most people decided on public transport home but my crippled feet rebelled and I convinced a couple of people to take a (dodgy) taxi home -and we actually beat home the group who took the train 45 minutes before us! But guys - never take a dodgy taxi alone, we had strength in numbers :)


The next day, feeling slightly worse for wear, we headed back into the city for some more free time before our cruise to Helsinki. The weather had taken a turn for the worst so we took the time to get our final few souvenirs and we visited the royal apartments in the palace. All I can say is THEY NEVER END!!! Once you have seen one highly decorated slightly pointless room you have seen them all, it took about 45 minutes to walk through with very little stopping. Oh, we also looked at the crown jewels but the collection is about 1/10 of that in London. Oh I shouldn't compare I know :)


So that was Stockholm - awesome city, well recommended! Next we were going to take the 'Love Boat' to Helsinki and start the second part of our tour, but more on that next time.