Helsinki and Stockholm
Been a while since I wrote down how things have gone. I've usually been too tired to do anything by the time we get back to our room, and the fact that Apple "improved" the iPad by limiting the max voltage on USB devices connected to it means the card reader that served me so well on our last vacation for getting pics off my camera isn't doing jack for me this time, so I'm less inclined to sit down and bang things out. But, anyway, for those who are interested, here's how the past few days have gone. I warn you, it's a long one. The TL;DR version is we're having fun, and nobody's hurt. Speaking of hurt, anyone who knows us knows that Tisha can be... well, I don't want to say clumsy. Let's say she can fall down more often than most. On this particular trip, however, she is clearly winning. Not once has she fallen. Me, on the other hand? Once, while leaving a sushi restaurant in Moscow I tripped while walking up the stairs and faceplanted into the carpet. Then, in St. Petersburg while crossing the street I stepped into an open manhole(!), twisting my ankle, scuffing my knee, and landing on my little camera (which seems to have only suffered cosmetic damage). When leaving St. Petersburg, in the train station, I misjudged a step and went down with my suitcase on my back, scaring some poor woman in the process. Surprisingly, I'm not actually that hurt. I have some bruises, and my ankle hurts if I twist it a certain way, but I'm in no way encumbered from enjoying the vacation. So, there's that. Anyway, our arrival in Helsinki was accomplished without the visa and passport issues many of the guidebooks had me fearing. In fact, the process of leaving Russia and entering Finland (via the train) was terribly simple and painless. The train was fantastic (less than a year old), and a true pleasure to ride. Upon arrival, we made our way to our wonderful hotel via the super awesome tram system in Helsinki, did a little orientation using the interwebs, and hit the city. Helsinki is simply blanketed with free WiFi, so we opted to keep using our Russian SIMs in our phones rather than buy new ones, as the Russian ones worked just fine for texting and calling. We did some walking around the city, took in the sights, and ended up checking out a bar recommendation I got off reddit.com. It's called Kaisla, and it was a great recommendation! A wonderful draft list, an even better bottle list, and a terrific atmosphere. It was to become our home base away from the hotel, where we'd end the afternoon with some drinks while deciding on where to go for dinner. Our first night's dinner was at a place called Mount Everest, claiming to be Nepalese cuisine. Pretty much the same as Indian food, and pretty tasty. Price-wise, on a par with what we'd ben experiencing -- which is expensive. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm all have that in common. Our second day was a Sunday, and we'd decided to take in some of the quirkier museums during our stay. So, we visited to Bank of Finland Museum, which was primarily about the history of money in Finland. I like those types of museums, and quite enjoyed the visit. We then made our way to a nice cafe next to the Senate Square to take in the views of the buildings, cathedrals, statue, and local population. It's called the Cafe Engel, and I recommend it highly. We wandered the city some more, strolling the side streets and checking out the local shopping areas, and checked out one of the best sights in the city, the Church on the Rock. It's this modern Lutheran church that was basically dug into bedrock. It's quite striking; I'd love to take in a concert there. I'll post pics when I'm home, but check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church. We then headed to Kaisla for more wonderful beer and a great dinner at Cafe Belge. Monday, we had intended to take the bus tour included with our Helsinki Card, but it was full, so we instead visited the Postal Museum (which I also found pretty interesting, though perhaps a bit lacking in English options for some of the displays). We then attempted to go to the City Museum, but it was apparently closed for a big installation that was opening in February(!) -- alas, the perils of traveling in the off season. Instead, we strolled the streets, sipped coffee (I so love the coffee over here), and made our way to Zetor to sample some Sahti (something I was told I must try here). I've never had the American attempts at the drink, so I'm not sure how to compare it. It's lightly carbonated, sweet and malty. Apparently, a rural beer-like drink that's one of the oldest types in existence. It's also very fragile -- it needs to be kept refrigerated and drunk while fresh, lest it go horribly bad. I enjoyed it, certainly, though I'm not sure it's deserving of the hype. We eventually made our way to Kaisla again to plan the evening and next day, rounding out with a dinner at Kolme Sepää (not bad, not great). Tuesday, our last time in Helsinki for this trip, we took the morning bus tour around the city, had some lunch, then made our way to the Finnish Photography Museum. Turns out this place is part of a complex of tiny museums, including the Theater Museum, and the Hotel and Restaurant Museum. On the whole, the museum I went to see was the least impressive, whereas the Hotel and Restaurant, as well as the Theater museums provided great entertainment. Finally it was off to the boat for our 19 hour overnight crossing to Stockholm. The boat was quite nice, our cabin was lovely, and the bar was open! We enjoyed a beer or three before wandering the boat and checking out the options. On deck wasn't terribly appealing due to the weather, and otherwise it's just the bar, restaurants, and shopping. The duty free shopping was quite popular, though we didn't find a lot appealing to us since we have to fly home and don't want to check bags (so no liquor). After a nice smorgasbord for dinner, we retired to our cabin. Unfortunately, the seas were pretty rough, and while I was okay with it, it hit Tisha pretty hard. We eventually got her to where she was able to sleep, but by then the boat was rocking pretty heavily. These boats are *huge* (we were on the MS Mariella http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Mariella ), but it was tossing like it was a much smaller ship. I can hardly imagine how rough the seas were -- we could hear the water splashing our window on the 6th deck from each time the bow crashed into another wave. Eventually, things settled down enough where I could relax (I kept having to get up and fix/pick up things that fell/broke) and get some sleep, but it was not a restful sleep. When the alarm went off, we opted to simply sleep through breakfast (I was sure Tisha wouldn't want to eat anything more as long as we were on the boat, anyway). We docked at 9:45 Stockholm time (an hour earlier than Helsinki time, which is an hour earlier than Moscow time), and we decided to just head to the hotel and get freshened up there (rather than using the cramped shower in the cabin). We topped up our transit cards from our last visit, and had a trouble-free transit adventure to our fantastic hotel (Biz Gärdet Apartments). They happily let us check in early, and we made our way to our little extended-stay-like room. This place is great -- everything is shiny and new, the staff is wonderful, and internet is the fastest we've had. They don't have wifi in the rooms, but they do have wired net; knowing this ahead of time I packed my Airport Express so the iPads and phones would work. After getting showered and changed, we decided to run the one errand we wanted to run -- get a SIM with data for one of our phones, since Stockholm's wifi offerings aren't as prevalent and Helsinki's, and my Boingo account has been a *huge* letdown -- it hasn't connected my anywhere that isn't an airport. I shouldn't rely so heavily on the net, but when you're trying to get around an unfamiliar city, having google maps with accurate transit directions in your pocket makes life soooo much easier. So we wandered the main shopping district, hit a mall, and went to pick up a SIM for my phone. The SIM experience in Russia was so easy, I guess I expected an even more seamless adventure here. Alas, no. We'd already discovered in Russia that USSD codes don't work on our phones (ie, to check balance, dial *135#, etc.), and the Swedish SIM required USSD to activate the SIM. However, the helpful folks at the Phone House were happy to call it in and activate it for me. Unfortunately, we could not get the data to work on the phone. Voice and SMS, no problem. But no matter which APN we used, it would *not* get a data signal. On either my rooted, customized Droid 2 Global, or Tisha's stock D2G. Since the SIM was nonrefundable (the codes were used, and the problem was with my phone, not the SIM), the guy was trying *really* hard to make it work for me. But after over an hour, we still got nowhere -- he felt bad I was stuck there so long, and I felt bad I was taking up so much of his time. Ultimately, I decided I'd bite the bullet and just buy the cheapest smartphone they had -- a Samsung Galaxy Mini for around $120. The SIM worked, the guy bumped me up to 30 days of unlimited data (which I certainly don't need), and 200 SEK worth of voice or SMS. I now have a working unlocked phone with data, and we called it a success. I'm sure I'll find something to do with this phone -- either sell it or turn it into a travel phone. We did a quick supper at the restaurant attached to our hotel (BallBreakers -- kind of like a Dave & Busters style place), and called it a night. That brings us to this morning. We were *tired*, so we slept right through breakfast and called it a late start to a day. We caught brunch at the weirdest (but nicest) little cafe near the hotel, inside a place called Mekonomen. The only way I could describe it is to imagine a Canadian Tire or Pep Boys, but crossed with the visual aesthetic of an Apple Store or an Ikea. It was the nicest, cleanest auto parts store I'd ever been in. And in the very nice cafe, you could sit and watch the mechanics work on cars in service bays through glass windows in the store. And everything was spotless. It was pretty surreal. After that delightful lunch, we hit Skansen, a place we did not visit on our last stop here since it was raining all the time, and this place is mostly outdoors. We had a great crisp sunny day for most of the day today, though, so it was good weather to visit. We saw a glassmaking demonstration, furniture making, other historical tool exhibits, and a little zoo of Scandinavian animals. Following that, we hopped on over to a recommended beer bar/restaurant called Akkurat. They have a wonderful tap selection (including a number of real ales), a great bottle selection, and a Single Malt selection to die for -- there was a whiskey available from 1897 for a mere 1795 SEK per 10ml. That's around $270. We did not partake. The food was great, we made it back to the hotel in time to take advantage of the free laundry facilities and wash some necessities to get us through these last couple of days. Tomorrow morning, we'll be taking an archipelago cruise, followed by a visit to the Nordic Museum. Then Saturday, it's off to the airport to make our way home. It's been a full two weeks, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to the decompression time -- I plan to spend birthday number 41 plopped into my recliner watching the Packers do horrible things to the Vikings. It'll be a good day.

