Ok - I haven't been to Finland and it was on my list, but now it's a for-sure-soon spot... 7hrs is too much of a tease. I'll be back soon - next summer or the one after. So, instead of paying 15USD for a shuttle to the city centre (ugh) we caught the tram like a 4min walk from the boat for 2.90euro which they obviously conveniently do not mention as an option on the boat lol. First stop was the one thing Mom requested: Chapel of Silence / Kamppi Chapel. It's the big stand-alone structure in the middle of the city with super thick walls, benches inside (like pews) and a bunch of giant cushions if you want to sit on the floor. It's so cool - it's really, truly silence in the middle of ... read more

Day 7: St Petersburg (We've been going for +15hrs straight and I'm toast, so photos will be added either tomorrow night or when we're in Helsinki and I'll put a note the day I do it) Wow. It is stunningly beautiful here - gardens, canals, buildings (other than their concrete apartment blocks), everything. We had a jam-packed day today. You need a tourist visa for Russia or you need to join an excursion, so we saved ourselves the headache and just booked a 2-day trip through SPB Tours (because the EXACT same itinerary is 2x the price through the cruise). We made a good choice - SPB is fantastic so far - our guide Daniel is friendly and a wealth of information and our driver Sergey is just the perfect stereotypical Russian man lol. Ok wait, ... read more

Yesterday was another travel day - I forgot how crazy Berlin's bus station can be lol. Throw in a bunch of construction and it meant a lot of shuffling and running around trying to get to the correct stand for the bus. Thankfully Flixbus is super comfortable (WAY better than Greyhound - like double the legroom and comfier seats). There was quite a bit on construction, so the 3hrs turned more into 4hrs. But that's ok. We had a good laugh in Rostock - these 2 Germans girls got on, but left their luggage on the side thinking the driver was going to put it in the bus. Lol NOPE. So off we went and the girls run to the front to be like UHM OUR BAGS. The driver was so visibly irritated to have to ... read more

(Checkpoint Charlie, Topography of Terror (Museum), Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg Tor) Soooooooo we kind of slept in until 10:30am by accident lol, so we started a little later than planned today. Oh well. We made our way to Checkpoint Charlie to start the day - formerly one of the main check points between East/West Berlin There's a bunch of tourist stuff there (I hate that there's a giant McDonald's beside it and in all the photos), but I just wanted to show Mom the signs and the little hut before heading off to the remnants of the Berlin Wall and to the Topography of Terror (ToT). ToT is a museum located on the former site of the SD/SS/Gestapo headquarters; there's an outdoor section (including part of the Wall) and then a massive (and super detailed) indoor rection. ... read more

Florence today - the hotel screwed us over because we're a school group and moved our breakfast from 7am to 7h50... but it worked out in terms of even though they lost some free time in the morning, they still had 6hrs in the afternoon so like... that works. Omg the "eggs" at breakfast were the most questionable thing I've ever seen. And they messed up all our rooms so we had kids literally all over the hotel. Major fails compared to all the other hotels we've stayed at on this trip. ANYWAY. We drove into town and went up to Piazzale Michaelangelo for a beautiful viewpoint of the city. Two of the teachers are in a band and have a gig the night after we get back - so they did a promo video and ... read more