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Published: December 7th 2010
The 4th of November saw us on the Gatwick Express Train heading to the airport for our flight to Helsinki. Having had a railway strike the day before and the whole of London at a stand still, we were very fortunate that it was all system go for us to make our 3pm flight. We had booked our flight to Helsinki thinking that we would make our way to St Petersburg from there but, with the Russian Visa proving way too difficult to organise without joining a tour group, we decided to give it a miss. Maybe another time.
We arrived in Helsinki, and as we have found everywhere, things just seem to work. We were on a bus to the city within 20 mins of landing. So much more organised than anything we have Australia. The Hostel in Helsinki was great, easy to find, warm and very comfortable. We had a couple of nights there, and managed to see most of the city as well as a boat trip out to small Island called Suomenlinna, which in war times has been used as a sea fortress, ammunition storage plant, army barracks and now is home to 600 people as
well a great Museum.
From Helsinki, after waiting at the station and being hassled by a drunk telling us to bugger off back to Russia, there was nothing for us there, ( there seems to be a lot of drunks there) we caught the overnight train to Rovaniemi, Lapland. The trip takes 11 hours and at 157.00 euros we thought very expensive. This time we opted to sit up as a sleeper was going to cost us an additional 100 euros each, but we did manage a couple of hours sleep. It was very cold in Helsinki but no snow and as we were off to see the 'Real Santa' we thought it would be so much nicer with snow on the ground. Anyway someone must have been listening because by the time we arrived in Rovaniemi it was -12oc and beginning to snow. How lovely, just the way we wanted to see it.
Being within the Arctic circle, the sun doesn't rise much before 8.00am and is beginning to set at about 3.00pm. Really strange and I would imagine quite hard to get used to. I don't know whether it was because it was cold, dark or
what, but all I wanted to do was eat. We really did enjoy some nice food there, the smoked trout and scrambled eggs for breakfast were great, but we did refuse the Reindeer that appears on all menus, just doesn't seem right really.
The following morning we headed out to Santa's Village which is about 10 kls out of town, what a beautiful place for young and old. It is all lit up with fairy lights and whilst we were there they were busy putting up the xmas trees. Santa has his own house with the elves and Dean & I couldn't resist a visit. The whole house is wonderful and we sat like two big kids waiting our turn to see the old fellow. We didn't have to wait too long and the elf showed us through to Santa. What a great guy. He did ask Dean what he would like for Christmas, and seeing as he doesn't clean his room, he will not being getting the motorbike that he asked for, but was told that he may get lucky and get a pushbike! We enjoyed our time there.
After seeing Santa we headed for the North
Pole post office, another lovely place. All the elves were busy sorting the mail, and helping Santa reply to all the letters that he receives every day from all over the world. They receive all sorts of things through the mail, even dummies for the baby reindeer's. So after a couple of hours there we headed back to Rovaniemi and visited another great Museum that shows have the people of the area have managed to survive in the harsh conditions that they live in.
After another overnight train back to Helsinki we then made our way to the ferry port for our trip to Tallinn Estonia. Boy was it rough, the trip took 3 hours and we were both very happy to see dry land again. The Old Town of Tallinn is beautiful, unfortunately, outside the Old Town the rest of the city is very grey and sad looking, left over from their Russian rule days. We spent four days in Tallinn, we visited the old Russian Markets as well as the old KGB Prison, enjoyed Mulled Wine at the city walls and ate some of the best pancakes, visited some beautiful churches and generally enjoyed the history of
the place.
After Tallinn we made our way by bus to Riga Latvia, and, as with Estonia the landscape is very flat, but again the Old Town is beautiful. We stayed in a great hostel there, run by Aussies who recommended a few great restaurants to us. So after dropping our bags we headed out for a great feed of Latvian food. A huge plate of meat and potatoes for around $3.00. There we went on our first free city tour, what a great thing, you just turn up and if you enjoy the tour, you just give them a tip at the end, and no it cannot be " Be nice to your Mother". The tours are great and explain a lot about the history of the city and we saw a lot of things that I don't think we would have normally seen.
Latvia is another country that has only recently gained its independence from Russia, so has a very sad history of occupation both by the Germans and Russians. We visited the Occupation Museum there and what a sad place it is, and unfortunately happened not so long ago. There was one quote there that
really got to me, it was written by a freedom fighters, it says, " we kept fighting in the belief that the west would one day come and help us" unfortunately that never happened, many thousands and thousands of people lost there lives there, fighting for their freedom.
From Riga we had a couple days in a small place called Sigulda, the adventure capital of Latvia. We stayed in a nice little apartment there, and enjoyed a couple of days away from the hostel scene. In Sigulda they have a Bobsled track and Dean was lucky enough to get a turn. The Sled reaches 120ks an hour and in 47 seconds reaches 4 Gs. He really enjoyed it but said that he felt 2 inches shorter after the ride.
After yet another bus ride we arrived in Vilnius in Lithuania, and yet another Old Town. Vilnius is a much larger town than either Tallinn or Riga, and again has some of the most beautiful buildings. Its seems a much more lived in town than the others and has some fantastic shops. The streets are tree lined and wide and in places reminded us of Paris, beautiful. There we
visited the KGB Museum and once again was shocked by the terrible things that happened there. The Museum is in the actual building that the KGB used to terrorise the locals and another not so nice place.
After leaving Vilnius on the night bus we headed for Gdansk Poland. Unfortunately with the way the states lay and there still being a little bit of Russia in the middle, the 300 odd kilometer trip takes 10 hours. Gdansk is beautiful, it was raining hard when we arrived there but it did nothing to take away its beauty. The buildings have all been restored to their original beauty and many have fiasco paintings on them. The main street is magically with its fairy lights and church bells. I didn't realise but Gdansk is where the second world war broke out, and I am so glad that we had some time there. The people were very friendly and seemed a lot more open than others that we have met along the way.
It was very cold while we were in Gdansk. and wouldn't you know it the snow held off until it was time for us to make the one kilometer
trek to the rail station, for our next stop the Royal City of Krakow. The trip to Krakow is another all day event and it was dark when we arrived at 6.30pm. We had arranged to stay in another apartment there, and again it was nice to have our own space. The unit was only a short walk from the Old Town which again was really really lovely. They have the Christmas Markets set up in the main Market square there at the moment, and it really makes you feel that is it Christmas time, selling all sorts of Xmas decorations, mulled wine, pretzals and some great Polish food.
Krakow is filled with some beautiful churches, palaces and again is a very historical town. We again took the free walking tours there, and managed to see some of the beautiful and not so beautiful sites there. Krakow is the site of Schindler's factory and is also very close to Auschwitz-Birkenou.
After visiting the various Occupation Museums throughout the Baltics, we were really of two minds whether to visit Auschwitz, but felt that we may regret not going so, on another snowy day took the hours ride out there.
I would like to say that the snow made it look beautiful but, I really don't believe that anything could take the horror away from that place. If anything I think the snow just helped make it even worst. On a lighter note, we did meet a really nice guy from Belgium there, who asked us to join his tour group of about 40 people, gave us lunch and a free ride back to Krakow. Nice.
Which brings us to Slovakia, and the great little town of Zdiar, situated in the High Tetra mountains. We arrived here on Monday after another trip through the snow back to the train station and a beautiful train journey through the countryside. We went as far as we could on the train thinking that we could than just hop on a bus to the border, wrong. There is not much a the end of the line and after, can I say some great negotiation skills on Deans behalf we managed to find a taxi driver who would take us the 20 or so Kls to the border without us having to clear the national debit! Anyway on the Slovakian side of things. after
a wait of about an hour in snow up to our knees a bus did eventually come along to take us the last 15kls, but not until he made us wait on the outside of the bus while he called everyone in his directory! Got to love it.
Anyway we have enjoyed our time here, and the village is made of Christmas card material. We have had about 3 foot of snow here and the hostel looks right at the mountains, with the xmas decorations up in the village, and the snow everywhere it really is very beautiful. There are ski fields just a couple of kilometers from here and Dean enjoyed a day on the slopes yesterday, I chose to just enjoy the scenery. Anyway time to make a move tomorrow and we are heading for Budapest which we have been told is another lovely city.
So until next time, we wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas, the journey continues............
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Arrette
non-member comment
Another great blog guys
Wow, you have some wonderful photo's and it sounds like you are really enjoying your dream. Glad you got to see Santa at his village and I am sure if Dean be's good he might get a bike (not sure how he will get that home in his back pack). Take care and look forward to the next blog. Luv Arrette and Dusty