Finally - Homeward Bound! The last 5 weeks have been wonderful - certainly a worthwhile experience - but our next vacation is definitely going to be shorter and more relaxing... a cruise would be nice.

We woke up, had breakfast, got ready to go, and waited for the airport shuttle that we had ordered. It came a little late, but we had planned plenty of time to get to the airport so we weren't worried. We checked in at the hotel (after a small amount of confusion regarding the tickets we had gotten) and were happy to find that, again, we were upgraded to the world traveller plus class! What luxury! I don't think you need business class or first class if you have the large, comfy seats of world traveller plus with the footrests and individual tvs with unlimited movies on demand. The flight from Zurich to Heathrow was short and sweet. The layover in Heathrow was much better than our first time. And the flight to JFK was in a 747 (apparently, Ivan has *always* wanted to fly in a 747 - the big, double-leveled airplanes).

We landed in JFK, caught a cab to get home, and spent our first night in our new apartment in New York. The next few days will be filled with unpacking, going to New Jersey and Washington, D.C. to get our cars the the rest of our belongings that we left behind, and getting settled in.

Labels: Europe 2008, NY

Our last full day in Europe. Man, we are so ready to get back home. We were tired of doing the traditional "tourist" things (museums, looking at architecture, learning about history), so we just took a leisurely stroll through Zurich with Eduard (who had, again, taken the day off work). We walked along the "5th Avenue" of Zurich - where all of the expensive shops are and then got to the main shopping area of the town. We were still on the hunt for Birkenstocks, so we stopped in several stores to look for them. Unfortunately, most stores didn't carry them. In one store, we approached the sandal section in search of the shoes, but didn't see them. Susan asked the sales clerk if they carried Birkenstocks. The woman apologetically said that they didn't carry them and then Claire noticed them on the shelf. When the woman saw what Claire was pointing at, she said: "Oh, 'Byer-kin-shtocks'." - Yeah - apparently we don't pronounce it correctly in English!! They only had one style, which we weren't keen on, so we still didn't end up buying a pair, but we ended up with a good story at the end :)

We walked along the river and went to a few elevated spots with great views of the city. We stopped for lunch at an outdoor biergarten and by mid-afternoon were quite tired. Although we had planned to spend the evening with Eduard again, we were just too tired and decided to call it a day. We returned to the hostel and took naps and then got ready for our big day tomorrow: our trip home!!

Labels: Europe 2008, Switzerland

Susan has decided - she hates Italy and would be perfectly content to never return. Well, maybe that language is too strong, but today we had several misadventures, so that's what's on her mind right now.

The day started out great with a nice buffet breakfast at our hotel. We wanted to get on the road by 10am, but when we went to check out we encountered a problem. We had already paid PriceLine for the hotel, but somehow PriceLine had failed to transfer the money to the hotel, so the hotel was charging us again - and charging a rate that was WAY more than what we had agreed upon via PriceLine. Eventually, after an hour of checking our account on the internet and being on teh phone with PriceLine, we understood what caused the problem, but PriceLine's cusotmer service department wouldn't be open for another 3 hours. We were already getting a later start than we had hoped, so we weren't going to wait around in Milan for PriceLine to open, so we paid the bill and left - hopefully things will go smoothlyt with PriceLine and we'll be refunded later.

The next misadventure was with the toll roads. Unline America, it's not clearly written how much you'll have to pay, so it's a scramble at the last minute to get the right money available. We went to pay one toll and the woman had a problem that we couldn't understand (she didn't speak English) but the end result was that she took an extra 0,55 Euros that she shouldn't have. It was so lame. By the time we realized the error it was too late. At least in Switzerland you just buy a vignette and don't have to worry about paying tolls every few kilometers. And the lines to pay the tolls in Italy are far too long!

Anyways, we arrived in Zurich much later than expected and Ivan's friend, Eduard, had taken all day off work to hang out with us! He was waiting for us when we arrived and helped us return the car. Thankfully, the agent spoke English and we didn't have any problems. Then, we went to Eduard's house for dinner - a traditional Swiss dinner of macaroni, 2 types of Swiss cheese, potatoes, and onions - in a casserole - so delicious!! After dinner we retunred to the hostel and went to bed.

Labels: Europe 2008, Italy, Switzerland

It's official - Susan has her first grey hair. We're calling it the "Europe Hair" as it was no doubt caused by all of the stress that went into planning this trip that we're on right now.

We wanted to leave Venice early today (we're driving to Milan), but we didn't get on the road until about 10:30am. We thought it was supposed to be a 5 hour drive, so we were happy when Daniel said we would arrive by 1pm. However, we hit traffic and then Daniel told us to exit the toll road only to re-enter 3 km later (that's right, slowed down by driving on surface streets AND we had to pay two tolls). In the end, we arrived in Milan around 2pm. We checked into our very nice 4-star hotel (found via PriceLine) and set off for the Duomo. We went inside and Ivan got the audioguide to learn more while Claire and Susan explored some shops (and Susan bought a souvineer notebook). Around 4:30pm we joined up with Ivan's old classmate, Azamat, who showed us around the city and treated us to the typical Italian evening snack: "Macchiato" - a tiny cup of coffee with frothy cream and sugar to taste. It was better than "typical" coffee, but Claire and Susan, with their decidedly "anti-coffee" mindsets weren't won over.

We bid farewell to Azamat, who drove off in an interesting enclosed BMW motorcycle (Ivan thinks he'd like one of those) and then went to a pizza place for dinner. On the way back to our hotel, we bought some ice cream bars for dessert and returned to the hotel to relax and retire at a decent hour.

Labels: Europe 2008, Italy

Last night we had a few interruptions which disturbed our sleep. First, a phone call after we were already asleep from the front desk telling us to be quite (apparently someone had complained about the noise someone else was making and somehow concluded that it was us being too loud). Then, early in the morning a woman came knocking on our door for no apparent reason. However, with all of the shutters closed it was quite and dark, so we were able to sleep in. Susan was the first to wake up and decided to find a market to buy breakfast food. Quite close to our hotel (about a 5 minute walk) is a great little market so we were able to eat a quick breakfast in our hotel room.

After breakfast we went back to St. Mark's in search of an audioguide of the city in English. Unfortunately, they were all sold out, so we just went to the Doge's Palace to learn more about the city. We returned to the hotel for lunch and then went back out to explore the city. Susan was starting to feel under the weather (headache and dizziness) so we concluded she was dehydrated and needed to return to the hotel and call it a day. So, we spent a restful evening in the hotel.

Labels: Europe 2008, Italy

Since we had limited time in Salzburg yesterday due to our late start and last minute scrounging for a hotel, we spent 1/2 of today wandering the streets of Salzburg and discovering new history. Howevr, we had a 5 hour drive to Venice ahead of us, so we left around noon. We drove through the Alps (literally... there's probably 30 km of tunnels between Austria and Italy) and met with a few delays: for 20 minutes we had a read light for one of the tunnels (no idea why) and then in Italy we had to wait in line at the toll booth for an hour because traffic was so backed up.

We decided to park on the island where it's safer and closer to where we were staying and took a water bus to our hotel. Claire had bought some study materials for the Italian language and she had been able to use it a lot (so many people don't speak English here). The hotel (recommended to us by Susan's former roomie, Christine) is nice and we were glad the staff speak English. We checked in and got our bearings and planned out our evening. We consulted Rick Steves and found an inexpensive pizzeria, which turned out to be excellent (thought the service was a bit slot).

We went to St. Mark's Square to find out where we would be going the next day to save time tomorrow. What a difference between night and day of the city. At 10pm, there were still crowds of people on the square, but during the day there are MOBS of people. Claire bought a great mask for her collection and we had a great evening walking around and listening to the live entertainment on the square (every restaurant seems to have a live quartet playing great music).

Labels: Austria, Europe 2008, Italy

Today we headed to Salzburg. We started out with a bit of a scare about the legality of driving in Austria without an international driver's license, so we were delayed while figuring it out. We finally learned that it was OK - the worst that would happen would be a fine, rather than spending the night in jail and getting the car impounded (our worst fears) so we bid farewell to our German relatives and drove to Salzburg. We relied on our GPS system, "Daniel" (named after the voice we prefer to use on the system) and we had an interesting ride. Daniel took us on crazy narrow roads that might have been for pedestrians only. We got a little concerned, so we called the hostel to make sure we were on the right road only to find tha they had given our beds away as a result of a misunderstanding.

By the time we learned that, it was already 2pm on a Saturday in Salzburg during the annual Mozart festival. We called the Tourist Information booth for suggestions on finding a different place to stay only to learn that the city was 99% booked. We called all of the hotels in our Rick Steves book with no luck. Then, we decided to ask Daniel for the hotels in the area and started calling them. We managed to find one that had two double rooms available and they said they would hold them for us for 30 minutes. Well, Daniel said we were only 3 miles away - the hotel was on the other side of the river, so 30 minutes seemed like plenty of time. Little did we know... The route planned out for us by Daniel took us on more crazy narrow roads through ruins and the fortress on top of the hill. There were pedestrians everywhere and not another car in sight. We finally got to the top of a hill that Daniel wanted us to drive down which was clearly not wide enough for our car, so we decided to follow common sense instead of Daniel. We ended up in Mozart Platz which was closed to vehicular traffic in honor of the Mozart Festival. by then, there were a few other cars behind us, so we pulled over, let them pass, and followed them through the crowds and back to normal roads. What an experience!

Eventually we found the hotel (barely within the promised 30 minutes) and checked in. The rooms were a great value - especially since they charged us for a triple room instead of two doubles. Also, it came with a great breakfast with terrific service. We were quite pleased at our change in plans since it was way better than the hostel we were going to stay at and wasn't that much more expensive.

The rest of the evening was spent seeing the city and the Mozart museum. We went to a spagghetti restaurant for dinner and the stumbled upon an outdoor airing of Don Giovanni. We watched it until we were too cold (and a bit put off by the questionable storyline) and then returned to the warmth of our hotel and retired for the evening.

Labels: Austria, Europe 2008

We got up early to set off for Bavarian Castle country. We had purchased our tickets in advance a few days ago and had our first visit around noon. We didn't leave ourself an extra cushion of time, so between rain and an unexpected road closure on our route, we ended up arriving too late. In addition, Susan had forgotten to bring the confirmation number along, so we were concerned that our advanced tickets would not be honored. Thankfully, they just rescheduled our visit for a few hours later and we were on our way without waiting in the long line for those who had not purchased tickets in advance.

It was raining all day and Susan hadn't realized that 3 weeks of walking in her old shoes had left large cracks in the soles - at least she didn't know about them until she stepped outside where her socks were instantly soaked through. It was cold, rainy, and foggy all day, which detracted considerably from the majestic views we were hoping to get of the outside of the castles - especially Neuschwannstein, which is the most famous of all Bavarian castles - the one that the Disney castle is modeled after. The first castle of the day, Hohenschwangau, turned out to be the most rewarding (although least well-known) because the interior was amazing and there was a lot of information provided through the audio tour. Neuschwannstein was quite disappointing - considering that they had 17 years to build it and they only managed to finish a dozen rooms or so. The view from Mary's Bridge is supposed to be amazing, but we just saw white nothingness from the fog.

The next stop on our Bavarian castle tour was Linderhoff. We were told that it was a copy of Versaille, so we were expecting something quite large. It may have been inspired by Versaille (Johan Ludwig was a great admirer or Louis XIV and Louis XV) but it's certainly not a copy. We had a nice tour but then were so tired of the cold and rain that we made a beeline back to our home base for the night where we got warmed up and dried and ate some yummy food.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We've spent time over the last few days trying to sort out our rental car situation as it pertains to visiting Italy. After much confusion and hearing different stories depending upon who we called, we decided that it was OK for us to drive to Italy. Consequently, Czech Republic is in the same category as Italy in our rental agreement, so we decided to make a quick trip to Czech today. One of the biggest reasons why rental car companies prefer that you not take their car to Italy and Eastern Europe is the large number of auto thefts in those countries. To diminish that threat, we decided to avoid the traditional tourist towns (namely, Prague) and instead decided to visit the region closer to Germany. It started with a drive through Plzen, a large, unknown town not too far from the German border. Then, after looking at a map we decided to visit a local castle, which turned out to just be a hunting lodge and was more of a large house than what you would normally associate with the word "castle" or "kozel." To get there, we drove on many small, winding roads in the back country of Czech and it was delightful. The scenery was pretty (although not as green as Germany) and the villages were quaint. After parking near the Kozel, we walked up a path to get to our destination and on our way saw a nice lake. We stopped to take photos of the surrounding fauna and were astonished to find Jaws' little brother right there in the lake. In fact, dozens of his little brothers. Dorsal fin and all, cutting through the surface of the water in search of food, and the little buggers couldn't have been more than 6 inches long. It was quite a fascinating sight and we stopped to try to capture it on film. The pictures truly don't reflect the experience of seeing these fish, but we did our best.

We had a tour of the Kozel and it was cozy - some rooms more elaborately decorated than others - and then we got back in the car (which, thankfully, hadn't been stolen) and returned to the safety of Germany. We stopped in Regensburg again with every intention of getting a bite to eat at the ancient bratwurst stand, but due to an embarrassing misunderstanding with the waiter we left without filling our tummies. Which was a good thing, because a wonderful, traditional dinner was waiting for us back at "home" - ham hock and sauerkraut.

Labels: Czech, Europe 2008, Germany

Another day to sleep in followed by a late breakfast with the family. However, today we decided to spend the afternoon in Nurnberg. Of course, we know of Nurnberg from the War Trials after World War II, but we were surprised to learn what a hotbed it was for pro-Nazi activities. We learned all about it at the Nazi Documentation Center (another interesting place that we found courtesy of Rick Steves). We found it to present a lot of information in what seemed to be a very objective, non-biased way - the good, the bad, and the ugly of Nazism, it's birth and death (or at least downfall). It was very interesting to learn what political and social changes were happening to Germany to make it's citizens receptive to the Nazi agenda and to watch interviews of people from all sides of the political spectrum who lived through those times. We stayed until closing time and then, of course, paid a visit to the famous court house. It's still in use and is closed to the public, so we only saw the outside. Finally, we returned "home" for another delicious dinner with the family. Unfortunately, the dinner table became somewhat hostile as a political debate developped (we do not have the same political perspective as our German relatives) and things rapidly developped into a loud disagreement. Eventually, things calmed down and we were able to go to sleep with no hard feelings (I hope).

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We slept in and had a traditional continental breakfast with the family. We finally realized how the term "Continental" breakfast came into being - it's basically a buffet of bread, meat, cheese, and fruit - and is so named because that's what people in continental Europe eat, as opposed to the heartier hot breakfasts eaten in England. Who knew?

We went to Regensburg to see the town (lots of churches, a river, and a 1700 year old bratwurst stand). We got some great Italian sorbet and then returned "home" for another relaxing evening.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We all slept in, had a late breakfast, and then bid adieu. We went back to Heidelberg to see the castle and stop in a few souvineer shops we had seen along the way. Afterwards, we departed for our relative's house in Bavaria. ALong the way, we stopped for a snack at a bakery in a very small town off the highway. We had fun trying to communicate with the owner, who didn't speak any English. In the end, we all got tasty food and had a good laugh!

We arrived at our relative's house in the evening and had a delightful time. The family consists of Grandpa, parents, and two children (an 18 year old son and 9 year old daughter). We only saw the son once during our visit, but the rest of the family was around most of the time and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We got up relatively early again (7am), ate breakfast, packed up, and set off for Heidelberg, where we met up with Ivan's schoolmates. The drive was beautiful and it was exhilerating to travel on the autobahn, though we certainly weren't the fastest ones on the road. We saw numerous signs for turnoffs to historic places on the way, but wanted to spend as much time as possible with Ivan's friends, so we decided not to stop. We arrived at Johann and Julia's house for lunch and then were joined by another classmate, Vitaliy, who drove down from Frankfurt. Together we went to Heidelberg where we waleked through old town (the largest pedestrian walk in Europe, or so we were told) and went for a boat ride on the Rhine. We had dinner in a delightful restaurant and returned to Johann and Julia's where we spent the night. Us ladies retired around midnight while the guys stayed up until 3am!

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We decided to get up early to try to get tickets to see the Historic Green Vault (they only give out 200 tickets each day). To get there fast, we borrowed bikes again and rode into town. We only had to wait in line for 45 minutes and we were still among the first 50 in the door - not at all as crowded as we expected, though perhaps the rain had something to do with that.

The treasures in the vault were incredible and we are all very glad we were able to go (it was Claire's suggestion - Ivan and Susan were hoping to take a train to Prague, but the visit to the Vault was amazing). You aren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so the best we have is one postcard we bought of the emerald collection (our birthstone - yes, all 3 of us were born in May!!). We also got a day pass for the rest of the museums and palaces, so we spent most of the day in the old town.

We took a break for lunch of bratwurst at a street stand and in the evening returned to the hostel for a tasty dinner of ravioli, grilled cheese, and (for Ivan) tuna. We spent some time on the computer (downloading Claire's photos and recording some expenses) and went to bed at 10pm. Susan was moved from the co-ed room she had last night into the girls only room with Claire and it was considerably quiter (probably because the windows were mostly closed) so at least the girls got a better night's sleep.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

Mental Note: Stick to rental car companies in the center of the city. Yeah. They don't all speak English in the suburbs.

Ivan and Susan woke up early to go to the EuropCar office to pick up our car. Our first problem was that the guy helping us didn't speak English. Eventually, a woman who spoke English helped us and we learned our second problem was that the car they had for us couldn't be driven to Zurich (it was too many kilometers to put on the car) even though our reservation clearly said we would be dropping it off in Zurich. So, they had to have a car driven to us from another location, which delayed us by over an hour. When the car finally came, it seemed to be an upgraded version and they told us we couldn't take it to Italy, although our reservation specifically said we could go to Italy. We still need to get that sorted out, but we were just too glad to get the car and be on our way that we didn't want to bring it up at the time.

We drove back to the hotel to collect our belongings and Claire, got lunch at the Kebap stand, and drove to Dresden. In Dresden, we stayed at a great hostel. We were able to borrow bikes for free and spent the evening on a bike tour of the city (guided by Rick Steves). We had dinner at a soup restaurant and returned to the hostel for a decent bed time. Unfortunately, although there are many nice things about the hostel, quietness at night is NOT one of them. The hostel backs up to a few bars and the noise throughout the night made for difficult sleeping.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

Today we slept in (Hurrah!). We had planned to see the DDR museum in the early afternoon and the German History Museum in the evening - the tour guide yesterday said that it and all other state museums were free on Thursday from 6-10pm. We arrived at the DDR museum with a large crowd of others, so we decided to get ice cream instead because the museum was really crowded. After we finished our ice cream, we took a bus around the city with the intention of taking the self-guide Rick Steves bus tour. However, when the bus got to the Reichstag we saw that the line wasn't very long (probably because it was SO hot today) so at the last minute we jumped off the bus to visit the Reichstag. It was very hot, but we only had to wait 30 minutes (usually the wait is 1+hrs). We got a great view of the city and learned some more history.

Afterwards, we had some time to kill before the museums were open for free, so we went to another local restaurant (recommended by Rick Steves) which was pretty good (but also more expensive). Ivan ordered the schnitzel; Susan tried the jager sausage (with spagghetti); and Claire had another type of sausage. All of the food was very tasty and very German.

At 6pm, we went to the German History Museum only to find - to our dismay - that it closed at 6pm and wasn't participating in the free museum activities. We had all been looking forward to that museum the most and were disappointed that we missed out in our attempt to save a few Euros. Instead, we went to the new museum where the Egyptian display is and saw Nephratitit's head (among other things). We stopped at a coffee shop on our way home (and a Birkenstock store - though we didn't find anything we liked) and then went back to the hotel to pack most of our stuff and prepare for the next leg of our journey which begins tomorrow.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany

We awoke in time for the 10am walking tour with the "Original Berlin Walk" (recommended by Rick Steves). It was fantastic, but we got so much more out of it having done the Rick Steves self-guided tour first. Probably 1/2 of the tour were places we had seen yesterday, but we learned so much more history from our guide today. However, after 3 1/2 hours of walking, we were all pretty tired by the end. We went to the kebap stand by our hotel for a fabulous lunch of Donner Normal sandwiches (a cheap and tasty middle eastern / Mediterranean food) and returned to the hotel for rest and internet use.

In the afternoon, we went back out on the town to take in more sights. We were pretty interested in the Check Point Charlie museum, but we decided to divide and conquer: Claire went to the museum while Ivan and Susan took a look at Ku'Damm and Potsdammer Platz (the "Times Square" of Berlin). After Claire was done with the museum she told us many of the amazing stories she learned of how creatively people attempted to escape from the East. The successful stories were very exciting and the unsuccessful stories were heartbreaking. We enjoyed some refreshing ice cream on the street and then returned to our hotel where we retired relatively early.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany

Off for Berlin... But first, sometime between 1am and 4am, the storm knocked out the electricity to our cottage (yes, even though there's no running water, there is... correction, was... electricity). It made things much more difficult to get ready for the day and especially to clean up after ourselves, but we did our best to leave the cottage as clean as possible.

We first drove to the port where Ivan's parents will be leaving in the evening and then returned the rental car. During our flight to Berlin, a problem was discovered in-flight, which required us to turn back for Helsinki after about 30 minutes in the air. However, about 20 minutes later, the problem was resolved and we were able to turn back around. The pilots made up most of the lost time and we managed to arrive in Berlin only 15 minutes late. The landing was a bit of a hair raiser as the plane kept rocking back and forth and the land was approaching awfully fast. Still, the pilots managed to pull off a safe landing and everyone lived happily ever after.

In the airport, we collected our luggage, bought a map, and found public transportation to the hotel (later we learned about a group day pass, but not before we spend 6.30 Euros getting to the hotel). We disembarked the tram at the specified stop, but there were unable to find the hotel from the directions given. Thankfully, with the help of two very nice German ladies (who didn't seem to speak any English), we were pointed in the right direction and were happy to finally arrive. The staff of the hotel was very friendly, helpful, and spoke excellent English.

We napped and found a fantastic restaurant (reccommended by Rick Steves) for a traditional German dinner (schnitzel, meatballs, etc) and then took a walking tour of the city (again, with the help of Rick Steves). We were able to get familiar with the lay of the land and the public transportation system and decided to take a guided tour tomorrow morning.

We returned to our hotel (which was quite nice, although the room was very small for three people) and got a good night's sleep.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany

Today Claire and Susan are leaving again, but this time to visit some long-time friends who are missionaries in Tampere. We awoke early and made the drive in fairly good time (about 3 hours). We left early enough to avoid rush hour in Helsinki and were in Tampere in time for lunch. We have known the couple that we visited, Tom and Linda, since 1994, when they were on forlough in the Sacramento area and their youngest daughter, Liisa, was in Susan's class at Victory Christian High School.

We spent several hours catching up with them and looking at family photos (particularly those of their two daughters' weddings) before starting a load of laundry (oh, what a joy that was!!) and hitting the town. We went out for lunch where Claire and Susan ordered some traditional Finnish food which we shared (reindeer stew and meatballs). Then we saw the city (and had some great donuts) before returning to their house to hang out some more. We asked Linda for recipes for some of the great dishes we've had, including Russian Bliniy and Finnish Rice Pies (with egg butter). We had a great dinner followed by tea and sweets (and yodeling... the "Zillertaler Schurzenjager" - Tom's favorite group!). We left in the evening and, after our long drive, made it back to the cottage around midnight.

We sorted our belongings and packed as much as we could in anticipation of an early departure tomorrow.

Labels: Europe 2008, Finland

Tallinn has truly been a delightful city with so much history to learn. Both the Tallinn History Museum and the Estonian History Museum, which we visited yesterday helped us understand the perspective of the Estonian people, who are actually some of the most forward-thinking of Eastern Europe (in our opinion, at least).

Today, we slept in again, had a casual breakfast, and then Risto took us back to the port where we caught our ferry back to Helsinki. After last night's rain, the water in the Gulf of Finland was much choppier on this crossing than last, and the crew kept circling the cabin, distributing bags for those who looked close to losing their lunch. Susan started feeling a bit queasy, so she had to lay down for awhile and eventually felt much better.

Ivan and his parents met us at the port in Helsinki and drove us back to the cottage where we caught up and relaxed at home.

Labels: Estonia, Europe 2008

We slept in and had a wonderful breakfast and then Risto and his family took us into Tallinn for more sightseeing. We went to Kadriorg, where there are several beautiful buildings (palaces) built by Peter the Great. Then we went to the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, where we learned all about the Singing Revolution, which is credited with how Estonia was able to gain it's independence while avoiding much bloodshed. Then Risto and his family went to a birthday party while we spent more time in old town, visiting more museums, a Dominican Monastery (where we now have free admission for life), the Town Hall Square, and the Holy Ghost Church. In the evening, we returned to Risto's house, where we had another relaxing evening.

Labels: Estonia, Europe 2008

Kristen flies home today and then Claire and Susan go to Estonia by ferry. Kristen's flight leaves at 8am, so we had to wake up at 4:15am and leave the cottage at 4:45am. Ivan drove and we made great time to the airport. We gassed up the car and then Ivan dropped us off at the boat terminal (after dropping off Kristen). We arrived early and waited outside until they opened the terminal at 7am. We checked in and then went across the street to a market to buy some food to eat (we were already hungry since we had eaten "breakfast" almost 3 hours ago). We each got a pastry plus a rice pie for a snack later.

We returned to the terminal to wait for our boarding time. The tickets we had purchased were "super economy" which we weren't sure how they were different from economy (except for being much cheaper). Susan thought it meant that we wouldn't have seats, but when we got in we sat in some seats and no one said anything or checked our tickets. As a result, it was a very comfortable ride.

We hadn't done any research about Estonia or Tallinn, so when we arrived we were absolutely clueless about what to see and where to go. We also had no idea that Estonia, while in the EU, uses Kroons instead of Euros as the official currency. We weren't sure how easy it would be to find a money exchange booth in the city, so we went ahead and changed $40 in the boat terminal. What a rip off! But at least we had some Kroons, so we set off to continue our journey. The terminal had large lockers where we stowed our bags and many promotional maps about the city. None of them were ideal tourist maps (they were either listing all restaurants or stores or only a subset of the sights) but, by consulting all of them, we were able to get a pretty clear picture of the city (or at least old town and downtown).

We set off towards the highest spire that we could see from the water (which turned out to be St. Olaf's Church - I think) and in the process we walked past "Fat Margaret," a few old towers, part of the old wall, and the two main streets in town (translated, their names mean "Wide" and "Long"). What a great way to start our sightseeing in Tallin! We were able to climb to the top of the tower at St. Olaf's (we heard someone say that it was over 700 steps to the top - and I believe it!) and from there we got some magnificent views of the city. It helped us orient ourselves with the maps we had and plan the next leg of our journey.j

By thte end of the day, we had walked the length and breadth of the old town twice and felt quite comfortable navigating on our own. We visited sights such as the Nevskiy Cathedral, Kiek in de Kok, Herman Tower, Toompea Castle, and several museums.

One minor hicup in our plans was that Susan's cell phone wouldn't work in Estonia, so we had to buy a phone card to use the public phones to contact the family that we would be staying with. Eventually, everything worked out and we arragned the time and place to meet Risto, Ivan's former classmate with whom we were staying.

One highlight of our day was a great find - we stumbled upon a small cafe in search of a Water Closet. We went down into an underground street crossing and found a hole-in-the-wall place selling inexpensive food. We decided to "play it safe" and ordered a hamburger and were pleasantly suprised: it was huge, delicious, and very unlike any American hamburger we had ever eaten before. Instead of lettuce, it had cabbage; instead of pickles, it had cucumbers; instead of mayo/ketchup, it had a sauce similar to 1000 Island dressing; and instead of a beef patty, it had a breaded patty made out of white meat. Although it may seem anti-climactic to order a hamburger in Estonia, it was really a delightful cultural experience!

In the evening, we met up with Risto and he drove us to his home, tucked away in the countryside, not far from the village of Koogi (I think?) - the oldest village in Estonia. It was so peacheful and beautiful at Risto and Angela's house, which is situated on a nice plot of land overlooking the Gulf of Finland. They have their own dock and a small boat that can be used to go out into the water. The water in the gulf stays quite shallow for many meters, so they take the boat out to swim and fish, rather than wading out to a suitable depth.

Their house is large, beautiful, and modern (it was built last year) with an abundance of Siberian Larch wood. We foudn their home to be a restful and pleasant change from the last few days spent "roughing it" in the cottage near Porvoo. We had "family dinner" with Risto, ANgela, and Risto's family (sister, parents, grandmother) who live next door, and afterwards Tristan (Risto's son) helped his "Mama" (grandmother) pick berries for us. All-in-all, we agree that this has been one of the most enjoyable days of our trip so far. The only thing that could have made it better would have been for Ivan to be there with us (he is in Finland with his parents).

Labels: Europe 2008, Finland

Today is Dad's birthday and also the day that Ivan arrives! Hurrah! We slept in and had a nice breakfast. Us girls left after breakfast to do some sightseeing in Helsinki before picking up Ivan. First, we went to Porvoo so Claire could wash her hair in the public Water Closet. Then, we went to the port of Helsinki to confirm our tickets to Tallinn, Estonia. Near the boat terminal was a big Orthodox church that we decided to visit. It was nice, but after the gorgeous cathedrals we saw in St. Petersburg and Moscow, it didn't seem that impressive. Then the Rock Church, where we stopped across the street for a lunch consisting of a traditional Finnish Rice Pie (which was quite tasty and cheap). Then a quick stop at the senate square before picking up Ivan from the airport.

We had to wait quite awhile, feeding the meter (1 Euro for only 10 minutes!!). We finally got Ivan, added him to the car rental agreement as a driver (which was supposed to be free, but cost 10 Euros), stopped for some groceries and went home.

We were invited over for tea with our landlord's mother and grandmother and had a delightful time. The mother, Ingrid, speaks excellent English, but the grandmother, Marianna, only speaks Swedish. It made for interesting discussions with everything being translated into 3 languages (Russian, for Ivan's parents). Marianna will be 88 years old in November and she is still so energetic and active. She prepared a delicious spread of treats to go with our tea and told us all about the farm and the family history. After tea, we returned to our cottage and packed our bags for tommorrow.

Labels: Europe 2008, Finland

We were able to sleep in and spend a relaxing day around the house, though we did end up doing some sight-seeing and shopping in Porvoo in the afternoon. The schedule is a bit twisted as we generally sleep until 9am, eat breakfast at 11am, lunch around 4pm (or later), dinner after 9pm, and bed around 1am. Today started out the same and we have decided that we prefer a traditional American schedule better. Although, perhaps if it was light until after 10pm at home, that might change our perspective somewhat.

Porvoo is about at 20 minute drive away from our cottage and we spent the afternoon there. We found a few souvenirs, including Susan's wonderful handmade purse. Mama and Papa were able to buy their tickets home (they plan on taking a ferry, rather than the train) while Claire and Kristen checked their e-mail at the Tourist Office. We bought groceries and returned home for a late lunch.

After lunch, we relaxed while Mama and Papa went to check out the sauna and then we spent an uneventful evening at home. Ivan called, which was a nice interruption in the day. He finished moving everything out of the apartment and is on his way tot he airport. We also called Mom and Dad - Claire had some important matters to discuss with them and we also used it as an opportunity to wish Dad and early "Happy Birthday."

Us girls took a nap while the parents went to the sauna. Everyone was so relaxed afterwards, that rather than having a large dinner, we had a light snack with tea and went to bed "early" (midnight).

Labels: Europe 2008, Finland

Today we took the train to Helsinki. Susan woke up early at 5:15am to finish the laundry (it still wasn't dray) and pack and get ready to go. The other gals woke up at 5:45am and we were supposed to meet Aleksey at 6:15am, but we weren't ready to go until 6:30am. Thankfully, there wasn't any traffic, so we made our way tot eh Finlandski Rail Station in plenty of time for our 7:28am train. Aleksey was even able to drive us past Peter I's little wooden "Teremok" on our way - so now we can say we visitied it on this trip.

Eventually, we boarded our train and were on our way to Finland. We were all quite tired and rested as much as we were able to. After the train stopped in Vyborg, Russian Customs Officials came on board to check everyone's documents. After the Finnish border, Finnish IMmigration officials boarded the train to check everyone's visas and passports. Everything went smoothly for us and we were grateful to not have to wait in lines like you do at the airport.

We arrived in Helsinki and Claire and Susan went to find the car rental agency to pick up the car. We squeezed everyone (and the luggage - barely) into the Kia we rented and made our way across the Finnish countryside to the cottage we rented in Porvoo. It is very rustic, but hte inconveniences of no running watter, lots of bugs, and using an outhouse are overshadowed by how much money we saved by not staying in a hotel! Definitely worth it!

It's almost fun having to haul water for the dishes and boil water for our use (although we did buy clean water for drinking). The area around the cottage is so beautiful and the owner and his family are so nice (although next time we should brush up on our Swedish, instead of Finnish, before arriving). We had a nice hearty dinner outside before retiring late.

Labels: Europe 2008, Finland

The plan for today was Peter and Paul Fortress, Peter I's little house, a visit with Sveta (our neice, Sasha's, mama), and then Serpuhovskaya for dinner. however, last night we learned that we could buy Kristen's favorite dessert (Russian coconut macaroons, aka "Kokosoviye Pichenye" or "Picheniye Kokosanka") in a store not far from our apartment called "Dieta." So, we woke up earlier than usual to make a trip to Dieta in search of those cookies. Our search was successful and we returened home with a kilo of those cookies.

After dropping them off at home, we returned to the metro and went to the fortress, where we arrived shortly before noon. We decided to by a combined ticket, which is god for six sights in the fortress over the next 10 days, but we only saw two of them. We also got the audio tour, which was helpful, and bought a separate ticket for a tirp to the top of the belfry of the church. It turns out, you must make advanced reservations for an English tour of the belfry, so we were stuck with a Russian tour, which was over an hour of us understanding next to nothing of what was said. However, the whole point of taking the tour was for the bird's eye view at the top, so we got what we paid for.

Due to our late start at the fortress, we called Sveta to postpone our visit from 3pm to 5pm. We left the fortress shortly after 4pm and took the metro to Sveta's stop. We were told to take Marshutka 342 to the final stop and spent about 20 min looking for where the marshutkas stop. Eventually, thanks to the assistance of some kind gentlemen, we found the place, but spent another 10 minutes looking for number 342. It turned out the one we needed was 243, which we finally learned by calling Sveta three times.

The marshutka driver was very nice and took us directly to the building we needed - even though he had to go out of his way to do so. however, we couldn't find the door to the building (and even if we had, the apartment number we had for Sveta was incorrect) so, two more phone calls later, Sveta ended up coming outside to take us to her apartment.

We met her son, little Nikita, (4 months old) but Sashinka is away for the summer visiting Sveta's parents. Sveta said that next time if we give her more advanced notice, then she would bring Sanshinka home so we can meet.

During this visit, we spoke while enjoying tea and sweets. Nikita's father, Sash, came home and we chatted with him for awhile, but mostly he took care of Nikita in the other room. We spent about two hours there and then Sasha drove us to the metro to go to Serpuhovskaya for dinner. We asked Sasha about his musical preferences (he was listening to music in English int he car) and he mentioned, among others, DDT and Nautilus Pompilus. When Susan mentioned that Ivan introduced her to the latter group, he put in one of their CDs and we listened to it in the car. Although we didn't hear any songs that Susan recognized, it was pleasant music. When we arrived at the train station, he gave us the CD to keep, which was very nice, as Claire was especially in the market for some good Russian pop music.

We arrived at Serpuhovskaya around 8:45pm, where we had a quick dinner with Mama. Sasha was at a party related to the wedding tomorrow and Papa and Aleksey were at Vsevelozhsk trying ot fix the garage door. We stayed until 10:30pm and took the metro home. We did laundry and got ready for our upcoming trip to Finland where we will be "roughing it" - no indoor plumbing, etc.

Labels: Europe 2008, Russia, St. Petersburg

Today is the Hermitage. Of course, you can spend more than one day in this "Hermit's Dwelling" (aka "The Winter Palace"), but with our short trip, one day is all we can afford. Again, we got a late start due to the hate hour at which we retired last night, but we still had enough time to thoroughly exhaust ourselves before closing time.

On the way to the Hermitage, we were pleased to find a bank open (it's Sunday, after all) where we could exchange some moeny. We arrived at the Hermitage around 12:30pm, where we were met by a very long line for the Cashier. A museum employee was offering people to bypass the line, provide us with tickets, and an audio guide in English for 800 Roubles. After learning that the entrance fee was 350 and the audio guide (which we intended to purchase anyway) was 300, we determined that the extra 150 Roubles would be money well-spent, so we went for it. We felt like VIPs: not having to stand in line at the ticket booth or the coat check or security or the audioguide stand! He even gave Susan a 350 Rouble discount for her student ID card, although she was prepared to pay 800 Roubles.

After spending a few hours in the Hermitage, we all decided that it needs more benches for seating in each of the rooms. Apart from that, we had a great time, learned a lot, saw many beautifyl things, and the only regret was not being able to see the Treasure Rooms. Apparently, those rooms close before the rest of the museum (3pm instead of 5pm) and you have to buy separate tickets for them, which sell out quickly. So, add that to the list of what to see "next time."

We exhausted ourselves around 4pm and then visited the museum store where we bought more souvenirs and gifts. We were very hungry and tired, so we sat ourtise and ate our lunch for awhile. It was chilly, so we didn't stay outside for long. We walked back to our apartment and stopped at Teremok on the way, where we ordered bliniy with wild berries. It was warm and tasty.

Another interesting aspect about today, is that today is "Navy Day." There was a very festive atmosphere on the street and they closed Nevskiy Prospekt (the main street) to vehicular traffic, allowing people to walk freely in the street. Flags of Russia and the Russian Navy were flying (and being sold) everywhere along with sailor hats and other patriotic memorobilia. Also, there were battleships and submarines in the Neva River with ceremonies to commemorate the day.

Unfortunately, after the Hermitage we were too tired to participate in the festivities, but it was still fun to be out on the street with the other merry-makers. After we got home from the Hermitage, we relaxed for a few hours and then went to Serpuhovskaya for dinner. Aleksey was there, having spent the day with Nina's parents (her father served in the Navy for 3 years) and after taking Nina to the airport for her weekly trip to Moscow, where she works for Microsoft. After dinner, we were driven back to our apartment by Aleksey.

Labels: Europe 2008, Russia, St. Petersburg

Today we're going to Vsevolozhsk and the ballet. After getting home late last night, we decided to try to sleep in today. However, we were all up earlier than expected, so we decided to eat breakfast and exchange more money. However, by the time Aleksey arrived to take us to Vsevolozhsk, we still hadn't left, so we put off money changing for another day.

Aleksey picked us up and took us to the store again (for which we were all grateful) before taking us to his house (Vsevolozhsk). Considerable work has been done in remodeling the house and much is still under way. A garage has been built, the downstairs entry way and bathroom have been painted, tiled and refinished, and the floors upstairs are being refinished with beautiful hard wood. The ceilings and walls are refinished and the roof and siding is being redone. It will look so good when it is finally done, but for now is a little inconvenient. However, most of our time was spent outdoors with berry picking (raspberries and red currents) and barbecuing the shashlik (which are the Russian version of shishkababs). It was a very HOT day, which made the bbq a bit uncomfortably warm, but we were very glad to have the entire family (minus Ivan) present.

Zhenya was in charge of chopping wood and preparing the coals; Nina (with help from us girls) was in charge of preparing the shashlik; Sasha was in charge of cooking the shashlik; and Alexey, in classic "Big Brother" style, was the manager (aka "slave driver") telling everyone else what to do and himself doing nothing - although he maintains that such management is, indeed, hard work :)

Last year Susan's allergies went hay wire at Vsevolozhsk, so this year Aleksey was very thoughtful and hadn't recently cut the grass. As a result, Susan's allergies weren't too bothersome and, thankfully, this year has had mild mosquito activity so, although we were prepared for the worst, we didn't need to use the bug spray very often.

After shashlik, we retired to the kitchen where Claire introduced the Chebotariov clan to Root Beer Floats (although we used Pepsi instead of Root Beer). It was a big hit and it seems that Aleksey and Nina will search for some authentic Root Beer Floats during their upcoming stay in America.

In the evening, Aleksey and Nina drove us back to our apartment where we had 1 1/2 hrs to nap and freshen up for our evening at the ballet. At 7:30pm, we met Papa Viktor and walked to the Andreisky Theatre for a production of "Swan Lake" ("Lebidinoe Ozero"). We had fantastic seats with a box all to ourselves on the first balcony. It was a beautiful performance in beautiful surroundings as the theatre itself is fit for a king (literally, there's a box for the tsar).

After the ballet, we returned to Serpuhovskaya for dinner. Eventually, Sasha and Zhenya arrived and they drove us home at the end of the night. We said our goodbyes to Zhenya, as he leaves early tomorrow for 2 weeks studying abroad in England.

Labels: Europe 2008, Russia, St. Petersburg

Aleksey and Nina took us out for breakfast this morning. Susan woke up early and decided to do the laundry. She started it at 8am and we needed to leave at 9:30am, which wasn't nearly enough time. By 9am, the washing machine still hadn't completed the first cycle. We tried to hurry it along, but couldn't figure out how to open it to get our clothes out. Since the machine is in a common area, we couldn't just leave our clothes in there when we left. We kept twisting hte dial and trying to open the lid, but it wouldn't budge. Eventually we learned that it took a few minutes for the water to drain, so if we left it alone the lid would finally unlock. Once we got our clothes out, it was already after 9:30am, so we hurridly put them up on a line to dry and went down to where Aleksey and Nina were waiting for us.

They took us to Teremok for a traditional Russian breakfast of Bliniy (which are similar to crepes). Susan decided to get a wild berry and a strawberry bliniy, which were both quite tasty but very sweet. Afterwards, Aleksey and Nina dropped us off at the Hermitage, where we were to meet Mama and Papa at 11am in the Palace Square. Claire and Kristen were able to take some fantastic photos while we waited and at 11:10am we all walked to the Neva River to catch a hydrofoil to Peterhof. We had to take a bus to the departure port because the one we were at was closed. By the time we got there we missed the boat and had to wait until 1pm for the next one.

We finally got to Peterhof where we took more great photos, ate a picnic, and left at 6pm. We went to Serpuhovskaya for dinner and met the youngest brother, Sasha, who had just arrived for a quick break from the Army. He is VERY tall!! Shortly after we arrived, Sasha left to hang out with his friend (the reason he got this break from the Army is that his friend is getting married next week and Sasha is his best man). So, we had dinner and talked for a long time with Mama, Papa, and Zhenya. When we were done, Zhenya drove us home.

Labels: Europe 2008, Russia, St. Petersburg

We decided to sight-see alone today, which worked out quite well. We woke up at 10am, ate breakfast, and were ready for an English boat tour at 11am. It was a great tour with only us and two other girls on the boat - which was much better than the crowded boats we saw with Russian tours. After the tour, we stopped to have ice cream on the street (there are ice cream vendors EVERYWHERE). We walked to the Admiralty where we ate lunch outside in the park. Then, we went to St. Isaac's Cathedral. We decided not to pay the extra 50 Roubles to take photos from the colonnade and we were disappointed. There were beautiful views and we would have liked to have some photos. Then we went to Dom Knigi (the most famous Russian Bookstore) where Kristen bought some souvenirs before returning to our apartment to freshen up.

At 6pm we met Ivan's parents who took us to a concert at Suvorov's training facility for young soldiers. The facility has a gorgeous concert hall and the concert was a flute and organ duet. They played Mozart, Bach, and others including a variation on themes from the opera Carmen. For the encore, they played Flight of the Bumblebee! It was incredible. Again we went to Serpuhovskaya for dinner and were driven home by Alexey, who was on his way to the train station to pick up Nina, his wife. We ended up going to bed around midnight again.

Labels: Europe 2008, Russia, St. Petersburg

Our flight to St. Petersburg was very early, so we planned on sleeping until the last possible moment. Instead, we were up at 3:17am where a full breakfast was waiting for us (I shudder to think what time Aunt Vera got up to prepare such a feast, but was grateful for her thoughtfulness). The taxi came at 4am (public transportation doesn't run that early) and we were at the airport by 4:30am. However, registration (the Russian equivalent of checking in) didn't open until 5am, so we had 30 minutes to kill in the airport.

We had all worked very hard to pack as lightly as possible, since we're all paranoid about airlines losing checked bags, but Claire was required to check her carry on bag even though it was only a little bit more full than Susan's (and Susan didn't have to check her bag). However, once we were on the plane, we discovered that Susan's bag didn't fit in the overhead bin, so she was left with it uncomfortably protruding from beneath her seat. That helped Claire feel better about having her bag checked and we were glad that none of our bags got lost.

Susan and Kristen had seats together while Papa Viktor and Claire were across the aisle sitting next to a Russian photographer named Oleg, who, thankfully for Claire, spoke English. It was a short flight and they served us a nice breakfast of a sandwich (Susan's favorite) and juice.

Ivan's brother, Alexey, met us at the airport and drove us to Ivan's parents' house (Serpuhovskaya) where we were able to relax and eat lunch with Ivan's parents and Alexey (the younger brother, Zhenya, was there at the beginning, but he had to leave for work). After lunch, Alexey drove us around the city and took us to the grocery store (hurrah!) before helping us check into the apartment that we were renting. Susan and her parents had rented an apartment through the same company last summer and everything went great, but this summer there were quire a few headaches associated with the check-in. However, finally everything got figured out and we were able to relax for a few hours. Before Alexey left, he loaned us a phone to use during our stay, which helped us coordinate our trips with Ivan's parents.

At 5:30pm, we met up with Ivan's parents to stroll through the city. We decided to take a boat tour of the canals, but learned that we had missed the English version and the next one wouldn't be until 8pm, so we decided to try again tommorrow. Instead, we walked to the Summer Garden where it's beautiful and green with plenty of statues. We wanted to go to St. Isaac's Cathedral, but Papa wanted to go home and eat so we walked to the Bazaar near the Cathedral on Spilled Blood on our way to the metro to return to Serpuhovskaya, where we ate dinner and hung out until late. By then, the metro was closed, so Zhenya drove us home. However, we found that during check-in, they didn't give us a code to the front door, so we weren't able to get in. It was late, but we called her (with Alexey's help) and finally got in, got ready for bed, and went to sleep very late.

Labels: Europe 2008, Russia, St. Petersburg

We stayed up later than expected last night (I suppose that's what happens when you don't eat dinner until 10pm), so we enjoyed sleeping in until 9am. Unfortunately, that meant we got a late start and, also due to some misinformation, we arrived at the Red Square after Lenin's Mausoleum was closed for the day. We walked around the city and visited the Pushkin Wuseum (where a reproduction of David and some egyptian artifacts are displayed) and the Moscow History Museum, where the major attraction was the clothes and maps of Moscow through the years. We wanted to visit the Russian History Museum, but it was closed, too. Instead, we walked the streets some more, seeing the KGB building and some monkeys with their performers.

We returned home early with a one-track mind to eat dinner early and go to bed by 8pm. However, that didn't happen. Instead, we watched a movie about Moscow, which was very informative, and ended up in bed around midnight.

Labels: Europe 2008, Moscow, Russia

Our first day in Moscow started for Susan at 8am. Aunt Vera was already awake in the kitchen, so they talked for awhile waiting for everyone else to wake up. We had decided to visit the Kremlin, Red Square, and St. Basil's Cathedral. A few things we wanted to see (like Lenin's Mausoleum) were closed, so we decided to return the following day.

We had lunch at Sbarro's (which ended up being more expensive than expected) and then, since it was such good weather, we set out for the lookout point from which you can see all of MOscow stretched out before you. It was a long hike up many stairs, but it was a lovely view. From there, we took our tired legs home for another relaxing evening.

Labels: Europe 2008, Moscow, Russia

We were the first plane to land on Sunday at the Heathrow airport (they have a night-time ban on flights landing, which is lifted at 6am). So we touched down at about 6:04am and were on our way to find our departing flight. They say you should plan on 2hrs to transfer between terminals, but because the airport was mostly empty, there were very few lines for us to stand in (pardon me - "Queues" - we're in England, after all). At Heathrow, they tell you what terminal your flight will depart from, but you can't learn the gate until 1hr before takeoff, so that makes it a bit tight time-wise. However, we didn't have any trouble (probably thanks to the early hour and it being a Sunday).

Labels: Europe 2008, Moscow, Russia

Ronnie drove us to the Philly Airport. During the ride, we learned about identity theft and missed the Walt Whitman Bridge. We got to the airport in plenty of time and went to the counter to check in, rather than attempting to check-in online. The lady who checked us in was extremely nice and apparently they had overbooked the economy class of the plane, so she upgraded us to "World Traveller Plus" which is a step down from Business Class. We thoroughly enjoyed our seats. This is Susan's third trans-Atlantic flight and she didn't feel uncomfortable once! Wow! We had bulkhead seats - which means even more leg-room than usual, and that helped a lot!

Labels: Europe 2008