Helsinki to St. Petersburg

Day 19: Helsinki to St. Petersburg: An early start this morning as we head to Russia. Stopping en-route at Vyborg - your first taste of old-style Russia, we continue to our hotel in St. Petersburg. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: LDM
Breakfast: 6:45 Bags to the bus: 7:15 Bus departs: 7:30

Today we were leaving Scandinavia, which meant a lot of different things. Firstly, we were leaving 19 people behind, which I was sad about. I was also sad to leave the relatively slow paced Scandinavia, where the sun was always out, people were nice, they spoke English and nature was abundant. I was going to miss this place. But we were exchanging it for Russia: dirty water, dirty cities, corruption, bad bathrooms, people who don't speak English, and the remnants of czarist and communist Russia, I actually was excited about this.

I got up early this morning, 5:30. I wanted to actually get a shower before going to Russia, St. Petersburg in particular, and I wanted to try and call home again.

I woke up Nancy when I got up, which I felt bad about since she had come in even later then me last night, but she would be one of the few to see us off this morning. I did get to talk to mom and let her know I wouldn't be calling from Russia and that I was ok. Then had breakfast and everyone made their way to the bus. Nancy, Leah B, Karl, Sara and Ash saw us off this morning. Later on I heard that a bunch of people from the Scandi part of the tour went to Estonia for the day.

The rest of us got an introduction from Maggy and Ash as we hit the road for Russia. We were also introduced to our day song - Rasputin, fitting for a trip to Russia. Our first stop was just after 10am before the Russia border. This was our opportunity to go to the bathroom, get money, eat and get supplies for Russia. It was suggested that we split a case of 4 large bottles of water with someone, that that would be a good start for Russia since the water wasn't safe to drink or brush our teeth with. Around Moscow it was realized that some people considered this community water, some people must have taken more then they purchased and we ran out, leaving some people screwed out of the water they had purchased - nice.

We left there at 11:05 and went out of Finland, the customs guy came on the bus, looked very grumpy and stamped all our passports, yea, I got a stamp. We drove through no-mans land to the Russia border. We were told to go in the building and get on line, apparently we weren't supposed to and were sent back to wait until 12:15. On line I got to talk to a couple people, Fraser and Brittany and some others. The line moved well sometimes and then other times one person would take a half hour. One person had a lot of trouble getting in - he had lost his passport recently and so there was something with either the new passport or the new Visa that was a flag - they even took him to another room. In the meantime Maggy couldn't find out much about what was going on. Everyone finally finished going through customs at 3:00 and we actually got into Russia at 3:30, then had to change our watches ahead 1 hour.

After all that Maggy gave us a bit of history about Russia and as interested as it was I still fell asleep. At 5:15 we stopped in Vyborg, which used to be part of Finland, and were told to use the bathroom and find the train to St. Petersburg. Well I couldn't find the train since I don't read cerilic and the bathroom is best described as a cultural experience. My cold and congestion (I had felt better for about 1 day and then felt sick again) were a good thing in Russia, it's good when you can't smell the bathroom.

On the bus Maggy spoke to us about the trip and what to expect. At the hotels they have "Niet, Niet Ladies," when you check in you give your passport to the hotel and they give you a hotel card (in place of the passport). When you come and go from the room you exchange your hotel card for your room key. By the elevator was the Niet Niet lady who exchanges the key for the hotel card. She's a grumpy lady and says Neit Niet to everything - she's the stereotypical old Russian lady. Niet Niet ladies aren't only in hotels, any time you need something you'll have to deal with a Niet Niet lady. At some point I looked out the front window and saw the infamous "death lane," we were in it and straight ahead you saw headlights. hmmm, I probably shouldn't do that again. In Scandinavia the cars were all very nice and well cared for, in Russia they were all old junky looking cars. The roads are lined with trash and the road isn't in good condition, and we were on "highways."

Before our next stop we were introduced to our wake up song - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Whamm. We got to our hotel at 8pm, LDM means "youth palace." Maggy had warned us that it was neither youthful nor a palace, she wasn't kidding. Just to emphasis this, Fraser got stuck in the elevator, most people ended up taking there bags up the stairs, thankfully I was only on 1, which was actually up 4 flights of stairs. We had dinner at 8:30, it was pork and rice and it wasn't too bad.

After dinner Anna, our local guide, took us on a Champanski Tour of St. Petersburg. We had stops at Decembrists' Square to see St. Isaac's Cathedral, Mariinsky Palace, the statue of Peter the Great (the Bronze Horseman) and the Astoria Hotel (where Hitler planned to have his celebration after he won St. Petersburg in the war). Our other stop was in front of the Central Naval Museum. We also saw the deformed baby museum (we didn't go in), Stroganov Palace, and Nevsky Prospect. We got back around 10:30 and Maggy set up Dodgy Serge's samples and took orders from everyone. It was a long day, but a good one.

Keuruu to Helsinki

Day 18: Keuruu to Helsinki: We continue southwards to Helsinki, Finland's capital. Our sightseeing tour takes in the Olympic Stadium, the massive underground church and Sibelius Park, a memorial to Finland's greatest composer in the 'White City of the North'. (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Satakuntatalo Summerhotel
Breakfast: 8:00 Bags to the bus: 8:45 Bus departs: 9:00

I got up a little before my alarm today so I got a jump on getting ready. The bathrooms were cool at this campsite. Each stall in the bathroom had a toilet, sink and shower which made it a bit easier to get ready. On the bus I played Crazy 8's with Nancy, Karl, Cathy and Jacqui. We had one quick break, when they realized we were lost, and got into Helsinki a little after 1. After we got lost Dion and Che decided we should play Coach Olympics, since I was in the front of the bus and everything had to go to the back of the d? But apparently the other side of the bus had pretty much given up, I guess I didn't have to rbus I didn't do much. Until they wanted an ipod with Eye of the Tiger paused. OMG, that's me! So everything in my backpack went flying (poor Nancy was trying to keep my stuff organized), I finally found it then couldn't find the song, I guess I was a little overly excited. I was rushing like crazy because who wouldn't have Eye of the Tiger on their ipoush so much. We won the point and the game! Yea for cheesy music! On the bus we also did comment things about the tour and Che and Dion thanked us for a nice tour. Dion also told us that he had been lying to us, it was actually his first tour as a Super Cook, how cute. Well the other thing that happened is that my watch stopped, not a very useful watch now, why is everything breaking?

When we got into town we stopped for pictures at the Lutheran Church and at Sibelius Park. Then I had lunch with Kate, Andrew, Kieran, and Marie. We walked over the the Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Church), a church built into a really big rock. After that we walked over to Olympic Stadium from the 1952 Helsinki games, apparently Kate likes seeing the Olympic sites, I'm not the only one. I heard later on that you can go up the towery thing, but we didn't really have time for that anyway. On the way back we saw the statue to Paavo Nurmi, an Olympic runner/medalist. I was going to try and get my watch fixed before our 5:15 pick up, but in the end we ran out of time.

A couple people almost missed the bus to the Hostel. When we got there I got in the elevator with my bag, I knew where my room was, but I left Nancy to get the key, I just hadn't told her. So Dion let me store my bag in his room while I tried to find Nancy. By the time I got back downstairs Nancy had already gotten the key. But in the meantime I met a couple people from the Russian part of the tour and said a quick hello. On my way back up to the room the floors were all screwy, room 410 would be on the 6th floor, crazy. Eventually I found my room. There was a doorway that led to a set of rooms, about 6 rooms, which were all filled with people from tour. It also had two toilets, but only 1 shower - that would be interesting. Nancy was in our room and we had a balcony, with a view of construction, Yippy!

We had quite a while to get ready so I decided to find a place to get my watch fixed, since I didn't know how possible that would be in Russia. The front desk sent me a couple blocks away, I got a little lost on the way, but eventually found a mall. One of the first stores was a watch store and I waited a while to get helped. The girl said it would take 10 minutes, I went for a drink in the meantime. When I got back the girl was helping someone else. I left her alone for a few minutes but it started getting late so I had to interrupted her, either way I needed the watch back so I could get back in time for our Russia meeting. She quickly finished and only charged me half the price since it took so long.

I got back to the hostel with 10 minutes to spare before our Russia meeting with Maggy. I quickly changed and fixed myself up for our dinner and night out then went down to the meeting. Maggy introduced herself and Ash (the driver) and gave us a little basic info before taking the Russia group to dinner. She advised us to have a good time tonight, but not too make it too big of a night since tomorrow would be a long day getting into Russia. We still had a few minutes before going to dinner so I went back upstairs to properly get ready. Some people were very dressed up and I felt like I should do myself up a bit more.

At 7:45 we walked to dinner, we were eating (as was the other group that had gone a half hour before us) at Armadillo. I sat with Cara, AJ and Renae. Since this was our last night with the Scandi only group we took lots of pictures at dinner. After dinner we all met at some bar down the block. Later on I heard that the bar next to ours had an ice bar in it, a couple people had gone to it, but I didn't bother since I had been to the one in Stockholm. When we first got there I talked to some of the Russia tour people and had last minute bonding with the Scandi people. It was an interesting evening. Che had quite a bit to drink and Tania had an accident. She fell out of an elevator onto the floor, went unconscious and cut her head and was bleeding. It's a good thing Karl was with her (I'll leave that to your own imaginations), she had to go to the emergency room and get 10 stitches in her head. Later on I saw the pictures of her in the ambulance and she didn't look too upset.

I left the bar at 1:20 with Lis, Jilly, Kate and Andrew since the rest of the group was going to a club and I wasn't interest in that. Poor Kate's shoes were hurting her feet so much that Andrew had to carry her part way back. We ran into some others on the way, including Kevin who tried to get a ride on Andrew's back - only to get spun around, which he didn't seem to enjoy, but the rest of us did. When I got back I tried to call home one last time before going to Russia where my phone rates would be much higher, but I just got the answering machine.

Rovaniemi to Keuruu and a visit to Santa's Office

Day 17: Rovaniemi to Keuruu: First a visit to Santa's house before we head further south to Keuruu. Perhaps a game of volleyball or a sauna at our lakeside camp. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Camping Nyyssanniemi
Breakfast: 7:45 Bags to the bus: 8:30 Bus departs: 8:45

My morning started like this:
I woke up at 8:08 and said, "Nancy, it's ten after eight."
Nancy: "What?"
Me: "It's ten after eight."
Nancy: "What?"
Me: "It's twenty minutes till bags to the bus!"

It's never good when you're day starts like that! And so started the mad dash to get ready in 20 minutes. One nice thing about a campsite is that when you wake up late you have to walk by everyone at breakfast in your PJ's so they all know you woke up late. It really adds to the experience. It figured it would be today too! Today was one of the days I was really looking forward to, we were going to see Santa! But not everyone was talking about us getting up late, since they had Corey to talk about, he apparently had too much to drink the night before, nothing is a secret on Contiki.

Anyway, at 9:00 we got to Santa's Village. I jumped off the bus to get to Santa to get my picture taken and still have time to shop. I was the first to find Santa and had a little chat with him while we set up for my picture. After I got my pictures I wrote up some post cards to send from Santa, and sent a picture to mom at home, I had bought the 5 postcard pictures for 25 euros so I could give them out to the family. After that I took some cheezy photos of me at Santa's and did some shopping until we left at 10:00. I even managed to have enough time to grab a pastry to eat for breakfast. On the bus I played Uno and Crazy 8's with Karl, Leah B, Jacqui, and Marie.

Our next stop was for lunch at 1:00, we were at a mall and for the first time in what felt like forever I didn't have to make my own lunch, someone else made me a cheeseburger. This made me very happy, I think if I had another roll, an apple and a banana for lunch I was going to turn into a fruity roll. After eating I found a pastry shop and got a pink frosted donut, it was good, but not as good as dunkin donuts. Then I still had a few minutes left to look around the mall and in the distance in a store I thought I saw a giraffe. I did! I bought myself a cute little giraffe and named her Clara. The only problem was that half the people on tour didn't think it looked like a giraffe because she didn't have a long neck, they thought Clara was a cow. We finally settled on referring to her as a ciraffe. But Clara and I knew the truth.

On this leg of the journey Karl, Jacqui, Marie and I played Crazy 8's, then Cathy, Marie, Karl, Kieran and I played Uno. As much as we played cards on the bus, it isn't always easy to do, but it makes the time go faster.

We got to the campsite at 6:30 and had half an hour to get ready for our meeting on the Russia part of the trip. The campsite was on a lovely lake, but the cabins were TINY! I don't know how someone actually thought 4 people would fit in it, let alone with luggage. But Lis, Jilly, Leah B and I made the best of it. Our suitcases were only opened when we needed them and at some point Leah took hers outside to get to her stuff.

At our meeting the mosquitoes were everywhere, and after Jilly's blood. Che told us about Dodgy Serge in St. Petersburg and Dodgy Michael in Yartsevo, as well as about Maggy our hyperactive Tour Manager for Russia. He also talked about the Russian Experience Package, and explained that it was an excellent value and that it would make our stay in Russia much better. Some people were a bit skeptical and hadn't budgeted for it. Then he had us fill out our applications for our Belarussian Visas.

After the meeting I ran for some bug spray wipes I had brought with me and then went to dinner. We had mild curry chicken which wasn't to bad, then Dion brought out Champagne and Ice Cream. It was Raspberry Champagne and one of the only times I actually enjoyed Champagne. After dinner I hung out by the fire with everyone talking. I even had the 3rd of my 4 Smirnoff Ices (I had the 2nd on the way to Nordkapp). I had been slow drinking them since I had a cold and wanted to get better. But I was feeling a bit better now so I figured I would have one. I had a nice chat with Dion, Wendy and Kevin tonight, which was nice since Wendy and Dion weren't going to Russia and I wanted to hang out a bit more with the people I wouldn't be seeing. At 12:30 I decided it was time to head to bed, tomorrow we were going to Helsinki and it was a bit of a transitional day since we would be meeting the group that was going to Russia with us.

Hammerfest to Rovaniemi

Day 16: Hammerfest to Rovaniemi: We leave the mountains of Norway to travel south through the lakes and forests of Finland. Cross back over the Arctic Circle to Rovaniemi, the traditional home of Santa Claus. (Breakfast and Dinner)
Hotel: Taveco Ky

Breakfast: 6:30 Bags to the bus: 7:15 Bus departs: 7:30

This mornings hot breakfast was chocolate pancakes, since Dion couldn't find any regular milk, only chocolate, they were tasty. Then we started our drive South to Finland, and saw a sign that the temperature was 11° (52° F), not wonder I was always cold. We had a stop at 9:30 at a supermarket, I tried to finish off my Norwegian Kroners since this was our last stop in Norway, but ended up with 50 Nkr left. Then we had another stop at the border to get back our Tax Free monies, I got 100 Nkr back. We entered Finland at 11:48 and had to set our watches ahead another hour. We made two more stops on the way to camp before arriving around 7:00.

When Che handed out the rooming sheet earlier he had neglected to mark which rooms were male and which were female. I had fallen asleep after signing up and am not exactly sure what transpired after, but shortly after I woke up Che came by asking if I minded sharing with Karl. I said ok, Karl is a sweetheart and totally harmless, it was only one night anyway. So my roommates were Karl and Nancy. Karl volunteered to take the pull out bed. After scoping out the campsite (there were 4 co-ed bathrooms - getting ready in the morning would be interesting) and declining an invite to play soccer (I didn't feel the need to embarrass myself or hurt myself like others had done throughout the trip). Instead I waited on line to use the internet until dinner, but ran out of time and lost my place in line to eat dinner.

We had a nice dinner of roast chicken, which made up for our average dinners the last few nights. I then made a made dash to the internet so I could write home. Because there was only one computer here and pretty much everyone wanted to use it we had to limit our time to about 10 minutes each. At least everyone at home would know I was alive and well.

After that I hung out in the bar for a while chatting with everyone and having a few drinks. It was a nice night since we all got to hang out together, some got to play pool and others danced. Nancy and I decided to head back around 1am, and Karl stayed behind. When Karl came in a little after 2am Nancy and I were still awake. Apparently he had waited a while so we would have time to get ready and go to bed before he came back, but found us "giggling" in bed instead. I set my alarm for 6:45 and went to sleep.