Scandinavian Escapade

Welcome to another update of Sheree’s travel adventures. The “Spring Bank Holiday” weekend, as its known over here, meant that we all got Monday last week off work as a public holiday – Yay! So like so many other people in the UK I’m sure, I took off on a bit of a whirlwind adventure. The destination was Scandinavia.

Friday night I did some overtime at work. I was here until 7:30pm (how geeky of me). I came to work all packed up with my big backpack and ready for my weekend. After work I headed to Renee’s place. Renee was a little shocked at the size of my bag since we were only going away for three days. Needless to say she helped me cull some things, and I ended up with just my small backpack that zips on the front of my big backpack.

Saturday morning we were out the door at 6am and heading towards Gatwick. We caught the overland train from London Bridge station and met our tour guide Tim (who runs Tim the Tourman tours – visit timthetourman.com) who gave us our tickets. We all checked in and made our way to the gate.

After two and a half hours in the air we landed in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. We were met by a private coach and taken to our Hostel. On the way Tim informed us that his offsider had ended up staying behind, as they were the last to arrive at the check in counter with four other blokes from a bucks party and there were only 4 seats left. So basically they compromised – 6 people for 4 seats. Tim got on and so did three of the bucks party (the rest of them were already checked in). The person that got left behind from the Bucks party was the Buck himself!!! (Note: Greg the offsider and the Buck were financially compensated for this, and flew free from Heathrow airport later in the day!)

After checking in we went for a walk around the city and learnt about the history and legends. We went to some lookouts and did the touristy things like take photos. We stayed in the ‘old town’ where all the roads are cobblestone, the buildings are from the olden times (I’m not exactly sure what century). That evening we met in a bar to watch the Super 14 final that Tim had lined the bar owner up to tape for us. (Wasn’t the weather shocking??!!) They had a ladies cocktails list which was two for the price of one, and they went down well. Afterwards we all went to Olde Hansa for a medieval dinner. It was in an old building with the sorts of tables and chairs they used in those times. The waiters were dressed up in costume and they served us the sorts of food they ate in those days.

After dinner I was so full there was no way I could go out clubbing like the majority of others did. Instead Renee and I hit the hay. This was good because the next day we were up bright and early feeling fresh. We walked around town some more and did a little shopping. We went to the reception of Hotel Viru (the hotel that the KGB spied on dignitaries etc from other countries during the 1980 Moscow Olympics) and asked if we could go to the 23rd floor (this is where the secret room where the KGB hid is.). We were escorted to level 22 in the lift by a security guard and the hotel manager, then we went through a door and climbed to the 23rd floor. They showed us the view from both sides. Then Renee asked them if we could see the ‘secret room’. To our delight they did. It was dark and dingy. There were yellowed newspapers from 1989, which is the year they fled Estonia. There is a bed in there which is hardly made, a table and cigarette ash in the ashtray. It is exactly as they left it over 15 years ago. This was one of the highlights of the trip. Being able to go and see a bit of history. To see a part where the KGB spied on the rest of the world.

At 11am it was off to the port to get the Nordic Jet (which is actually a ferry) across the Baltic sea to Helsinki (the capital of Finland). The trip took an hour and a half, In this time I enjoyed a couple of bourbons and just generally relaxed and chilled out. We went through many islands along the way. Arriving in Helsinki we got off the ferry and walked around the main attractions for a couple of hours. At 1700 hours we went to a different part of the port and got on our cruise ship where we would spend the night – the Viking Line Gabriella. I’ve never been on a cruise ship before, but after only one night I was in love with it. My next big holiday definitely has to be a cruise I’ve decided. They had every thing you could want or need on board – duty free, Jacuzzi, bar, pub, nightclub, a couple of restaurants. We all went to a buffet dinner. They had free beer, wine and soft drink as part of the buffet, so I swallowed my bourbon loyal pride and got into spritzers – half wine, half lemonade. Not at all bad I must say. Infact I think if I am ever in a bourbon drought again that is what I might drink. After dinner we headed to the Irish pub that was on board. There was a guy playing guitar and piano etc as entertainment. He soon cottoned on to the fact that there were over 40 Aussies in probably his 100 or so crowd, and started playing all the good songs you would hear in a pub back home. Needless to say this went down really well. Renee had a ball with her “Fun Club” swizzle sticks and a lot of the girls had fun pretending to be secret service and the like with straws in their ears. (Check out photos on my website at bebo.com for more pictures)

On this night I met a couple of Finnish guys, Lauri and Kalle. They were good fun to talk to and dance with. Later we went up to the nightclub. It was mainly teenagers in there having a dance off with each other. So we just sorta danced in our own little area. Was a good night. They were very entertaining blokes and I was quite surprised at how well they could speak English. Full of local knowledge as well which meant I actually learnt something informative out of getting to know them.

In the morning we docked in Stockholm. Feeling a little worse for wear (after returning to my cabin from the nightclub sometime after 4am) we left the Gabriella. It was a sad farewell as I was instantly in love with her once on board. We caught the transfer bus into the city, and then went off exploring. We saw the ‘old town’ the royal palace and a real Viking ship. Then we were let loose to do what we wanted. Some people took off to museums etc, but Renee and I decided to walk the shops and more of the old town. Judging by what we saw in Stockholm, I guess you could say Sweden is definitely overcome with World Cup fever at the moment. It was beautiful. Stockholm has a great feel about it and I would definitely go there again. We bought the best ice-cream I have ever eaten, and ate it down on the river. At 6pm we all met up again and went to the ice bar in the ice hotel. The beds etc are literally made out of blocks of ice. Why anyone would want to stay there who knows. After about 10 minutes in the icebar we all left, it was pretty boring. Good to see but they only served vodka!

Just after 7pm we all got on the airport bus that took us to Vastera’s airport in Stockholm. Funnily enough this airport takes about an hour of countryside driving to get to. Our flight was delayed for some unknown reason, and we didn’t end up leaving until after 11pm. This meant a late arrival into Luton airport in London. We then all squeezed into a taxi and went back to Renee’s for the night.
It was an early start in the morning, up and off to work. All in all it was a fabulous weekend. And I definitely would like to go back to all three cities and countries again!!