st-marcopolo.dkWhat country are we in again?

Chris asked me that this afternoon. It`s Denmark, the last country of our trip. We sailed from Tallinn to Stockholm last night. We were supposed to take a night train to Copenhagen tonight and then on to Æro Island in the morning. Tommorrow is May Day, and being as we are in the countries we`re in (I`m not gonna say Socialist Tendancies or anything), nothing is as it should be. The Swedish trains ran today as if it were a Sunday, meaning no night tain. Honestly, I`m not really sure what Sundays have to do with night trains, but whatever. So, we traveled during the day. And actually, it was quite nice. A day with not so much walking, and we actually got to see the scenery. We`re starting to be too old for the night trains. I know, I know. We aren`t that old yet, but whenever we`ve taken them, we haven`t gotten but a couple few hours of sleep, and those few hours were ridden with wake-ups.

So, here we are in Odense. It is Denmark`s third largest city. We`re glad to be here. I slept like a baby last night. Literally. I woke up like a million times. That would be on the boat. The boat that was not so impressive. We`ve actually been on quite a few boats lately. This was technically our third cruise-type boat (our second being the shuttle to Tallinn - there were actually cabins on it!). Like I said, we were not overly impressed. There was no pool on this one, just a sauna. There was only one shopping shop and one tax free shop. The Stockholm - Helsinki boat put it to shame!! I know I haven`t talked about that boat, or any of Helsinki for that matter, but bear with me, I will.

I`m actually a little ticked at myself that we are here in Odense. I thought we were doing the right thing. I`d read somewhere that the ferry to Æro stops at like 6 pm or something. Turns out it runs until 10:30. I figured that out after we were already here with a room. I just now found out that the ferry service doesn`t run at all tomorrow as it`s May Day. I stick my tongue out at May Day! They say here that it`s like our Labor Day, but not really...in oh so many ways! For instance, ferry service doesn`t stop. The easiness of this trip has gone out the window. The first week was pretty great (let`s leave out Oslo for a moment). The second week seems to be one pitfall after another. Not to say that we aren`t having a great time. We are, it´s just there`s been a bunch of set backs. I´m just sayin`s all.

So we may have to spend an extra night here. I`m going to Æero if it kills me. It`s nice and idyllic and quaint and quiet. All things we need. Plus, our feet are well rested from the lack of touring today. But man, have those packs gotten heavy. Mine has this special way of pressing right on the nerves in my shoulder!!

On an upshot, we are staying in an awesome little botique hotel, and it`s only 595 Danish Krone (divide by 6). For this place, the only is appropriate. By far the nicest place we`ve stayed so far. I guess this is a slow week because he said they have plenty of rooms for the week. In fact, I think he charged us the price for a room with the bathroom down the hall (we`ve had our fair share of those), but we have a bathroom (wC - water closet) ensuite. Yay us! And, it sounds like it`s a good thing they have plenty of rooms. We may be sleeping in tomorrow and reading books (I read a whole one by James Patterson today. Beach House, I think it was. WOW!! Good book. Great twist at the end!) and then seeing what there is to see here.

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner. Service in this part of the world is not quite on par with that at home. In fact, you could even call it non-existent. In most places you don`t tip. I wonder if they got paid less and relied on tips, like at home, if they`d give more/better service? So the service stunk, but the food. Oh my, the food! It was awesome. The guy at the hotel recommended the place. Marco Polo (click on the top M). They love that name over here. You see all kinds of things with it. There`s even a clothing line called Marc O`Polo. Anyway, the food rocked.

Afterward, we tried in vain to find a place with ice cream. Finally, we ended up back at the hotel. Chris went upstairs already. I`m on the free computer in the lobby. He`s probably asleep already. It`s annoyingly easy for him to sleep. Today, I was miserable on the train. Seriously. In bad shape. And there he sat, sleeping. Ooooohhhh, I just wanted to pinch him!

*update* I just talked to the guy at the desk. he says it doesn`t make sense for the ferry to not run, all the shops will be open. I checked again. It was January first. Ugh! Like I needed those two years of my life I just lost!!

we found the photo nazi...he`s in Estonia

Before I begin anything else, I`d like to mention that it`s cold here. Seriously, teeth chattering cold. Stockholm was gorgeous the other day. We saw people in tube tops (okay, that was taking it a little to the extreme, but it was close to that warm...low 70s, I`d say). Our first day in Finland was also lovely until the sun started to set. Since then....brrrrrr! Today, I have on 4 layers plus my hat and mittens, and at times I`ve still been cold. It`s the first time I haven`t gotten hot and sweaty carrying my pack.You know how Scandinavians always have that ruddy complexion? I always thought it was a sun thing. It`s partially that, but it`s also from the wind. More than one day, I`ve come in at the end of the day with serious wind burn. Today would be the worst. I was nearly blown over by the wind as we packed it back to the ferry terminal.

We had a nice day of sightseeing. The turmoil of the nights seems to have died down. Probably from the daylight. The waiter last night said they`re expecting it to get worse before it gets better, as May 8 is a holiday. The anniversary of the end of WWII, and apparently some group always buses in a bunch of Russians from the east (where they`re more prevelant...makes sense that theref`s more of them there...)

So, we finished up Rick Steves`walking tour that got so rudely interrupted last night. Tallinn`s old town is lovely. That`s mostly what we saw. Old churches, the old town hall and Town Hall Square. I mentioned yesterday that Chris saw his first Russian Orthodox Church. Today we went inside. It was gorgeous. Painted a shade of teal that you`d never expect to see in a church. There are no pews or seats of any kind...they stand during services. All services. And they`re not short. Can you imagine? It said no photography, but I hid around a corner and took a couple. Funny thing is, I wasn`t the only one!! Some people would say that`s being disrespectful, but for me, I was so in awe of the beauty that I want to never forget it. So I snuck a couple!

We had lunch at another touristy joint. It`s called the Beer House, and is Bavarian Style. But get this....no photos allowed. Are you kidding me? You build a place like this with the total cheese factor flying off the end of the spectrun, and you want people to NOT take pictures? Of course, I snuck a few. Actually, no one really seemed to care....except our waiter. He was the only one admonishing the photo takers. So, whenever we gave or got something from him, I`d whip out the camera. I`ll show him!!!

You are tourists, it is not safe for you

These are not necessarily comforting words, especially when said by a cop. I`ll give a little background. We woke up in Finland yesterday (I`ll do some back tracking on the rest of Sweden and Finland later) toured around a bit and then took the "high speed" ferry over to Tallinn, Estonia. By high speed, they mean 2 hours time and 30 Euros per person (add 30% to translate to American....we`ve stopped doing the math, it`s just easier that way). So, we got here and needed to head to the room office. They call themselves the B&B office and cooridnate travelers with rooms in homes all over the Baltic States. Great! Perfect even! Except we were later than I thought we`d be. I just couldnt actually find us on the map. When I did find us, we hadn`t gone out of our way, just another route. Maybe a little more circuitous route. We picked up a map at the boat terminal, but when comparing it to the map in Rick`s book, I was a tad confused. It looked like there was only one way into the city from the boats. Ha! Try like 15. But, we got there, and it actually was a fairly good route (I love being lost and then finding out we never were lost in the first place, just didn`t know where we were).

We finally got to the office. And wouldn`t ya know, it`s locked up tight. We went around trying different doors, and Chris banged on doors, but it was to no avail. We were up a creek. Funny thing, I was thinking earlier that day that the Amazing Race would be so much more interesting if they had to find their own hotel rooms. Heh. Anyway, we just sat there on the step for a bit thinking. I got out Rick and started trying to find another hotel that was fairly close. I think I forgot to mention, Rick says the cabs are unregulated, so he doesn`t reccommend using them unless it`s totally necessary, so we walked. Ugh.

I found a place that looked kind of close (there`s no kind of scale to Rick`s maps) and we started walking. As we walked, it seemed like there was a weird feeling in the air. When you get to former Eastern Bloc countries, they look at you, as a tourist, with distrust. But here, they see their fare share of tourists. I thought maybe it was because it was a Sunday, but the city seemed deserted. That was of no concern to us, though! We needed a room. So, we kept walking. Without meaning to, we happened upon the Kalev Spa Hotel, but it was not to be. They were full, and I was actually disappointed. They have a water park, and people come there for a restful, sporting vacation. The guy at reception called another hotel for us. Nothing.

So, we kept walking. The neighborhood looked Soviet-era and rundown. Heck, it literally was rundown! But, we kept walking and came out onto a beautiful street! One one side was a lovely guesthouse that didn`t have anything, but on the other was their associated Hostel which did. Yay! This is easily, hands down the nicest hostel situation I`ve ever had. Lovely place. As travel snafus go, this one was fairly painless. Thank goodness!

By now, it was later in the day, but we decided to go do at least part of Rick`s walking tour (those are pretty much always great) and then dinner. What a lovely town Tallinn is. A mix of old-world charm and Soviet-era remnants. The sun was setting and the lighting awesome. We walked, we read, we took pictures. Some of the buildings have signs on them in Estonian and English. We read those too. Very interesting. We did notice a preponderance of police. And we were getting odd looks from the police. We definitely stand out. First of all, no one wears a white coat over here. I was aware of that coming, but it`s not like I was going to buy a new North Face coat! And that`s not to mention the camera glued to my face. And then there`s our accents. It`s pretty obvious.

Anyway, these groups of five or more cops were everywhere. We also noticed shop after shop with the windows smashed out. One still had the rock in the sill. Of those without the windows smashed, so many had the windows boarded up. It was wierd. It felt like the city was maybe more run-down than we though. Or maybe something we didn`t know about was going on. It was most definitely the latter. We continued following the walking tour and that led us through this terriffically old wooden gate up to the upper town (Tallinn used to be two towns, an upper and lower, and this gate has supposedly been there for hundreds and hundreds of years). We were enthralled by the Russian Orthodox church. Chris had never seen one before, only in my pictures. Weird, though...there was a fence across the street. Huh? Well, all the locals were shimmying between the temporary fence across the middle of the street and the wall. When in Estonia.....

Thing is, though, they all turned right, we were to turn left. Where there was noone but a couple of cops...this time in riot gear. We turned with the crowd for a moment, and a cop said something. They said things back. It was all in Estonian, which, suprprisingly, I don`t speak. We shrugged our shoulders and went on about the little tour. Weird thing is, the cops let us. Finally, I asked one if he spoke English. He said, "a little." That`s what they all say. I suppose I would too if I were them. You always feel weird speaking in another lanugage. I asked if this area was closed or something, and he said yes. You should go that way and go down. Hmmmm....okay....just a few more pictures, though. I guess none of the police bothered us because our tourist status was obvious and we wouldn`t be bothering them.

We took a few more pictures, saw the front of the church and noticed much more activity in the direction the first cop had pointed us. There, we saw a group of 6 or so cops, and down the hill they were putting up another fence across the street, but this time reinforced with concrete barriers. We asked them what was going on, and the first one didn`t have a fabulous command of English, so he brought another one over who might know the right words. This guy says, "It is like Germany and France." So what pops into my little head, "Riots?" No response. "Strike?" "No, not strike". "So it`s riots." Then, to make us feel better, he says, "You are tourists, it is not safe for you here. You should go to your hotel and stay there." And he and his buddies try to figure out the best way for us to get home because it really isn`t safe. Oh my!! At this point, we both got seriously nervous. And by nervous, I mean scared. About this time, they were arresting somebody up where they were putting up the fence. Finally, the cops asked us where our room was, and decided that was OK as it was in the old area and there are enough police. Again, OH MY!

There was a little problem in this scenario. We hadn`t eaten yet. And we were hungry. And for Jamie to not eat would be baaaaaad. Really. My blood sugar goes wonky, and if you`re not careful, you might just become headless (maybe we shouldn`t have eaten and then run into some rioters! Ha ha!). So, we went to this place we`d seen on the way called Old Hanse. It`s set in medieval times and totally toursity, but totally cool. Chris had wanted to go to this cool beer hall, but decided drunkeness & rioting do not mix! Anyway, it`s almost entirely lit with candles, and the food was out of this world! The mushroom soup was to die for! Our waiter was awesome. He seemed to be helping almost all of the tables in our area, and those he wasn`t waiting on, he was helping to translate into English and telling what is going on.

Here`s what he told us: the city/state decided to take down an old Soviet WWII memorial. It is Soviet and all. Well, there were some unknown soldiers buried underneath it and they wanted to exhume them, identify them, and give them a proper burial in a military cemetary. I guess this memorial was in the center of a sidewalk, so people were constantly walking over the grave. Well, this set off the Russian minority, who started protesting. And things started spiraling out of control.

Walking home after dinner (it was past 11 by this time), we felt more at ease. We didn`t have far to go, and there weren`t THAT many people out. We did stop for a picture or two, but there was noone around, and the old city wall was beautifully lit. As we walked down the even more deserted street that our hostel is on, we were just a touch more nervous. Actually, the most unnerving part was the bands of cops. We`d see one after another after another, in just a few blocks. At least we knew we were being looked after....as we were virtually the only ones on the street.

We made it back uneventfully, but neither of us slept well. Every little noise woke us. Well, for me it was the guy at 3:15 running down the street screaming. After that, I had a hard time. Part of what got me was the winow breaking, and we were in a street level room with a window. Everything is fine, though, and Chris is still downstairs sleeping. I´m on the one computer here. I`ve had a doozie of a time finding internet cafes in Finland and here. There`s wifi access everywhere, but what good is that with no laptop (though we have 2 sitting at home waiting for us!).

The cops said everything should be re-opened today. Should being the operative word. They weren`t sure. We shall see. We have until 5:00, then we take another cruise boat back to Stockholm. Where, we`ll spend the day, and then hopefully go to Denmark. We`re not really sure about the night train situation. We may be taking a last minute flight!

Here`s the only story I could find about there riots.

Aurland

So, I never got a chance to talk about the rest of our time on the Fjords. I have a list of things I want to do and see in my life. On it were Oktoberfest in Munich, check, Cinque Terre in Italy, check, the Fjords of Norway, check, Macchu Picchu, Red Square, and numerous other things. The Fjords are the whole reason we went to Norway. To fulfill my dream. I`ve wanted to see them since I was a kid. And was not disappointed. I think I mentioned that I wanted to do more, but couldn`t becuase it wasn`t May 1st yet. What we did was truly wonderful. More than once, we said, "Wow! This is so surreal."

I talked about the bus ride and the boat ride and that we were in Flåm. I can see why Rick says not to stay in Flåm. There is nothing. Some touristy restaurants (where we had fish and chips and cherry, marzipan cake), some touristy shops, a market, and a couple of touristy places to stay. All in all, we`re talking about maybe 15 buildings down by the water. Maybe. And that includes the train station. If you walk back up the river about 1 km, there`s what might be referred to as a town, but it looked to have max. 30 buildings. So, after walking around a bit, we decided to head over to Aurland.

The bus didn`t leave for hours, but the boat did leave to head back to where we came from. We talked to the guys running it, and they totally understood why we wanted to get out of Flåm. Cracked us up. Since we`d told them previously we were going to Aurland, they were all too happy to have us back on, and even let us on for free. It was the coolest experience. They pulled right up with the front of the boat facing the dock, and we walked a little gangplank down to the dock. We were the only ones getting off. I was alittle nervous what with the big pack on my back, but it was fine.

The town is small and deserted, as it`s not May 1st yet, but it was glorious. Right on the water, with the mountains behind. We had an awesome view from our window. It`s quite possible that we were the only people in the hotell! We walked around for a while taking tons of pictures and loving the fact that we got to enjoy more time on the fjords.

We were also exhausted. So, at like 5:00 on the dot, we headed for dinner. We went to the hotel`s pub. We were the only people in there, so we watched Isdans with the worker (we`re still debating if it was a he or she...I say he). It`s Dancing With the Stars, only for Ice Dancing. We totally got into it! For dinner, we had cheeseburgers. They were actually cheeseless and had Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes on them. And they were quite possibly the worst cheeseburgers one earth. Thank goodness for the fries. I ate all of those. And they were good! Seriously, I didn`t know you could do such bad things to meat.

After dinner, we went to the convenience store next door and picked up chocolate for dessert. We talked for a bit with the gal working in there. She`s married to and Englishman. We talked about how dead the town was and how busy it gets in summer. We were glad we were there now. But, she said she`s always glad to see the first tourist because that means the warmer weather is coming soon. We talked about the beautiful train ride we`d be taking tomorrow and how the Japanese tourists go from side to side in the "carriage" taking pictures of everything. I found a little too much familiarity in that statement!!

We went back to the room and found the Discovery Channel on our tv. So, there we sat, watching Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs. We love that show. His dry humor cracks us up. And I promptly fell asleep. At like 6:30 in the evening (or so). And then I woke up....at 2:30. And couldn`t go back to sleep....I`d already had 8 hours of sleep! Finally, after another 3 hours, I did, and we got up at a normal time.

We had to take the bus back to Flåm to cach the special railway. We were unsure of the bus schedule, but showed up when we thought it was coming, and eventually it did. We sat in the very front of the bus. We shouldn`t have. It felt like we were going to go off the little road skirting the mountain and water. When noone was coming, we drove down the middle of the road, and it truly looked like no other vehicles would fit. But they did. Oh my, they did.

We arrived unscathed and had a bit of time to walk around Flåm. Still unexciting. But the scenery was glorious. I didn`t want to leave. The weather was great and the views awesome. I kept taking picture after picture in hopes of remembering some of the grandness of it all.

We took the special little cog railway from Flåm to Myrdal. Wow!! Wow!! Wow!! The grand views were out of this world. I don`t know what else to say. It was a sight to behold. In Myrdal, we boarded the train for Oslo. We spent the next 5 hours being treated to even more amazing scenery. For the first few hours, it was all white. Houses were still buried in the snow. There was even one train station that was built into the tunnel, I guess because of the snow, and the snow was coming inside of the tunnel. Again, surreal. There were skiing resorts and never-ending mountain lakes with brightly painted houses reflecting in the water and rocky little islands with trees stories and stories tall. And more waterfalls than you could ever count.  I`ve never seen anything like it. I am so glad we broke the trip up. We were really able to enjoy everything. Well, I was. you-know-who slept. And then we were in Oslo. I`ve already shared that story. Let`s not rehash that.

Stockholm suits us

We had an amazing day today. Just fabulous. We love Stockholm. I knew we would. The day didn`t start out so well, though. Not at all. First, it took us forever to get out of the hostel. That was really no big deal. We just had to come back three times. Typical Jamie! Ha! It was really warm out today. A lady we spoke to later in the day said it was the first really nice weather they`d had. And it was glorious. Anyway, one of the returns to the hostel was for the removal of extra layers. We were already sweating.

We went to take the subway (T-bana) to the center of town (going down the way we should have come out last night), and the woman wanted to charge us 40 skr per person. Last night it was 52 total. This is for a trip of 2, count them 2 stops, and the exchange rate is about 7 skr per one dollar....that would be a $10 trip! So we decided to walk instead. We were pretty sure which direction we wanted (and we were right). We didn`t have a map, but we figured we were only a block or two east of the center and a few blocks north. We were right!! And, it was a lovely walk. We saw way more of Stockholm and it`s people and it`s stores than we would have otherwise. We happened upon the main shopping district where we bought flavored marshmallows (too bad there`s no fire pit here!) and the best strawberries I`ve ever had in my life. We spent about $4 at the outdoor market, and they were all well worth it. Oh, you should have smelled those strawberries! I wish I could bottle it. Even Chris, the non-berry lover thought it was awesome.

We walked our way into the map in Rick`s book, down the main shopping stree/pedestrian mall. Wow! were there a lot of people!! And this was at about 10:00 on a Wednesday (had to check my watch for what day it is. I can`t keep that straight any more. Don`t really need to. Just need to know where we`re going tomorrow!) We saw some interesting things, not the least of which was the Mongolian Barbecue place with the outdoor seating, and clear acrylic_type seats that were lime green. I mean totally neon lime green. It was the craziest thing. HAD to take a picture. The diners thought I was nuts. So, we`ve made it on to the map, and we`re walking along looking for the TI; we need some information.

Okay, total digression here....there is an old man at the table next to me, and he keeps belching really loudly. It`s just the two of us in the room (I`m at a little kiosk in the breakfast room of the hostel), and it`s kind of weird. They are to.tal open-mouthed, body-jarring belches. Okay, digression over.

So, we`re looking for the TI. And looking, and looking, and looking. I mean literally, we looked for this thing for an hour. We were using Rick`s map. You can see where this is leading, can`t you? He mentions that his maps are NOT to scale, but we`re talking poorly drawn here. In hindsight, there was a little blacked out spot on the map for where the TI was, but the "i" on the map (universal symbol for information/TI) was grouped with some other stuff with an arrow pointing down the block. If there had just been an arrow going from the "i" we would have been fine. But there wasn`t.

So we searched and we hunted and we gave up, and we went back again, and we asked in the 7-eleven in the underground mall (it was in a basement, we knew), and they pointed us in the wrong direction, and we looked some more, and we gave up again, and I got really, really, really frustrated, and we went back again, and we asked in the central subway station, and they said, "oh yeah, it just right there", and we went back to where we`d been three times before, and it wasn`t there, and I cried, and I said I wanted to go home...just get on a plane and go home (we needed to get there to find out where to go to book our cruise to Helsinki tomorrow night), and we crossed to the other side of the street (still don`t know what posessed us), and walked to the middle of the block, and we turned to look over our shoulders back across the street, and there it was. The god-forsaken Swedish House/TI. So we went and got our one piece of information and a map. Arm me with a map, and I`m good to go. Apparently without one, I`m dangreous!

The gal didn`t know THAT much information, but she did give us what we NEEDED to know. So, we walked to the Silja Cruise Line office. And it was a nice walk. It was a nice day in a nice city, and we knew where we were going, so we were able to enjoy it. Along the way, I noticed an art store, so we wandered in. Whaddaya know? They had scrapbook supplies! Most of them were imported from the States, and yes, I own almost all of them. I did find some awesome pens by Stablio that I`d never seen before and stocked up on those. Yay!! Love the pens!!

We made it to the Cruise Line office and got our sailing stuff set. It felt like it took forever, but I got to sit down for a while, so it was OK. By that time, it was already noon and I was starting to feel like we were wasting the day. But we weren`t. By this time, we were enjoying seeing Stockholm. We walked back down another street toward the TI, as there was a lovely park area with hot dog and ice cream stands (and a Fridays, which Chris aviods like the plague, but I´ve had good experiences with them overseas...just not at home!). Anyway, on the way back down, we saw some great stores, including Rolex and Urban Outfitters. I love UO, so we went in. We wouldn`t pay any of the prices for the stuff I like - most of it we can find at home. Chris was highly entertained by, "The Hello Penis Book." Yes, you read that right. It had a hole cut out of the center, and was basically a storybook. Not sexual, but just a little storybook. I think what cracked me up the most was the thought of someone actually taking it seriously. The ridiculousness of it all!!

So we went back out to the park, which turns out to be one of the most popular in Stockholm. I can see why, it was gorgeous! What looked like Cherry Blossom Trees lining a reflecting pool on both sides, with plenty of seating and cafes lining the entire park. There were families and workers and students and people playing life-sized chess games (quite seriously, I might add), and it was lovely. We got hot dogs and sat by the water enjoying. Here´s a funny, the hot dogs were 13 skr each. The bottle of Coke we shared? 24. The dogs rocked, so we each had another. And then, we went back for a third time for ice cream. I had Creme Brulee and Pistachio. Chris had Chocolate and Cappucino. Oh man was it good. As I always say, "Ice cream is a cure all." And boy is it!

We were feeling much better after lunch (I guess I should say I was feeling better - headache), so we decided to head to the Vasa Museum. We weren`t sure if the ferries were running yet or not, as nothing officially opens until May 1, but we decided to try. Apparently they are, just not all of them, so where we were, there was no service. So we walked. I saw a sign that said it was 1.1 K away, from my running, I know that is nothing, so like I said, we walked. Along the way, we happened upon a lovely little harbor side cafe, so we each had a beer...for $7 each!! No matter, it was good, and just what we needed. We sat and enjoyed the weather and the city (again).

Finally, we made our way to the museum. Thankfully, it`s open until 8:00 on Wednesdays. We spent nigh on 3 hours there! We both felt, hands down, it was the best museum we`d ever been to. The Vasa is a man-of-war ship that was commissioned by the King of Sweden and was built right here in Sweden by a Dutchie. It went on it`s maiden voyage in 1628 and promptly sank in the Stockholm harbor not far from where the museum is today. It was found in the 1950s and brought up over 5 years. Then, they spend another 17 years filling all the voids in the wood with wax to preserve it and another year doing cosmetic stuff. So, 23 years later (I`m pretty sure it was `79), they were able to put it on display. Incidentally, the day they brought it up from the water was the very first time they did a live broadcast. Guess it was a pretty big deal!! Chris says 23 years is a long time to wait to see a return on your investment!

Most of the ship was in tact, including all of it`s statues, many of the cannons (it`d had double gun decks, so it had 64 cannons, which, coupled with the ship not having enough ballast was it`s undoing), the bodies of the few who perished (most got out alive), and all the goods that were on the ship. Many of these things (including the skeletons) were on display in the museum. It was truly fascinating - and I took like 200 pictures. It was just awesome. They really did a good job. We even took a tour (yes, in English). Wow! Just wow!

Finally, we left the museum. And wouldn`t you know, we missed the last ferry. So we took the bus. But it was going back to where we`d been lost trying to find the TI & we didn`t want to go THERE again! So we hopped off the bus and headed to do Rick`s walking tour. It was in the old town section of Stockholm (the Gamala Stan neighborhood) and included the Royal Palace, several churches, and some very skinny lanes. It really was a lovely walk. We`d have been more into it if we (and more importantly, our feet) hadn`t been so tired (and by the end of it, hungry). We did see a Rune stone set into one of the buildings (Rick said that`s what it was, anyway) and some army boys practicing in the courtyard of the royal palace while the Royal Guards did their thing. Poor army boys aren`t that well practiced. One of them tripped over another`s gun!

We decided earlier that pasta was sounding super good, so after our walking tour, we went in search of food. Little did I know, my Christopher spied an Italian restaurant during our jaunt around Gamala Stan. So, we walked back over, and into what was apparently a little Italian neighborhood. Oh my gosh! The food was outstanding. We got a huge calzone-type situation and the chef`s special shrimp scampi. It was all to die for. Far and away the best food we`ve had on the trip. Actually, the best Italian food we`ve had since we were in Italy. We almost didn`t want the meal to end. We ate outside and watched the world go by. We even ordered a wine that I could drink. Celia something. It was a very, very good night. Awesome end to an awesome day.

We really like Stockholm. Like the city, like the people, like the food (Italian food counts, right?). Chris likes that people will make eye contact with you here. The fact that they didn`t bothered him in Oslo. Maybe they thought if they did, you`d mug them? Thing is, Stockholm is still a huge city, but it feels more like Bergen than Oslo. We were standing at the entrance to a park today, looking back over what we`d just walked through, and a woman just walked up and asked if she could help us find something. So nice!

Yum....crow tastes good

By the light of day this morning we realized what the problem was last night. We exited the subway station in the wrong direction. Most stations have 2 different directions you can use to exit. So does this one. We did not choose wisely. If we had, we would have been literally 5 feet away (okay, maybe 10) from the hostel`s front door. Now, in our defense, if Rick had added just three little words to his directions,"exit towards Stadsbibliotek," we would have been saved an hour out of our lives. And not just any hour, but an hour at darn-near midinight after 7 hours on the train with 5 kabajillion pound packs on our backs. When I write my travel guide, I will include things like that. It`s all in the details.

Where is Rick Steves? I`d like to ring his bell

I mentioned in my last post that Rick had 3 strikes against him (or at least his guide book). That post was made from the train station. This one is coming from our Hostel. Notice the time difference. It took us forever to get here. No, literally, foever. Look at the time stamp. That`s a long time for a trip that`s only two stations on the subway. This is how bad it was.....I didn`t take a single picture. Need I say more?

I mentioned earlier that Rick (our at least his book had) 3 strikes against him. I can`t remember them all, but suffice to say, now he has 4. Actually, after this last one, he may have 5! Yep, it was that bad. Now, I don`t expect a guide book to have a map to everything - that would be impossible. But, if you`re going to have directions in your book, make them have some semblance of accuracy. Or even actual directions. Something. You could go so far as to have someone like me write them, but I`m not even asking for that. Tonight, we wanted to get to the hostel. So, we followed the directions. We took the subway and walked. Chris just came by. He explains it this way...he just leaves out all the important information on how to get from point A to point B. I love how that man can sum up exactly what I´m trying to say so perfectly. Back to the story. Rick says you take the subway, and it`s right there.

Rick says it`s, "across the street from T-bana: Rådmansgatan, just off Sveavägan at Rehnsgatan 21." What he fails to mention is that you have to walk a couple of blocks down the S-street (in the right direction, mind you) to the street named Rehnsgatan, making sure not to go down the first street that has that on the street sign and thereby thinking you are on the right street and unable to find the hostel and so trying the door code on every possible door and finally stopping in a posh hotel to ask for help. The hotel guy was actually helpful - in a round about way. He drew it on the map and I noticed he indicated the correct street was one over from where we though. Whadday know, when we looked up, the street name had changed (and we both saw it, so we weren`t just wrong). Finally, we found the hostel, and I can only describe it as......charming. So far so good! I just glad to have my pack off my shoulders. It`s somehow jacked up and putting pressure on the nerve in the front of my shoulder when I carry it, but we can`t seem to figure it out.

So, I´m tired, painfully thirsty, I stink, my breath is horrible, and I`ve got a case of the grumps. But we`re here, and we`re off to bed. Stinking Oslo. This is all Oslo`s fault. (Chris is now sitting here waiting for me, trying to read the comics in Swedish. He just giggled. Is there something I should know?)