by Uli Probst
We have been back three weeks from our Eastern Europe trip as most of you already might know. You guys probably clicked on our blog on a daily basis, because you were wondering, how did these people make it home all the way from the Russian forests to lovely Bavaria. Today is the day you will get an answer to these burning questions.
Out in the country in Russia, many men run around in Camouflage. I wonder why, since not everybody can be a soldier. The following possible reasons come to mind:
Because of our limited knowledge of the Russian language, we could not find out. Anyhow, it always gave me a little weird feeling.
With a nice Aeroflot airplane, we were back in Estonia in no time. I felt somehow relieved when we saw the two big US Airforce planes at the airport. Back in the West, protected by the US troops.
As you know, the US Airforce is the new US cavalry and still remember all the Western movies I watched in my childhood. It was always the US cavalry, who rescued the settler from some bad Indians.
Tallinn had a big city marathon when we arrived and we could not leave the parking space with our car. We came in too late to participate, so we watched.
Because of the marathon, we had to stay another day in Tallinn. I can tell you, this additional day was really hard and painful for us.
Estonians are like Vikings. Any sunny day means swimming in the ocean.
On the next morning we took the ferry to Helsinki. Fins like to make day trips to Tallinn and bring some souvenirs back home. We soon found out, why? In a Russian bar we paid 80 Cent for a beer and in Finland 8 Euros. It makes sense to bring some special products home from a Sunday family excursion.
After a two-hour ferry ride we drove to our Airbnb room and found out, we had to sleep on an airbed. You cannot always win, but being used to sleep on the floor in a tent, we were tough now. If we get a nailbed next time, no problem.
We met up with some old neighbors from home and watched their son Timmy playing Finland’s sport number 1. What could that be?
No it is not Ice hockey, Reindeer races, Curling or counting frozen lakes.
Pesäpallo is the sport number 1. I have to admit, I did not understand the rules, even after 2 hours of watching the game. Looks like baseball. Timmy gave his best as a pitcher.
Afterwards our friend Carsten showed us Helsinki and we ended up in the restaurant of the Leningrad Cowboys. It was a nice and interesting evening. We learned a lot about the country and the people. Thanks, Carsten.
On the next day we made a tour to visit many architectural buildings. Helsinki has very interesting architecture like the train station or the Kamppi chapel.
Of course we also did our obligatory visit of the contemporary art museum, where we saw poor Ronald MC Donald in difficult situations. The poor guy even got executed by Islamic extremists.
Outside the ice breakers were waiting impatiently for the first ice. Don’t worry. This is Finland. The ice will be back in October.
When you travel for a year you miss some regularity. So we developed some traditions like visiting the art museum or finding the best Brezl in town. The best one in Helsinki can be found in the basement of the department store Stockmann. It got the rating 6 on a scale from 1 to 10.
It was time to leave Helsinki. So we hopped onto Gabriella. She is Swedish and is a little different to Princess Anastasia, who brought us to St Petersburg 3 weeks ago. Even she is not a princess the cabin was nicer. The Russian night show had more professional artists, but the Swedish people were dancing like wild people on the dance floor. I still cannot decide which show was more entertaining.
M/S Gabriella brought us safely to Stockholm. Good bye Finland, hello Sweden. But since it was raining, we decided to drive down south to Kopenhagen immediately. Sorry Sweden, maybe next time.
Our AirBnb host Ivan had a really lovely apartment a little outside of the old town. We felt at home right away. No, there was no nail bed. It was nicely furnished with many books and even a crib in our bedroom. It feels good to live in an apartment, where people really live and which is not just a holiday rental.
Copenhagen is a cool city surrounded by lots of water. We had lots of nice moments. Some recommendations for places to visit.
Nyhavn is the best place to find the most tourists. Have a seat in one of the overpriced bars and start your people watching tour.
The opera house is the second nicest one behind the one in Sydney. Read the blog posting about Sydney for more information about the number 1.
Frederik’s church give you photo opportunities, if you find an empty spot between all the Asian photographers
Don’t miss the two pretty little mermaids
The hippie settlement Christiana. Since I am currently without job, I thought shortly about settling here. But I could not get a clear picture of the hygienic situation. So let’s just continue travelling. There is always a chance for a better place somewhere on earth.
Hamburg was also on tour in Kopenhagen. Good for us, because now we could skip the stop in Hamburg on our way home even though Michelle seems to like the strong Hamburg sailor men. I was jealous of Lasse.
Copenhagen is also the capitals of bicyclists. Every street has wide separated bike paths on each side. Because Danish people love their bikes the bicycle traffic is enormous. As you can imagine, we also spend a day biking thru the city.
We also visited the amusement park Tivoli in the middle of the city. A nice place to spend a Saturday evening for many Copenhagen citizens and us. Many rides, bars, restaurant and a live concert. BTW: Danish people are even dancing wilder than Swedish ones. Who ever thought Scandinavian people are reserved or cool is so wrong.
This time we skipped the modern art museum and also the search for the best Brezl in the city (even though I saw a Bavarian beer garden bar). We just went on another ferry and drove right home to Munich.
Why? The Oktoberfest in Munich has already started and this guy was waiting for us with a nice Brotzeit and Wiesn beer.
Michelle´s brother Curtis freshly arrived from California to visit us. Of course, only by coincidence during Oktoberfest!
A nice way of finishing our Eastern Europe – Scandinavia tour. It was so interesting and also different even though it was all in Europe.
Hope to see you somewhere in the world.
We have been back three weeks from our Eastern Europe trip as most of you already might know. You guys probably clicked on our blog on a daily basis, because you were wondering, how did these people make it home all the way from the Russian forests to lovely Bavaria. Today is the day you will get an answer to these burning questions.
Out in the country in Russia, many men run around in Camouflage. I wonder why, since not everybody can be a soldier. The following possible reasons come to mind:
- Since they have so many forests and also bears, they do not want to be found by a bear.
- The people out there are a little more militaristic and want to be always ready for a NATO attack
- Some of the places are a little dirty and men don’t want to produce so much dirty laundry for their wives
Because of our limited knowledge of the Russian language, we could not find out. Anyhow, it always gave me a little weird feeling.
With a nice Aeroflot airplane, we were back in Estonia in no time. I felt somehow relieved when we saw the two big US Airforce planes at the airport. Back in the West, protected by the US troops.
As you know, the US Airforce is the new US cavalry and still remember all the Western movies I watched in my childhood. It was always the US cavalry, who rescued the settler from some bad Indians.
Tallinn had a big city marathon when we arrived and we could not leave the parking space with our car. We came in too late to participate, so we watched.
Because of the marathon, we had to stay another day in Tallinn. I can tell you, this additional day was really hard and painful for us.
Estonians are like Vikings. Any sunny day means swimming in the ocean.
On the next morning we took the ferry to Helsinki. Fins like to make day trips to Tallinn and bring some souvenirs back home. We soon found out, why? In a Russian bar we paid 80 Cent for a beer and in Finland 8 Euros. It makes sense to bring some special products home from a Sunday family excursion.
After a two-hour ferry ride we drove to our Airbnb room and found out, we had to sleep on an airbed. You cannot always win, but being used to sleep on the floor in a tent, we were tough now. If we get a nailbed next time, no problem.
We met up with some old neighbors from home and watched their son Timmy playing Finland’s sport number 1. What could that be?
No it is not Ice hockey, Reindeer races, Curling or counting frozen lakes.
Pesäpallo is the sport number 1. I have to admit, I did not understand the rules, even after 2 hours of watching the game. Looks like baseball. Timmy gave his best as a pitcher.
Afterwards our friend Carsten showed us Helsinki and we ended up in the restaurant of the Leningrad Cowboys. It was a nice and interesting evening. We learned a lot about the country and the people. Thanks, Carsten.
On the next day we made a tour to visit many architectural buildings. Helsinki has very interesting architecture like the train station or the Kamppi chapel.
Of course we also did our obligatory visit of the contemporary art museum, where we saw poor Ronald MC Donald in difficult situations. The poor guy even got executed by Islamic extremists.
Outside the ice breakers were waiting impatiently for the first ice. Don’t worry. This is Finland. The ice will be back in October.
When you travel for a year you miss some regularity. So we developed some traditions like visiting the art museum or finding the best Brezl in town. The best one in Helsinki can be found in the basement of the department store Stockmann. It got the rating 6 on a scale from 1 to 10.
It was time to leave Helsinki. So we hopped onto Gabriella. She is Swedish and is a little different to Princess Anastasia, who brought us to St Petersburg 3 weeks ago. Even she is not a princess the cabin was nicer. The Russian night show had more professional artists, but the Swedish people were dancing like wild people on the dance floor. I still cannot decide which show was more entertaining.
M/S Gabriella brought us safely to Stockholm. Good bye Finland, hello Sweden. But since it was raining, we decided to drive down south to Kopenhagen immediately. Sorry Sweden, maybe next time.
Our AirBnb host Ivan had a really lovely apartment a little outside of the old town. We felt at home right away. No, there was no nail bed. It was nicely furnished with many books and even a crib in our bedroom. It feels good to live in an apartment, where people really live and which is not just a holiday rental.
Copenhagen is a cool city surrounded by lots of water. We had lots of nice moments. Some recommendations for places to visit.
Nyhavn is the best place to find the most tourists. Have a seat in one of the overpriced bars and start your people watching tour.
The opera house is the second nicest one behind the one in Sydney. Read the blog posting about Sydney for more information about the number 1.
Frederik’s church give you photo opportunities, if you find an empty spot between all the Asian photographers
Don’t miss the two pretty little mermaids
The hippie settlement Christiana. Since I am currently without job, I thought shortly about settling here. But I could not get a clear picture of the hygienic situation. So let’s just continue travelling. There is always a chance for a better place somewhere on earth.
Hamburg was also on tour in Kopenhagen. Good for us, because now we could skip the stop in Hamburg on our way home even though Michelle seems to like the strong Hamburg sailor men. I was jealous of Lasse.
Copenhagen is also the capitals of bicyclists. Every street has wide separated bike paths on each side. Because Danish people love their bikes the bicycle traffic is enormous. As you can imagine, we also spend a day biking thru the city.
We also visited the amusement park Tivoli in the middle of the city. A nice place to spend a Saturday evening for many Copenhagen citizens and us. Many rides, bars, restaurant and a live concert. BTW: Danish people are even dancing wilder than Swedish ones. Who ever thought Scandinavian people are reserved or cool is so wrong.
This time we skipped the modern art museum and also the search for the best Brezl in the city (even though I saw a Bavarian beer garden bar). We just went on another ferry and drove right home to Munich.
Why? The Oktoberfest in Munich has already started and this guy was waiting for us with a nice Brotzeit and Wiesn beer.
Michelle´s brother Curtis freshly arrived from California to visit us. Of course, only by coincidence during Oktoberfest!
A nice way of finishing our Eastern Europe – Scandinavia tour. It was so interesting and also different even though it was all in Europe.
Hope to see you somewhere in the world.
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