Thinking about our cruise
One of the tricky things about writing about a fairly long and busy vacation is that it is difficult to know where to start; not only does everything begin to run together, but there is just so much to say, and a post like this can easily start stretching into several pages. So rather than drag it out, I figured I would do a quick over-view & some initial reflections here and save all the details on the various ports for the travel log. This way you guys get at least some of your curiosity satisfied and I get more time to edit crazy numbers of pictures (nearly 2,000 taken, I have about 200 flagged for editing and imagine I'll end up with about 150 actually posted). I'll definitely post a link here when I get each entry posted over on our travel log. I'll cut this anyway, to save your friends pages, but please do follow along. . .
I think as I've mentioned before, this was our first cruise. I had never been super excited about doing one before just because there were so many other things we wanted to do, but due to the ever present law school I didn't really have time to plan an intensive trip like this all by myself (factor in my lovely, but very detail intensive in-laws and this started becoming doubly true. I love them, but dear gods don't give them options). A cruise is essentially a ready made vacation with your room, board, meals and transport included, and so looked to be just the thing for a nice getaway and to a region I've been itching to visit to boot. Still, I was pretty nervous about it, and the internet forums, while it gave me lots of really good information, also exposed me to a totally new degree of crazy and some of the worst American traveler stereotypes you can imagine. And I'm not exactly a newbie to internet forums. Fortunately, we booked on one of the MASSIVE ships, which meant that there were many and varied ways to avoid the crazy. =) The other upside was that we met two other couples who were lots of fun that we met up with for drinks several times.
And I enjoyed it much more than I ever thought I would. Talk about being totally and completely pampered! For neigh on two weeks, we slept well, ate well (four or more course dinner every night, and yes I dressed for dinner every night too - that was fun), drank well (oh man, limoncello plus vodka plus ginger ale is just about the tastiest thing ever) and got to experience some really wonderful cities. I can completely see why people like this method of travel, and all told it was a pretty good value for money to boot. That said, I think it does lull people into complacency if they are not careful. I think treating this essentially as a taster trip of the region was exactly the right mind set to go into it with. It meant we didn't get upset about not seeing everything and could slow down a bit and not try to cram too many things in at once. We did all the port stops on our own, so that gave us added control over our schedules.
Also, no seasickness =) THAT was a huge relief. I don't usually get motion sick, but never having spent that long on a boat before I wasn't sure what would happen. . .
A few impressions of what we saw:
Whew, I think that's enough for now. I'm actually writing this on the train as we head towards Wales to visit schiehallion and family for a weekend in the country (cue: Sondheim, only with less wife swapping than his version). Anything else you guys would like to know?
I think as I've mentioned before, this was our first cruise. I had never been super excited about doing one before just because there were so many other things we wanted to do, but due to the ever present law school I didn't really have time to plan an intensive trip like this all by myself (factor in my lovely, but very detail intensive in-laws and this started becoming doubly true. I love them, but dear gods don't give them options). A cruise is essentially a ready made vacation with your room, board, meals and transport included, and so looked to be just the thing for a nice getaway and to a region I've been itching to visit to boot. Still, I was pretty nervous about it, and the internet forums, while it gave me lots of really good information, also exposed me to a totally new degree of crazy and some of the worst American traveler stereotypes you can imagine. And I'm not exactly a newbie to internet forums. Fortunately, we booked on one of the MASSIVE ships, which meant that there were many and varied ways to avoid the crazy. =) The other upside was that we met two other couples who were lots of fun that we met up with for drinks several times.
And I enjoyed it much more than I ever thought I would. Talk about being totally and completely pampered! For neigh on two weeks, we slept well, ate well (four or more course dinner every night, and yes I dressed for dinner every night too - that was fun), drank well (oh man, limoncello plus vodka plus ginger ale is just about the tastiest thing ever) and got to experience some really wonderful cities. I can completely see why people like this method of travel, and all told it was a pretty good value for money to boot. That said, I think it does lull people into complacency if they are not careful. I think treating this essentially as a taster trip of the region was exactly the right mind set to go into it with. It meant we didn't get upset about not seeing everything and could slow down a bit and not try to cram too many things in at once. We did all the port stops on our own, so that gave us added control over our schedules.
Also, no seasickness =) THAT was a huge relief. I don't usually get motion sick, but never having spent that long on a boat before I wasn't sure what would happen. . .
A few impressions of what we saw:
- Copenhagen, Denmark - was totally different than what I was expecting, and I'm not sure I can really describe what I was expecting - probably something more like Amsterdam, and there was that flavour to it, but it also reminded me quite a bit of Dublin. A little sleepy, lots of history, LOADS of tourists, but quite a bit of fun lurking under the surface waiting to be discovered. A place to definitely go back to, but like Dublin, after a weekend would probably work better as a home base for exploring the wider region.
- Malmo, Sweden - we popped across for the day to see both Shazzer and Sven who were fabulous tour guides. I think this really prepared us well for other places we were visiting, because it was much more typical of the other places we would see than Copenhagen was. Green, with plenty of history mixed well with modern construction. Excellent transport links and extremely walkable.
- Stockholm, Sweden - was the closest we got to a disappointment, and even that was only in comparison. I felt very oppressed by the old town for some reason, and a boat race meant much of the old harbour was blocked off (and sadly the way it was done meant it was actually rather difficult to watch the boat race). Still, it was very picturesque, but didn't quite capture me in the way the other cities did.
- Helsinki, Finland - I have been wanting to go to Helsinki for ages, and was always a little bit sad that my visa for my study abroad in Russia was single entry. It was much less old than the other cities, but I loved the art deco influence that was all over the place, and we had lunch at the little city market including about 500g of strawberries for about 50p. Yum yum yum. Great tram system too.
- St. Petersburg, Russia - has a special place in my heart since it was the first place I ever lived outside of the US (and the first trip outside the US period). I was really curious to go back and see what had and hadn't changed. I was very pleased to discover my Russian is still very functional and I had no problems navigating and translating for our little group and even had some nice little conversations. The city was much cleaner than it was 7 years ago, too, but man oh man were the crowds horrible, even more horrible than I remembered from the same time of year. You almost couldn't get into most of the major attractions for all the tour groups. The one thing I hadn't really thought about that makes me a little sad in hindsight was that being basically in charge of ensuring our group got to see "the essentials" meant that I didn't have any time to enjoy the city for myself or really see much that *I* actually wanted to see, but that's the way of things, and really wasn't all that big of a deal, because on the other hand it was really wonderful to be able to share my knowledge and really, just being there again was such a huge treat.
- Talinn, Estonia - this was the real surprise of the trip. We got really lucky in that one of the aforementioned couples had booked a group bike tour that we were able to participate in, which was just the thing after so many days of walking our buns off. Riding for a bit was a great change of pace. It also meant we got to get out into some of the more remote locations and see the countryside a little. The town of Talinn itself is really cool - quirky architecture, funky old skylines, and filled with affable natives. I think the Estonians were the nicest generally. We are DEFINITELY coming back here for an extended trip, not only for the city, but also for the surrounding area.
- Gdansk, Poland - turned into essentially a great series of fortunate adventures. The ship ended up docking about 14 miles away from the town itself, so that meant we got to take the train, which turned out to go by a place that raayat's mom really wanted to see that we didn't think we would have time for. The rest of the day was pretty much like that. It was also the most "mixed" city we visited - incredibly beautiful on the one hand and very poor on others. Really, it was pretty much my expectation of Eastern Europe. Interesting. Also, German turned out to be the most useful language to use, oddly enough.
- Oslo, Noway - was the town I was looking forward to least before we left and really surprised me in a positive way. Just very easy going and fun-loving in a way that couldn't help but make you smile. The city was also more open with wider streets and buildings that reminded me very much of Paris - tall and broad. The approach through the Fjords was also incredible and helped set the mood quite nicely
Whew, I think that's enough for now. I'm actually writing this on the train as we head towards Wales to visit schiehallion and family for a weekend in the country (cue: Sondheim, only with less wife swapping than his version). Anything else you guys would like to know?