Observations from a trip to Northern Europe and Russia 1. Helsinki is nice, but without doubt the most boring big city Ive ever been too. 2. Finnish hotels dont have a/c and you cant open the window. If it gets hot when the sun burns down 24 hours a day the hotel room turns into a sauna. 3. People in Russia were rather rude. Maybe its the way they are or maybe because they dont like Americans. 4. However, they love you when you want to spend your money. Even when you walk into a luxury restaurant at the end of a long day of sightseeing looking more like a sweaty mess. 5. Deodorants and antiperspirants arent used widely yet in Russia, which makes being close to people in crowded places quite a challenge. This one tall and big guy at the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg almost knocked me out with his stench. 6. Getting pick pocketed makes you nervous and slightly paranoid the moment people get closer to you like getting on or off a bus or ship. I guess itll take some time before that goes away. 7. Santas cheating. His office is just south of the arctic circle! 8. Taking a shower early in the morning is a good idea when you spent the night at a hotel with just one shower stall for men. You can beat the crowd and use a clean shower. Until someone comes in and uses the toilet in the next stall to empty his bowels in a rather noisy way. 9. Reindeer are weird creatures. They love to walk in the middle of the road and are fond of using dark tunnels where you see them at the last moment only. 10. The Norwegian fjords are breathtakingly beautiful. I never understood why the Vikings would sail back from the Mediterranean until I saw the fjord near Alta. 11. Finland must be the country with the visually least appealing sandwiches. And they dont taste any better either. The chicken sandwich with BBQ sauce I bought in my jet lag state at Helsinki airport wont be forgotten for many years to come. 12. At the Norwegian-Finnish border the Norwegians dont bother to check whos coming in. Its the Finnish police who checks every car that leaves, but doesnt care about you when you return. 13. The Russian border guards in St. Petersburg had the best poker faces in the world. Their facial expressions didnt give anything away. 14. German tourists are everywhere. By bus, car, camper van, motorbike or bike, they get to very corner of the earth. And they make sure you know theyre there. They pick the best food off the breakfast buffet and arent afraid to voice their opinion on everything and anything. 15. Its beyond me how people can afford to live in Norway. The food is outrageously expensive and drinks cost even more. 16. We couldnt find any fresh fruit in stores in northern Norway. All they had were freezers full of reindeer meat and wieners wrapped in bacon that had been turning on some heating contraption since the dawn of civilization. 17. At one hotel the breakfast buffet was just mind blowing. They had three different kinds of caviar and about a pound of each. They also had at least 5 kinds of herrings in whatever sauce and other assorted fish dishes. 18. Listerine leaking into your luggage can really cause havoc and weird white discoloration on your clothes, toiletries bag, suitcase... 19. Slide shows at Finnish museums are something you should miss whenever possible. 20. St. Petersburg has some excellent museums the Smithsonian institution would be proud to put their name on. The Museum of Zoology and the Kunstkamera (Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology) are world class. Just make sure to walk close to the windows in summer. Itll help you survive the heat and the lack of deodorant use among other visitors. 21. Why do they have bidets in public mens bathrooms in Finland? 22. Tallinn, Estonia, is absolutely worth visiting. Its a charming city with character (and much better and cheaper food than Helsinki). 23. Having dinner at the historic aristocratic restaurant Palkin in St. Petersburg was an amazing experience. 24. The Nordkapp may not be the northernmost point of Europe, but who cares when you get there. Its still a bucket list item. 25. The petroglyphs at Alta deserve their status as an Unesco World Heritage Site. To see scenes carved into the stone 7000 years ago was great. 26. The chubbiest Darth Vader in the whole universe makes a living posing for tourists in Helsinki. 27. Europeans dont seem to know that smoking can kill. 28. Never, ever order a $5 schnitzel on a Russian cruise ship. 29. We tried reindeer meatballs and sausages, smoked reindeer heart and reindeer steak covered with lichen, fried crispy fish, braised pork belly with black plum sauce and black pudding, braised beef tender loin in mustard sauce, giant oysters, beef tartar with cucumber mousse, slow cooked sauerkraut soup with sour creme and honey mustard (and vodka as digestive), raspberry sorbet to cleanse the palate, beef stroganoff Palkin style, deer and wild boar dumplings with chunks of boar fat, Uzbek beef dumplings and rice pilaf, Georgian cheese dumpling, veal shashlik and quail with cheese. 30. The most amazing thing about the last two weeks was being on a road trip with my daughter.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 09:34:23 +0000
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