Helsinki Finland, Photos

I spent the day today walking the streets of Helsinki. It is a nice small, big city it that makes sense. They have a great market square with lots of local hand crafts. I found a new job for Homer; making antler beer bottle openers and spatulas. There is a lot of fur here but not as cheap as Russia.
I met a really cool Aussie couple today, as I tend to do, but this pair were in their eighties. We shared a park bench and by the end of the conversation they were inviting me to their house in Brisbane if I ever go back. Like most Aussies. What was so neat about them was how worldly they were. In 1954 they bought a car in London and drove to Calcutta. Can you imagine? They said they felt like movie stars in some villages because they had never seen foreigners before. They were really neat to chat with. They have a son living in Sweden and they had taken a return boat cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki.
There was free jazz in the park today and the band was great. Oh yes and it was only 22 degrees C today, only the second day in a month that it has been less than 36 degrees C.
Check out the photos of Helsinki at the following link;
Helsinki Finland Pictures

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All is good in Finland

Well all has worked out. I have Euro’s, yeah! It turned out to be an easy process. I was a little worried as I arrived after the banks closed for the day. But I was able to find a money changing place and with my passport and credit card they said they would give me the cash. How much did I want? So I am back in business.

Well what should have been a five hour journey today turned into a 13 hour trip. Thank goodness I am still in train mode and had my food bag still in order with snacks. The Russian boarder was nuts. Hurry up and wait, wait, wait and for no need whatsoever, so it was hours, upon hours. Oh well. Then once we made it to the Finish side, it was in and out in two minutes.

I felt like our bus driver was playing a game of Russian roulette today speeding in and out of traffic. I was thankful to have a seat with a seatbelt and tightened it up when we happened upon an accident between a car and motorcycle where the driver was slain across the road and covered with a towel. RIP.

How do I follow that last statement…? Helsinki has a very calming presence. I am staying on an island just a 15 minute ferry ride from the mainland called Suomenlinna. It is complete with a fortress. It is full of friends having picnics on every corner or patch of grass. There are cars, but very few and none on the roads, just cobblestone walking paths. It is quite quant. It is so calm, that there are no workers at the hostel. Just pick up your key from the mailbox and make your way about, it is very quiet and pay tomorrow when we open at 9am. Enjoy your stay.

It was interesting that the change between Russia and Finland was so evident as soon as we drove over the boarder. With all of the vast land in Russia you would think there would be farms and fields of crops, but there are none. We were told they are not encouraged to farm and if they do and sell their produce the mafia is in on it and therefore people are then able to buy imported produce cheaper.

Check out the photos of Suomenlinna Finland at the following link;

Suomenlinna Finland Pictures

Russian Bank Machines, Link to Pictures

July 27, 2010 sitting in front of the fan, yeah! It took a few days but I now have one to keep a little cooler, 38 degrees Celsius today. I am getting to know this hotel well. This is my sixth room. Literally I went from a hotel room with a pull out couch, not a bed and a pull out, just a pull out couch, to a king size, to a single, you name it. Good thing I haven’t been unpacking everything and it is easy to move.

I took a hydro foil today to the suburbs of St Petersburg to the Summer Palace. It was a beautiful spot with over 200 fountains and lots of walking paths and gardens. It also gave a little reprieve from the heat as it is on the Golf of Finland and heavily shaded.
Russia is a fascinating place with all this grandeur and wealth, yet the babushkas (old women) have been left to survive on their own with the fall of communism. They will literally be trying to sell one beet root to make a bit of money to try to survive. They didn’t have to work before and had their accommodation paid for and now they have been left to fend for themselves with no skills. St Petersburg is very European and Moscow, Soviet and then Siberia is just barren with the odd wooden shacks along the rails. They sure have a mix of everything.

July 28, 2010 and just spent the day having bevies in the park and walking the streets of St Petersburg with Kim Doolittle. (She is a musician on a cruise ship currently travelling through the Baltic Sea.) Kim is in town for the next couple of days and as coincidence would have it, should also be in Helsinki when I move on to there. We had a great day chilling and hanging out chatting. She is an awesome person and loving life, as we all should. It was so great to see her.

July 29, 2010 so after the last three hours I have had, I am in need of a little stress relief.

So I was going to go to the Circus de Soleil tonight and needed money for it and the mini bus to Helsinki tomorrow. So I head to a back machine, only for the f-ing thing to eat my card. So with me having no Russian and the security guard having no English, I act out that my card has been eaten and this girl running the cell phone kiosk by the machine has a little English to tell him. He is nice enough and calls the number on the machine to be put on hold for at least half an hour. Anyway we figure out that they will not come to the machine until tomorrow and I am to leave at 7am tomorrow for Helsinki. So I figure ok no worries, I have two days left on the old VISA I can stay get my card and go on the 11pm mini bus. But this woman nearby says in Russian they will not give her her card back anyway. So I think, right. F***.

So I come back to the hotel and say I need your help, I need to make a collect call to Canada, to my bank. Have you ever tried to make a collect call out of the country before? It is not possible. Sure the banks say, call collect, there is no way out of country, calling zero for the operator doesn’t exist. So I come up to my room and figure with the WIFI I will Google how to make a collect call from Russia to Canada. Nothing. So I try the Skype I loaded on the computer before I left and tried the 1 800 number for the bank. It worked. Not sure if it was my first free call that worked, as the screen kept advertising first call for free with Skype or whether all 1 800 numbers are free. Anyway an hour and forty five minutes on the phone to the bank and my credit card and I am feeling more confident with the money situation, knowing I still have a month away with now no bank card. You would think this would be easily fixed because I have a credit card, yes, but with no pin. So two pieces of ID, thank god I brought my driver’s license and a MasterCard bank and they should be able to give me cash withdrawals. I transferred cash to the card from my account and should be able to get Euros now. Here’s hoping the banks don’t close early on Friday’s in Finland as I don’t arrive until 2pm. Luckily I have American dollars and am not completely out. What a pain in the butt. Needless to say I am having a beer as I type this and looking for that stress relief.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Check out the pictures of the Summer Palace and the last few days at the following link;

Summer Palace Photos and Pictures from the last few days


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More Pictures of St Petersburg Russia

Got to love the Russian dolls, who says that men can not enjoy them too?

July 26, 2010 and still in St Petersburg, it is awesome. There is so much to see and do and you can just enjoy getting lost in the parks, streets and canals of the city. Well I am the last one now. I just said the final goodbyes to Paula, Catherine and Rebecca from team Intrepid. I will carry on here for a few more days and Kim is coming in on the cruise ship July 28 so we will try to meet up.

It has been an interesting weekend in St Petersburg. Yesterday was Navy day. The river was full of Navy ships and the streets were full of drunken sailors. It was interesting people watching and yes it is still very hot, so they were entertaining themselves in fountains around the city.

Last night Paula, Mike, Debbie and I went to a beautiful hotel for supper, the Bellevue. The restaurant was on the hotel’s roof and had spectacular views of the city. We enjoyed ourselves and had a nice leisurely five hour dinner, which included a fireworks show. It is light out until really late here, so needless to say it was the first fireworks show I have seen when it was still light out.

You can check out some more photos at the following link;

More Pictures of St Petersburg Russia

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St Petersburg Russia, Pictures

St Petersburg is awesome but we have done so much, I have to say I am tired, so this will be short. We arrived at 7am yesterday, got a shower, yeah and went on a walking tour at 9am. We then climbed St Isaac’s Church to see the view and wondered the streets along the rivers and canals. I didn’t know this but St Petersburg is full of over 60 rivers and canals and they were going to call it New Amsterdam at one point. We then had dinner and got a little more cultured by attending the ballet, Swan Lake. Then we went on a river boat cruise to see the rising of the bridges which is done every night at 2am to let the ships and large boats through. Needless to say I am a little tired after that action packed day and oh yes, no air conditioning anywhere, yes none at the hotel and it is again over 40 degrees. But we are surviving; I am not saying that to complain, just making note of it for you. Then if that wasn’t enough we went to the Hermitage today and oh my god that place is the biggest museum I have ever seen, and I have been to the Louver. The Hermitage was built in the 17 century and is full of art work Catherine the Great collected. There are over 3 million exhibits in 400 halls and there are 20 times more than what you can see in vaults. But the buildings, oh my, they are enough on their own. The architecture, ceilings, crown molding, massive, massive rooms, and every floor having a different mosaic pattern of hardwood. I was happy to just check out the halls, let alone the art work on the walls by Picasso and Monet to name only a couple.
Check out the link for pictures from St Petersburg Russia
Pictures of St Petersburg Russia

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Ekaterinburg and Moscow Russia, Pictures

July 18, 2010 and back on the train. This leg of the journey is from Ekaterinburg (Yekaterinburg) to Moscow, 24 hours. The train only gets better. I am very happy I chose to do from Beijing to St Petersburg and not vice versa. The trains have only improved and our timing has been impeccable with festivals and anniversaries along the route.
This time the train is modern and clean with automatic doors between carriages and attendants with disinfect wiping things down, the toilets are spot on clean and there is air conditioning. Not feeling so grubby and if anything feeling a little under dressed.
Yekaterinburg was excellent. It is an interesting well organized town of 1.4 million people. There was something about the place that gave you that inviting feel even though there were very few foreigners there, or any at all that we saw. It was only opened to foreigners in 1992, as there were and still are a lot of secret agencies there. There are a mix of rocket scientists and weapons of war producers around and brides and grooms on every corner and monument having their wedding photos taken.
We visited the site where the Romanov’s were murdered. It is now an Orthodox church, called the Church of the Blood. The Romanov’s were murdered on July 16 1918. We happened to be there on the anniversary and witnessed pilgrims at the church and a church bell ceremony.
Nicholas Romanov was a Tsar that was brutally murdered with his wife and children by the Bolsheviks. They have been canonized as martyrs by the Orthodox Church. They were shot and killed at close range in the basement of an engineer’s home. The women didn’t die right away as their metal corsets saved them. The family was transported to a rural area burned, covered in poison and thrown down a mine shaft in Ganina Yama (16 km’s from Yekaterinburg.) Four of us got a driver and went to the site, it was fantastic. There are seven wooden churches there now and again the pilgrims were there. There were all kinds of black and white photos around the perimeter showing the Romanov family. There was a calming presence that came over us there as we walked around and took it all in.
In Yekaterinburg we also visited the boarder between Europe and Asia. Our local guide had an interesting quote for us yesterday. She said that she read that spending just one day in a foreign city you can receive more information that you could get from reading about a place for 10 years, interesting thought.
The food in Russia has been excellent. They love to use dill and use it in everything. Even just minced up dill and olive oil on pasta or a salad was tasty. Let alone the meat. They love their meat. Our salad of cucumbers, tomato and peppers last night came with two strips of bacon on top of it. I know some boys that would say that is their kind of salad!
July 19, 2010 we are now in Moscow and staying at a huge hotel/apartment complex that housed Olympic athletes during the 1980 Olympics. Moscow is a beautiful city. We visited the Basilica, Red Square and Kremlin. The panoramic views are breath taking, you just don’t know where to look or what to take a picture of.
July 21, 2010 checked out the Military museum and Gulag Museum’s today in Moscow. Wow did I ever get an education. The Gulag museum was about work camps in Russia during the Soviet, Communist time. There were over 25 000 camps across Siberia and the torture these people were put through.
It is over 40 degrees in Moscow and Russia is not equipped for this type of heat. Our hotel is huge. We are on the 20th floor and there is no air conditioning. Needless to say we are a little warm.
Every day I seem to learn more and more and yet realize how little I really know. Man I know I am fortunate and appreciate the life I’ve been given.

Check out the Yekaterinburg pictures at the following link

Pictures of Yekaterinburg Russia

and the Moscow pictures at the following link

Pictures of Moscow Russia

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Mongolia and Lake Baikal Russia and Pictures

July 12 2010 it is currently 36 degrees Celsius in our train cabin and Rosie one of my cabin mates is sitting across from me sewing paper cups and scraps together making her hat for the hat party tonight in our train car. Entertainment at its finest when you are on a 40 hour train journey. We are now in Siberia and finally through the boarder and its nonsense. We arrived at the Mongolian boarder at four in the morning and started the immigration stuff around eight. That then took until 11 am at which point the train moved and therefore the toilets opened again. Not too bad this time as we were allowed to get off the train at 7 am and pay to use the ones in the station. We then moved to the Russian side and the process started again and finally at 4:30pm we are on the move again. So now they would say we are on the Trans Siberian Trail leaving behind the Trans Mongolian trail.
Mongolia is fantastic. We were there for Nadaam a national festival where everyone is out in traditional garb. We went to the opening ceremonies and then watched some for the main events. They included archery, ankle bone toss, crazy but they throw ankle bones at a target, wrestling and there is also horse races. It was awesome, awesome.
In Mongolia there are two million people and half of them live in the capital city Ulaan Bataar. There are a total of five very small cities and then the rest of the people live nomadically. Unbelievable but there are gers (tent like structures) all over the country side and even in the suburbs of town. It is such an interesting country and such neat traditions. The infer structure needs work in this town, an engineering nightmare or challenge. It is a crazy town with no grid road system, drainage or good walking paths, but yet there is a Louis Vuitton and a Burberry shop that did 1 million in profits in the first three months. Crazy, if you are rich you are really rich they say and these people are few. They get their money from mining.
We went to a cultural show where they played very unique instruments and throat sang. You will have to look it up and interesting sound to say the least.
Everyone is buying a sheep or goat for their family to have during the festival, so there are herders at the edge of town where you can pick yours and have it skinned right there at the side of the road. We saw them slitting their throats and then selling the skin at the side of the road. You can get a “fresh” and I mean really fresh sheep skin at the side of the road for $2.
We went and stayed in a ger, it was an excellent experience. Our ger was in the national park and was not the most authentic location as I say we were in a ger trailer park, but still the real thing as far as accommodation. While there I went horseback riding through the hills and valleys, it was spectacular. Has a horse ever bit your knee? Well a Mongolian horse bit my knee. We were riding and one of the horses just reached over and chomped down on my knee cap, crazy thing. We had already nicknamed it Killer. It was a long way from the heart and I am fine.
July 15, 2010 we are back on the train again for another 40 hour trip and have one night in on the train already out of the two night journey. One would think a long ride like that would be daunting but we actually look forward to getting on the train. We have come up with some good entertainment. The hat party was excellent and everyone enjoyed their Russian Vodka that night. We were in a car with the Intrepid group for that journey too, so they joined in on the party, we are the Gap group. They have spent another night in Listvyanka so will miss our Christmas party tonight.
Groud is our tour leader and she is Thai. We played I have never the other night and she has never been to a Christmas party so hence the theme for tonight’s leg of the journey. We weren’t able to buy any real Christmas decorations so part of the day will be spent making the cabin festive with paper snow flake s and streamers. One would think this is all my doing, but I have met like minded people and they are all over this. It is a group effort. We even have the free socks from the airplane to use as stockings.
Moving on, in Listvyanka our group was split up into groups of 1, 2’s and 3’s and sent to a Russian home or apt for a home stay. It was great. Home cooked meals and we had the only host that spoke English so Rosie and I got them to do a little laundry for us. The others were so jealous, most want to burn their train cloths from the last 40 hour journey at 36 degrees Celsius and ours are nice and fresh and clean. Listvyanka is a small village on Lake Baikal. It was a gorgeous setting. We did lots of waking around the lake and ate some excellent fish that are only found in this lake. Lake Baikal has 22 % of the world’s fresh water in it. Our apt was an authentic Russian one. We stayed with an older woman and her daughter that is close in age to me. She is the one who spoke English. The apt was packed full of stuff and has that old charm to it. Not very modern, but their hospitality was excellent. The girl was actually a teacher, but doesn’t like teaching and she enjoys her job at the souvenir shop.
We went on a city tour of Irkutsk and saw some very interesting churches that during the communist time housed potatoes and onions and that is how they were saved.
Later the same day or I guess the early morning of July 16, 2010. Our Christmas party is just rapping up and it was a hit. Groud enjoyed herself as well as us. We had a stocking filled with goodies for her and we played a secret Santa pass the present game. The cabin was decorated to the nines with red and green balloons and a Christmas tree we made out of a sarong to name a few things.
Our train journeys are interesting. Our guide was concerned one night and told us to make sure we didn’t leave our car as during the night we would be losing cars and she was concerned we would be lost. Some legs of the journey don’t have a food car so we have to hit a supermarket and buy enough food to last us the 40 hours. There is hot water on the train so two minute noodles are a very popular item.
Today we have passed through three time zones. It is currently the 16th of July and we are 44 hours into a 46 hour trip that I thought was going to be 40 hours. No worries we have some interesting individuals in the rail car with us that we can chat about and some more scenery out the windows. This leg of the Trans Siberian has been interesting. There are forests upon forests of Birch trees and then the odd wooden shack that someone lives in. I can only imagine those shacks in the winter and how isolated those people are. In this 44 hour journey we have only passed through six cities and the rest has been this vast land of trees and greenery. We have now entered into the Ural region on our way to Ekaterinburg. Ekaterinburg was only opened up to tourists in 1992. It was or is a large military region and a big KGB area, thus they didn’t want any foreigners in. You can tell we are entering a military region as we just went by a couple of fields of tanks and had the longest cargo train we have seen pass us with military vehicles on it.

Click on the following links for photos


Pictures of Beijing, Mongolia and the Nadaam Festival in Mongolia


Pictures of Lake Baikal Russia and our train parties

“Yonder comes the train let’s catch ‘er on the fly!”

This summer I am doing the Trans Mongolian Express from Beijing to St Petersburg covering over 7000 miles by train. Check out the picture for the route.

I am currently watching the sunrise over the Mongolian dessert at 5:20am July 8, 2010 from my train cabin as my three Aussie cabin mates sleep. I was a little under the weather with a stomach bug yesterday that allowed me to sleep most of the day and night on the train, so hence the early start. We are currently 21 and half hours into a 30 + hour train ride from Beijing to Ulan Batar (the capital of Mongolia). We will eventually make our way to St Petersburg Russia via the Trans Mongolian Train.

So with a little stomach bug that makes for an interesting train ride. The toilets get shut down when the train is not in motion and at the border crossing the wheels need to be changed, do to different track sizes in China and Mongolia. So the toilets were out of commission for six hours. I survived, but it was interesting. During this stop your passport is taken and returned to you two hours later while they take it into immigration/customs and you stay on the train. It is brought back to you and you move ahead a bit and they take it again for a couple of hours on the Mongolian side.

The wheel changing process is pretty interesting. At the border they jack the train up with the passengers in it still and change the wheels out from under you.

I am doing the Trans Mongolian Trail with eleven other people in our group and a guide. I have a net book for this trip, so I plan to be updating the blog when I am in Wi-Fi areas and type it on train trips or the like. I haven’t been able to update the blog yet as I couldn’t access it in Beijing. The Chinese sensor a lot of things and my blog was one of them. When I was here three years ago I could write the blog in China but could not see it myself. This time no such luck. Got to like communism, so hopefully in Mongolia I will be able to post this.

Our group is made up of lovely people, Irish (3), Aussies (3), Canadian (2), and (3) British. It is a combo of two teachers, a banker, three doctors, one unemployed consultant, two optometrists a lawyer and a nurse.

We spent a few days in Beijing, what a great city and it has changed so much just in three years since I was here last. The city is very clean and very advanced. They are sure into their flat screen TV’s and have them everywhere. They are on the subway, in the busses at the gas station there was one bigger than a car giving off advertisements and then these two seem wrong. They had two in front of the monument on Tiananmen Square that had to be 500 meters in length, each, all just showing ads. Oh yes and after our hike on the Great Wall, which is one of my favorite places to be my roommate and I went to have a massage and even in that room they had a flat screen for us to watch as we received our massages in lazy boy chairs for $14. They did do a good job, but the TV was no babbling brook like at home.

We visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City with everyone else in Beijing, it was busy and extremely hot, my thermometer said it was 45 degrees C and 40 in the shade. The Great Wall was awesome again, I love it there. This time I visited a different part of the wall which was nice. It was quite the hike up to get to the wall. It had to be 2km’s of stairs straight up in that heat, wow she was warm. It was exciting to finally make it to the top and be on the wall. Once onto the top the heat didn’t bug me, even though it was direct sunlight. The Wall is just spectacular. We had a cool option of coming down from the wall on a sled through a kind of loge track that zigzagged down through the trees. It was also fun.

There are way more cars on the road in Beijing and fewer bicycles than the last time I was here. Everyday 1000 new cars are put on the road. There are over 4 million cars on the road in Beijing and 20 million people. They have restrictions that you can only drive your car on certain days of the week and it depends on your license plate number. For examples if yours start with a one you can drive on Monday and Wednesdays etc.

We went to a very cool acrobatics show, wow the things these little Chinese people and twist themselves into. When in China you have to try the crazy things they eat. So I tried scorpion, this time heavy on the shell and therefore very crunchy.

July 9, 2010 I am up at another ungodly hour today. I don’t think my body has quite switched over yet with the jet lag. I am 12 hours ahead of you at home and will be going through I think seven time zones.

We are currently in Ulaan Bataar the capital of Mongolia. Mongolia has a population of 2 million people and the capital houses 1.2 million of them. It is interesting country side, very vast, dessert and no trees. They say 40% of the population lives a nomadic lifestyle. So as you make your way through the country by train and there are nomads sprinkled throughout and then we arrived on the capital which is one of five larger cities in the country. It is an interesting town, a mix of old and new. Dodgy looking streets and buildings but then when you go in the building they are extremely modern and house major department stores.

We went from being soaked with our own sweat to being soaked with rain last night and it was much cooler in the low 20’s.

We went to a great cultural show last night. Really interesting instruments and they are throat singers. They can make crazy sounds deep in their throat. You will have to look it up. The Mongolian music was very nice. We then went for a Mongolian bar-b-q where you choose your meat and veggies and they grill it up on a huge grill in front of you. I had to go for the horse meat, mutton and chicken. I have to say the horse meat was the best and the chicken my least favorite. From my choices I think you can tell my stomach is feeling better.

Having a little trouble with internet connections and uploading pictures. Hopefully soon.

Panama and Chicago

Just trying to update the travel blog, it’s been awhile. Mom and I went to Panama for the March Break and it was excellent. We stayed along the Panama Canal right in the rainforest in Gamboa. We had a plantation style apartment. It use to house the American military back in its day. It was excellent. It was very easy to get around, mom and I took the local bus, it was 65 cents and had a great tour around. This couple we met paid $120 for a taxi of the same tour! Central America is great. I would highly recommend checking it out. Click on the link to see the photos.

Click here for the Panama photos


Then at Easter I went to Chicago to visit my friend Subir that I met when I was in Egypt. We had a great long weekend and checked out many a cool place. The Millennium Park was a great place to people watch. We made it to a Bull’s game. The people in Chicago are extremely friendly. Everyone you meet on the street smiles and says hello. Thanks for the hospitality Subir. I visited the Sears Tower and stood out on the glass floor a hundred and thirty stories up over the road. It was freaky and I am not afraid of heights, usually. Check out the link for the photos.

Chicago photos