Day 37 - 39: Helsinki, Finland

After arriving late the previous night, we were up and about early on Day 37.

Our hotel in Helsinki was awesome, it was built in an old jail that had been fitted out as a hotel. All the rooms were two cells merged together, the hallways still had the metal walkways and staircases and the dining room was in the basement, complete with metal cups and plates.

For our first day in Helsinki we bought tickets on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus, departing from Helsinki Cathedral - a huge white church in the centre of town.

From there we rode the bus around town past all the sights, hopping on and off as we pleased. We stopped at the Uspenski Orthodox Church and the impressive Rock Church - built out of rock that creates awesome accoustics.

On the other side of town we visited the Helsinki 1952 Olympic Stadium. We checked out the complex and went up in the tower for a view from the top across the city.

 

 



We wandered the shops that evening and finished the day with an all-you-can-eat buffet of pizza, pasta, salad and dessert! Yum!

Day 38 was Ben's birthday! After an early run we set off on the ferry for his birthday choices of sightseeing - Suomenlinna Fortress and the Helsinki Zoo.

Suomenlinna  is a maritime fortress built back in the 18th century. You can explore the original fortress walls, tunnels, cannons, or check out all the museums, including an old submarine. The naval academy is also out on the island and we watched them welcoming in a Japanese ship with artillery fire.

A short ferry ride later and we arrived at Helsinki Zoo, also on an island. Here Ben's life was made complete when he saw an ibex! I'm not quite sure why this was his 'unicorn' in life, but it was. We've searched zoos near and far, all across the globe to no avail, until we ended up stumbling across them unexpectantly at Helsinki Zoo.

 

That night, Ben's birthday dinner was at Hard Rock Cafe, Helsinki.

Day 39 we treated ourselves to a sleep in and late breakfast. We lazed around and packed our things then left Helsink aboard the train bound for Russia!

One thing of note throughout all the eastern European countries (as well as some of the Western ones and middle east) - bring change for toilets, you have to pay everywhere! Even in high class shopping malls in Helsinki, it costs to get through the boom gates into the public toilets.

Day 34 - 36: Stockholm, Sweden

We flew from Warsaw to Stockholm on Baltic Air.

A little piece of advice - never fly Baltic Air. They are ridiculous. After rocking up at the counter to check-in we found out it is mandatory to check-in online and that it would cost us ten Euros each if we wanted them to check us in. So, we stepped away to login to the airport wi-fi and check-in. However, then we discover the wi-fi requires a code to sign you in that you get off your boarding pass which, of course, we can't get UNTIL we check-in! Back to the counter we go resigned to the fact that we're going to have to pay the ten Euros each. Then we're told they don't accept payments at the check-in counter and that they will check us in, but hold onto our boarding pass at the desk until we pay, and for that we must go to the other end of the airport where the airline admin offices are, pay the money and return to collect our boarding passes, all whilst still carrying our luggage. When we reach the admin office, we find the one and only admin lady is currently swamped trying to sort out a flight cancellation for a group of three families travelling together with about eight young children, as well as another guy off our flight waiting for the same reason as us. Before long, another eight or nine people have lined up behind us for the exact same reason. Time ticks by and pretty soon we are only an hour out of flight time, half an hour before boarding and the admin lady is still sorting out the three families with cancelled flights. Meanwhile, we still have to get back, drop our bags, pick up our boarding passes, get through passport control and security, along with about half the flight who have lined up behind us in the last hour and a half. Ben even went back and explained to the people at the check-in desk what was going on but was turned away and told to go back and wait. That was most definately a close call but we made it on the flight at the last minute, throuroughly unimpressed.

Anyway, now my rant is over, on with Sweden!

We arrived in Sweden late on Day 34. The airport is outside of Stockholm so we bought tickets on the express train into town. We lucked out when we arrived and found our hotel was right on top of the main train station.

Stockholm is a rather unique city, its built on a bunch of islands with bridges joining them all. Early on Day 35, we ran across Gamla Stan, the old town island to complete our first essential mission - sourcing somewhere for Ben to watch the rugby. We scoped out an Irish Pub and made a booking for dinner and the game that night.  As we arrived back at our hotel we lucked out and found we were right next to one of the Hop-on, Hop-off bus stops, so after showers and a gourmet three course breakfast in the hotel we set out on the bus to explore.

We rode the bus around town to get our bearings then headed out to Skansen - an open air museum and zoo, for the afternoon. The museum has old fashioned stores where the bake fresh breads and pastries, blow glass and work metal etc. allowing you to go in and watch and buy samples and souvenirs of all the hand-made traditional items. The zoo has a lot of northern European animals like wolves, reindeer and moose!!

 

 

 

From there we headed back to explore the old alleyways of Gamla Stan. The alleys are filled with souvenir shops which I discovered had all things moose related! I picked up a few souvernirs, including a moose umbrella, then we headed into the Irish Pub for dinner and the big game - a win for the Brumbies in their semi-final!

On Day 36, we spent a few more hours exploring the city before catching the train back out to the airport for another awful Baltic Air experience as we flew on to Finland.

Day 33 - 34: Warsaw

The overnight train arrived in Warsaw around 6.30am on Day 33. We had one night there and were staying in services apartments right by the train station. The lady had emailed and said she'd meet us there off the train, however after waiting outside for half an hour in the rain we called and she said it now wouldn't be available til 1pm.... Thanks for the heads up lady!

So we ditched our bags in the train station baggage storage and hit the town, once again in a hop-on hop-off bus. The grey rainy weather was a pleasant change after the heat we'd had through the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

We rode a loop of the bus around town, checking out all the sites. Ben's main point of interest however was the World War II sites so wandered down to the last remaining buildings of the ghetto - apartment buildings that housed all the Jewish families.

 

The drama with the serviced apartment continued around 1.00pm. We returned to the apartments to check-in and have a much needed shower after a night on the train, only to discover the hot water was out! Apparently it was being fixed that day and would be up and running after 6.00pm that day. So off we went again, to continue our sightseeing...

We rode the bus up to Warsaw Old Town where we spent the afternoon wandering the markets and exploring the historic buildings, old city wall and more churches.

Warsaw had some of the best shopping I'd found in Europe and that night I spent several hours getting lost in the mall near our hotel, stocking up on Lee Jeans at half the Australia RRP as well giving in and buying another bag to store my increasing stash of souvenirs and new clothes!

Next morning, Day 34, the dramas continued when we discovered the hot water was off again! Discovered this after a forty minute run, we had no choice but to have cold showers or stay gross and sweaty all day. About that time, I wasn't so appreciative of the cooler, grey rainy weather!

We checked out the Warsaw Uprising Museum that morning then rushed off to the airport to continue on our way.

Day 29 - 31: Czech Republic

Next stop was Prague in the Czech Republic. Just like Budapest, I immediately fell in love with the city. We arrived on the train from Vienna late afternoon on Day 29 and set out to explore that evening, wandering down to Old Town Square and Charles Bridge.

Later that night we went to the Ice Pub! A bar completely made out of ice. Even the cups are ice. They provide you with a poncho and gloves and only let you stay in 20 minutes at a time because it's so cold!

 

  

 

Day 30 found us on another hop-on hop-off bus - they are definitely the best way to see a city if you're on a tight schedule. We explored all the main sites over the river in Mala Strana (the lesser town), spending a few hours in the castle on the hill, chomping on fresh pineapple and watermelon from a street vendor and wandering through the narrow streets outside the castle walls. 

After looping back round the city on the bus, we got off back in Old Town to explore the many winding streets and alleyways and browse the souvenir shops. Prague is another city with beautiful old buildings I loved to photograph. They all have such character, with their own styles and all different colours.

Charles Bridge in Old Town is an adventure in itself, by 9am it's packed with tourists, beggars, buskers, street artists, souvenir stalls and more. It also provides some amazing views of the castle on the hill in Mala Strana opposite Old Town. 

 

 

That night we had dinnner in a Medievil Tavern. Dinner came complete with a show of medieval brogues having sword fights, belly dancers and fire breathers. All including audience participation! The food was served on metal plates and cups, the 'serving wenches' stay in character all throughout the night and the decor was great - a ceiling covered in skulls!

The only downside to Prague, also similar to Budapest - and probably because we visited in the middle of summer, was the massive number of tourists, with way too many skanky teenagers. It gets so busy in the middle of the day, you can't move and the shops are like saunas with everyone shuffling around crammed in like sardines. It's almost impossible to get pictures of the main sites without an ocean of people in the way. 'Almost' impossible.... that is, but not completely! We solved that problem on a couple of our early morning runs with my handy iPhone camera in tow. While the party goers were sleeping off their hangovers only the serious tourists were out of bed and we were amongst the few.

Running in so many different places was a definate highlight of the trip. From navigating the run down cobblestone streets to dodging the patrons setting up shop as the sun came up, we got a lot more into our days by seeing some of the sights via run!

 

Day 31 was a looooong day. We checked out at 10am but didn't have to catch the train til very late that night, another sleeper train, so it meant we had the whole day to kill with no option of going back to the hotel for a rest. 

We started off visiting the KGB museum where a very enthusiastic, most likely ex-KGB member himself, guy showed us round and gave us a run down of the history of the topic. Next up was a visit to the Museum of Medievil Torture during which I came to the conclusion that I need some of those options for use at work! 

After strolling around the main tourist sites one last time and buying some souvenirs we'd spotted over the last two days we were left hot and tired, sick of walking, sick of crowds and sick of being in the sun - but with no where to go and long time to wait! We ended up in the park next to the train station, reading in the shade to kill the remaining time before a healthy dinner of Burger King to complete our day. 

Needless to say we slept well that night despite being in a too short train bunk in a stuffy cabin, arriving the next day in Poland!

 

Day 28: Austria

We arrived in Vienna, Austria the evening of Day 27, but that night was mostly a write off as it consisted of a trip to the laundromat to do some much needed washing.

Day 28 was our only day in Vienna and the whole day was a bit of a blur of big beautiful buildings, cobblestone streets and horses in hats! 

There were so many amazing buildings around every corner and the architecture, even on just the standard run of the mill buildings, was beautiful. Everything was in pristine condition, all the molding was perfect, flawless paintwork and the streets were spotless, not a piece of litter in site. 

I do love old buildings, and the European ones are so classic they make for great photography, so I went pretty crazy with the photos on that aspect!

We wandered round the city all day from museum to palace to church to park and ended up that afternoon at a cultural festival down near City Hall where we had currywurst for lunch! Mmmm! 

That evening we had dinner out then had a lazy night in at the hotel and got packed up again ready to leave in the morning. 

Day 25 - 27: Hungary

 Day 25, Day 26 and Day 27 were spent in Budapest, Hungary.

 

Budapest is amazing, it was by far one of my favourite cities at that point and will most definitely be top three by the time we finish. Its very picturesque with the Danube river running through the center, the flat new city on one side and the old castles, palace and citadel looking down from the hills on the other side.

 

We stayed over in the castle district which put us in the ideal location for some beautiful early morning runs, during which we had the castles to ourselves to roam and explore without the claustrophobia of the millions of tourists that inevitably show up every day. (That was my only complaint about the city - its popular, very popular, especially in summer!) From up on the hills we also had a great view down over the city.

 

 

  

We bought a two day ticket for the city's hop-on hop-off bus which also included a boat tour along the Danube. The boat was fun and gave us a new angle of view of the city, including the massive Hungarian Parliament building on the riverside, that is hard to take in from the street in front because its so big and packed in between other buildings. 

 

The bus took us all around the castles and palace on our side of the river where we got off so I could take some photos of the castles with my good camera (I couldn't carry that with me on the early runs obviously) and up to the citadel as well. We ate lunch up there and spent the hotter part of the day in some of the museums.

 

 

We rode the bus over to the city side as well. The city side is just as interesting as the castle side, with so much to see and do, outdoor walking malls with tons of souvenir shops, old buildings, points of interest, more museums and some great restaurants.

 

 

We did some shopping (me shopping, Ben at an outdoor bar), and went up to Heroes Square and into City Park with some more castles to explore. 

 

  

We had another dinner at Hard Rock Café, Budapest, where I ate an entire rack of ribs. All that site seeing works up an appetite!

On our final day in Budapest we relaxed for the morning, slept in, had a late run then went down to the natural baths - hot springs that have been built into man-made pools. There's a bunch of different pools all different temperatures that range from cold to as warm as a bath, the waters are supposed to have medicinal properties and we definitely needed some recuperating after three weeks on the go already!

After dragging ourselves out of the relaxing baths, we checked out of the hotel, trooped back to the train station and set out on the train  on a short four hour trip to our next destination, Vienna, Austria.

Budapest is most definitely on my 'must-see' list. We'll be back there for sure, with more time, more money and probably when its not quite so busy!

Day 23 - 24: Romania

Day 23, our first full day in Bucharest, Romania after arriving the evening before off the train.

I generally liked Bucharest. Especially compared to Sofia where we'd just left. Not one I'd add to my must see list, but if you're in the area and have the time, it's worth stopping in to check it out. A word to the wise though, this part of Europe (along with Bulgaria) is still very... let's say 'eastern'... compared to the 'western' we're used to. For example, majority of toilets in a toilet block will be the the 'hole-in-the-floor' kind with only one regular toilet, there's generally no toilet paper, and you have to pay for public toilets - which we have found is actually the norm across a lot of Eastern Europe. We quickly learnt to keep loose change and toilet paper in our day bags! They're also pretty slack on the whole OH&S kind of thing with open construction on the road where you hop skip and jump between power cords and open drains and when you pass the guy jack-hammering the pavement, although he stops briefly as you pass, you better go quick or the cement chips will hit you on the way through as he restarts almost immediately! 

We stayed a few kilometers out of town, but right near the main railway station, so we scoped out the metro system and were set. We bought tickets on a hop-on hop-off bus and rode the loops round once to get our bearings and scope out the main sights, making a mental list of what to go back and see. Did you know Bucharest has its own Arch of Triumph? It does, just like Paris. Random!

After looping the city once we hopped on and off to see a few sites, including the massive Parliament building that is apparently the second largest administrative building in the world, after the Pentagon.

We spent that afternoon at the open air Village Museum in Herastrau Park. As the name suggests, its an outdoor museum with traditional Romanian houses from different historic periods. They have the houses decked out in the traditional set up and have trinkets and traditional items for sale including pottery, rugs and traditional masks worn to scare away bad spirits. We renamed the museum 'Cat City' however as it appeared every cat in town had taken up residence there. Much to my delight, each of the houses had a different family of cats and kittens living inside that were all fed by the museum workers!

We finished the day with dinner at Hard Rock Café, with burgers and the biggest chocolate brownie sundae I've ever seen, and it was all mine - delicious!

Day 24, we spent the morning back on the bus, hopping off at various sites we hadn't covered the previous day then hit the shops for the remainder of the day. While I shopped, Ben set up camp at a bar with his book and a constant supply of beer, he was happy! Shopping in Europe is awesome, I really should have brought less with me to save room, then I could have bought more!

That evening we left Bucharest on an overnight train to Hungary.