11 October, Holiday Inn, Helsinki, Finland
Probably the first thing one should learn about Finland is that it is probably the only country in the world that doesn't use the term ATM for a cash dispensing machine. Arriving early from St Petersburg, we wandered the streets in search of an ATM to load up on Euro. We had spotted a couple of strange looking devices called "Otto" that we thought were automated Lotto machines.
Finally we asked at an information point in a shopping centre and, yep, Otto is what the locals call ATMs!
Our even earlier morning exit from St Petersburg was fairly uneventful, except for the exorbitant taxi fare of $25 to go a few kms! Granted it was 5:15 am, but still! The Allegro is another fast train, travelling at 220 kph.
Our even earlier morning exit from St Petersburg was fairly uneventful, except for the exorbitant taxi fare of $25 to go a few kms! Granted it was 5:15 am, but still! The Allegro is another fast train, travelling at 220 kph.
Immigration and Customs formalities are conducted en route and it must be said that the Russian officers were courteous and prompt, as were their Finnish counterparts. We had heard all sorts of stories about police harrassment of tourists in Russia and more than a few horror stories about Russian Immigration Officers. We saw none of it. The police presence on the streets was minimal in Moscow and almost non-existent in St Petersburg.
Helsinki turned on a misty, glum morning for our arrival, but at least it wasn't too cold at 11C. We had to wander about for a couple of hours after our 9:00am arrival, because nothing much happens in these northern cities until at least 10:00 am - more like 11:00am in the cooler months. We were first in at the Finnish National Museum just after 11:00am, but the wait was well worthwhile. We didn't know much about Finland's history, so the thoughtfully presented displays were highly informative for us.
Helsinki turned on a misty, glum morning for our arrival, but at least it wasn't too cold at 11C. We had to wander about for a couple of hours after our 9:00am arrival, because nothing much happens in these northern cities until at least 10:00 am - more like 11:00am in the cooler months. We were first in at the Finnish National Museum just after 11:00am, but the wait was well worthwhile. We didn't know much about Finland's history, so the thoughtfully presented displays were highly informative for us.
Today, we took the 861 local bus for the 1 hour trip to the small city of Porvoo, the second oldest city in Finland, to the south-east of Helsinki. While it is now as modern as the rest of the country, it has a well-preserved old quarter, with many buildings dating from the 17th century.
So far on this trip, we have been travelling in relatively inexpensive countries. Food has been cheap, beer amazingly cheap and transport fares just a joke. For example, the Beijing metro costs about 30c a trip, Moscow's is a bit more expensive at 70c. In Finland, however, we are back into watching our pennies. Prices here are fairly much in line with Australia, that is EXPENSIVE for long-term travellers. As a consequence, we are back into cereal and fruit from the supermarket for breakfast in our room, sandwiches for lunch and, courtesy of the great supermarket over the road from our hotel, take-away hot "home-cooked" meals.
Tomorrow, we are off to Tallinn in Estonia, a two hour ferry ride.
12 October, Friendly Apartment, Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn is an almost perfectly preserved medieval city. Today, however, the peace, culture and tranquillity of the city has been ruined by many hundreds of English football fans, here for the Estonia V England match tonight. As we write, it is well after kick-off time and the Pommy yobbos are still in the Old Town Square, behaving like a bunch of hooligans. As a result we are staying in tonight, hoping that they will all go home tomorrow and leave the city in peace.
Our ferry trip was a bit of a fizzer as heavy fog had visibility down to a couple of hundred metres. We elected to walk into the city rather than struggle with the hundreds trying to grab a cab. Of course we got lost and arrived 20 minutes late for our meeting with our host, Liina, whose apartment we are renting for the next three nights. Liina is an EU translator and part-time city guide. Our rental deal included a walking tour with her, which we elected to take on our arrival. Her hour-long tour was excellent and we now have our bearings.
Our apartment is really lovely. And it has a washing machine/dryer!
Our ferry trip was a bit of a fizzer as heavy fog had visibility down to a couple of hundred metres. We elected to walk into the city rather than struggle with the hundreds trying to grab a cab. Of course we got lost and arrived 20 minutes late for our meeting with our host, Liina, whose apartment we are renting for the next three nights. Liina is an EU translator and part-time city guide. Our rental deal included a walking tour with her, which we elected to take on our arrival. Her hour-long tour was excellent and we now have our bearings.
Our apartment is really lovely. And it has a washing machine/dryer!
13 October, Tallinn, Estonia
Estonia has a history of human occupation traceable back 11,000 years. For most of that time, it has been ruled by foreign powers. In the 13th century it was the last area of Europe to be "civilized" by Christian conversion. German Knight Crusaders established control over the country and set up the first systems of government. For the next 800 years tiny Estonia was kicked from pillar to post, with a long series of invaders - Danes, Swedes, Russians and Germans - taking turns in ruling the country.
In more modern times, this pattern continued through both 20th century wars. Perhaps most devastating were the multiple occupations during WWII when first the Russians, then the Germans and finally the Russians again, controlled Estonia. From 1949 Estonia, along with her Baltic neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania were absorbed into the Soviet Union. Finally, after decades of brutal Soviet repression, the Gorbachev Glasnost of the late 1980s provided the opportunity for Estonia to make a bid for independence. In 1988, more than a million people of the Baltic States formed a human chain down the length of the three states as a demonstration of their collective wish for freedom.
In 1991, the Estonian Parliament voted for independence and that bloodless revolution against Soviet power established modern Estonia. All this we discovered in the great little Estonian History Museum just down the street from our apartment.
The streets of the Old Town are quiet tonight, seems the Pommy supporters, satisfied with their 1-0 win over Estonia, have returned home to whatever it is that such poor specimens of English manhood do when they are not disgracing themselves and their country overseas. All credit to the locals. When we wandered down to the square early this morning, the litter that was piled up last evening as "the lads" demolished beer and food and threw their leavings on the ground, was all cleared away.
In more modern times, this pattern continued through both 20th century wars. Perhaps most devastating were the multiple occupations during WWII when first the Russians, then the Germans and finally the Russians again, controlled Estonia. From 1949 Estonia, along with her Baltic neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania were absorbed into the Soviet Union. Finally, after decades of brutal Soviet repression, the Gorbachev Glasnost of the late 1980s provided the opportunity for Estonia to make a bid for independence. In 1988, more than a million people of the Baltic States formed a human chain down the length of the three states as a demonstration of their collective wish for freedom.
In 1991, the Estonian Parliament voted for independence and that bloodless revolution against Soviet power established modern Estonia. All this we discovered in the great little Estonian History Museum just down the street from our apartment.
The streets of the Old Town are quiet tonight, seems the Pommy supporters, satisfied with their 1-0 win over Estonia, have returned home to whatever it is that such poor specimens of English manhood do when they are not disgracing themselves and their country overseas. All credit to the locals. When we wandered down to the square early this morning, the litter that was piled up last evening as "the lads" demolished beer and food and threw their leavings on the ground, was all cleared away.
14 October, Tallinn, Estonia
The Soviet occupation of Estonia looms large in the minds of most Estonians. The recent Russian incursion into the Ukraine has only heightened concerns among the Baltic states, where memories of Soviet occupation are still fresh and raw.
For a slightly lighter look at this horrible time, we visited the KGB Museum in the Viru Hotel, just outside the walls of the old city. Built in the early 1970s the Viru was specifically constructed to attract foreign tourists and dignitaries to Estonia. "Hard" foreign currency was not easy to come by in the USSR at a time when trade restrictions ensured that Russian Roubles circulated only inside the USSR. But the Soviets needed dollars to purchase goods from the West and tourism was one of the ways to attract foreign currency. When it was built, the Viru was a state of the art Western hotel catering only for foreigners and important party officials. Estonians couldn't stay there and even those who worked there were carefully screened by the KGB. The hotel had 22 floors. Well, so it seemed. In fact it had 23. The 23rd floor was solely for the KGB. From here, they monitored hotel rooms, bars, restaurants and even toilets with hidden cameras and microphones. Some of the rooms they used for this surveillance have been left in their original state, complete with monitoring equipment and paperwork.
Continuing our theme, we headed off after lunch to the Museum of Occupation, where a series of well-produced videos and items from the period of Soviet and German occupation detail the political, social and cultural impacts of occupation and the long struggle for independence.
Leaving the museum this afternoon, we were bathed in brilliant warm sunshine for our walk back through the Old Town to our apartment. We hit the rails again tomorrow, early, off to Tartu in central Estonia.
It is now almost one month since we left home on this great journey and we have travelled 90% of the distance from Xian, China to Amsterdam. Over the next few weeks we take a couple of diversions from the direct path, heading south through the Baltic states then into Poland, followed by a final dash across northern Germany to Holland. So far, everything has gone smoothly, ignoring a few anxious moments in Mongolian and Russian stations! Having come this far, we are thinking that we should have flown across the Atlantic and added an east - west crossing of the USA by rail, just to complete the full circle.
For a slightly lighter look at this horrible time, we visited the KGB Museum in the Viru Hotel, just outside the walls of the old city. Built in the early 1970s the Viru was specifically constructed to attract foreign tourists and dignitaries to Estonia. "Hard" foreign currency was not easy to come by in the USSR at a time when trade restrictions ensured that Russian Roubles circulated only inside the USSR. But the Soviets needed dollars to purchase goods from the West and tourism was one of the ways to attract foreign currency. When it was built, the Viru was a state of the art Western hotel catering only for foreigners and important party officials. Estonians couldn't stay there and even those who worked there were carefully screened by the KGB. The hotel had 22 floors. Well, so it seemed. In fact it had 23. The 23rd floor was solely for the KGB. From here, they monitored hotel rooms, bars, restaurants and even toilets with hidden cameras and microphones. Some of the rooms they used for this surveillance have been left in their original state, complete with monitoring equipment and paperwork.
Continuing our theme, we headed off after lunch to the Museum of Occupation, where a series of well-produced videos and items from the period of Soviet and German occupation detail the political, social and cultural impacts of occupation and the long struggle for independence.
Leaving the museum this afternoon, we were bathed in brilliant warm sunshine for our walk back through the Old Town to our apartment. We hit the rails again tomorrow, early, off to Tartu in central Estonia.
It is now almost one month since we left home on this great journey and we have travelled 90% of the distance from Xian, China to Amsterdam. Over the next few weeks we take a couple of diversions from the direct path, heading south through the Baltic states then into Poland, followed by a final dash across northern Germany to Holland. So far, everything has gone smoothly, ignoring a few anxious moments in Mongolian and Russian stations! Having come this far, we are thinking that we should have flown across the Atlantic and added an east - west crossing of the USA by rail, just to complete the full circle.
15 October, Draakon Hotel, Tartu, Estonia
Eesti (Estonia) didn't turn on the greatest of days for our train trip from Tallinn to the central Estonian city of Tartu. We were up early to catch the 8:16 am train, after a disturbed night due to a few very loud street revellers. Elron, the company that runs Estonia's passenger services, has a fleet of extremely comfortable trains that get along at a respectable 150 kph in full flight. About $7.50 for a trip of close to 200 km isn't too hard on the pocket either.
Our hotel in Tartu is among the most expensive of our whole trip, so we were more than a little miffed to find the reception unattended when we arrived at around 11:00 am. We finally roused someone, only to be told to come back at 2:00 for check-in. Now we know that is the usual check-in time, but the norm in most countries is that if a room is ready, you can check-in early. Not here! Interestingly, we suspect we are the only guests in the hotel, so why not just let us into our room? We get a real Fawlty Towers feel about this place, or more accurately a "Basil and Sybil" vibe, as the two characters we have met so far are very B&S like. We shall see. All is not lost. The room is very nice and we found a supermarket with very cheap beer.
Filling in the time before we could settle into our room, we hit a couple of museums, the Estonian Toy Museum, the Tartu Art Museum and best of all, the KGB Cells Museum.
Our hotel in Tartu is among the most expensive of our whole trip, so we were more than a little miffed to find the reception unattended when we arrived at around 11:00 am. We finally roused someone, only to be told to come back at 2:00 for check-in. Now we know that is the usual check-in time, but the norm in most countries is that if a room is ready, you can check-in early. Not here! Interestingly, we suspect we are the only guests in the hotel, so why not just let us into our room? We get a real Fawlty Towers feel about this place, or more accurately a "Basil and Sybil" vibe, as the two characters we have met so far are very B&S like. We shall see. All is not lost. The room is very nice and we found a supermarket with very cheap beer.
Filling in the time before we could settle into our room, we hit a couple of museums, the Estonian Toy Museum, the Tartu Art Museum and best of all, the KGB Cells Museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment