Lost In Translation

A sampling of funny things we saw along the way...

London

If there was any question about what this Chinese restaurant serves...

In case you didn't know, it kills.

Just the ones that steam?

Shrubberies!

At least it keeps the street clean!

Copenhagen

Take Away, always sounds better than "To-Go"

Danish Center for ?

Tallinn

Fasten the Safety!

Helsinki

Just no terriers...

No smoking, and oh yeah, no ice cream either.

Unicorn in Finnish (top) and Swedish (bottom)

Residential area?

Stockholm

The green thing, it's a WC.

Must be a problem with urinating on the streets.

In Swedish, this says "No Pissing".

Love the deer!

Again, what does the entire Baltic region have against terriers?

Smoking Kills, in Sweden too.

Enjoy!

Helsinki

Ah, Helsinki, what a beautiful day we had there.  I spent the morning on the balcony of the cabin, looking at the scenery as we were cruising into the port early in the morning.  I could see thousands of islands dot the waters just off the mainland. It looked as if we were in the San Juans of the Pacific Northwest, felt like home.

Finnish Countryside
Our day began with a trip to a home in the countryside for coffee, tea, and traditional Karelian Pie and Rye bread.  The Karelian Pie and rye bread were served along with egg butter (quite good actually).  The hosts, the Nurmis, were very pleasant, opening up their home to us and several other guests.  Their home sits in Sipoo, just about 20 miles outside the city and is nearby a lake surrounded by trees. It's quite an idyllic setting  - I could have stayed there forever! They do rent out a cabin on their property - here's the web site.

Rye bread - enough for several months!

Santa?

Feeling at home

We spent the morning walking around the home, checking out all the saunas (almost every Finnish home has one), went the grounds nearby the lake, etc.  The smoke sauna out by the lake uses real wood and black smoke so the user comes out of the sauna looking like they were just in a coal mine. It's quite popular to use the sauna in the winter then go for a quick dip in the ice cold lake.   Sounds interesting, but no thanks!

Smoke Sauna and Indoor Steam Sauna

After our morning in the countryside we made our way back to Helsinki, stopping along the way at this beautiful centuries old church: Sipoo Old Church. It's only used in the summer - no heat in the cold winter months!

Church in the Rock
The name says it all - it's a church, built into a rock in the middle of the city. Temppeliaukio Kirkko, as it's known in Finnish, is a beautiful, modern church built in 1969.  The walls surrounding the church are made up of the rocks it is built into, and a dome of copper wire covers the top.  Within the rock walls, there are small knotches throughout where remnants of candle wax exist as candles are placed here during special services.  The space itself is filled with light, simplistic yet very spiritual.

Hotel Kamp

In the afternoon, we camped out and basked in the sun in front of Hotel Kamp, listed in the book. We dined at a small table out front, ordered Finnish beer and spent the afternoon people watching. 

The remainder of our day in Helsinki was spent checking out the outdoor market, another church, and just taking in the sights and sounds of the city. A few pictures from the afternoon:

Hotel Kamp, Date of Completion: June 2010

Cyrillic

Familiar logos in Cyrillic:

And for the one Austrian who reads this blog:

And this was just funny:

St. Petersburg Part III

There isn't a better way to get to know a city and its people than walking through a local market and riding the subway.  We spent our last day in St Petersburg doing just that. Oh, and sampling vodka too, because hey, we were in Russia!

Our bus dropped us off on Nevsky Prospekt, the main and most important avenue in St. Petersburg.  From there we walked a couple blocks to a new and modern grocery store. It was, for the most part, like anything you would see here in the US.  The difference? The liquor section was huge - thought I'd died and gone to vodka heaven. The cigarettes were cheap (equivalent to about $1/carton), no wonder everyone here smokes!  Another great thing to check out in another country:  Chocolates and baked goods.  We headed straight for the chocolate section where we found some amazing Russian chocolates: O'Zera.  I also picked up a pastry at the bakery: Лакомка or Lakomka. Was amazing, I need to find the recipe!

Entrance to the Supermarket

After the grocery store, we crossed the street and walked a couple blocks to a public market, where we found just about everything one would need: meats, cheese, fruits, veggies and the all important pastries. Our favorite: the pickles!  Russians tend to use a lot of dill in their cooking, and pickles, which obviously call for dill were no exception.

After our time at the markets, we headed for the subway, tokens in hand. The subway in St. Petersburg is the deepest in the world, over 300 feet underground at some stations, so the escalator ride down to the platforms can take up at five minutes. Each subway station is ornate and looks like it belongs in a museum. Taking photos in the St Petersburg metro stations is absolutely forbidden. While I did think about taking some photos from the hip, I didn't want to chance going to a Russian prison.

Here are a few photos taken by those brave enough:

We rode the subway for three stops and then headed to a hotel bar for vodka tasting.  We tasted plain vodka, cranberry vodka, and garlic vodka.  The garlic was a little much, the cranberry was perfection.  Our Russian guide helped herself to a few shots, as did everyone else.

The bus ride back to the ships was entertaining - our guide sang Russian folks songs solo thanks to the vodka.  As our guide said (insert bad Russian accent here and say 'Vodka' like 'Wodka'): 
"Problem in Russia is never too much vodka, only problem in Russia is too little vodka". 
I couldn't agree more!