december already?

One of my goals for before the end of the year -- done:
I finally got through putting up all our travel journal entries from this year (and a few post-travel entries that stayed in draft state until now) ^o^

I also picked out and customized a new look for the travel-only blog since the last one was so hurriedly put together. I really like the result, so much so, that I wanted to change my look here to it as well. But, it's probably better to keep the two looking different T_T


I can't believe I've been journaling here since '05! It wasn't consistent, but yay anyways! Since it's been awhile, I thought maybe I should run Xenu Link Sleuth just in case, and I'm glad I did... a bunch of the links in those old posts were broken >_<

Another goal for before the end of the year:
Put up all our travel photos from this year and *finally* look at those R-Y and V-S wedding pics from last year ^-^;;

Are you a banana-person?

I attended my second meeting for one of the Chinese conversation groups today. It was an Intermediate+ meeting and had more than three people -- yay! ^o^ Six people, actually: the organizer, me, a British guy and his wife from Shenzhen, a Caucasian guy who started learning Mandarin in the 70's (!), and a Thai-American guy in his 20's who just came back from nine months in Nanjing.

I think random conversation will help in filling in my active vocabulary gaps. I can study new vocabulary all I want but that doesn't directly translate into being able to actually use those words when I need/should/want. I already experienced the conversation today reviving words that used to be part of my active vocabulary but fell into passive state from non-use... words like 水平 (shui3ping2, when talking about my level of Chinese) and 税 (shui4, when we were talking about higher taxes in countries like Norway being a trade-off for extended social programs). Of course, I also learn new words... like 粵語 (yuèyǔ, Cantonese) and 國際關係 (guójìguānxì, international relations).

My word of the day has to be 香蕉人 (xiāngjiāorén). Huh? 香蕉? Banana?

The Shenzhen person asked Alex, the Thai-American guy, if he was a 香蕉人 (banana-person) when they first started chatting. Both Alex and I were quite confused until she explained it. It's used to describe someone whose appearance indicates they're from one culture but who internally is really of another culture. For example, many American-born Chinese fall under this category.

香蕉人 -- I like! ^o^

language learning revisited: Chinese + Kanji/Hanzi

Chinese... is in a sad state. I can feel it deteriorating more and more as time goes on >_< I think getting to a more native level with my Chinese is desirable simply because I *am* Chinese and I'm far from starting from scratch. I don't know if that's enough motivation to keep it going in the long run, but we'll see.

I started listening to my old stash of cpod's Upper Intermediate and Advanced lessons again. Unfortunately, cpod is now entirely subscription-based and for my casual learning style, I don't think it's worth the $$. I also started reviving my Chinese vocab anki deck. It's hard to really feel motivated when there's hundreds and hundreds of cards due, but I'm trying to chip at it bit by bit. I never did continue reading the HPs like I had planned to, so I'll make that one of my goals for 2010.

In my search for a Japanese conversation group, I realized maybe I should also look for a Mandarin conversation group. I found two local ones, both a 20-minute drive away but in opposite directions. Both meet once every other week. For one, the meetings alternate between Beginner and Intermediate+ for each meeting. For the other, the meetings alternate between Beginner and Advanced.

The whole meeting-new-people-and-practicing-language thing really stresses the introvert side of me out, but I did attend one meeting of each group so far. What's funny is that it seems I scared everyone else away! Both times it was only three people total -- organizer, me, and one other person for one, and organizer, asst organizer, and me for the other! The other rsvped-Yes's didn't show >_< I have yet to find a Japanese conversation group.

I'm finally maybe getting 'serious' about learning Kanji/Hanzi, the initial reason being that I felt stunted not being able to read Japanese well.

Main resources:
- Heisig's RTK to learn the jouyou Kanji in a semi-sensible order according to shared components
- DeFrancis' Hanzi readers which teaches 1200 traditional characters by character frequency.

Despite many of the reading passages being very outdated (1977!), I think DeFrancis is a pretty good approach to increasing literacy. It's strange no one's published more updated readers using the same good approach. I guess it takes too much work.

The passages being outdated means I learn some, um, *really* useful vocabulary in the process, like 原子 (yuan2zi3, atom) and 原子能 (yuan2zi3neng2, atomic energy) in the current lesson!

language learning revisted: Japanese

Last month, I decided to get 'serious' about my language learning again. It must be one of those 'up' times in the rollercoaster phases I tend to go through with each of my interests. But when I compare my 'serious' study with those who are actual serious language learners on the HTLAL forums, it simply doesn't compare. I think however I go about it, I'll always be a casual language learner. Maybe it's just my style.

Japanese... has been on and off since April last year, but I do consider it my overall main language focus long-term (for now). The graphs from my anki deck give a rough feel for when I was more focused: Apr-08 to June-ish, maybe the beginning of Sep-08, late Nov into maybe Feb-09, and last month until now, a total of approximately seven or eight months maybe (though the total number of hours would be more interesting for me to know). I finally finished the passive phase of Assimil, which started off my Japanese studies last year, and am well into the active phase now ^o^

I think my original goal for Japanese was being able to fully understand anime and dramas without subs (Having a 'goal' is probably the reason I didn't stop after we came back from our KJ trip). That implies an entirely passive understanding of Japanese, which I no longer think is the full extent of where I eventually want to be with it. I can now understand a small percentage of anime without subs when I'm focused and it's not too complicated and the vocabulary isn't too specialized (specialized means parts of Yakitate (food processes), FMP (military or weapons-specific), etc.). At this point, I don't have a good idea of what my goal *is*, which is probably not a good thing >_<

Passively, I'm still listening to jpod101. I've caught up to their current podcasts, but I think I'll go back and do more work with the old lessons, too. That, anime, and I've recently discovered Drama CDs. Drama CDs are right along the same lines as those "Mission Europe radio adventures" I was so psyched about, but these are actually in a language I'm studying! I found drama CDs for HnG and FMA so far ^o^ I also came across a really cool podcast in which they read children's stories in Japanese, *and* each story has an associated transcript ^o^

Aside from Assimil's active phase, I just started posting on lang-8 to help with the active portion. I made my first post last month and will probably make my second this weekend. In reality, I think I need a *lot* more writing and speaking practice if I want to move forward. Ideally, I'd like to post once a week on lang-8, but I'm not sure if I'm disciplined enough to keep at it consistently >_<

I think I should probably also open a grammar book soon (the horror!) and follow some sort of structured approach to learning grammar, or something.

nomad

It *does* feel good to be home. But, at the same time, I could have definitely gone on for even longer. K says he wasn't quite at his limit either. Those months passed by quicker than we ever thought they would!

I think it's partly related to momentum. We were so used to being nomadic, packing up every several days and just living out of our little suitcase. Before we even knew it, we were on our flight home.

A lot of things are simpler on the road. One of the things that struck me after I "got over" the comfort of being home is that we have so much stuff! Do we really need all this?

It doesn't help that I'm a pack rat, keeping every little thing of possibly *any* sentimental value. Those flight tickets to Fuzhou from 8th grade? Check. Movie tickets from high school? Yea, they're faded in that box over there. Any letter that I've ever received since middle school? How sad if those were to die in a fire or flood! I'm happy for the digital world; at least being a digital pack rat takes up much less physical space, though backups, maintaining data integrity, etc, etc. take much more effort. That is, if you care (I do).

On the agenda:
- de-clutter
- plan our next set of travels

the end.

in numbers...

months -- 3.5

days -- 100

currencies -- 13

languages -- 19

countries -- 21

cities/towns/locations -- 53

transport via...
boat -- 7
minibus/van/ambulance -- 5
air -- 12
bus -- 16
rail -- 36

homes/beds away from home -- 38

memories -- countless

the end. for now.

Day 100: Dublin => home!

Yay for --

- our bed!

- our friends and family!

- our bathroom/shower!

- our washer and dryer!

^o^

Day 99: Giant's Causeway & Antrim Coast

The research into bus and train times didn't look good >_< So, we ended up taking a day tour up the Antrim Coast and to the Causeway. With the bus and train times as they were, we actually would have only been able to spend as much time at the Causeway as we did with the day tour! K said the tour spent enough time at the Causeway for him. I would have liked more time there, but I'm the type that likes to linger ^-^;; In retrospect, maybe we could have rented a car (which we have yet to do during any of our travels). Then, at least we wouldn't have the extra other day tour stops like the Bushmills Distillery (whiskey), the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (though that was fun), and a couple of other much shorter stops.


The *best* bread I've had this whole trip: wheaten bread! The texture and flavor remind me a bit of cornbread. It was sooooo good. We (mostly I) ate the whole loaf before our day tour ended.

I definitely got my day's fill of sheep (so much pasture for them, too!) and beautiful Irish coastline!


The naturally-formed hexagonal stones at the Giant's Causeway were just as strangely-cool as I imagined they'd be. These were even better than the similar formations we saw at Jusangjeolli in Jeju-do last year because we actually to go right up next to (and on!) the rocks ^o^

We used up every minute of our time at the Causeway, making the last shuttle back to the parking lot in time to make our on-time tour bus departure ^-^

With a bit of traffic, the bus ended up getting back into Belfast later than the previously-stated time of 7pm. In fact, it got back to two blocks from the hostel a few minutes before 7:30pm, which is when we had to catch our bus to Dublin! It might have been the fastest I've ever had to run in my life, getting off that bus, sprinting to the hostel, grabbing our stuff, and racing down many more blocks to the airport bus stop. Thankfully, we made it *just* in time!

There were only two other people on the bus, a young couple from Florida who were only a few weeks into their six-month trip! It was definitely exciting talking to them about where they were planning to go, some of which overlapped with the places we'd been. Their trip would take them through Western Europe, Central Europe, Egypt, the Middle East, and Nepal. Wow.

Day 98: Zurich => Belfast

This morning... booked our rooms for tonight and tomorrow night ^-^;;

4:10pm flight to Dublin. Our plane was almost 2 hrs late >_<

I forgot to buy any souvenirs! This says how 'used to' everything I've gotten. We don't usually buy any non-consumable souvenirs, well, K likes to buy *something*, but I always convince him there's no point. I do like to buy some sort of consumable for friends (and for myself ^_~), but it was after I got to the airport that I realized I've gotten so used to moving around from one location to the next that I 'forgot' this is basically the end! Oops. K did observe that anything I could get in Switzerland I could probably get in the States!

We're going to have a full day at the end in Ireland? Can we squeeze in a trip to Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland for that day? Hmmm...

... which is how we ended up on a 2.5-hour bus ride up to Belfast after we got off our flight in Dublin. The buses between Dublin airport and Belfast are actually quite convenient; they run every hour between 7am and 9pm.

With our flight being late, it was already after 11pm by the time we got to the hostel, and we still had to do some more research for the train and bus times to get to Giant's Causeway tomorrow. Also, we had a very filling, yummy late-night dinner. Yes, there are actually places open late in Belfast ^-^ Unfortunately, we couldn't take the leftovers to go because we had nowhere to store them; I hate wasting food like that >_<

Day 97: Zurich, Murten & Bern day-trip

Since I missed breakfast on my Tuesday visit, I started today with a nice breakfast at the G-office ^o^


We also visited the aquatic lounge since it was closed during my visit the other day. It was definitely a very conducive-to-napping/resting-looking lounge! ^-^

I took the noon train out to Murten, which required a switch at Bern. I got on the right train at the switch, but I think maybe the wrong car of the train. I ended up in Neuchatel! It was basically a loss of an hour. I finally arrived in Murten a little past 3pm (and not in Bern again until 5pm). For the little bit that I was there, Murten was cute. Tiny with nice ramparts. Houses with window plants and pretty lawns.


I've never seen so many tram lines all crisscrossing each other as I saw in Bern!

I was surprised by all the people out by the community pool at 5:30pm on a weekday! But after traveling these months, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Unlike the work-work-work attitude of many Americans, Europeans have a much more balanced outlook on enjoying life's pleasures. In the U.S., it's almost as if people take pride in and compete on not having enough time. It feels the opposite here.


Einstein lived in Bern? I didn't know that. Apparently his couple of years in Bern was when he wrote his greatest papers, one of which won him the Nobel Prize. The house was closed at the time I was walking by, but I felt a teeny tiny bit of extra enlightenment just from being there ^_~


The apartments in Bern struck me as being more uniform than I've seen in many other cities.


Rather than seeing bears at the bear pits, I was met by this >_< Their last bear died just a couple of months ago, on April 30th, and they're not getting new bears until October.


I debated going up to the rose garden, but I did and I wasn't disappointed. There were more people just hanging out (even a group doing taichi), and I saw a beautiful view of Bern on my way up.

I didn't make it back home until nearly 10pm ^-^;;

Day 96: Zurich

The day started out raining, so I decided to postpone my day-trip to Bern until tomorrow.

Instead, I visited the weekly Wednesday market in the train station. Compared to other markets we've seen, Zurich is quite orderly and also quite varied. There's very little overlap between the stalls and quite a few prepared food stalls. I went around lunch time, so all the many tables laid out in the middle of the market were filled with locals eating the market food.


It was my first time seeing bell-pepper-shaped eggplants.

I also went to visit one of the Asian groceries in the city. The size was just a bit smaller than the one we have "near" (30 minutes drive) my parents' house in Jersey. I couldn't help myself -- I bought tofu. After eating tofu yesterday at lunch, I just had a craving for even more tofu, silken, drizzled with soy sauce and dashi, topped with bonito flakes. I bought the silken tofu and I'll just have to make do with only soy sauce, but it's better than nothing. It was 300g for 2.75 CHF, more than twice what I'd pay in the States O_o

K reflects that it was good we didn't end up moving to Zurich. We both knew the cold weather would do him in, though it's been quite *hot* these last few days. But also, everything here is expensive! I think I could survive and get used to the prices. And there are things I like (it's pretty clean compared to other cities and it has a good transportation system), but I wouldn't want K complaining every day. Then again, he doesn't do grocery shopping, so he wouldn't see the more expensive grocery prices. I'm not sure at what point we'd be able to stomach the prices for eating out Chinese here though. Also, D says I'm bored of Europe. I think 'bored' is a bit extreme, just ready for other types of adventures ^_~

Day 95: Zurich

G visit day! I love visiting the various G offices. Ok, we've only visited one other one, Tokyo, which had a similar feeling to G-MtnView, but with some Japanese flavor (free drinks within vending machines, yummy Japanese snacks, etc). When we saw P in Berlin, he told us that G-Zurich actually has a tour that the host (K) can print and use.

We got to the office just missing breakfast. Oops.

Some highlights...


Sometimes, I'm just too easily amused. I loved their elevator signs!


Each floor is themed and usually has some small phone conference rooms according to its theme. Some of these rooms seem perfect for napping, too ^-^;;


A slide into the cafeteria!


Fire pole connecting some of the floors!


Of course, I ate lunch with K. Fois gras with apples on brioche, fish with yummy sauce (K says they *always* do fish really well here), coq au vin, tofu schnitzel, fried jalapeno, some veges, a choco banana strawberry crepe, and some really yummy French nugget candies ^o^

Day 94: Zurich

After getting back so late last night, I decided today would be veg day ^o^

Somehow I got to reading a Morocco travel journal of RS's daughter Jackie today. She spent a month in Morocco in '07, staying with a local Muslim family for most of it. The family was well-to-do by Moroccan standards but impoverished by U.S. standards. My heart really went out to her as she reflected on her daily experiences and culture shock.

Despite being really touched by her stories, I was put off a little by her end to her experience. She starts with: "But with my decision to go on this trip I am hoping to free myself from at least some of the bonds of materialism. I don't want to be dependent on a Starbucks latte, a nice car, and oversized food portions for comfort. I want to immerse myself in poverty in such a way that I can't come home and bring myself to spend $200 on designer jeans like I have before." The fact of someone spending $200 on a pair of jeans as a teenager (or even an adult) makes me sad. But I know people do. Why all this materialism?? She ends with: "This trip has made me slightly less materialistic. I would feel disgust if I followed such a month long trip with a shopping spree. I just don't need that. I've also grown to appreciate being in a more natural state (i.e. no makeup, less time spent grooming and natural unprocessed foods)." I guess with all the insights she realized during her stay, her end left me thinking "surely you take away more than that!". But that's the trouble with words; after such an experience as hers, I'm sure she *did* take away more. I hope so.

The cleaning lady must have been surprised to see me again. She comes twice a week and we saw her when we got in last Thursday. She's really nice. Cleaning up a house for six people is a lot of work! She looked pooped when she left.

There's a rooster somewhere in the neighborhood that seems a bit confused. It was cock-a-doodle-doo-ing at three in the afternoon!

Even though this apartment is quite out of center (~40 minutes to get to the city-center train station), there are some advantages. There's a really nice park right nearby and when I get off the tram, I pass by the fresh floral scents of the local florist shop ^-^

Day 93: Bernese Alps => Golden Pass rail journey

When we got to Murren yesterday, we asked the cable car ticket counter if going up to Schilthorn would be at all possible during our short stay here. He said go up first thing this morning and that the clouds usually start setting in around 9am!

We took the 2nd train out of Interlaken at 7:05am. (Actually, we were intending on taking the first one at 6:35am, but as we neared the station, we realized we left our day tickets back at the hostel ^-^''); this had me up on Schilthorn at 8:27am. Only me. Being that Schilthorn is above 10k feet, we decided it wasn't prudent to risk K's proneness to altitude sickness. K waited for me at Murren.

The view of the big three was indeed excellent! And K later told me that a ticket person told him that usually the mornings are clearest but this is much better than usual ^o^


(While I was up at Schilthorn, K took the cable car guy's advice and went up to a much smaller peak, Allmendhubel, which is a pretty decent view itself.)

After I got back down from Schilthorn we traveled to the other side, Wengen, took the cable car up, and then a short hike up to the peak and back. Gorgeous. We originally intended to do the 2.5-mile hike, but having added Schilthorn to today, it was impossible to do both. Rain droplets started as we came back down.

13:11 train out of Interlaken.

Switzerland has a bunch of beautiful rail journeys, the Golden Pass supposedly being the best of them. It starts in Lucerne, then Interlaken, then Zweisimmen, and ends in Montreux. The rail path is actually a separate, prettier path from the usual faster paths between those cities.

I once thought Austria had one of the prettiest train views, with hilly countrysides, lots of lakes, and snow-capped peaks. Myrdal to Flam in Norway certainly was up there as well. The Golden Pass had some varied nice views throughout and also a special 'panoramic' train. When we booked, we had supposedly reserved a 'normal' seat in a non-panoramic car of the train (the windows in the 'normal' seats can be opened), but when we got on the train at Interlaken, we noticed all the train cars were panoramic train cars, which might have been a fairly recent change. A seat in a panoramic car meant larger windows, but they couldn't be opened.

After our various train rides now, K says train journeys are overrated; he's not the 'sit and just watch' type of person. Plus, you can't just stop whenever you want and explore an area more.

On the train, we chatted with a guy originally from the States but who's been living in Geneva for the past nine years or so (married someone from there ^_~). Having now been immersed in both environments, he had some interesting thoughts to share. On why there are laws for store hours, that is, why they close early on Saturdays and are closed all day on Sundays, even the grocery stores, he said that it's because Sundays in Switzerland are considered family days. Besides, after living there for a bit, you quickly get used to planning out your shopping week accordingly. He also told us about how his house mortgage in Switzerland is essentially a mortgage for life; he's not expected to be able to pay if off within his lifetime. It's the first time we've ever heard of that, so I don't know how true that is for other residents.

K also chatted with a French-speaking, nice, old Swiss lady before she had to get off the train. Or perhaps I should say tried chatting? The last time he used any of his high school French was during our trip two years ago, so the conversation was definitely stilted. But the lady seemed to enjoy whatever they were able to get across to each other. I don't speak French =/

Montreaux's waterfront was crowded! It turns out today is a day in several of the Jazz festival. Festive.

We took the boat out to Chateau de Chillon. Big castle with lots of interesting little rooms! And latrines that used to empty down down down thru the castle and eventually into the lake O_o


We hit an unexpected roadblock on our way back to our Zurich apartment tonight. The good thing about trams having continually-updating displays showing the next few stops (or even all the way to the end of the line) is that you know ahead of time if things aren't quite right. We were on the right tram, but that tram was not going where it was supposed to go! Talking to the driver didn't help (language), but thankfully, a fellow passenger overheard us and told us we should get off at the next stop, walk several blocks following some new construction (just started yesterday!), and the new temporary tram spot should be obvious. Apparently, it's a temporary tram set up just because of the construction and the line to our apartment is the only one affected. Poor K will have to go through this same tram transfer every day this week as part of his commute.

Day 92: Bernese Alps

We discovered that our tram line, #11, doesn't seem to run on Saturdays. Instead we had to take the S13 train (which stopped at all the tram #11 stops up to a point) and then switch S-trains at a later stop. It ended up ok; we just barely made the 9:32am train out of Zurich.

After getting into Interlaken and checking into our hostel, we headed to the Interlaken Ost station, discovering that we had just missed the 1:05pm train up to the mountains. And, the trains that usually come every half-hour only come every hour after that train until 5pm. So, we had to wait nearly a whole hour for the next train >_<

But actually, maybe that was a good thing in a way? When asking whether we could use our round-trip train ticket to travel in the opposite direction (we bought Lauterbrunnen => Gimmelwald => Murren => Schilthorn => Getshalp => Lauterbrunnen... but we now wanted Schilthorn before Murren), the ticket person directed our attention to the live feed of the Schilthorn view. It was foggy!! She said it probably wouldn't clear up today >_< We kept our tickets.

The rest of the hour was well-spent in the adjacent huge Co-op supermarket. This is probably the largest supermarket we've seen in Switzerland thus far. Lots of selection, but I think the prices are a bit higher than those we saw in Zurich. This *is* a touristy area after all.


There's a lot of parasailors above Interlaken.

Trummelbach Falls. It's not even in our Switzerland cut-out from the RS book. Did I get the info from his Switzerland book, or was it on the web? Anyways, it was definitely *the* best part of the day. The waterfall runs through the mountain and the crazy Swiss have blown through the sections of the mountain adjacent the falls such that you can walk into and up the mountain to various viewpoints of the falls. That's seeing the falls from *within* the mountain!! They also built a crazy elevator inside the mountain so that you don't even have to walk up the first half! Of course, we opted to take the elevator up and then walk down; we didn't want to miss the lower half of the falls. All the water from the big three peaks (Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau) flow down through Trummelbach!


Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau... meaning the Ogre, Monk, and Lady. The monk is protecting the lady from the ogre. They even have yummy choco bread with the three peaks ^-^

RS walk through cute, little Gimmelwald and then Murren. Gimmelwald only has ~100 residents but they're actual residents who are serious about the town. They even got it declared as an avalanche zone to keep out modernizing for a tourist economy. Seeing local animals (cows, chickens, and goats here) is always an M-pleaser.

Murren was more built up, but it still had it's cute points in some parts. Maybe it was better than we expected because we didn't see all the tourists we expected to see.

All the traveling around actually took quite a while; we didn't get back down to Interlaken until after eight. All the supermarkets had already closed but our hostel desk directed us to a Co-op pronto mini market that stays open until 10:30pm *everyday*, unique for Switzerland. Too bad we already bought a noodle dish from some Asian place (that served Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean (!), and they even told you which dishes were of what nationality). But we picked up a bit more and also bought food for lunch and breakfast tomorrow ^-^

Day 91: Lucerne day-trip

Our train out to Lucerne had most of the 1st-class trains marked as 2nd-class with a little sign taped over the '1' inside the train. Being forced by our rail pass, first class is how we traveled during our previous Europe trip two years ago. This trip, having decided the rail pass wouldn't be a savings, we bought tickets as we went along and traveled 2nd-class. Aside from the 1st-class seats being wider and having more availability, 1st-class and 2nd-class were pretty much the same for us. We've come across pretty full 2nd-class cars, but we've been lucky to always have a seat ^-^ Oh, and sometimes they serve you a free drink in 1st-class (Italy).

We already rode a 'luge' ride at Lake Bled, but apparently Switzerland's longest luge ride (1-mile long) is on the way up to Mount Pilatus from Lucerne. After seeing that it was actually a luge and not just a track like the one in Bled, we both decided to give it a go. Unfortunately for K, he got the larger, and as it turns out, slower, seat, for people 170cm or taller. He's just at the cut-off at 169.6cm. (I hardly ever think of myself in metric, but I am 161cm.)

The view from Mount Pilatus is mmm mmm spectacular! What's even more amazing is watching the clouds move right in front of you. One moment the lake and valley are shielded and the next second it's entirely different.


Post Mt Pilatus --
- train down (during which we saw smelly cows crossing a bridge!)
- boat back to Lucerne town
- short-ish RS walk through town

By the time we got back to Zurich, it was already past 9pm.

Day 90: Helsinki => Zurich

I read on the 'sleeping in airports' site that Helsinki Airport was a good airport to sleep in. We saw a bunch of people in Athens airport with sleeping bags and such, but here at Helsinki, you don't even need a sleeping bag. The seats are perfect for sleeping on -- well-cushioned and no armrests or gaps between connecting seats. Not only that, but they turn out the lights in the check-in area, so there's little ambient light to disturb your quality of sleep (and no middle-of-the-night announcements either). By the time we arrived (nearly 2am), the check-in area was pretty much full, but I did manage to find probably the last set of three connecting seats. Using K's fluffy jacket as a pillow and bundled up in my own jacket, I slept for a few hours until the lights turned on and the airport 'woke up'. Our check-in counter was still unmanned, so I joined K at the cafe.

Helsinki to a connection in Dusseldorf to Zurich. Air Berlin served drinks and a sandwich on both legs of the flight ^-^ Everything balances out... our suitcase was the 2nd one of the shoot at Zurich at the start of our trip months ago; this time, it was the 2nd to *last* one out of the shoot ^-^''

Rather than playing the standard "ding" to indicate a stop has been reached, the shuttle line that runs between the different terminals in the Zurich airport plays "mooo". Also, you can "watch" the various Swiss mountains "passing by" as you look out the shuttle "windows" ^-^

Our apartment is a 6-bed, 3-bath, much further out of the center this time. K's commute is going to be half an hour or so on the tram. The nearest grocery that I could find is a few tram stops away and it closes at 7pm. By the time we got to the apartment, ate a late lunch, and settled in, I was tired again. K napped and I fell in right after him, not waking up until after 7pm. Remembering the Migros in the train station was open during a holiday day last time when all the other groceries were closed, and knowing that shops in train stations don't have to follow the 'shops must close by 8pm' law, I took the tram all the way to the train station. Migros is open until 9pm ^-^

Day 89: Helsinki, Tallinn day-trip

We chose an early 7:30am departure for the boat to Tallinn, which meant leaving our hostel in time to catch the 6:26am bus. I basically ended up sleeping almost the whole two hours at sea.

I didn't really know much about Estonia until planning the trip. My knowledge of geography and world events is quite poor, but I'm happy it's perhaps slowly improving as we travel. Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania sit on the Baltic Sea. Estonia was ruled by the Danes, then the Swedes, then the Russians, then gained independence after WWI, only to be back under Russian power after WWII, finally gaining independence again after the USSR fell. Like many other countries under Soviet rule, the country didn't move much during those 40-50 years. Visiting Tallinn, you'd hardly know it. Some parts of it (the worn down buildings) reminded me of Bratislava. The old town is well-preserved and I think now being a UNESCO World Heritage site probably means they can't change it much. It was strange to see sometimes worn down buildings right across the street from seemingly newly-painted ones.

RS walk through the old town ^-^ We saw many tour groups during more than half the walk. In that way, it reminded me of Prague's old town center, except we only saw one Asian tour group. Considering these groups are probably doing a day trip just like us, it'd be interesting to see what the area's like at night, once all the day-tripping tourists leave. I'd imagine we'd like it ^-^ But, we didn't stay overnight.

The whole medieval theme is played up a bit. All the people selling drinks on the street are dressed in plain medieval garb, selling their drinks out of a barrel filled with ice. There's roasted, spiced almonds all over town with free tastings (a bit like what ginger snaps mixed with almonds would probably taste like), and these almond merchants are also dressed in medieval garb.


I loved this one exchange we overheard -- When asked how much the almonds cost, the merchant replied "We got a discount on today's batch, so it'll be two and a half rabbit skins. But if you don't have rabbit skins, gold coins will also do", as he pointed to the sign saying how many krooni.

We wandered out of the old town a bit, into the Balti Jaam Market behind the train station. It reminded me a bit of the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam; not only were there produce merchants, but also merchants selling clothes and household goods like soap, shampoo, etc. We saw a little eatery where we combined the 'what do you recommend' with point at someone else's dish technique to get a yummy meal ^-^ Large bowl of sausage and vege soup, chicken main dish, hearty meat dumplings, and pancakes came out to 98 krooni (~6 euros!). We also visited a bakery with possibly the lowest prices we've seen in all the bakeries during this trip.

Actually, the place we ate at was signed "kohvik", and according to RS, "Just outside the market at the end of the train station is Kohvik, an unimpressive-looking diner with a bustling stainless steel kitchen cranking out traditional dishes...", but we saw several kohviks. Apparently "kohvik" means "cafe" in Estonian O_o

On the boat back, I visited the 'supermarket' on the boat, which turned out to be similar to half of the duty-free shop on our Stockholm-Helsinki boat -- lots of alcohol and candy, and a few other snacks and drinks. The checkout lines were quite long.


Kids on slot machines? Whatever keeps them out of trouble, I guess.

When we got back to Helsinki, it was interesting to see all the people departing the boat with several Costco-sized boxes of beer and other drinks. Maybe the day-trip boat provides a bit of Costco substitute here?

And so, we're nearly at the end. We're flying back to Zurich on a 6:30am flight. There's still a few day-trips and a last couple of days in Ireland before we head back to the States. In one way, it seemed like it just flew by so fast. In another way, when I think about each place and all the memories, it feels like we've been traveling for a long, long time. Thinking about the end brings a touch of sadness.

Day 88: Helsinki

The day's sightseeing summary:
- market
- Uspenski Cathedral
- RS walk
- Lutheran Church
- Temppeliaukio Church

The boat gave us a good night's sleep; I just wished I'd gone to sleep earlier! We finally left the boat at 10:30am and headed directly to the TI. After getting info, booking our boat for the day-trip to Tallinn tomorrow, and putting our things down in the hostel, we headed out first to the market. It was after noon and I'd read the food merchants close up shop around 2pm.

It's the first time we've ever seen fruit sold by the liter! The produce that couldn't be sold by the liter (many veges) were sold by the kilo. The liter bit made my comparisons a bit tough actually -- is that how many cherries x-euros should buy me?

The tents are color-coded, orange for food and white for crafts and other things. Maybe the best part of the market (aside from having decent-quality produce) was all the hot food being sold.


We got a yummy half-jam, half-choco covered Liege waffle ^-^

And then, we got a mixed grill plate of different fish with veges. Yummy! The hot food stands actually had covered tables -- good thing, too, because there were a bunch of seagulls flying overhead. We even saw an aggressive seagull grab a fried small fish out of someone's hand! And the lady who handed us our dish covered it with a napkin, saying 'be careful of the birds'.

We didn't plan on visiting the Lutheran Church, but passing by was part of our walk, and after reading that the interior was 'pure architectural truth', we went in. Austere interior. K says he preferred it to all the ornateness we see in many other churches.

When we came out of the church, it had started to rain, and then rain even more. We stopped by Stockmann's department store, the Finns answer to Harrods. But Stockmann's grocery section seemed to have much more reasonable prices than what I remembered seeing at Harrods. The grocery was huge with lots of choices! In the produce section, we saw an orange tomato for the first time and bought one to try.

Coming out of Stockmann's, we realized it was already 4:30pm and the Temppeliaukio Church closes at 5pm! We rushed to find a tram stop to take us there. And then getting of the tram, we dashed through the rain to reach the church before it closed, running this way and that to find the entrance. We were in luck though. Apparently this day, a small children's choir was having a rehearsal, so the church was kept open past 5pm ^-^ The inside of the church is unique -- it was blasted out of rock and has a *huge* copper dome. We also got to hear the choir's rehearsal for a while as we walked around. I'm not religious or anything, but I like church music. Maybe not just that, I think I like choral music. The harmony of voices coming together is... well, something.


Our hostel is actually a dorm of the School of Economics which becomes a hostel during the summer months. K joked that "we've resorted to living in actual dorms!" But really, the room is much nicer than our Next House rooms -- larger, en-suite bathrooms, decent-size fridge, and in-room mini-kitchen with stoves, oven, and sink.

There are some cities that I get a good feeling from pretty quickly, and despite the rain, Helsinki is one. I can't place my finger on why it is though and we're only really here for a day, so I'm not sure how it would be if we were to stay longer, but for now, I like it.

Day 87: Stockholm

The day's sightseeing summary:
- City Hall tower
- Skansen
- overnight boat to Helsinki

We were going to go up the city hall tower after our interior tour yesterday, but one of the super-nice assistants outside warned us the line would take a while and to come back this morning before 10am instead. Pretty city views, decent lighting, *very* loud bells! We were up there when the 10am bells went off O_o

Skansen was the original open air museum in Scandinavia. It's probably because of that that we saw so many more visitors than we saw in Oslo's or Copenhagen's. It's very big, though I'm not sure, Copenhagen's might have been bigger. But out of all three, it's also maybe feels the least genuine. Take this rest spot, for example...


We definitely had fun and probably could have spent a whole day there if we didn't have a boat to catch.


We got to see some moose up close!


And cute little piggies.

The Skansen aquarium inside the open air museum had both land and sea animals. The tank with the tortoises, chipmunks, and lizard was hilarious. The chipmunks jumped all over the tortoise and lizard, not the least bit afraid!


Ugh, lining up to check in for our boat was a mess. A huge mass became several distinct lines at almost the front, but before that, you just have to squeeze your way up and maintain your position. Eventually we did get up to the front but it was *not* a good experience.


Our room with fold-down beds.

It seemed like a lot of people were on the boat to shop! It's all duty-free, so maybe that's why. We read that some people take the overnight boat to Helsinki, spend a half-day there, and then take the next overnight boat back.


Going through the Stockholm archipelago was pretty, but it did all look sort of similar after awhile ^-^;;


Smoking kills. We should have warnings as clear as these in the U.S.

Day 86: Stockholm

It's tough to say which one's more grand, Stockholm's or Oslo's city hall. Seeing where the Nobel Prize banquet is held every year was pretty cool. Apparently 100 students (plus one guest) are chosen by lottery every year to attend the banquet. For $150 dollars per person, they get a seat at one of the outside student tables (past the columns). After buying all the dress-up accessories, some students spend about $500 for the night. Would pay to sit at one of those outside all-student tables? We wouldn't.

Vasa ship museum. This museum is devoted to the sad, sad tale about a fully-outfitted warship that didn't even make it out of the Stockholm archipelago. It tipped and sunk. The stability test (30 men running back and forth on the stern) results said that 200 tons were needed to stabilize the ship, but when it set sail, only 100 tons of balance stones were on the ship. The other 100 tons were in food provisions, which were to be picked up towards the edge of the archipelago. Too bad big gusts of wind tipped the ship before it made it there O_o I didn't really get this explanation of what they think caused the ship to sink... because wouldn't they eventually eat all the food? How would they keep it balanced then?

Harbor cruise. Added sightseeing. Rather than a person on the boat narrating, the whole cruise audio was pre-recorded in several languages. I tried listening to it in Japanese at first, but it was way too fast for me (what was I thinking??), so I switched to English.


TV Tower. Added sightseeing. The lighting was pretty bad, but I loved seeing a bird's eye view of all the water and greenery in Stockholm ^o^

Tivoli. More added sightseeing. The park was smaller than Copenhagen's and didn't have as many shows. We watched one Chinese acrobatics show (a bit odd) and then walked around. K debated going on this one roller coaster, where your feet hang off and each car is on a free-spinning axis...

...but he decided it wasn't really worth it in the end. The park had an inordinate amount of wheel games with huge candy bars as prizes...

Day 85: Stockholm

Today was city-exploration-on-foot day, with stops at a few museums. Stockholm is pretty city, with lots of water and greenery.

Parts of the city are quite cute. For example, almost every electrical box we passed was painted!



Royal Armoury Museum. My favorite parts of the museum were seeing the baby and kid wear (too cute!) and the old-style carriages.

Nordic Museum. It was mostly about Nordic fashions, traditions, and customs, though it confused me to see a Nintendo Gameboy circa 1990 on display in the toys section! We stayed a little past closing time because it started pouring rain outside. Eventually we all had to leave the museum and try to cross some *very* poorly drained roads!


Aquarium. This was one of those added-just-because-it-comes-with-the-card places. We didn't understand what the Amazon rainforest room had to do with the "aquarium" theme, but it was pretty cool. It had all the plants, water, humidity, and sound effects that one might expect in the Amazon. The actual aquarium section was "ok", but nothing to cry about. My favorite tank was probably the one with the starfish.


Dinner was simple: lettuce-wrapped meatballs and mini pancakes. I first saw these pancakes in Copenhagen. Rather than being fluffy like pancakes in the States, they have more bite to them, and they're yummy both warm and cold!