Although Tallinn is in the Eastern European time zone, which is 2 hours ahead of GMT, the clocks still go forward at the same time as they do in the UK. Not knowing if my phone would update automatically or not, I changed my phone manually and then set an alarm for 9am. The phone did change, but I was woken up at 8am, when I went to check the clock in the reception to double check the correct time. Seeing it was actually 8am, but my phone thought it was 9am I set my phone right and then went back to bed for an hour! Thankfully no one else was woken up by my confused phone.
We all went for breakfast in a strange little cafe in the main square. To get into the cafe we had to go down some stairs and then through a hole that had been knocked out of the wall that led to another dimly lit room with lots of strange seats. The whole thing looked a bit like a strange version of the house from the Teletubbies. I got a hot chocolate and some kind of cheese pastry. The hot chocolate had real melted chocolate in it which was very nice!
After that we headed around the old town and up to the Toompea hill area which houses several notable buildings including The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, The Estonian Parliament building, Toompea Castle and the Pikk Herman. The view to the city below was great. We headed to the Museum of Occupations which is located on the outskirts of the old town. The museum documents the history of the many different nations which have occupied Estonia at various points in time although focuses mainly on the most recent occupations of the Nazis and the Soviets. It is full of interesting artefacts and films documenting all aspects of daily life during these times and tells the story right up until independence in 1991.
We had an appointment to keep at the Kiek in de Kök tower museum, so after some lunch we went there. Entry was free with our Tallinn Cards, as it was to the Occupation Museum and for the Bastion tour underneath the old city walls (although the tour must be booked in advance so they can provide a guide in your language). The tower is not very high, but as it is situated on a hill and the rest of the old town is made up of very low buildings of only a few storeys the view was amazing!
We could see all the way to the frozen Baltic Sea and right across the Old Town in all directions, over to the new Town and right across the bay to the Pirita districts and beyond. At the top we had some lunch and then headed back down to the reception area for our tour of the tunnels. We were shown a short film all about the history of Tallinn and told about the an urban legend that exists in the city. Lake Ülemiste lies to the South of Tallinn in which lives the Ülemiste Elder. It is said that on the day Tallinn is finally finished he will flood the lake and ruin the city. This is why Tallinn has always got some kind of building work or expansion going on. Indeed when we were there, several cranes could be seen on the skyline of the new part of the city!
The tour of the bastions under the city wall was very interesting indeed. They had been used for all sorts of things since they were first made. We were taken "back in time" from the present day, through the 90's, 80's, 60's, WW2 and all the way back to the creation of the bastions. They have been used as storage for ammunitions, shelters in times of war and in more recent times after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a shelter for several homeless people who had lost their jobs and houses. The last homeless man wasn't thrown out until 2004 when the tunnels were made into part of the museum. They also included a section about the future and showed us what experts predicted Tallinn may look like in the year 2219 (1000 years after the first Danish settlers built in what is now Tallinn). While it was a very interesting section, the video we had on the small train type machine that took us to the "future" was a bit heavy in religious messages to the point of being propaganda! We all though was both out of place in such a museum and very out of place in an Estonian museum considering less than 40% of the population claims to be part of a religion and even less actively practice any.
That aside the tour was very good and our guide was excellent. Next on our agenda was ice skating. It had been a few years since I'd done this, so was a bit slow at the uptake, but after about half an hour I was back into it. As it was pretty cold we headed off the ice and went for another wander before settling down for dinner in a very posh grill restaurant, which, again, we got a discount with our cards!
After this we visited the Tallink Hotel and Spa for a few hours of rest and relaxation. It was brilliant (we also got half price entry with the cards). There were several different kinds of sauna and steam room, out door pool (it was snowing, we still went out anyway), salt water pools, swim up bar and jacuzzis. I'd never been to such a luxurious swimming experience!
We ended the evening listening to some live music in Molly Malones Irish Pub while the snow started falling heavily outside!
Our last day was spent mainly outside the Old Town and in the suburbs of Tallinn. After grabbing some breakfast and sending our postcards we got the tour bus (again, free) and headed out towards Pirita. We went past several important Estonian landmarks, including a War Memorial, the Olympic Village built for the Moscow Games, The TV tower (which was closed for renovation) and the Botanic Gardens, as well as a drive through the forest outside the city. The tour was quite interesting, but I'm glad we didn't need to pay for it as the bus was a bit run down and the voice was quite irritating.
Once off the bus, we visited the ruins of St Bridgets Convent and saw more of the area built for the Olympics. We visited another spa, but it was terrible so we only stayed 45 minutes and then left (only paid €2 with the cards). Outside the horrible spa was a beach, however as it was frozen solid all we could really do was walk on to the ice, which some of us did. The view of the Old Town across the bay was amazing, especially as there was a short break in the snow and wind. We could see the numerous passenger ships ploughing through the ice sheets making their way to and from Helsinki and beyond!
After our trip to the seaside we went on to visit Kadriorg Palace and also saw the residence of the Estonian President (Toomas Hendrik Ilves) which unlike in most countries had a very low key security presence. At one point not too long ago it was apparently possible to walk up to the main door and ring the bell of his house, although it was unlikely he would answer, of course. The art gallery and the palace itself were closed (as are a lot of places in Estonia on Mondays) so we didn't hang around for too long.
We took a tram back into the city centre and had some lunch. Half of us went for a Kebab (not the same as one at home, this was a sit down affair) and some others went to Hell Hunt again. We took another trip around the old town, this time buying some souveniers. Some of us decided to go back to the proper Spa again for one last time. Although our cards only allowed us half price entry once, the woman at the desk wa very nice and let us in again at the discounted price!
After the spa we headed back to the hostel and got ready to leave for the airport. A quick visit to the Scottish Club to see the bust of Sean Connery was done and pretty soon we were on the bus to the shopping centre which is next door to the airport. The reason we were going there first is because we had been told it was a better place to shop and eat than the airport.
Future Tip: The Ulemiste Shopping Centre is about 10 minutes walk from the airport, so it is worth spending an hour there before a flight as it does offer more than Tallinn Airport. There is no need to take a taxi to the terminal form here as it is 500 meters away.
Tallinn Airport is a very modern terminal. It was upgraded in 2008 and puts some airports in the UK to shame! A very modern building with a wide range of shops, bars and comfortable seats as well!
Our flight was called ridiculously early, so much so that the plane wasn't even on the stand yet, so we had to rush and buy some last minute duty free and distribute it amoung the bags. Once through passport control we were made to wait in a cold, concrete floored corridor. The plane finally arrived and we boarded pretty quickly. There were not many passengers on this flight at all. We managed to get the emergency exit rows which meant a lot more leg room!
The flight back was pretty uneventful and as it was dark outside there was not much to see at all. We landed back into Edinburgh and were through immigration and baggage reclaim in about 20 minutes.
All in all a great little trip to the Estonian capital. I would like to go back, perhaps in the summer so that full advantage of the surrounding area can be taken. With regular ferries to Helsinki, Stockholm and the Åland Islands as well as regular overnight trains to Moscow and short coach journeys to St Petersburg, Tallinn is a very well connected city. I would consider it the prefect start or end point to a trip around the Baltic area, especially as flights to Russia and Helsinki can be very expensive.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
A short stay in Estonia (1)
I spent this past weekend in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. This trip marked quite a few milestones for me:
- 30th Country I've set foot in.
- First country I've been to that was occupied by Russia between the end of WW2 and the fall of Communism in Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and East Germany were all Communist but were not directly governed/occupied by Russia).
- First time I've been to a European Capital City of Culture while that city is holding the title
For the past few years I have always travelled on my own or met people while I have been away, however this time I took the whole trip with some friends. The flights cost us £33 each with Ryanair from Edinburgh and as there was 5 of us we managed to book out an entire room in a youth hostel for £15 each for 2 nights. Pretty good deal!
After weeks of deciding what to do the day came and we all headed to the airport. Our flight route took a similar path as my flight to Stockholm, only it was a much nicer day so we got a very good view of the Scottish coast, North Sea oil rigs and some mountain ranges of Norway. As night time fell we were crossing over Sweden and as we started our descent into Tallinn airport we could make out the lights of Helsinki flickering in the distance. Finland is only 80 km (50 Miles) across from Tallinn and on a good day it is possible to see the Finnish capital from some of the taller buildings.
We landed early (no surprise there as Airlines like to "pad out" timetables to make their statistics better, in this case a 2.5 hour flight was timetabled for 3 hours) and a loud fanfare was played into the cabin to mark this occasion. A lot of people clapped. We were soon off the plane and walking through Tallinn's surprisingly modern and extremely well stocked terminal building towards passport control. A quick glance and I was officially inside my 30th country!
We didn't have any bags so we made our way to the city bus and got on. Something I noticed in Tallinn, the bus drivers only opened half the door and didn't bother checking or issuing tickets, they must have assumed everyone had a travel pass or had some kind of advance purchased ticket. We had neither at the time we arrived, but I guess if we had been caught by the ticket guards then the driver wouldn't have cared as it's obviously not their job to sell tickets. There was also no obvious ticket machine by the bus stops at the airport. A sticker on the window gave the impression that there was a €40 fine for not having a ticket, so we eventually managed to give the driver €1 each, although he didn't issue any tickets to us, we felt we had bought ourselves some kind of protection!
The bus would have taken us all the way to the Port terminal building, but we were unsure where that was exactly so we got off at what seemed to be the busiest part of the city. Some Estonian people gave us some directions. It turned out we were about 10 minutes from our hostel and had we stayed on until the port we would have been right at the end of our street! We walked through the busy old town and eventually got to our hostel and checked in!
The room was very nice and warm and the hostel was furnished in an old country house kind of way. There was a kitchen and a TV room on our floor as well as a few bathrooms. As it was now approaching 10pm we headed out to get some food. Most sit down restaurants were shutting for the night so we opted for a "Hesburger" which is basicly a Finnish version of McDonalds which has spread throughout the Baltics and Scandinavia, Russia and Germany (although I have never seen them in Germany). The food was cheap, but was actually very good, certainly a lot nicer than their American counterpart!
We spent a few hours wandering around the old town city centre and then headed to a bar that our Berlitz guide recommended, which was called Hell Hunt. It was totally packed with young and old. The bar was also very cheap and we got a dessert in the form of some brownies which were very good indeed. After a few hours in here it was after 1am and some of us were tired so we headed back to the hostel. The bar showed no sign of closing any time soon. The walk back to the hostel took us past a lot of very old buildings and embassy's for a lot of countries which seem to have taken over a lot of buildings in the old town. Our hostel (tOldhouse on Uus Street) was located just outside the old city walls on the very fringe of the old town, a few doors along from the Tallinn Scottish Club! We had to take into account the clocks going forward so we went to bed at about 2am to make sure we'd be up in time for the museums opening.
Part 2 to follow...
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Stockholm (Part 3)
After my adventure to Finland the day before, this was my only full day in the Swedish Capital.
I had some breakfast and then walked down to Brommaplan to catch the train into the city centre. It was snowing quite heavilly so the city looked quite nice (not that it looks bad any other time)! I saw from my guidebook that the changing of the guards took place on Sunday mornings, so I headed to the Palace. It was quite busy, mainly tourists. It was quite interesting to see, lots of music was played and a man was telling everyone about what the various trumpet calls were used for when (If) the Swedish military were ever deployed.
The whole event lasted about an hour an after that I did a bit of walking around the Old town (Gamla Stan). It was a very traditional area, lots of narrow streets and passageways and of course rip off souvenier shops selling ABBA related material and Viking Hats. I bought a Viking figurine for my flatmates (which they very much enjoyed). I got some lunch and headed back to the modern part of the city and had a wander. It was getting quit cold again so after some shopping and visiting a few cafes I had some dinner and headed back to the hotel at around 7pm. I headed back out again for a few hours at 9pm but the snow became pretty heavy so I didn't stay in the city very long in case the trains were called off early. Turns out they weren't as, unsurprisingly in Sweden they can cope with snow and are able to run perfectly well when it happens.
The next morning was my last. I started the day by finally getting time to the use the sauna on the top floor of my hotel. The view wasn't amazing (I was in an industrial/residential suburb) but I could see all the way to Bromma airport, so was able to watch the planes come in and out! I stayed there for about 2 hours as it looked cold outside again!
I eventually decided to head right out of town and got to the Stockholm TV tower. It was quite a long bus journey out there, but once I got there it was very busy with what seemed like most of Russia on holiday. These were the first Russian tourists I'd ever met and they were not very friendly, not did they understand that you had to buy a ticket and not just barge your way onto the lift. There were plenty of signs in Russian so I'm guessing this is quite a common problem at the Stockholm TV tower!
The lift ascended very quickly and pretty soon I was enjoying a view of a very snowy and frozen Stockholm. The sky was clear so I could see pretty far. I spent about an hour at the top, they had a small cafe, which although expensive was pretty good. I headed back into town to do some last minute shopping and then had to head back to get my bag and my bus back to the airport for my flight home.
I just barely made the coach back to the airport as there was some kind of delay on the otherwise perfect Tunelbannen. I got there in the end and had a pretty uneventful journey back to Skavsta.
The airport is tiny, it has, I think 5 gates. 3 are for Schengen flights and 2 are for UK and Ireland flights. A lot of people made their way through to the non-Schengen departure lounge, which was clearly a mistake as there was nothing through there and as you had to go through passport control (which was one way, therefore you left Sweden) there was no way of coming back to get a drink from the very expensive bar, a snack from the very expensive restaurant or some sweets from the extremely expensive newsagent shop. I had the genius idea of taking an empty bottle through security with me and filling it up at the tap in the bathrooms and saved myself almost £2.50.
This airport was tiny, but had some very clever smoking booths. Smoking is also banned in most indoor places in Sweden and airports are no exception. However a private company seems to have supplied these little booths where smokers can sit and have a cigarette and the smoke is just sucked away. There was no smell or drifting smoke at all and they were not an enclosed booth (only had 3 sides) so they were quite a clever invention. UK Airports should take note, might stop a few smokers lighting up in the toilets between flights and long delays and causing smoke alarms to go off!
Once my flight was ready to board I made my way through passport control and joined the line. There were a few people there from my flight out, so I guess they all had the same £26 tickets that I did! The flight was slightly delayed taking off (no idea how, we were the ONLY plane at the airport) but we were soon on our way and out into the darkness. The only lights I saw were Aberdeen and then nothing again until Fife and then the approach into Edinburgh. The flight itself was perfectly smooth and we arrived about 10 minutes early. A short wait for passport control and I was in the car going home about 25 minutes after touching down!
All in all a very good few days away in some new places. I highly recommend Stockholm and the Åland Islands, although they are very expensive places to go. I imagine there is more to do in the summer months as Stockholm is built on several islands which have a whole range of water activities and water based tours going on between them. The Åland Islands are also popular activity holiday destinations for Swedish and Finnish people in the summer months too. It is nice to see Northern Europe in the winter though, even if you do have to wrap up a lot to enjoy it!
Hope you enjoyed my first update, many more to come soon!
I had some breakfast and then walked down to Brommaplan to catch the train into the city centre. It was snowing quite heavilly so the city looked quite nice (not that it looks bad any other time)! I saw from my guidebook that the changing of the guards took place on Sunday mornings, so I headed to the Palace. It was quite busy, mainly tourists. It was quite interesting to see, lots of music was played and a man was telling everyone about what the various trumpet calls were used for when (If) the Swedish military were ever deployed.
The whole event lasted about an hour an after that I did a bit of walking around the Old town (Gamla Stan). It was a very traditional area, lots of narrow streets and passageways and of course rip off souvenier shops selling ABBA related material and Viking Hats. I bought a Viking figurine for my flatmates (which they very much enjoyed). I got some lunch and headed back to the modern part of the city and had a wander. It was getting quit cold again so after some shopping and visiting a few cafes I had some dinner and headed back to the hotel at around 7pm. I headed back out again for a few hours at 9pm but the snow became pretty heavy so I didn't stay in the city very long in case the trains were called off early. Turns out they weren't as, unsurprisingly in Sweden they can cope with snow and are able to run perfectly well when it happens.
The next morning was my last. I started the day by finally getting time to the use the sauna on the top floor of my hotel. The view wasn't amazing (I was in an industrial/residential suburb) but I could see all the way to Bromma airport, so was able to watch the planes come in and out! I stayed there for about 2 hours as it looked cold outside again!
I eventually decided to head right out of town and got to the Stockholm TV tower. It was quite a long bus journey out there, but once I got there it was very busy with what seemed like most of Russia on holiday. These were the first Russian tourists I'd ever met and they were not very friendly, not did they understand that you had to buy a ticket and not just barge your way onto the lift. There were plenty of signs in Russian so I'm guessing this is quite a common problem at the Stockholm TV tower!
The lift ascended very quickly and pretty soon I was enjoying a view of a very snowy and frozen Stockholm. The sky was clear so I could see pretty far. I spent about an hour at the top, they had a small cafe, which although expensive was pretty good. I headed back into town to do some last minute shopping and then had to head back to get my bag and my bus back to the airport for my flight home.
I just barely made the coach back to the airport as there was some kind of delay on the otherwise perfect Tunelbannen. I got there in the end and had a pretty uneventful journey back to Skavsta.
The airport is tiny, it has, I think 5 gates. 3 are for Schengen flights and 2 are for UK and Ireland flights. A lot of people made their way through to the non-Schengen departure lounge, which was clearly a mistake as there was nothing through there and as you had to go through passport control (which was one way, therefore you left Sweden) there was no way of coming back to get a drink from the very expensive bar, a snack from the very expensive restaurant or some sweets from the extremely expensive newsagent shop. I had the genius idea of taking an empty bottle through security with me and filling it up at the tap in the bathrooms and saved myself almost £2.50.
This airport was tiny, but had some very clever smoking booths. Smoking is also banned in most indoor places in Sweden and airports are no exception. However a private company seems to have supplied these little booths where smokers can sit and have a cigarette and the smoke is just sucked away. There was no smell or drifting smoke at all and they were not an enclosed booth (only had 3 sides) so they were quite a clever invention. UK Airports should take note, might stop a few smokers lighting up in the toilets between flights and long delays and causing smoke alarms to go off!
Once my flight was ready to board I made my way through passport control and joined the line. There were a few people there from my flight out, so I guess they all had the same £26 tickets that I did! The flight was slightly delayed taking off (no idea how, we were the ONLY plane at the airport) but we were soon on our way and out into the darkness. The only lights I saw were Aberdeen and then nothing again until Fife and then the approach into Edinburgh. The flight itself was perfectly smooth and we arrived about 10 minutes early. A short wait for passport control and I was in the car going home about 25 minutes after touching down!
All in all a very good few days away in some new places. I highly recommend Stockholm and the Åland Islands, although they are very expensive places to go. I imagine there is more to do in the summer months as Stockholm is built on several islands which have a whole range of water activities and water based tours going on between them. The Åland Islands are also popular activity holiday destinations for Swedish and Finnish people in the summer months too. It is nice to see Northern Europe in the winter though, even if you do have to wrap up a lot to enjoy it!
Hope you enjoyed my first update, many more to come soon!
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Åland (Finland)
I had looked at a day trip to Finland from Stockholm before I left. Most of the trips on offer were overnight cruises to Helsinki with a small stop over in the Åland archipelago. These trips were also quite expensive and as I was only away for 3 nights I couldn't go for a 2 night return sailing across the Baltic sea and be back in time for my flight home. I also would not have seen any of Stockholm had I done that!
I was about to give up on visiting Finland when I saw another company advertised who offered an inclusive ticket from Stockholm to Mariehamn and back again on the coach and the ferry! When I saw it was only £16 I booked it!
But where and what is Mariehamn and the Åland Islands I hear you say?
Well, they are an archipelago of roughly 6,500 islands and skerries located roughly half way between Sweden and Finland in the Baltic sea, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia. Only a handful of these are populated. There is one tiny land border with Sweden on the uninhabited island of Märket!
The islands are an autonomous, de-militarised, Swedish speaking region of Finland which issues their own postage stamps and have their own parliament and number plates. This means that while the official currency is the Euro, they are happy to accept Swedish Krona too and unlike some places where dual currency is taken, they don't charge different prices for either nor do they give out change only in Euro coins. I had both anyway! The islands are not part of the European Union, but are part of Schengen, so I didn't need to take my passport with me (I did anyway). The capital city is Mariehamn which is located on the main Island (Fasta Åland) and is home to about 90% of the population which is about as much as Montrose in Scotland. They have an airport in Mariehamn which is home to Air Åland, the national carrier!
The closest I can compare it to is like the Channel Islands. Although protected by the UK and the people there have UK citizenship, they are not technically part of the UK! The same is pretty much said of Åland in relation to mainland Finland!
So at 6:30am I got up and got the bus to Solna, which was another metro stop on the other side of the neighbourhood from my hotel. I had to choose that station as my usual station didn't open that early on a Sunday. Solna station is on one of the original underground lines (Brommaplan was a newer station/line). For anyone in the know (I read wikipedia before I left) the older lines on Stockholm's Tunnelbanen are home to some very interesting stations, some of which have been turned into works of art in their own right! Solna station was strange, with exposed stone painted red with some scenes of the Swedish wilderness painted on the walls.
A picture of the platform at Solna is here Here
And Here is a picture of the stairs down from the main entrance
I got to Cityterminalen again and my bus to Mariehamn was waiting for me. I grabbed a pastry and hot chocolate for breakfast and got on the bus. The journey up to Grisselhamn (a tiny little fishing village which serves as the ferry port for this route) was not very long, just over an hour. The scenery on the way up was quite nice. Lots of forests and farm land and a few small towns a long the way. When we arrived in the small town the ferry was sitting waiting for us. The terminal is small and quite crowded. There were mainly Swedish people hopping over to the Åland Isles for some cheap Booze, a bit like people from Kent going to Calais for wine! As the islands themselves are not that cheap, and indeed there is only one shop selling alcohol in Mariehamn. Most people go to take advantage of the fact the ship sails in international waters, outside of EU restrictions, and therefore the booze are cheaper on the ship than in either Finland or Sweden! There are also no restrictions on how much can be bought. This was evident as as soon as the duty free shop opened there was a flood of people in there! I got some duty free Daim bars!
The boarding was done quite quickly considering the number of people there (about 4 coach loads plus of course all of the cars and trucks) and I was standing on deck looking out at the Baltic sea about 45 minutes after getting to Grisselhamn. The view was very impressive. Lots of tiny little islands dotting the Swedish coast, some only as big as a house with a few trees on top and others big enough for a few houses and private slipways. All of them were covered in snow and a few had ice all around them. You can see some pictures of this on my Stockholm and Åland folder by following the link to my Picassa album.
Anyway, before we set sail I had a look round the ship. The M.V. Eckerö was quite nice, fairly moderninside and very busy! A picture of her can be found here . As all of the announcements were made in Swedish and Finnish I had no idea what to do in the event of an emergency or what time the duty free shop would open, so I took advantage of the sunlight and stayed on deck for most of the journey!
As we made our way out of Grisselhamn and out into the Baltic Sea it became quite warm, easily a good 3 or 4c. The sky was clear and the sea was smooth, so I knew it'd be a good sailing! About an hour into the 2 hour crossing the sea started to get very icy. At first there was large blocks of broken ice and then about an hour out of Åland we just hit solid ice! The ship was literally carving her way through this ice field, and doing a pretty good job of it! We were literally in the middle of an ice field, frozen sea in all directions, yet the ship just kept on going! All that could be seen was a few sea birds resting on the ice and some tiny little islands poking out through the top! Some no bigger than a shoe box!
At about 30 minutes from the end of the crossing my phone went a bit crazy. I didn't even think, but as I was in Finland I had crossed a timezone to Eastern European time (Sweden is in Central European Time). The clock jumped forward another hour and my network changed from "Telenor" to "Elisa". I turned on the GPS and my Nokia (which was now home!) showed a little red dot surrounded by blue!
Our arrival into Eckerö port on the M.V. Eckerö was very smooth and quick and I was on the bus to Mariehamn in about 30 minutes. There are not many roads on the Åland islands and the roads that are there are not very busy on a Sunday afternoon. I put the radio on to hear what music they enjoyed in Åland. It was Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. I turned the radio off. The journey to Mariehamn didn't take long and soon I was walking around looking at a seriously frozen harbour and ankle deep snow! I got some lunch with the small amount of Euro notes I had. A bowl of chips and a can of fanta came to £5.50!
I did some souvenir shopping and sent a few postcards. The stamps have a picture of one of the ships that serve the Islands! I spent a lot of time walking around Mariehamn and the surrounding areas after I ran out of money! They are very picturesque with lots of little houses and a few churches. The streets were quite quiet after the shops had shut the town centre was pretty much deserted. I get the feeling there is very little crime in Mariehamn so I didn't feel unsafe wandering around aimlessly waiting for my coach back to the ferry.
The time came for me to get back and pretty soon I was onboard the ferry again. Just as we left Eckerö the sun was setting. The view over the still, frozen sea with thousand of tiny islands was nothing short of spectacular and I took a fair few pictures! The return crossing was uneventful. I didn't go outside at all because it was pitch black and freezing cold. The wind had picked up a bit although the sea was not rough. We arrived back into Sweden at about 8pm and got on the coach back to Stockholm. I slept most of the way back. When I got back to the city centre I bought some more sweets and cakes and headed back to the hotel and had a look at what I could do the next day, which was my first full day in Stockholm!
Part 3 will follow!
I was about to give up on visiting Finland when I saw another company advertised who offered an inclusive ticket from Stockholm to Mariehamn and back again on the coach and the ferry! When I saw it was only £16 I booked it!
But where and what is Mariehamn and the Åland Islands I hear you say?
Well, they are an archipelago of roughly 6,500 islands and skerries located roughly half way between Sweden and Finland in the Baltic sea, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia. Only a handful of these are populated. There is one tiny land border with Sweden on the uninhabited island of Märket!
The islands are an autonomous, de-militarised, Swedish speaking region of Finland which issues their own postage stamps and have their own parliament and number plates. This means that while the official currency is the Euro, they are happy to accept Swedish Krona too and unlike some places where dual currency is taken, they don't charge different prices for either nor do they give out change only in Euro coins. I had both anyway! The islands are not part of the European Union, but are part of Schengen, so I didn't need to take my passport with me (I did anyway). The capital city is Mariehamn which is located on the main Island (Fasta Åland) and is home to about 90% of the population which is about as much as Montrose in Scotland. They have an airport in Mariehamn which is home to Air Åland, the national carrier!
The closest I can compare it to is like the Channel Islands. Although protected by the UK and the people there have UK citizenship, they are not technically part of the UK! The same is pretty much said of Åland in relation to mainland Finland!
So at 6:30am I got up and got the bus to Solna, which was another metro stop on the other side of the neighbourhood from my hotel. I had to choose that station as my usual station didn't open that early on a Sunday. Solna station is on one of the original underground lines (Brommaplan was a newer station/line). For anyone in the know (I read wikipedia before I left) the older lines on Stockholm's Tunnelbanen are home to some very interesting stations, some of which have been turned into works of art in their own right! Solna station was strange, with exposed stone painted red with some scenes of the Swedish wilderness painted on the walls.
A picture of the platform at Solna is here Here
And Here is a picture of the stairs down from the main entrance
I got to Cityterminalen again and my bus to Mariehamn was waiting for me. I grabbed a pastry and hot chocolate for breakfast and got on the bus. The journey up to Grisselhamn (a tiny little fishing village which serves as the ferry port for this route) was not very long, just over an hour. The scenery on the way up was quite nice. Lots of forests and farm land and a few small towns a long the way. When we arrived in the small town the ferry was sitting waiting for us. The terminal is small and quite crowded. There were mainly Swedish people hopping over to the Åland Isles for some cheap Booze, a bit like people from Kent going to Calais for wine! As the islands themselves are not that cheap, and indeed there is only one shop selling alcohol in Mariehamn. Most people go to take advantage of the fact the ship sails in international waters, outside of EU restrictions, and therefore the booze are cheaper on the ship than in either Finland or Sweden! There are also no restrictions on how much can be bought. This was evident as as soon as the duty free shop opened there was a flood of people in there! I got some duty free Daim bars!
The boarding was done quite quickly considering the number of people there (about 4 coach loads plus of course all of the cars and trucks) and I was standing on deck looking out at the Baltic sea about 45 minutes after getting to Grisselhamn. The view was very impressive. Lots of tiny little islands dotting the Swedish coast, some only as big as a house with a few trees on top and others big enough for a few houses and private slipways. All of them were covered in snow and a few had ice all around them. You can see some pictures of this on my Stockholm and Åland folder by following the link to my Picassa album.
Anyway, before we set sail I had a look round the ship. The M.V. Eckerö was quite nice, fairly moderninside and very busy! A picture of her can be found here . As all of the announcements were made in Swedish and Finnish I had no idea what to do in the event of an emergency or what time the duty free shop would open, so I took advantage of the sunlight and stayed on deck for most of the journey!
As we made our way out of Grisselhamn and out into the Baltic Sea it became quite warm, easily a good 3 or 4c. The sky was clear and the sea was smooth, so I knew it'd be a good sailing! About an hour into the 2 hour crossing the sea started to get very icy. At first there was large blocks of broken ice and then about an hour out of Åland we just hit solid ice! The ship was literally carving her way through this ice field, and doing a pretty good job of it! We were literally in the middle of an ice field, frozen sea in all directions, yet the ship just kept on going! All that could be seen was a few sea birds resting on the ice and some tiny little islands poking out through the top! Some no bigger than a shoe box!
At about 30 minutes from the end of the crossing my phone went a bit crazy. I didn't even think, but as I was in Finland I had crossed a timezone to Eastern European time (Sweden is in Central European Time). The clock jumped forward another hour and my network changed from "Telenor" to "Elisa". I turned on the GPS and my Nokia (which was now home!) showed a little red dot surrounded by blue!
Our arrival into Eckerö port on the M.V. Eckerö was very smooth and quick and I was on the bus to Mariehamn in about 30 minutes. There are not many roads on the Åland islands and the roads that are there are not very busy on a Sunday afternoon. I put the radio on to hear what music they enjoyed in Åland. It was Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. I turned the radio off. The journey to Mariehamn didn't take long and soon I was walking around looking at a seriously frozen harbour and ankle deep snow! I got some lunch with the small amount of Euro notes I had. A bowl of chips and a can of fanta came to £5.50!
I did some souvenir shopping and sent a few postcards. The stamps have a picture of one of the ships that serve the Islands! I spent a lot of time walking around Mariehamn and the surrounding areas after I ran out of money! They are very picturesque with lots of little houses and a few churches. The streets were quite quiet after the shops had shut the town centre was pretty much deserted. I get the feeling there is very little crime in Mariehamn so I didn't feel unsafe wandering around aimlessly waiting for my coach back to the ferry.
The time came for me to get back and pretty soon I was onboard the ferry again. Just as we left Eckerö the sun was setting. The view over the still, frozen sea with thousand of tiny islands was nothing short of spectacular and I took a fair few pictures! The return crossing was uneventful. I didn't go outside at all because it was pitch black and freezing cold. The wind had picked up a bit although the sea was not rough. We arrived back into Sweden at about 8pm and got on the coach back to Stockholm. I slept most of the way back. When I got back to the city centre I bought some more sweets and cakes and headed back to the hotel and had a look at what I could do the next day, which was my first full day in Stockholm!
Part 3 will follow!
Stockholm (Part 1)
This time last year I was on the Flygbussarna coach making my way from Stockholm Skavsta Airport to Stockholm City centre. Being over 100km from Stockholm, many might not consider Skavsta as a Stockholm Airport, indeed the Swedish Capital has 2 airports much closer to the city, Arlanda and Bromma, however Skavsta is the cities second largest and the third largest in Sweden all in terms of passenger numbers. Certainly the "classic" European airlines (KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa etc) do not even serve this tiny terminal, it is purely a low cost and holiday airline airport. Ryanair, however do consider it Stockholm (just as they consider the even further away Västerås as Stockholm as well) and the reason I was sitting on that bus was because they got me to Sweden for £26 return (including all taxes and credit card fees). I had a mandatory week off of work (I was working in Smiths at the time and had not taken any holidays and this was the last week I could do so before the year reset and I'd lose them all) and didn't want to spend it in cold and wet Dundee, so instead I went online and looked for some inspiration.
Word of warning: Skavsta Airport is in Nyköping and not the similar sounding Norrköping, which is even further away from Stockholm and also has an airport!
I hadn't been to Sweden for a very long time and had never been to Stockholm, which I had heard being referred to as "The Capital of Scandinavia". I decided to go on my own, mainly because I no longer wish to travel with my family and everyone else I knew was either working or had no money. I had also been on holiday on my own to the US and Canada before so was perfectly capable of keeping myself amused for 3 days. I had the choice of booking a hotel or the youth hostel, both were the same price for 3 nights. I chose the hotel as I guessed that in Sweden in March the hostel would not be busy and I also got a cooked breakfast included in the hotel price, as well as access to a swimming pool and rooftop sauna. The hotel was also in the suburbs a bit so I got to see a bit more of the city and make proper use of my Stockholm Card on the Metro (Tunnelbana).
Anyway, when I first arrived at the airport and got through Immigration, I went to buy a chocolate bar and bottle of water. It cost me almost £4. I handed over the 50 Swedish Krona note that I'd found at home the night before and was quickly told "NO". I had no idea what the lady was talking about, until her fellow shop worker explained that I was trying to use a note that had been withdrawn over 10 years ago. I really hadn't been to Sweden for a long time it seems! I went to the ATM and withdrew some more money, including an almost identical 50Kr note and was able to leave the airport and get on my way to the city.
There was snow everywhere, in fact on my approach to the airport it was snowing heavily and it snowed pretty much the entire journey to Stockholm. The motorway from Skavsta Airport to Stockholm is not that exciting. There are a few retail parks and housing estates, but on the whole it's probably not one of the highlights of my trip. The arrival into Stockholm was nice though. The sun had come out a bit and although it was getting a bit dark (by this time it was about 5pm Swedish time), the city still looked great. We arrived at the Cityterminalen (massive transport interchange) and I qued to get my Stockholm Card to enable me to use the public transport for 3 days. At £20 it wasn't that cheap, but then Sweden isn't a cheap country...at all!
My metro station was Brommaplan, which was quite about 20 minutes out of town and from there I could get a bus to my hotel or walk it in about 10 minutes. I chose the bus to see the route, and when it turned out to be a straight road I just walked from then on. My hotel was nice, although as I had a cheap room, I had no window, but did have a curtain covering...well, a bit of wall, in order to give the impression of a window. It didn't work, I still knew there was no window and I was in pretty much an en-suite box. A comfortable box though, with a TV that had about 200 channels, although at times I wasn't sure if the TV was speaking Norwegian with Swedish subtitles or vice versa as the receptionist told me the TV was mainly a mix of Swedish and Norwegian cable channels. I didn't care anyway, I headed out into the city to get some food!
By the time I got back into the city centre it was dark, but it was still very lbusy. Being winter, it was about -8c. The water in and around the city was frozen, which meant that there were no boat tours going on, but at the same time I didn't mind cos it looked pretty cool (no pun intended)!After wandering around the waterfront area and some of the islands in the city centre for a few hours, I got some dinner from a kind of hot dog cart. The man was very chatty, he'd been a lot of places in the UK with Ryanair, but had not yet made it to Scotland, so was asking me a bit about Edinburgh. He gave me some extra toppings on the hot dog for free too!
At about 9pm I decided to head back to the hotel. I was cold and tired and had to be up early in the morning anyway. I went to a supermarket and got some Swedish choclolates and sweets, and some Mountain Dew! They have abut 10 varieties of Daim bars in Sweden and I think I tried pretty much all of them! I watched some Swedish TV on my return to the room and went to bed around 11.
That's the end of part 1!
Word of warning: Skavsta Airport is in Nyköping and not the similar sounding Norrköping, which is even further away from Stockholm and also has an airport!
I hadn't been to Sweden for a very long time and had never been to Stockholm, which I had heard being referred to as "The Capital of Scandinavia". I decided to go on my own, mainly because I no longer wish to travel with my family and everyone else I knew was either working or had no money. I had also been on holiday on my own to the US and Canada before so was perfectly capable of keeping myself amused for 3 days. I had the choice of booking a hotel or the youth hostel, both were the same price for 3 nights. I chose the hotel as I guessed that in Sweden in March the hostel would not be busy and I also got a cooked breakfast included in the hotel price, as well as access to a swimming pool and rooftop sauna. The hotel was also in the suburbs a bit so I got to see a bit more of the city and make proper use of my Stockholm Card on the Metro (Tunnelbana).
Anyway, when I first arrived at the airport and got through Immigration, I went to buy a chocolate bar and bottle of water. It cost me almost £4. I handed over the 50 Swedish Krona note that I'd found at home the night before and was quickly told "NO". I had no idea what the lady was talking about, until her fellow shop worker explained that I was trying to use a note that had been withdrawn over 10 years ago. I really hadn't been to Sweden for a long time it seems! I went to the ATM and withdrew some more money, including an almost identical 50Kr note and was able to leave the airport and get on my way to the city.
There was snow everywhere, in fact on my approach to the airport it was snowing heavily and it snowed pretty much the entire journey to Stockholm. The motorway from Skavsta Airport to Stockholm is not that exciting. There are a few retail parks and housing estates, but on the whole it's probably not one of the highlights of my trip. The arrival into Stockholm was nice though. The sun had come out a bit and although it was getting a bit dark (by this time it was about 5pm Swedish time), the city still looked great. We arrived at the Cityterminalen (massive transport interchange) and I qued to get my Stockholm Card to enable me to use the public transport for 3 days. At £20 it wasn't that cheap, but then Sweden isn't a cheap country...at all!
My metro station was Brommaplan, which was quite about 20 minutes out of town and from there I could get a bus to my hotel or walk it in about 10 minutes. I chose the bus to see the route, and when it turned out to be a straight road I just walked from then on. My hotel was nice, although as I had a cheap room, I had no window, but did have a curtain covering...well, a bit of wall, in order to give the impression of a window. It didn't work, I still knew there was no window and I was in pretty much an en-suite box. A comfortable box though, with a TV that had about 200 channels, although at times I wasn't sure if the TV was speaking Norwegian with Swedish subtitles or vice versa as the receptionist told me the TV was mainly a mix of Swedish and Norwegian cable channels. I didn't care anyway, I headed out into the city to get some food!
By the time I got back into the city centre it was dark, but it was still very lbusy. Being winter, it was about -8c. The water in and around the city was frozen, which meant that there were no boat tours going on, but at the same time I didn't mind cos it looked pretty cool (no pun intended)!After wandering around the waterfront area and some of the islands in the city centre for a few hours, I got some dinner from a kind of hot dog cart. The man was very chatty, he'd been a lot of places in the UK with Ryanair, but had not yet made it to Scotland, so was asking me a bit about Edinburgh. He gave me some extra toppings on the hot dog for free too!
At about 9pm I decided to head back to the hotel. I was cold and tired and had to be up early in the morning anyway. I went to a supermarket and got some Swedish choclolates and sweets, and some Mountain Dew! They have abut 10 varieties of Daim bars in Sweden and I think I tried pretty much all of them! I watched some Swedish TV on my return to the room and went to bed around 11.
That's the end of part 1!
Friday, 11 March 2011
Where have I been?
Before I get down to posting any actual travel accounts/records/memoirs/rantings I want to share with you the places I have been so far. This list is every bit of land I have set foot on which is not part of the UK (I have been to England, Wales and Northern Ireland anyway, but they are not foreign soil). I have also been to the Isle of Man and Jersey, which are British Crown Protectorates and not part of the UK, but also not fully independent countries either. I have left the the UK every year of my life since 1987. I was born in November 1986, so didn't have a chance to travel that year, unfortunately. I don't remember anything before our summer holiday to Spain in 1990, but the fact remains that I have stood, or at least been dropped in all of the following Countries and Territories:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Including Hong Kong and Macau), Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland (Åland Islands), France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, North Korea, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and the Vatican City.
In addition to that on a holiday in 1989 we visited East Germany (in what was the last summer that country would see before the border was opened, although the country itself and the Berlin Wall officially lasted another 16 months-I must have had an impact) and Czechoslovakia (who had opened their border to the West earlier that year, but the country didn't split into what we have today for a few more years). When my mother was pregnant she also visited Yugoslavia, although I unfortunately cannot officially count that country on my list of places as I did not yet have a birth certificate!
In addition to THAT, I have cast my eyes upon Libya, Algeria (From Tunisia) and Morocco (from Gibraltar) from the ground (I will not list countries seen from a plane). Had it not been for the fact I didn't have my passport...and Libya didn't have mountains of Red tape to clear in order to enter the country...and Algeria wasn't in a state of emergency at the time and it's border was closed (we were 1 mile from the border guards)...I could have added 2 more to the "been to list"...well, I may eventually go to those countries!
Thankfully we have a pile of old passports I can look at to confirm when I was in these places. Sadly, European countries don't issue other Europeans stamps anymore...unless you ask...which I do, as can be seen in my Picasa gallery. Free Souveniers!
Hope you enjoy!
Monday, 7 March 2011
Welcome
The idea of this blog is for me to tell you about the various places I have been and the various things I got up to when I was there. I know there's millions of travel related sites and blogs out there and mine isn't going to change the way people write about travelling overseas, but it's something to do when I get back from a holiday after I've unpacked and the memories are still fresh in my mind.
I'll start off with my most recent trips and as time allows I'll back date some entries about trips I have had in the past few years. As time goes by I'll hopefully update on many more of my travels to come and one day hope to keep you all updated as I go on my big trip around Australia (I will get there eventually).
I won't be posting about my every day life and so this will probably only be used a few times per year, but whenever I go somewhere I consider interesting, or if I get a request to blog about my trip to the retail park then I will post an update!
Anyway, that's all for now!
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