Stockholm and Copenhagen

Coming into Stockholm on the ferry was great. It doesn’t come into the central harbour but it goes through the islands around stockholm. At some points the channel was so narrow it felt like we could almost touch the houses either side.

We arrived around 10 in the morning and managed to navigate the metro system and find our way to our hostel. The place we stayed was actually an old tall ship that had been built in stockholm then sailed around the world as a trade ship. Our cabin was pretty cramped but we’re getting fairly used to that so wasn’t a problem.

The masts of our hostel

Our hostel from the other side of the harbour

Breakfast on the deck

In front of our hostel



Day 1 was spent trying to find a supermarket – and more importantly a bottle shop. Due to a small misunderstanding between me and swedish google we managed to find ourselves in the national head office of bottle shops trying to buy wine off a very confused receptionist. After explaining our predicament and discussing the world cup for about 45 minutes we were sent on our way with a map and a smile.

That night was spent up on deck of our boat eating our home cooked pasta and pesto and drinking our hard earned wine.

Day 2 started with a canal cruise with a commentary that mainly just boasted about how much better Sweden is than the rest of the world. To be fair that had some valid points but I think its time they let go of ABBA. The rest of the day was spent just wandering around. The old part of town at sunset was the highlight.

Palace at sunset

The next day it was onto the train and off to beautiful Copenhagen. Personally I liked everything about Copenhagen from the buildings to the fresh crepes filled with nutella and strawberries. The hotel we stayed in was located on nyhaven – I can’t explain how nice it was – you’ll just have to see the photos (all 150 of them) – but it was really nice.

Ben headed out to the supermarket to find something for lunch the next day (but came home with a bottle of wine, a 6 pack of beer and a packet of assorted cheese flavoured snacks) and I stayed in doing all our washing in the bathroom sink – obviously a pretty wild Saturday night. I have to say I’ll never take a washing machine for granted again.

Foot tan

Palace at sunset



Once again first thing in the morning we started with a canal/harbour tour. Lots of people told me before we got to Copenhagen to be prepared for a dissapointment when seeing the statue of the little mermaid – but I honestly had no idea just how disappointing it would be. The little mermaid was not even there – apparently she’s gone to China for the expo. They had replaced her with a photo but somehow it wasn’t quite the same. The rest of the tour made up for it though.


View from our window in Copenhagen


Nyhaven street at sunset


Boat tour of Copenhagen harbour

That night we splashed out and went out for dinner near our hotel. Ben was adventurous and tried the herring, I did not.

Most of our time in Copenhagen was spent just wandering around and seeing the sites.
In Copenhagen it is perfectly legal to just walk around the streets drinking and everyone seemed to make the most of this. Our street seemed to be a bit of a hotspot for outdoor drinking and a spot on the side of the canal was hot property. Our last night was spent drinking cider and eating takeaway pizza on the street next to the water. I think it was our favourite meal so far (maybe because of the cider).

Copenhagen canal tour

Dinner out on Nyhaven

My first nutella crepe - pretty excited

Cider and pizza

Ben with nutella crepes

Then it was time to say goodbye to Copenhagen and onto the train bound for Germany and Hamburg.

Helsinki and Tallinn

After leaving Russia we caught the train to Helsinki. We arrived around 10 at night (in full daylight) and managed to find our hotel without getting lost. The hotel we stayed at was fantastic. An old gaol that had been refurbished and turned into a hotel. It still had the feel of an old gaol but the rooms were a bit more luxurious than I expect they used to be and anywhere else we've stayed so far this trip.


Our first day in Helsinki was spent getting a feel for the city and we just wandered around fairly aimlessly getting lost and seeing the sites. They have special dedicated areas on the harbour for people to wash their rugs - and they were all full - which made me wonder - how does the rest of the world wash their rugs?? Hmmm the big questions. We had lunch at an outdoor market down on the waterfront and it was delicious - the only hazard being the army of seagulls hovering above your head just waiting for a lapse of attention.

The hallway in our gaol hotel

Scary seagulls at the open market

Ben by the harbour


Flowers - I think they might be Lupins Cath??


Day 2 we decided to do a boat trip on an old steam boat out through the archipeligo and to a town called "Porvoo". The boat trip was around 3 hours each way and was quite relaxing. Lots of little timber houses on rocky little islands. The town itself was very quaint with lots of old wooden buildings. We'd filled Ben's hat with food from the buffet breakfast that morning so we sat down and had a nice picnic in the park. This worked well though pigeons swooped Ben everytime he took his hat off. Then back on the boat and back to Helsinki.



Porvoo streets




Houses on islands


Helsinki harbour


The boat to/from Porvoo

On day 3 we boarded the ferry for Tallinn and sat up on the deck drinking beer as we crossed the Baltic. It was very relaxing.

Tallinn was amazing. It really does feel like you have stepped into a fairytale city. As we couldn't be bothered walking all the way to the hotel with our bags we caught a lift on the "hop on hop off" tourist bus and learnt lots of abstract things about Estonia. Apparantly they invented the architecture craze "limestone functionalism" who knew?

Dinner that night was in the old town square surrounded by buildings over 700 years old. Then a walk around the old town at sunset.

Cheesy photo in Tallinn

Tallinn Streets

Tallinn Streets

Sunset in Tallinn

Sunset in Tallinn

Unfortunately we only had one night in Tallinn and then it was back onto a ferry bound for Stockholm. The ferry was about 18 hours overnight so we had our own cabin. It was similar to the train cabins only with no windows at all. You would think a small window less room would be horrible - but it was air conditioned and the darkest place we had slept for weeks.

The Next Chapter

For those who failed geography at high school - here is a quick map of the next part of our journey. We have a couple of nights in Helsinki, then onto a ferry over to Tallin in Estonia for a night. An overnight ferry takes us to Stockholm for a couple of days - then train to Copenhagen. From Copenhagen we train to Hamburg, then on to Amsterdam for 4 days. Then Belgium (undecided about where we'll stay) . Finally we will end up in London around the start of August. We then have a campervan for 5 weeks around the UK.

Moscow and St Petersburg

We have left Russia behind us. After managing to convey through sign language, written notes and a little interpretive dance to the Russian ticket lady what we wanted we found ourselves on the train to Helsinki.

Our time in Moscow was great. Due to the cost of staying at hotels in Moscow we stayed in an apartment home share type place. It was good and quiet centrally located. On the first night the rest of our tour group went out for a expensive meal – but being money concious we decided to find somewhere cheaper. We found a beer cafe and had possibly the fattiest meal ever consumed. It’s hard to describe deep fried cheese with a cheese sauce but we could feel our arteries hardening as we ate it.

On day 2 we went and did a tour of the kremlin and the armoury. The kremlin was fairly non eventful but the armoury was great. I now know why diamonds are so expensive – the Russians have them all in their museums! It houses an amazing array of Russian historical items from crowns to dresses and of course the world renowned faberge eggs – way more impressive than I was expected – and I never knew there were only 46 in the world – and we got to see 10 of them! The only other notable kremlin items were the world’s largest canon (that has never fired) and the world’s largest bell (that has never rung) they would have been more impressive if they worked.

we call this photo: "the 3 biggest canons in the world"

After the Kremlin we went to Red Square. It was amazing! Without doubt the most impressive place we have been so far. St Basil’s is now top of my list of favouriter buildings (and no its not weird to have a list of favourite buildings!) The square itself is beautiful and we spent a fair bit of time just wandering around it. We didn’t get time to go to Lenin’s masoleum but the idea is just a little creepy anyway if you ask me.

This pose seems to be all the rage in Moscow ast the moment

St Basil's from Red Square

The spires of St Basil's

St Basil's looking towards red square - my favourite view

Ben in Red Square

The cathedral of christ the saviour

Day 3 we wandered around and tried to find the KGB museum. Obviously they are very good at their job as we couldn’t find it anywhere and can only assume it is accessed through a phone booth or a large ornate fireplace. After the dissapointment we decided to spoil ourselves with the most expenzsive beers we’ve ever had. $16 corona’s on the roof top of the ritz carlton overlooking red square. Worth every cent if you ask me.

In front of the kremlin

That night we boarded the last leg of our Russian train adventure – the night train to St Petersburg. Not the best nights sleep and everyone arrived in St Petersburg a bit worse for wear. We pushed on regardless determined to make the most of every minute in St Petersburg. First was the canal cruise. A great way to see the city. Such a beautiful city.

On the canal cruise

Peter and Paul Fortress

Next Ben and I headed for “The Hermitage”. Despite being warned we could line up for over 2 hours we were through the door within 10 minutes. It was really interesting, with a large collection of greek and roman sculptures, paintings by a whole heap of people we’ve never heard of (who is this Rembrant guy?) and a few Egyptian mummies. After about 2 hours we had had enough of navigating our way through the many rooms and tour groups and headed back to our lovely air conditioned room.

After a little nap we headed out to meet some of our group at a bar. I’m not sure if something was lost in the translation but it was called “the pregnant spies luggage”. Quiet an odd place. There was a pregnant spy who danced and added a bit of atmosphere. We were then treated to a Russian comedy show – needless to say it was a bit over our heads as it was entirely in Russian. I did feel a bit sorry for them – must be a tough crowd when they can’t understand a word you say but we just tried to clap when everyone else did.

Day 2 in St Petersburg was spent walking around looking at the buildings. The highlight was the cathedral of spilt blood – but I still think that St Basil’s is a lot more impressive. Dinner that night was a farewell to our travelling companions. After dinner we wandered down to the river bank to see the “white nights” festival. The sun sets after midnight and rises again not long after – so for the few hours of darkness everyone gathers on the river banks and all the bridges are decorated in lights and opened up. It was beautiful – the sunset was amazing and apparently the sunrise was even better – or so a drunk person who stumbled home from the bar at about 4am and woke me up tells me. He shall remane nameless.

Church of the saviour on spilled blood

Church of the saviour on spilled blood

Church of the saviour on spilled blood

White nights bridges decorated

Across Russia

We boarded the train in Mongolia around 9 at night. The train was a small step up from the chinese train to mongolia - but still fairly basic. We arrived at the Mongolia/Russia border around 8 the next morning and spent the next 5 hours having our passports/visas checked then re checked and every piece of paper they could find stamped and then re stamped. After we got on the way again. The train was now full of half the russian army and walking the 6 carriages to the dining car was quite an experience.

After 40 hours on the train we arrived at Irkutsk and hoped on the bus out to Listvyanka, which is a little town on the shores of Lake Baikal. We all stayed in a beautiful B&B with a very lively host, Nickolai who cooked all our meals and made sure everybody felt right at home.

On the first day we had a walk around town and checked out the seal show - featuring 2 of Lake Baikals own fresh water seals. They were without doubt the 2 fattest seals I have ever seen. Not sure if this is a natural characteristic or just a by product of the fact they do a show every 45 minutes every day with a lot of fish based rewards.

Ben was most excited to find that beer was sold in 2.5 litre containers for around $4 and that freshly smoked omool (Lake Baikal fish similar to trout) was sold at roadside stalls for $2.

The second day was gorgeous and we went for a cruise on Lake Baikal. I managed to get sunburnt which was quiet a suprise for siberia. We then found a nice roof top bar and spent the afternoon drinking in the sun. It felt more like Greece than Siberia.

That night we had a traditional Russian Banya (cleansing sauna) - complete with birch branchs. Not sure it was an experience I would rush to try again.

After 2 relaxing days in Listvyanka we were back to Irkutsk for a day tour. Despite the guides assurance it was the "Paris of Siberia" it was pretty dull and uneventful.

Then it was back on the train for the longest stint on the train. Over 70 hours with only a couple of 20 minute stops in which to get off and get some air. The train was quite fancy compared to the other 2. We had air conditioning and even a tv. It only showed Russian sit coms so it was fairly useless - but it still felt like a luxury to have it.

Despite one fairly unsuccessful trip to the dining car it was a fairly uneventful trip. Lots of vodka and card games made it go fairly fast.

The next stop was Vladimir. We got off the train to find that our bus to Suzdal had broken down. We got taxi's instead and it was quite an exciting trip. I don't think our driver went under 130 the whole drive and seemed to prefer overtaking on the shoulder as opposed to the road.

Suzdal was beautiful. Over 67 churches scattered through a cute village. We had a walking tour and then went to a local ladies house for dinner. Vodka drinking and Russian dancing were strongly encouraged.

The next day it was time to board the hottest bus ever and head to Moscow.