Eurotrip 2012 - Day 16 (6/30) - Return home and final thoughts

There's not really much of note to add here for this day - all I did was go back to St. Louis.  But there were a couple of noteworthy happenings at the airports. In the Oslo airport, (when I finally found the right terminal after a couple of tries) they had a pre-board kind of thing going on for my flight to Newark, where they roped off the seating area for the gate and then scanned the boarding passes to enter that area (and  then not have to scan them again to actually board). I was about 1.5 hours early, so I didn't fret too much when the gate attendant said that they hadn't yet assigned me a seat. I later found out that this was because they (as usual) oversold economy class, waiting for people to upgrade - but I guess this time people didn't upgrade (and they ended up offering $600 in credit or $300 in cash for a volunteer to relinquish their seat because the entire flight was overbooked - not just economy).  After going up to the counter a couple more times, including when boarding really started, and still not having an assigned seat, I started to become a little annoyed, though I played it off as I usually do. The lady was pretty nice and apologetic about it, and she assured me that I would indeed be assigned a seat on the plane. In the end, I was upgraded to an Economy Extra seat for no charge. It was a bulkhead seat, and included a footrest. So I can't really complain.

I was originally scheduled to spend about 3 hours in Newark then fly to DC, spend another 3 hours, then finally fly to St. Louis, arriving around 11 PM. When I went to check in at the United counter in Newark, I asked if I could switch to a direct flight to St. Louis, and the attendant kindly did so for me, with no extra charge (though she did have to get on the phone due to some sort of ticket issue). I had a little over an hour after being switched until scheduled departure, but I had no problems making it to the gate on time. The Embraer jet with 3 seats across (1-2 configuration) felt a little claustrophobic after being on an A330 (with a 2-4-2 configuration), but the flight was mostly uneventful.  I ended up arriving back in St. Louis around 4:30, and my father picked me up from the airport.

Some quick final thoughts:

• St. Petersburg was my favorite city, then probably Moscow, but Stockholm and Oslo weren't too far behind.  Helsinki was somewhat underwhelming, but the weather may have played a part in that.
• Russian women are gorgeous. I can't remember seeing more beautiful women anywhere else in my travels, but then again I'm a bit of a "present-ist" since I have a pretty terrible memory.
• I was pretty confident before the trip that St. Basil's Cathedral would likely be my favorite church that I would see. I'm not quite sure that was the case. While it is pretty cool, and definitely iconic, the divided interior (with 9 separate tiny chapels) was a bit underwhelming (though still interesting).  St. Isaac's Cathedral, on the other hand, was a surprise hit. It reminded me a bit of St. Peter's Basilica, which is #1 on my (and probably most people's) list of churches in the world. The Church (of the Savior) on Spilled Blood was also pretty cool - it had the onion dome thing going on, and the interior was more impressive than St. Basil (and, interestingly, it had no permanent seating inside because that's how the orthodox roll). I wish we had been able to enter the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, as that also seemed like a cool one. Joe still contends that nothing compares to St. Basil's, though.
• Peterhof may rival Versailles as my new favorite palace, though mostly for the grounds as opposed to the interior. The royal palaces in Stockholm were also pretty impressive. And the one in Oslo was really interesting, despite being smaller and less showy than the others. Too bad (but understandably) I couldn't take pictures inside any of them.
• If I lived in Oslo, I would spend a ton of time at the opera house. It's such a cool building, and you can freely walk up to the top and enjoy the view, and maybe have a picnic.
• The statue of Jupiter in Stockholm is now one of my favorites. At first I thought it might be my new second favorite, behind Michelangelo's David, but I've enjoyed too many other statues to make that determination.  I'm pretty sure David is still my favorite, though.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 15 (6/29) - Oslo

I caught up a bit on sleep the night before but still managed to make it down for breakfast a little after 9. The breakfast spread was just about as good as the last hotel, though perhaps a bit less fancy, and I had pretty much my usual breakfast plus some grapes. I then left to walk to the Stortinget (Parliament; but more specifically the Stortingsbuilding) which was only a few blocks away. I also realized that the hotel was less than a block from Karl Johans gate (I had always come from the other direction) and less than two blocks from the cathedral; and the city blocks are pretty small in Oslo. Because I underestimated my proximity, I arrived at the building 20 minutes before the English guided tour at 10, and had to wait a bit. Though they only allow 30 in the group (so they advise arriving 15 minutes early), only 11 showed up for that tour. The tour ended up being more interesting than I expected.

It had begun raining while I was inside the parliament building, and it would continue to do so for the rest of the day. This put a damper on my plans, which included a couple of outdoor activities. After a failed attempt at buying a 24-hour metro card from a metro kiosk and a wrong turn, I wandered around for a while then eventually ended up by the national theater metro station. I bought the metro pass at the convenience store just outside the station then took the metro to Majorstuen and walked into Frogner Park. I found the Vigeland Sculpture Park and took some pictures in the rain. I then hustled back to the Royal Palace to try to make it by 1 PM, forgetting that the next English guided tour was at 2 (even though I had written that down in my plan for the day). I was reminded at the entrance when I arrived there right at 1, and the lady suggested that I go to the post office and buy an advanced ticket for 2:20 since the tour at 2 looked pretty full. I then wandered about for over 30 minutes in the rain looking for the post office she directed me to. After asking a few people for help I finally found someone who knew where it was, so I found it (it was at the back of a building that I had walked past) and bought the ticket. I still had over 30 minutes to kill before the tour, so I walked slowly back toward the castle and briefly took some shelter at a nearby building. I made it over to the entrance a little early, and after a bit of waiting eventually went on the tour. As with previous palaces, pictures were not allowed inside this one. Even though the palace was fairly small in comparison, the interior decorations (mostly painted walls) were quite nice. After the tour I was fed up with being wet and cold so I walked back toward the hotel. I made a stop across the street for a falafel pita, which I took back to my room to eat while I dried off. I went out later that night (after it stopped raining) to see the movie 21 Jump Street, and then swung by the opera house for one last visit before leaving the country.

Observation of the day: Sunrise in Oslo on this day was officially at 4:00 AM and sunset was at 10:43 PM, yielding 18 hours and 44 minutes (I guess due to rounding - check Wolfram Alpha if you don't believe me) of daylight.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 14 (6/28) - To Oslo

I left the hotel at 6:15, a little later than I wanted to but still too early to get their breakfast. I took the metro to T-Centralen, then the Arlanda Express to the airport. I had some trouble figuring out which terminal to go to, but I was through security in plenty of time (partially because the flight time had apparently been changed from 9 to 9:15 without my knowledge) to grab some yogurt with muesli and an apple juice as a reward for being up so early. While I was waiting around, a father from a family from Colorado that I ran into a couple days prior at the Royal Palace came over to say hello - they were headed to Rome. After boarding the plane I rewarded myself some more by passing out for most of the flight.

In Oslo I took the Flytoget express train from the airport toward the city. Unfortunately, there was some work being done on the train tracks so the train only took us part of the way (to Lillestrom), then we took buses the rest of the way to Oslo Central Station (but at least the price was reduced). The Thon Hotel Astoria was not very far from there, and I was able to find it on foot relatively quickly despite the location on Google Maps being off by a couple of blocks. After checking in and putting my things in the room, I headed back to Central Station and crossed the covered walkway over to the opera house (officially the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet). I found out that the next English guided tour was at 2, giving me 1.5 hours to kill. The building was free to walk on and inside the main foyer, but I decided to go check out the Oslo Cathedral.

I walked over to, and through, the cathedral, and then still had time to grab a quick lunch. I walked further down Karl Johans gate, the main road of sorts which is a pedestrian street for a long section, and came across a MAX Hamburger, a fast food burger joint that I had seen in the other Scandinavian countries, and decided to give it a shot. I ordered a small (apparently the burgers come in multiple sizes) in Cheese 'n' Bacon burger, some "chili cheese" nuggets (more jalapeño than chili) that came as a pack of 4, and a small drink. The total came out to 114 kroner, which is something like $19 USD! And they charge 10 kr (over $1.50) for drink refills - though I think that would be hard to monitor with the self-service. At least the burger was pretty good (it also had a thousand island like sauce) and they separated out their trash bins by type (which doesn't help too much with language-challenged tourists like me).

After eating I made it back to the opera house with over 15 to spare before the tour. The tour was pretty interesting and took us inside parts of the building that are normally inaccessible to the public. After the tour I went outside and climbed up to the top of the building, then enjoyed the great view and atmosphere for a while. Up there I encountered a Californian family that was visiting Norwegian relatives - they had some good Oslo advice for me, including notifying me that the ski tower was closed due to a concert at the venue (featuring Rihanna) the next day.

After leaving the opera house I headed to Akershus Castle. When I arrived at the information center around 4:10 there was a delayed (originally scheduled for 4) English guided tour soon to leave so I tagged along since the main castle building was closed. The tour lasted about an hour. After that I wandered about the city for a while, including stumbling upon city hall. I then took the metro (known as the T-bane there) one stop over and headed back to the hotel. I stayed in for the rest of the night, initially planning activities for the next day, except for a brief trip across the street to grab a kebab pita right before the Germany/Italy semifinal.

Observation of the day: I recently acquired a Capital One checking account and debit card especially to use on international trips since they do not charge an international transaction fee (or, it seems so far, an ATM fee). So far it has been a great call...except for the fact that the first few PIN code purchase transactions I attempted failed, even though I could use my PIN to get money from ATMs without problems. Since then (the second or third day in Moscow) I decided to sign for every purchase. It has worked well every time except for once at the hotel in Tallinn - I had to use a different card there (and accept the fee).

Bonus observation: The wifi availability has been pretty good on this trip. In addition to free (or perhaps better stated: included) wifi at all but the first hotel (though the hostel in Helsinki only had wifi on the ground floor, but ethernet in the rooms), the airports in Helsinki and Stockholm both had free wifi. And so did the airport express trains in Stockholm and Oslo.

Bonus observation 2: A single metro ride in Oslo cost NOK 30, or about $5. This was about the same as it was in Stockholm - SEK 36 (though I was told SEK 44 the first time). In contrast, it cost less than $1 per ride in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, and those metro systems were the most impressive.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 13 (6/27) - Stockholm and Drottningholm

This morning began much like the day before - I had a similar breakfast and departed around 10. I took the metro to T-Centralen then walked over to Stadshuset (City Hall). I first inquired at the port next door about the boar to Drottningholm, and was told that they leave on the hour. It was 10:30, so I walked over to Stadshuset to look around. I bought a ticket for the 11:15 entrance to the tower, figuring that I could do the 35 minute tour (10 minutes to go up, 15 to look around, and 10 to go down) and still have 10 minutes to catch the noon boat. I took some more pictures of the impressive building and courtyard while waiting (and some Asian women took a picture with me), and then went into the tower at 11:15. They give you the option of taking an elevator halfway up, but encourage anyone who can to walk since the elevator is so small - it holds only 4 or 5 people, and they let 30 people up the tower at a time. I don't think anyone in our group took the elevator. The climb up was probably one of the most interesting that I've had (and I've climbed a few towers in my day) - first it was concrete steps, then a cool sculpture room, then brick steps, then a winding brick ramp, then wooden steps. I stopped so often for pictures that I began to worry whether I would have enough time at the top. The view at the top was equally impressive, and I completed a circuit of pictures quickly enough to head back down a little early.

I (perhaps unnecessarily) hustled over to the boat ticket counter and had a ticket for Drottningholm in hand by 11:50. I boarded the boat a bit after noon and sat through the hour long ride over. After arriving at Drottningholm, I walked over to the castle and bought an entry ticket. I found out that there was an English guided tour at 2, so I walked around the garden for a while then returned for the tour. As with the Royal Palace in Old Town, pictures were not allowed within. After the tour I headed to the boat dock, and was there barely in time for the boat at 3. However, I did not have a ticket, so I decided to go figure out where to buy a ticket for the boat (there was no ticket stand at the dock) at 4 and then perhaps grab some food while I waited. I felt a bit stupid when I found out at a nearby convenience store that I could buy a ticket on the boat...especially since I could still see the boat floating away. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I remembered seeing that Drottningholm could be reached be bus from a metro station. With the help of a kind Swedish couple I got on the bus that went to the Brommaplan metro station. The man was the second person to suggest that I check out the Vasamuseet (a museum about a 17th century Swedish warship that had sunk on its maiden mission and was recovered 300 years later), so I decided to do that instead of one of the other items remaining on my list - it would be more unique to Stockholm than, say, the modern art museum. I didn't actually know where the Vasa museum was but after asking a couple more helpful Swedes I found out (and remembered) that it was next to the Nordic Museum, which I had walked by the day before. I took the metro to Karlaplan again and walked over to the museum, where I lucked into catching the 4:30 English guided tour, then watched the documentary film in the main theater at 5. After looking around a bit more, I left to go catch the same tram as the day before (only further down the line). After taking the tram to T-Centralen I, for some unknown reason (considering how full my big backpack was), went up to check out one of the seemingly 12 H&M stores in the area as well as an Intersport. After (thankfully) not buying anything I took the metro back to the hotel.

I asked a lady at the hotel reception where I could get a nice Swedish meal, and she suggested a restaurant. I walked over to the place, which wasn't exactly close, but found it a bit too expensive for my taste. It did happen to be close to a park where some soccer was being played, so I stopped by that. After watching for a bit I headed back to a restaurant I had initially passed by on the walk. The service was really slow, and when a waiter finally came to take my order he informed me that they were out of meatballs - I immediately left, a bit annoyed. I wandered around trying to find a place that looked like I would have some Swedish meatballs (there are apparently a lot of foreign restaurants in Stockholm), but eventually settled on a bar that had soccer on. When I tried to order the Swedish Hash, I was informed that they were out. Since I was too tired and hungry to leave by this time, I just ordered the lamb sausage instead (which turned out to be pretty good). I finally was able to eat again at 8:30, 10.5 hours after finishing breakfast, then I watched the first half of the Spain/Portugal semifinal match. At halftime I walked back to the hotel, where I watched the rest of the game before turning in.

Observation of the day: The Stockholm T-Bana may not quite match the metro in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it is still a pretty good system. The trains seem to come pretty frequently (every 4 or 5 minutes) and the area covered seems pretty expansive (it got much closer to Drottningholm than SPb's metro did to Peterhof). The Helsinki metro is nowhere close to any of the others - its 1.5 lines are comparable to the St. Louis Metro link - but at least they have trams.

Bonus observarion: Speaking of trams, the buses in Stockholm sometimes drive in the tram lanes and share the same stops, especially close to the city center.

Bonus observation 2: While we're discussing transportation... Stockholm is a very bicycle friendly city - there are bike lanes pretty much everywhere. If I had more practice and confidence on a bike, it would have been a good idea to rent one and ride it around (as a lady on the flight over had suggested).

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 12 (6/26) - Stockholm

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was pretty varied and bountiful. In addition to some bacon, a couple of meatballs, and a small salami and cheese sandwich, I finally tried some yogurt with corn flakes (and some fruit) like I have seen people eating from time to time - I liked it. After eating, I left by 10. It was sprinkling a bit outside, and the rain was off and on through the afternoon.

I took the metro (a.k.a. T-Bana, I think for something like Tunnelbana, or Tunnel Road) to Gamla Stan (Old Town - apparently the name of both the metro stop and the island) and then walked to the Royal Palace. I bought a full ticket, then hit the Royal Apartments as my first of the 4 stops. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the palace.  I waited around for the English guided tour of the Royal Apartments at 11, and that lasted about 45 minutes. After walking through the apartments for a few more minutes on my own, I headed outside to catch the parade of the guards at 12:15 (which wasn't dampened by a brief sprinkle of rain). The band was still playing when I left at 12:30 to quickly walk through the nearby Storkyrkran (also known sometimes as the Stockholm Cathedral), which was a bit more impressive than I expected. I then hustled over to the Treasury (the second museum on my palace ticket) to join the 1:00 guided tour. I did not make it through the full 45 minutes (there aren't enough crown jewels for that, in my opinion) and left to check out the remaining 2 palace museums on my own. Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities had a bunch of Roman statues, so I enjoyed that more than expected. The True Kronor Museum showed the history of the castle that stood (then burned) before the palace, and I thought it was OK. I walked around the palace grounds for a little while then headed to the Nobel Museum.

The Nobel Museum is pretty small (they are going to build a bigger one to be opened in 2018) - if I had not joined the guided tour at 3 it would not have been worth it. The museum is on a square with some restaurants, so I went to one of them for a late lunch after I was done. I overlooked the rainbow flag in front of it until a guy who had been staring me down struck up a conversation with me and pointed it out. Despite being a little flustered, I needed somewhere to sit (the outdoor area was pretty full) so I joined him (Patrick) and ordered a broccoli and blue cheese pie (which wasn't that great). While I was eating the rain picked up pretty hard, but luckily it subsided before I was done.

Afterward I said goodbye to Patrick and walked over to Fjallgatan to take some pictures of the nice view. I then picked up an ice cream cone and walked to the Folkungagatan metro station. I initially planned on going to SkyView at the Ericsson Globe, but changed my mind after reasoning that I shouldn't pay money for a view that was probably less interesting (since it was farther from the city center) than the one that I had just seen for free. So instead I headed to Skansen, which is billed as the oldest and largest outdoor museum. They informed me that all the cultural buildings had closed at 5 (it was after 7), but I could still walk around and see the animals (and there would be a concert at 8). I still bought the ticket, and immediately headed for the Scandinavian animals. I didn't get to see all the animals I wanted to (some were in hiding), but I was reasonably satisfied (as much as could be expected for me in a place like that, at least) by the time I left. At the exit I was sick of walking so I bought a ticket for the tram, without realizing that I could have used my metro pass. I took the tram to Central Station (actually T-Centralen) then took the metro back to the hotel.

Observation of the day: According to one of the museum guides, this June in Stockholm had been the coldest and wettest in something like 100 years.

Bonus observation: Sunrise in Stockholm on this day was officially at 3:34 AM and sunset was at 10:09 PM, yielding 18 hours and 35 minutes of daylight.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 11 (6/25) - To Stockholm

We had planned on going to the Olympic Stadium and maybe the nearby amusement park, but my laundry fiasco prevented either of those things from happening. I started the single load of washing without issue around 11 and then we checked out around 11:30, 30 minutes late. I then put my clothes in the dryer around noon. When I returned about 45 minutes later, though, they were not any drier. I thought this was because I had chosen too cool of a setting (I had uses the second warmest), so I chose the hottest setting and tried again. By the time I found out that this didn't work any better (the dryer was spinning without any heat), the other two driers were occupied, and more people were washing clothes. I basically had to wait around in the laundry room for another hour in order to snag a drier that worked, and then wait for the clothes to dry. Steffi eventually gave up on waiting around for me, and rightfully so, and took a taxi to go see the Olympic Stadium.

I wasn't done with my laundry until about 3:30, and by then it was just about time to head to the airport. Steffi met up with me after failing to get into the stadium - it was apparently closed for the European Athletics Championships. Since it was raining, we decided to take a taxi to the airport instead of walking to the train station and taking the Finnair bus. On the ride I realized that I forgot to return the laundry room key to the hostel front desk (and reclaim my €10 deposit) - I gave it to Steffi to send back to the hostel for me. At the airport we had time to grab sandwiches for a late lunch before Steffi had to board her plane a little after 6. After saying goodbye I walked 3 gates down to prepare to board my 6:55 flight.

After landing I took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm's Central Station, then took the metro to Radmansgatan. In the process, I bought a metro pass for 200 Swedish Kronor/crowns (~$28) which allowed up to 8 rides - so as low as 25 SEK per ride, vs. 44 SEK for a single ride. I had another flirt with fame when the lady at the metro ticket counter asked if I "played something" (music or sports), commenting that I looked like I did. In any case, I was able to find Hotel Birger Jarl fairly easily using my phone, and was checked in by 8:30. I stayed in for the rest of the night - I hung up my still mildly damp (from the nonfunctional dryers) clothes to fully dry and planned out some activities for the next day using guides that I had picked up from the airport tourist info center.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 10 (6/24) - Helsinki

We woke up in time to get a quick breakfast at the hotel before taking a taxi to the Linda Lines terminal at the port. I also found out that the sole of my right shoe was coming off, but it thankfully was not too bad just yet. We took the 10 AM boat (the same catamaran) back to Helsinki. It was pretty cold (perhaps 50 °F) and windy out when we arrived, but we braved the weather to walk to the Uspenski Cathedral. After that we walked to the nearest metro station, with a stop at the Helsinki Cathedral so Steffi could go inside this time, and took that 2 stops to Kamppi before walking back to the hostel.

After freshening up in the room and eating Joe's leftover pizza that was in the fridge, Steffi and I asked at the front desk for a nearby shoemaker/cobbler and we were directed to Kamppi again. We walked over there and found the place (Kamppi Suutari), and the guy there was able to fix my shoe in about 20 minutes for only €11. We swung by the movie theater and decided to return in about an hour for the 5:15 showing of Prometheus in 3D. We went to the nearby frozen yogurt place (JoGo) and then walked up to the Rock Church, just like Joe and I had done a couple of days prior. After checking out the church, we wandered in search of (Sokos) Hotel Torni, which has a bar that afforded some great views of Helsinki. We couldn't find it, despite getting directions from a souvenir shop worker who seemed excited about the place. We eventually asked some police officers, who gave us directions again, but had to return to the theater for the movie (which was super expensive - €29 for both of us - and had assigned seating). After watching the movie we did eventually find the hotel, and we went up to the Ateljee Bar. We checked out the balcony view and then Steffi also checked out the women's restroom, which was hyped as having a similarly spectacular view.

The next order of business was finding dinner. We looked and asked around for a Finnish restaurant, but we couldn't find one that was open. So we settled on a Nepalese and Middle Easter restaurant - I went the Nepalese route with the butter chicken, a misleading name since the sauce is tomato based. After dinner we walked back to Elmo Bar,which was packed this time, to watch the England vs. Italy quarterfinal game despite their €3 cover charge. The match went to penalty kicks, with Italy triumphing, so we didn't get back to the hostel until after midnight.