Tallinn

I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia late Monday night and met Sarah at our hotel.  We spent a few hours catching up before heading to bed.  Tuesday we spent all day exploring Tallinn.  It has a great "old town" section which is a well preserved medieval town on the UNESCO World Heritage list.  

View of Old Town Tallinn Part of the fortification of the city

I was really interested in seeing both Eastern Orthodox churches and Russian influence architecture.  First up we saw St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which is a orthodox church.  The exterior architecture was beautiful, the inside was smaller then expected and very ornate but photos were not allowed.  We also saw the regional headquarters of the KGB in Tallinn - the basement windows are still bricked in.  That was the location of interrogations and torture before Estonians were sent to the work camps or killed. Estonia is an interesting mix of Russian and Scandinavian influences in both culture and architecture. 

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

KGB Building

We were able to see a few more churches including the Dome Church (which had no dome) and St. Olav's (which is a Norwegian saint).  We had lunch in the town square which is very pretty.  Then we had a great "medieval" dinner at Old Hansa in the old town.  Sarah had bear sausage with a honey beer and I had beer glazed pork with a cinnamon beer.  Both meals were excellent and prepared with ancient recipes and the beer was outstanding!  

Dinner at Old Hansa- picture taken by the couple next to us who live in the same city as Sarah!

The next day we walked to Kadriorg Park which was a beautiful park and green space in the city.  We saw the presidential palace and toured Peter the Great's summer palace which is now an art museum.  Then we toured the brand new KUMU modern art museum which is also located in the park.  The modern art museum was pretty neat but only about 2/3 was decent art the remaining 1/3 was horrible modern art (like a sock)!  We had a late lunch at a hole in the wall dumpling place we read about in our guide book where they weigh your food- it was excellent.  We finished the afternoon with a little shopping then had a late dinner at a cute Sicilian place.  We then searched out the Estonian speciality drink - Vana Tallinn.  It comes in both a regular and a cream variety- we tried the cream and found it delicious!  

Peter the Great's summer palace and gardens

Another note on Tallinn - it is a 2.5 hour ferry ride from Helsinki and the Finnish come for the cheap alcohol which is a sight to be seen.  There is literally alcohol stores everywhere and they all take Euros (Finnish currency).  The Finns all have these great carts and load them up with booze to take back on the boat.  I am not sure what the legal importation amount is but either it is really high or the Finns like to break the rules!

Estonia Vacation

Well tomorrow I am off for a 10 day vacation in Estonia.  I am meeting my long time friend and maid of honor, Sarah, for 10 days of travel.  Jason is a little worried about how he will feed and clothe himself while I am gone but I am confident in his abilities.  For those of who are thinking "Estonia...where is that?" here is a map:

So as you can see it is not really that far for me to travel.  Estonia was a part of the USSR and has quite a bit of Russian history and architecture that I am interested in seeing.  It is supposed to be very beautiful and have some nice beaches.  We are spending 3 days in the capital city of Tallinn before heading to Haapsalu for the night and then heading to the spa town of Parnu for three days.  We then head inland to Tartu for two days and then back to Tallinn to catch our respective flights home.  I am excited to spend some quality time with Sarah and explore a new culture and country.  I will update the blog when I get home. Have a great week!

Fjord Tour

Day two of our Bergen trip was scheduled for our fjord tour called "Norway in a Nutshell", the weather was supposed to be cold and rainy but we lucked out with a beautiful day (almost).  The tour started with a 2 hour train ride from Bergen to Myrdal.  It was a nice trip with lots of tunnels.  Then in Myrdal we transferred trains to the Flam railway.  This railway is a major tourist attraction- it was built in the 1920's and took over 20 years to build. It has 20 tunnels of which 18 were excavated by hand- I guess that explains why it took over 20 years to build!  It is very steep and very scenic- the train stops along the route at good vistas and even lets you out at a waterfall for 5 minutes.  The trip is 20K but takes almost 1 hour.  It was a neat experience.

View from the train over the Flam Valley

Along the train route was Kjos waterfall with a 305 ft free fall- it is also used for hydroelectricity

We arrived in the tiny town of Flam around lunch time and enjoyed some fish and chips in a restaurant comprised of old railway cars.  Flam is home to 600 people but is a very busy cruise ship and tourist location.  There was a huge cruise ship in port when we arrived.  After lunch we took a nice walk then boarded our ferry for a 2 hour tour of the Naeroyfjord (Unesco World Heritage site)  and Aurlandsfjord which are both narrow off shoots of the longest and deepest fjord in Norway, the Sognefjord.  The ferry boat was packed but we got great seats, thanks to Jason, to enjoy the trip.  The first hour is spent in one fjord then you change directions and head into then next fjord- when we changed directions we literally hit a cloud.  The temperature dropped 20 degrees and it started raining.  Luckily we were prepared with rain gear but the top deck of the boat completely cleared out!

View in the Aurlandsfjord

Before

After

We exited the boat in Gudvangen and took a bus back to Voss to catch the train.  The bus ride took us on a "serpentine road" called Stalheimskleiva that leads down the side of mountain with 13 hair pins turns and a 18% grade.  It was built by manual labor in the late 1800's and is closed in the winter.  Thankful now it is only a one way road!  It was amazingly steep and scary (see picture section) - thankfully I think our bus driver did the trip every day so I was confident in his abilities.  The road is between two huge waterfalls so it is very scenic.  After that hair-raising section of road it was smooth sailing to Voss then back on the train.  Although I thought the bus ride was smooth I think Judy was praying we were not going to hit oncoming cars - I have gotten used to the narrow windy roads I guess!  The train took longer then expected due to signal issues we had to slow waaaay down which made for a longer day.   It was a long day but very beautiful.  I am glad we got to show Robert and Judy some real Norwegian nature and beauty!

Robert and Judy Visit

We had a lovely time with Robert and Judy.  They arrived on July 3 and stayed for 10 days. They brought lots of treats for us (and the dogs) from the US which is always exciting.  We even got Fourth of July decorations which was very welcomed!  We showed them around Trondheim and relaxed around the house a good bit.  We took them downtown to see the historical parts of the city, to the local fort and the outdoor cultural museum.  

Overlooking the Trondheim Fjord

We also planned a 2 day trip to Bergen which is a larger city south of us which is famous for it's beauty.  So we hoped on a plane and took the hour flight down since it would have taken over 12 hours to drive there.  The first day we wandered the city and saw the famous sights including the water front fish market where we got to try smoked whale.  There are only two countries in the world where you can buy and eat whale - we live in one of them.  We were surprised that we actually liked the whale.  Bergen has a large cruise ship port so the fish market is not only a tourist attraction in it's own right but caters largely to tourists- you can get all kinds of speciality meats and fish along with various pelts - including reindeer, seal, fox and wolf.

Fish Market

Then we moved on to the Bryggen which is on the Unesco World Heritage list.  It was once a major commercial center of Europe and is basically long rows of old wooden building that now house tourist shops (surprise!).  The Bryggen has burned down several times over the years and in 1944 a munitions ship exploded in harbor blowing off the roofs of the building and shifting the foundations to the left so every building "leans".  

The Bryggen

Next we had a nice pizza lunch then took in a few more historic sights such as Hakon's Hall, Rosenkratz Tower and a few churches.  Then we headed to the Floibanen which is a funicular railway that takes you to the top of Mt. Floyen for an beautiful city view.  We took in the view and had a great ice cream then headed back to the hotel to rest up for dinner (TGI Fridays!) and our fjord adventure tomorrow!

View from Mt. Floyen

The Yard

Many of you may have heard us say at one point or another that Norwegians are aloof and maybe even unfriendly people.  You don’t get smiled at or really acknowledged on the street or in stores.  Neighbors don’t’ really talk- people are basically unwilling to make an effort.  There of course are exceptions to this but it is pretty rare. 

I did have a rare exception to this today.  Our landlady, who we are friendly with, came over to check on the yard since she has been on vacation for a month.  We have quite a large yard with lots of elements including numerous trees, bushes, flowering plants, roses, berry bushes and rhubarb so it is a lot of work.  The yard is her baby and up until know we have not always done the best job keeping up with it. But I have been busy in the yard and trying hard to keep up with the all weeds etc.  So when she came by to see it she was very surprised and happy that it looked so good – she gushed about it to me and then hugged me!  What a huge step for a Norwegian!  It was very cute and funny.  I was glad my hard word in the yard made her happy.  She also told me a great story about one of the pretty rose bushes in our yard- it had been a clipping from her great grandmothers rose bush and had been transferred to each women in her family’s home – so each woman in her family has the same rose bush in their yard.  It was a neat story and gave me a better appreciation for how much the yard means to her. 

Hytte

Jason’s parents arrive today for  a much anticipated 10 day vacation with us!  So I thought I would blog about our latest adventure before they arrive.   Two weekends ago we were invited to go to Jason’s project leader’s family cabin. Hytte is Norwegian for cabin.  Most Norwegians seem to spend a lot of time at one especially in the spring and summer.  Many times it is their own cabin, a family cabin or a company cabin that they can utilize a few times a year – hyttes are a big deal.  So we were excited to get to experience it.  Now Olav’s family cabin doesn’t have running water or electricity, which used to be really common but nowadays this is considered “roughing it” to most Norwegians since most cabin’s are pretty posh. 

We took off a little early from work on Friday (my last day of teaching before summer!)  and took a 2.5 hour drive to the cabin.  Which is between here and Roros for those of you familiar.  We took the dogs who were very excited for their first long road trip- that excitement waned for Stretch when he threw up.  We had to cross a private padlocked bridge then entered a community of about 20 hyttes.  We thought it was funny that they were all built together since we thought the point of the cabin was to be one with nature but I guess you can have neighbors and still do that. 

The cabin itself was very cute and 100% built my Olav’s father 35 years ago.  It has a customary grass roof and beautiful hand carved furniture inside.  It rained most of the weekend so we spent a good bit of time reading and playing with their 6-month old baby.  They had a cool set up for water utilizing a small lake up the hill and a pump so there is water at an outside tap next to the house.   Electricity was not really an issue since it is light all day and night now.  We did find it interesting to eat with Norwegians for 2 days though.  We found out that they eat a small meal before bed consisting of bread and cheese.  They eat a lot of bread and cheese- for breakfast and lunch that is basically the entire meal.  They thought our sweet rolls for breakfast were funny and our chips with lunch were hilarious.  We did introduce them to S’mores though which were a big hit. In the area there were sheep grazing with bells on – we enjoyed that – the dogs were not so excited about them though.  We also got to experience a Norwegian sauna, which is very hot but does have some humidity.  It was a good experience (Jason didn’t wither to bad)  and luckily we could take a shower after that.  The last day we were able to hike around a little – there was still snow on the ground about 50 meters higher then the cabin (it was June 20!).  As we left the cabin we saw a small family of female and youth moose- I made Jason turn around so I could take pictures.  At first we thought they were reindeer but they turned about to be small moose- I was still pretty excited about it!  It was a great Norwegian experience – glad we were invited to share it with Olav’s family!

Istanbul Final Installment

On our last full day in Istanbul we took a 5-hour cruise on the Bosphorus Strait on a public ferry.  We arrived early to get the best seats since I get seasick and the strait was surprisingly choppy.  Luckily it was calm this day so the trip was wonderful!  You get some great views of the old town sights then head northeast into the rest of Istanbul.  There are two main bridges that cross the Bosphorus but the main traffic is ferries.  On the way there are quite a few palaces to see and many huge houses on the water.  It was very pretty and it gave us a better idea of how large the city really is.  The last stop on the ferry is Anadolu Kavagi which is in Asia.  We got off here for a hike and lunch.  We hiked up to the Yoros Castle that has great views of the Black Sea.  We had a nice lunch overlooking the Bosphorus at the top of the hill and then wandered back down to the city for dessert.  Dessert was called lokma and is basically a honey fried donut hole- they were heavenly!  Interestingly the military controls much of this area since it is a key spot for Turkey on the Bosphorus (which they control). 

We took the ferry back and then had a nice dinner and wandered the area for a last few shopping items.  On Monday our flight left around 2pm so we had the morning to do our final sightseeing.  The only thing left to see was the Underground Cistern.  It was built in the sixth century by Justinian to provide water to the city.  They used column from Roman ruins so there is quite a mish mash of styles but the cistern still stands but it does leak.  It is no longer used but it very pretty and amazing to think it is still structurally sound!  After that we had a nice kebab lunch and headed to the airport for home.  It was an amazing trip – something that living in Europe allows us to do in a long weekend.  It is a sight to be seen – it is the first place I have visited where the buildings and sights were so well cared for that I could picture what is was like 2000 years ago.  Amazing!