7 days down 83 to go

Set your watches we now have 83 days of frantic travelling to see as much of Europe as possible before we are thrown out by the Shengan treaty and banished to Morocco, Turkey and other exotic warm places.

Helsinki great cloths, very flat, very expensive, and the United Buddy Bears are in town, apparently Sydney had them in 2005. Fact: did you know Finns consume an average of 10.4 litres of pure alcohol per person each year! Exorbitant prices certainly isn’t slowing them down, they sell beer like water and soda. Helsinki is only 2 hours by boat from Estonia, far cheaper for everything, weekends are crazy with Finns consuming as much grog as possible, then staggering back to their hotel to continue to drink until they drop or drag their weary fog induced bodies back home on the boat.

Tallinn was excellent; the history of the place is amazing, they have been occupied so many times and rebuilt or readjusted their cities, culture and attitudes that I definitely will have a healthier view on change when I get home. They have been bombed and burnt and still managed to rebuild the town to this picturesque, cobblestone, coloured fortress with lovely architraves, pitched roofs and gables. The food is international but we did find local pork sausage with apple, mash and vegies and in another famous restaurant “The Garlic House”, served garlic crème brule needless to say Brad and I were avoided by everyone for a couple of days post feast. We went to the art museum, did a few double takes on some of the more risqué paintings, took photo’s, loved their sculptures. On the way we searched for Kadriorg Palace (blinked and missed it the 1st time, it appears we are palace snobs post our UK exploits last year), Tsar Peter I, 18th Century build it for his empress, Cathrine. It has baroque splendour, stuccoed ceilings and landscaped gardens all round. Caught trams and busses, walked and walked and can now safely say tick to Tallinn. Thanks Toni Downes for the suggestion, great idea.

Caught the boat back to Helsinki this time allowing plenty of time to get through the terminal without having to run with handbags, suitcases and bags over 800 m up steep ramps whilst greeted with rude gestures and disapproving frowns on the faces of the shipping staff. Isn’t 20 minutes before departure enough, apparently not!
Hung around Helsinki for a few hours introduced Brad to the concept of having to pay money to use the toilet everywhere. Caught an overnight sleeper (sleep you’re kidding) to Kemi (-2c) then a bus to Haparanda (-4c), another bus to Lulea then a train to Narvik - 21 hours in total to get to Narvik.

Narvik (Norway), is the furthest train track north in Europe possibly the world, situated at the tip of a fiord in the Arctic circle of Norway, we traversed through the mountain ranges of northern Sweden, took some amazing photo’s, the colours for everything is incredible, can’t stop thinking of those Norsca deodorant ads. Had a breakfast of kippers, smoked salmon, herring and cavier and explored Narvik. Unfortunately the mountain lift 655 metres above the sea level was closed, the lovely young 20+ year old at the Tourist office said it would take us only 2.5 hours to climb, (Brad and I both concurred that she probably rode her bike from the next town 30km away after swimming 10km before work, if she thought it would take only 2.5hours). We did however walk around the shores of the Ofotfjord and gazed in wonder at the surrounding mountains which are 1km from the ocean, just imagine skiing and being able to watch ships at sea. Couldn’t even contemplate diving due to the temperature but Narvik has many ships resting at the bottom of the fiord as a result of World War II, In 1940 Ofotfjord was the scene for several naval battles, the war museum was sombre but amazing.

We leave this beautiful town tomorrow (I can’t help but think of East Jindabyne and Dad and Amy skiing) and catch a very scenic bus 6.5 hours to Bodo where we can resume our train trip to Oslo, Copenhagen and Berlin.