Bali Bound

Day 12: Final Day It feels surreal that I'm at the end of my Scandinavian journey.   Lundi Boat (lundi means puffin in Icelandic) I spent my final morning on vacation doing a boat tour with Reykjavik by Boat.  I get the impression that they are a new company as there were only 4 of us on the tour.  All the other tours I could have done just went straight to the puffin island and back and were all booked up at the times that I could go.  I was excited and impressed that they had binoculars for everyone to use and big heavy windbreakers to keep us warm.  Because while the weather was lovely that day it isn't quite as nice once you get moving on the water.  The boat was a fixed up old fishing boat so it was interesting to go down and see the tiny little berths that they slept in between their fishing.  They did 6 hour shifts, sleeping then fishing then repeat.  For about 2 weeks.   Puffins!!! (only the 2 in the middle are puffins) I was very excited to see pu

Day 11 My one entire day in Iceland is promising to be a full one!  I'm starting the morning with a city sightseeing tour and an afternoon Golden Circle tour.  One thing that I've noticed in Reykjavik is that they have a lot of graffiti.  Maybe it's just because it's a small city and the artists don't have far to go.  Other than that it is a very clean and tidy city.   President's Home My guess was good and it was indeed a busy and exciting day.  My Iceland package included the city tour.  It wasn't a traditional tour where we drove in circles seeing the same things I ended up walking past.  We started by driving out to the President's home.  I was highly amused that you can walk right up ot the house as it is right beside a public church.  They do have a small sign indicating the forbidden area.  But that's all.  No fence or anything.  I suppose it is out of the way so it's not like you could sneak up on the place.   Iceland is

Day 10 What with today being a bit of a boring travel day (I don't even get highway scenery out the window, but Greenland is decidedly NOT green) I figured I could share some of my random observations on this trip so far.  I was a little unimpressed that my free airport shuttle got me to the airport 5 hours early.  I was apparently the last person to leave.  It did mean a few hours of waiting for the check in counter to open and then a leisurely lunch before the flight.  Also, the Helsinki airport is a strange place.  They have very little seating.  I guess they expect you'll just camp out at a restaurant and wait it out there.  And the bathrooms have birds and nature playing in the background.  At first I thought it was some one's cell phone, but no.   Finlandia Hall This morning I went for a bit of a walk to Helsinki's Finlandia Hall.  It's an event venue for lack of better terms.  But quite striking compared to the other buildings of Helsinki.  And

Day 9 Old town Tallinn As lovely as Helsinki has been, I'm off on the day trip Tallinn, Estonia, officially country #5.  I think there is a chance of rain, but I'm prepared with my trusty umbrella.  It's the last full touring day with the bus tour already.  Tomorrow is the big travel day, which means back to Reykjavik for me.  This tour included an add on to Russia, which did intrigue me a little.  I decided against it as I was a little concerned it would be like the London add on that I did where we were on our own other than a trip to the airport and a city tour.  And I felt like maybe Russia wasn't the best place to visit on my own.  And it sounds like there are a lot of hurdles to jump to visit.  I think about 10 people were continuing on. Tallinn was a great day trip.  It's a beautiful city with much of its old town still preserved.  The reality of the ferry schedules did mean that we spent more time on the ferry there and back than in Tallinn, but it

Day 8 Helsinki Good morning open waters.  The ferry is about 3 hours away from Helsinki and all I can see is ships on the horizon.   I can count at least 5 from cabin window right now.  I get the impression there is a lot of shipping and ferrying people on the Baltic sea. It is exciting coming into port and seeing Helsinki.  We've definitely left Scandinavia behind.  It's a subtle difference, but it's there.  Buildings are a little more functional than attractive, but this does change when you get away from the ferry terminal.  It's still has more of a working class feel sort of city. Since we arrived around 10 am we have no hotel rooms, so we are heading straight into our city tour.  As always on this trip, we were greeted with an overcast day.  I'm starting to miss the sun and warmth of spring at home.  Speaking of home, the ferry had a small NHL section, including hats from the Toronto Maple Leafs.  It seemed an odd choice all in all but was a little t

Day 7 House in Skansen Is time ever flying by all of a sudden!  It's still a little surreal that I'm actually here in Sweden.  But I am and the city is a great place to visit.  It does feel like I had a lot of time here and I have really.  Rather than having an afternoon to myself I've had almost 2 full days aside from the city tour.  I was a little concerned that I might have a lot of free time to fill.  Because while I haven't had a lot of time in many of the places, I do feel like I've seen the vast majority of things while I was there.  And an extra day and some in the cities would be a little dull unless you left the city.  My backup plan was to bring a book over to the park but today's weather isn't so much sitting in the park reading weather sadly. Street of old building in Skansen But I do have an actual plan for today.  I'm going to visit Skansen.  The best way to describe it is to call it Sweden's version of Fort Edmonton Park.

Day 6 It's a full day in Stockholm today.  And the whole morning tomorrow.  It feels like we have a lot of time here compared to all the other stops. As always, we start off with our city tour, with stops at the City hall, where the remaining Nobel prizes are awarded.  As well as the Abba museum that I'm not entirely sure what to expect as I'm not from the Abba generation.  But the tour is geared towards an older crowd so perhaps that is what they were thinking. The Blue room in City Hall Every year Europe had a music contest, Eurovision, and Abba won it.  I didn't realize that the contest had been going on for so long.  It's actually going on right now and if so inclined I could watch the finals while I'm in Helsinki. The gold room in City Hall The Scandinavian city halls are quite ornate here.  The one in Stockholm is only open to guided tours, but I believe you can join a tour so it's not like you have to find an outside guide to bring yo