Day 230 - 10 Feb '24 - Rovaniemi to Oulu (Freezing Town Number four). Our glass igloo at the Arctic SnowHotel had what they described as a 'natural alarm clock', also known as the-sunrise-through-a-glass-roof!
This also, of course, sadly meant there wasn't any Aurora alarm last night.
We all lay on our beds for a bit in the peace and quiet, looking at the lightening sky through the roof, before having quick showers (small water tank), and heading to breakfast.
"It sure was nice getting dressed in a warm room," Dan said with a smile, "and made us appreciate the comfort of a bed and heating!"
Our buffet breakfast was just as nice as yesterday's, but again, I wasn't feeling very hungry. Still managed to shove a few helpings down my throat though!
Our check out time was 11:30am, so we spent a fun hour playing with the kick sleds and going down the slide on the inflatable rings.
We got some serious air going over the bumps, and the kick slides were surprisingly tiring! It wasn't long before the moisture on our faces, hair, and clothes had frosted over; it was still -25°C after all.
We decided to head back to our room to relax for a little while before we left; we had had a wonderful time here, and it was sad to leave, but we had to keep moving.
Our taxi arrived and took us to the train station, and we didn't have to wait long until we boarded the train to Oulu. It was only a two-and-a-half hour trip, but the kids were clearly tired as Alex was getting angry at me telling him it was time to stop playing his Nintendo (despite knowing he only had half an hour), and Abi was getting angry at Alex's hat sitting on top of hers (where it had been for two hours without any issues).
When we arrived, it was a positively tropical -18°C! It was only a three minute walk to our apartment, and after dropping off our bags, we went to the supermarket under the building to get some dinner.
Same ol', same ol'!
The apartment had a washing machine AND a dryer, which meant we could wash the clothes we'd worn for two days straight, without having to pay twice to do so! Woohoo!
We watched a movie, the kids went to sleep on the sofa bed, and Dan spent over three hours on his computer trying to wade through the overly-complicated train ticket booking system between Lithuania and Poland.
It turned out that we couldn't book a ticket through Eurail for a direct trip; we had to book tickets on the Lithuanian train website from Vilnius to a city just inside the Polish border. Then we had to book tickets from that city to Warsaw on the Polish website. Even though it was THE SAME TRAIN! Not only that, but he couldn't book four tickets at the same time, or make seat selections.
I sent an email to the Polish customer services, asking for our four seats to be put together; if not, the kids would need to sit beside each other, and Dan and I would be at opposite ends of the carriage. Hopefully they reply quickly, but, as Dan pointed out, at least we had seats on the train.
Day 231 - 11 Feb '24 - Oulu to Helsinki. Our train journey today was almost six hours long. Much to Dan's annoyance, it was in the pet-friendly carriage.
"Alex and I walked past that carriage the other day, and it stank!"
"Well, they were the only seats together on the train," I reminded him, for the umpteenth time.
When I called the reservation line the other day, we could either sit near each other in the pet carriage (all on single seats, separated by the aisle), or pay an extra €19 per person (on top of the reservation fee) to sit together in the restaurant carriage.
By the time this morning rolled around, the train was completely full, so it was lucky I'd called when I did! Tomorrow, the Finnish rail network was going on strike for a day, with 100% of trains cancelled. The day after that, all the buses, metro, and trams would strike for a day as well. Those people mean business!
There was a bit of a smell from the dogs in the carriage, and there were quite a few dogs, ranging in size from a German Shepherd right down to a tiny thing that was in someone's handbag, and sounded more like a squeaky toy than a dog. I'm not actually sure you could call it a dog. Perhaps an overgrown rat.
As a passenger, you could buy a window seat for your dog to sit on, or have an aisle seat with your dog on your lap (or the floor at your feet). There were a fair number of dogs on the seats, and I'm glad I had an aisle seat, as there was slightly less chance of walking out covered in fur.
There were lots of station stops, and every time someone next to us got off, we were hopeful that someone new wouldn't come back to that seat, but that never happened.
Outside it was still the same beautiful scenery - metres-deep snow, frozen rivers, colourful houses, and a low-lying sun shining through the skeleton trees. A real winter wonderland!
It was dark when we arrived in Helsinki, and even though it was only -9°C, it felt almost as cold as the -25°C we'd left in Rovaniemi.
"It's the wind that's making it feel colder," I said to Dan.
"Yes, it's still really cold, but at least nothing is freezing!"
We caught the tram to near the apartment we were staying in, and walked the last 250m. When we opened the door, we were all rather surprised.
"It's not quite what I was imagining!" said Dan.
"No..."
It was tiny. The 'living room' was a metre square table and four stools. There were no curtains on the 'living room' window, which looked over a patio with four large garden lights. There was a single mattress on the floor under the stairs to the mezzanine bed. The second bed was on the mezzanine floor, which was 3m up and didn't have a barrier on it. The curtains in the main (read: only) bedroom were really thin, didn't completely cover the window, and were clipped onto crocodile clips that would come out when you moved the curtains.
"Still, it's not the worst bed we've been on."
Day 232 - 12 Feb '24 - Helsinki. It was -8°C when we left the house four our sightseeing, but we were all glad to be still be wearing multiple layers, as the wind chilled the air to -17°C!
Yesterday we'd bought 24-hour transport passes, but this morning Google was telling us the service was stopping at 10:30am.
"Oh! The public transport strike!" I remembered. "The news articles said they were striking today!"
"That's going to cause a bit of a problem," Dan pointed out. "We'll need to go somewhere close."
"First place we're going is the train station so I can complain and get our money back! They should never have sold us a 24-hour ticket if they were going on strike!"
Dan found someone at the station to help, who informed us it was only the commuter trains on strike today, and the metro, bus, and tram services were still fully operational. Phew! Sightseeing was back on track.
First stop was Europe's largest orthodox church, the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. It was an interestingly shaped building, that looked like lots of little bits stuck together. Unfortunately, it was closed on Mondays, so we could only see outside.
We next went to the waterfront, where we saw an outdoor swimming pool steaming in the cold air. As we watched, some men came out of a nearby sauna, then hopped into the freezing cold Gulf of Finland. When they were bright red, they would climb out and go to the lap pool, swim a few lengths, and go back to the sea before going back into the sauna!
No thanks!!
We boarded the ferry to Suomenlinna Island, a popular tourist destination that attracts over 900,000 people a year.
The Gulf of Finland was frozen, and it was only through constant ferry trips that there was a channel of slush the boat could move through. It was quite surreal, watching the ice pieces jostle each other for a position under the larger sheets of ice. We could hear larger chucks hitting the underside and scraping the sides of the boat.
When we got to the island, we popped into a shop to get some lunch and hot chocolates. That took us almost half an hour.
"There's only 20 minutes until the ferry comes back!"
We crossed the bridge to what we thought was the citadel, except it wasn't. So, we crossed the bridge back to the port, and stood in the shelter. The wind was freezing, and we could see the ferry approaching.
"Ha ha ha ha," I laughed, "we just caught a ferry to go to a supermarket!"
"Where was the citadel?" Dan asked.
"I've no idea! It must have been in the other direction of the island."
"You're being a rubbish tour guide today."
"Yeah, well, we've had a pretty exciting ferry ride through the frozen sea! Can't do that in summer," I pointed out.
Back on the mainland, we walked to Senate Square, one of the oldest parts of Helsinki, and the site of some lovely buildings.
We walked up the steps to the Helsinki Cathedral, built in 1830. It was beautiful on the outside, in white and pale green.
On the inside, compared to the other cathedrals we've seen, it was very bland. No murals or gold or statues, and only one painting. It was quite peaceful in that respect. It also had a rather grand looking organ.
We caught another tram to visit the Temppeliaukio Kirkko, a church that had been built into the rocks. It was €8 per adult, so Dan stayed outside while I went in with the kids. I'm glad we only spent the €8.
Yes, it was pretty cool being built into rock, but it wasn't anything super spectacular inside. They didn't even have toilets! We didn't sit there for too long, before we went back outside to join Dan and head to Sibelius Park.
"Mummy, my ankle hurts," Alex suddenly said.
"When does it hurt?" I asked.
"When I run."
"Okay, so don't run."
"Why?"
"Why?? Ha ha ha! That's going in the blog!"
"Nooooooo!"
When we got to the park, we discovered the main sculpture dedicated to the composer Jean Sibelius was behind fences, as was most of the park! Fear not, however, because we found a public toilet and had lots of fun trying to work out the buttons - Dan and Alex even managed to lock the toilet door from the outside! Oops...
"It will unlock in time!" Dan valiantly tried to assure me.
That brought an end to the sightseeing; what began then was a trip around town trying to find a camera shop. Dan had accidentally lost my lens cap on our husky ride, and the camera was currently protected by one of his socks.
It was the fourth shop we went to that was a success. This shop was back at the central station. Where we started the day.
Oh well!
We caught a tram back to our apartment, went to the supermarket for food, and then spent the rest of the afternoon warming up and watching a movie on Dan's computer.
Day 233 - 13 Feb '24 - Helsinki to Tallinn. Early start to the day, with my alarm set for 6:45am. We had a ferry to catch to Estonia (which we were only visiting for the afternoon), and the taxi driver was collecting us at 8:10am.
Abigail was in fine form, complaining about everything she could think of, from nobody helping her, to people helping her.
"I find it most effective just to ignore her for half an hour," I said to Dan somewhat cynically.
We had to take out the rubbish, do the dishes, and strip the beds before we left.
"That's a bit ridiculous," I said to Dan. "We're doing half their job for them."
We'd been travelling for almost eight months, and in other places we'd stayed, we'd had to make sure the dishes were done, or to turn on the dishwasher before we walked out. Fair enough. At other times, we'd also had to take out the rubbish and sort the recycling. Also okay.
But stripping the beds? That was a new one.
The taxi driver arrived two minutes before we walked out, and at the ferry terminal we joined the queue of people waiting to board. The ferry was actually a cruise ship, so we found a table and seats in the front bar, where we could get a view of the ship going through the frozen sea.
There were much bigger sheets of ice this time, and a slight swell to enjoy on our two-and-a-half hour passage.
When we arrived at the city of Tallinn, we were pleasantly surprised at the temperature of -5°C, and there was fresh snow on the ground, which made a nice change from ice.
"It's almost shorts and tshirt weather," I laughed, "compared to what we've been used to recently!"
After dropping our bags off at our apartment, we quickly popped into a supermarket to get some pastries and salad (for Abi) for lunch. Then we started our tour of the Old Town.
First stop were sections of the defensive walls with towers, built in the 13th century. There were quite a few to look at, but we couldn't get inside them.
Which was also the case when we got to the 12th century St. Olaf's Church. It was closed on Tuesdays!
"That's two for two, Nic!" Dan said with a smile.
"Yes, I know, but I can't help things being closed!"
"Where to next?"
"This way...ooh, let's go up there!"
As we were on our way to wherever it was, I had spotted the top of a couple of towers down a side street, so took us there instead.
It turned out to be the Nun's Tower, and just beyond it, a garden covered in soft, fluffy snow. Finally, we had a chance to play in snow!
The snow wasn't quite wet enough to make a decent snowball, never mind a snowman, but we did manage to squish some snow together enough to be able to throw it at each other.
Abi made a snow angel, and both kids made tiny little forts and defensive walls to protect their snowballs. We ended up playing in the snow for about half an hour, before Dan called time.
We walked up the numerous steps to get to Toompea Hill, and were afforded a magical view of snow-dusted Old Town and beyond into the new city.
Next stop was the Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin in Tallinn. This was an unexpected find on our way to a different church, and we were pleasantly surprised by the interior.
Instead of paintings and mosaics, the walls were covered in massive carved heralds and coats-of-arms! There was also an organist playing for a while, and the echoing music was lovely to listen to.
The church was first recorded in 1233, and the cathedral completed in 1240. The chancel obtained its present size by the early 14th century, the shape of the nave by the mid 15th century, the pulpit and alter carved in the 17th century, and the tower and spire in the 18th century.
We then went to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a large Russian Orthodox cathedral, built in the 19th century. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside, so you'll just have to imagine the gold iconography, tiled floor, and stained glass windows everywhere.
Our last sightseeing spots were Tall Hermann, a 13th century defensive tower connected to Toompea Castle (which now houses the Estonian Parliament), and the Kiek in de Kök, a 15th century artillery tower.
So many centuries!!
It had started to get colder, and also started snowing a bit, so we decided to head back to the apartment. We walked down through the streets of Old Town, and admired the different colours the buildings were painted in.
"Ooh! A medieval torture museum! Let's go here!" I said.
"Yes, why not? It's something different to look at," Dan agreed.
The items were clearly reconstructions of originals, but they were still eerie and gruesome to see. All I can say is, our predecessors were some seriously sick individuals.
Other than the ubiquitous Rack, and an Iron Maiden, some of the methods of torture were unfathomable.
One was a pyramid that a man or woman was made to sit upon, with weights slowly added to their arms and legs (most people didn't make it more than a couple of hours before 'confessing').
There were knuckle crushers, and spiked knee clamps. Wheels that you'd have all your limbs put through to break, before your entire broken body was woven through the spokes of a bigger wheel.
There was a chair that was just spikes, that your arms and legs would be clamped into, and iron shoes that would be slowly ratcheted closed under your feet were three sizes smaller.
One of the most gruesome was a garrotte device, that was still used in Spain up until 1974 (the last state-sanctioned execution by garrotte). This was a chair with an iron collar that had a screw behind it. The screw was slowly tightened, with the idea being it would crush the brain stem and kill the victim instantly, but if it missed the point, the person was slowly strangled and the screw would bore into their neck.
Truly horrific, each and every one of them.
With all of our stomachs churning slightly, we left the museum and headed back to the apartment via a supermarket.
"How's this for crazy," Dan said as he came up to me. "We can buy a 150g packet of smoked salmon for €7.50, or we can go to the salad counter and get 100g for €1.50!"
"What??"
After he'd repeated his message, he then shown me the salad counter, and I, too, was amazed! No, it wasn't a mistake - the salad counter had a make-your-own salad for €1.50/100g, and one of the available components was smoked salmon.
Consequently, we had a very luxurious smoked salmon pasta salad for dinner, with a LOT of smoked salmon!
Bedtime once again yielded the same type of problems, with feet on the other person's side of the pullout couch. Therefore, it wasn't long before both kids were on the floor, and then they were asleep in minutes!
(Don't worry, I put them back on the couch before I went to bed - I'm nice like that).
Day 234 - 14 Feb '24 - Tallinn to Riga. Not quite such an early start today at 8am, and we were out the door just after 9am. It was a four-and-a-half hour bus trip to Riga, which was only half the time the train would take!
The bus driver had the temperature inside at a brain-melting 39°C - I've no idea why. A little bit ridiculous if you ask me.
Despite him driving quite erratically at times, and more than one person reactively buckling their seatbelt, we made it to Riga in one piece.
We walked to our apartment, and stayed there for the afternoon, chilling out and watching some TV. I was nursing a cold, so didn't really have much enthusiasm for going out sightseeing today, but we did go for a brief walk to the supermarket.
As it was Valentine's Day, Dan and I bought some chocolate bars as a treat, and that night watched some cheesy romance movies. Hopefully I'm feeling much better tomorrow!
Day 235 - 15 Feb '24 - Riga. I find the best way to start your day when you don't feel particularly well, is to eat some cereal that has peanuts in it.
"How's breakfast?" Dan asked, when I was halfway through my bowl of 'honey crisp flakes' with added raisins.
"Okay, except now I'm feeling rather sick!"
I looked at the picture on the front of the box, and right down the bottom right was a cartoon-like peanut. I quickly grabbed my phone and used the Google Translate camera to decipher the Latvian.
"It says flakes with honey and peanut!"
"Are you going to die, Mummy?" asked a concerned Alex.
"No, I'm not going to die, but I AM going to make myself sick. Peanuts are the worst ones for me to eat."
The problem was, I'd only had a few mouthfuls, and it was rather hard to throw up just a few mouthfuls of food!
"How are you feeling?" Dan asked.
"I can't get anything up."
"Why don't you have a drink?"
"Why?"
"Because then you'd have something to throw back up!"
Sure enough, everything came up a lot easier second time round.
By that stage, however, any energy I'd managed to accumulate overnight had been entirely depleted, and I spent the next half hour lying on my bed recouperating.
"I'm sorry," Dan said when he came to lie down beside me.
"That's alright, it was an accident."
"I swear when I read the front of the box it said 'may contain' and not 'peanuts'. Maybe it was a different box!"
"It's fine. I didn't check it myself."
"You should have an antihistamine now."
"Yep, maybe that will help with my inflamed throat."
After not eating nuts for years and years, that was twice in as many months! To be fair, the Latvian on Google Translate has been the least reliable, with a lot of words yielding a strange translation or none at all.
I felt much better after a little while, so we donned our coats and went out for a walk. The first place was just across the road, at the Blackheads House.
This building was originally erected in 1334, and was used by unmarried German merchants as a warehouse and meeting place. It was bombed in 1941 during the war, and in 1948 the Soviets completely razed it to the ground.
Miraculously, the original blueprints were still available, and the Blackheads House was completely rebuilt to plan!
In my Lonely Planet guide of Europe, the section on Riga said the best way to visit the old town was to meander the cobbled streets. This was kind of what we did, literally getting sidetracked numerous times on the way to the Art Nouveau street.
Our next stopping point was Riga Cathedral, which was open (yay) and fairly inexpensive to go in (yay again).
It was considered the largest medieval church in the Baltic states, and was one of the least decorated cathedrals we'd been in; it also had a fair number of cracks in the walls and vaulted ceilings.
One of its outstanding features was an incredible organ, which was built in 1884 into a facade that was built in 1601. It had 6718 pipes, and was beautiful to look at.
After the cathedral we made our way to Alberta Iela, a region famed for its Art Nouveau style of architecture. We were not disappointed, with the facades of the buildings all different, and all equally as impressive as each other.
Our next stop was the Nativity of Christ Cathedral. This was another Russian Orthodox Church that we couldn't take pictures of inside, which was such a huge shame, as inside there wasn't a square inch of wall that hadn't been painted or held some elaborate iconography.
Across from the cathedral was a huge park with a rather interesting piece of public art. A blue tree with loads of colourful bird houses! At first we though the city had made it for birds to live in during winter, but as we got closer, we noticed wires running into each of the houses, and the entry holes being covered in glass. Dan reckoned they had lights in them, which would have look pretty cool at night.
By then it was time to get some lunch. I'd spotted a convenience store just across the road that had €1 hot dogs, but Dan seen loads of people going to a small shop at the edge of the park, so we went there instead.
"We definitely made the right choice!" Dan said with a smile, as we tucked into fried pancakes with ham and cheese, and a tortilla with chicken.
After finishing our food, we carried on down the road past the Freedom Monument, which was patrolled by two armed guards. This monument was to commemorate the Latvian War of Independence, from 1918-1920.
We had then seen everything we wanted to, and my energy levels were almost depleted, so we headed back to the house via a pharmacy for antihistamines, and the supermarket for dinner.
The kids did some school work and I had some paracetamol and fell asleep for not quite an hour, which was a surprise, especially as Dan had asked me if I was tired, to which l'd replied 'no'!
Fingers crossed tonight's sleep is a good one and I'm feeling better in the morning.
Day 236 - 16 Feb '24 - Riga to Vilnius. At 8:40am I rolled over and asked Dan what the time was. At least, that's what I tried to say, with a dry mouth and a tissue stuck up one nostril.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that? Gets tired of constantly waking up to blow a runny nose, so jams their nostril with a tissue so they can get some sleep?
Anyway, we didn't have to leave until 11:30am, so nobody got out of bed until almost 9:30am, which was great.
Dan went on a quick errand to the supermarket to get some lunch, and at 11:30am we walked back to the bus station.
It was just over four hours to get to Vilnius in Lithuania, which would be our 16th country!
Thankfully, the temperature on this bus was much more pleasant, and l'd remembered to pack my headphones in my backpack, so got to enjoy a movie on my headrest.
Something we'd noticed over the last week had been the change in people's behaviours, and the states of the places.
People had become pushier and less patient, and the streets had become less looked-after. For example, the steps leading to the street our place was on, had become so broken in places that only the metal edging was still intact. There was also no maintenance done on pavements, with loads of holes and cobblestones missing.
One should never judge a book by its cover, but as we approached our apartment building, all of us were getting a tad concerned.
"Phew!" I said as the code Dan had been sent unlocked the door. "That's always a good sign!"
"Yep!"
The paint was peeling everywhere, pieces of plaster had fallen off the walls, the banister railing had broken in places, and tiles were missing from the walkways.
BUT...the second code worked on our apartment door, and inside was lovely! A totally renovated loft apartment, with large rooms and even a bathtub!
We walked to the local supermarket and spent a glorious half hour there, trying to decide what to have for dinner. With limited cooking supplies, and even less enthusiasm, we grabbed some prawns, olive oil, cherry tomatoes, and garlic, and decided to make a simple pasta dish.
At least, that was the idea until there was an audible 'pop' and the cooker, the extract fan, and the kettle simultaneously stopped working.
"The dishwasher too," Dan said.
"Crap. Must have been too much power draw."
I sent a message to the apartment host, telling them what had happened.
"He's replied saying he'll see what he can do."
"Will an electrician come round?" Alex asked.
"Nope, not tonight. And I'm not sitting here all day tomorrow waiting for them to come round, and I wouldn't want them here when I'm not here, for them to rifle through all our belongings!"
"What are we going to do?"
"Well, we've still got an oven and a microwave."
Tonight's dinner was the more pressing issue. We had just been about to fry the garlic that Dan had carefully grated, and the prawns needed to be warmed through.
A quick rethink was in order. I squirted the last of our aioli onto the pasta, and added the chopped tomatoes. That should do it.
"We will just save the prawns for tomorrow night, and think of something to do with them then."
"But what about the garlic?" Dan asked.
"We could always eat it raw?"
"Hang on, I've got an idea..."
Dan tipped the prawns into a bowl, poured on some olive oil, added the garlic, and put it in the microwave.
"Ha ha ha ha ha," I suddenly laughed, "I bet you never thought you'd be microwaving prawns!"
"Nope," Dan agreed with a wry smile.
In the end, our dinner was entirely edible. Not necessarily a dish I'd voluntarily be repeating, however.
An hour later we got another message from the host saying it should be fixed now, and sure enough, there was power back to the cooker. Tomorrow, we'd just need to remember not to use too many things at once!
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