Outdoor clubbing in downtown Helsinki

Diili, the Finnish version of Donald Trump's Apprentice

Today while we ate breakfast we were offered a chance for some free
tours and a meal. There were a bunch of women in yellow shirts being
followed by a cameraman and sound boom offering people this deal. It
turned out they were a team on the Finnish TV show, Diili. The Finnish
incarnation and Trump sanctioned version of, "The Apprentice". No
wonder most of the world dislikes us, we farm out or crap TV to the
world. Is "The Apprenctice" the US version of the Roman, "Bread and
Circuses"?

Breakfast of champions

This am before our cuise of the Gulf of Finland/Baltoc See we had
"presidential coffee", the official Presidential residence is right in
the square, and a delcious meat pie. It was like a homemade "hot
pocket". It was awesome.

Outdoor market in Helsinki

Beautiful sunny morning in Helsinki.

Central Market in Helsinki

We came downtown for breakfast to the central market. In this square
there are vendors with fresh vegetables and fish mongers.

Th square also houses the Hesinki mayor's office and the official
residence of the President. In fact when Finland's hockey team won the
Euro hockey championship the square hosted over 100,000 people in the
square. From what I hear it was quite a party.

Who's your Haddadi!

The biggest casualty of the my photo erase incident at the Spb airport
was the fact that I nervously erased the crown prince of photos from
my phone. Serves me right for taking a stupid picture and practically
messin' my pants when I got caught doing it.

I mentioned that there was a large group of Iranians headed out of Spb
airport. I also mentioned that I cut in line several times.

Each time no one seemed to mind so I didn't think a thing of it. So
when I was sitting drinking my last few rubles away I saw the group
looking at me. Then they pointed to me. My word, what have done this
time?

No worries here folks, they saw my Memphis Grizzlies hat. For the non
Grizzlies fan; First, shame on you and second, we love our bench
sitting Iranian Hamed Haddadi! We spoke about the Grizzlies, Haddadi,
and how he should play more. We took a photo with me and three
Iranians holding my hat with #1 signs flashing. That photo and what
could have been will haunt me for a long time. I'm an idiot.

Apparently taking photos on the Tarmac is frowned upon by the Russian!

Below is a poorly taken photo from the bus we took to the plane on the
runway. It's of the three "service" vehicles. The Rossiyana plane
would be to the left of the photo. I USED to have a photo of the whole
scene but I had to be deleted.

So I'm very openly taking photos of the whole scene trying to snag a
photo that gets the whole scene in one frame, and I got it. Just as I
finish snapping the photo as Russian police approaches me. In a voice
that sounds like a combo of Yakov Smirinov and the cosmonaut from the
movie Aremggedon he asks, "Why you take picture?" I snap back,
"Because I'm an American, we're free, and we won the Cold War!!!
That's why I took the photo, got a problem with that Ivan Drago?" It
was that or I politely and apologetically stated I don't know why and
I'll gladly delete. I'm writing this from Helsinki, so you guess which
response I gave.

I didn't really have the guts or Russian to explain I think it's funny
that you have l use two regular cars, one of which is a Lada from 1988
to service your planes.

He watched as I deleted the photo and and states, "No photo, get on
plane." and with that I dragged my but on the plane.

Back to Helsinki.

It's fun flying out of Russia

Flying out of St. Petersburg (Spb) was interesting.

In order to even enter the airport you have to pass everything through
a metal detector. Pretty easy.

Then you have to get into what can only be loosely described as line.
A blob is more accurate. I stood around awhile not moving until I saw
a guy just walk past the bline (blob/line) and get checked, so I
followed him. Bingo. I literally pased about 200 people, half of which
I believe where Iranian. (more on this later).

Once past that chaos I find the ticket desks. I only had a small
backpack so I tried to electronically check in and get mu boarding
pass to no avail, which meant getting into a another bline. I notice
more chaos and now the Iranian group, I saw a passport, was in the
bline and there was a pretty big clog up, so I skipped again. And
again success!

Now passport control to leave Russia. That honest to goodness real
line was easy, passport control was not. Web it was my turn I handed
the girl my pasport and then lots of typing with altenative staring at
me, which turned into simply starjn at me with a doubtful look on her
face. Apparently she didn't think the photo on my passport looked like
me. Yikes!

Several reasons for this. 1st, As many of you know I'm a bit of an
idiot. When I last renewed my passport I took the photo with glasses
on. 2nd, I took th photo in the winter, white as a ghost, an I was now
tan (sunburnt). 3rd, after getting minimal sleep and a very hot and
sweaty day, I looked even worse than my passport photo, yes that's
possible. 4th, I've lost about 60 pounds since the photo was taken. A
good problem, but a problem none the less.
So sensing her doubts I fished out my glasses and put them on. Her
look eased a bit but was still doubting me. So being the mature person
I am, I stuck my thumb in my mouth and blew my cheeks out and
smiled....., she gave a big laugh and a nod. She then seemed to stamp
every paper, passport, visa, and receipt she had of mine and let me go.

Though passport control, done? Hardly the end of the fun. We then had
to go through ANOTHER set of x-Ray machines and checks. I'm fine with
this by the way; I'd rather not have some Chechen rebel take his
frustration with Putin or Medvedev out on me. Th only problem the
doors this additional security check was closed. So a nice unorderly,
poorly smelling bline was former. Absolute chaos. I initially thought
I came to airport to early, wrong. After 15 minutes it opens, and I as
usual for the day slither forward and bypass most of the bline.

After making or through I had a enough rubles for a beer so I of
course grabbed one, Nevskoe was the brand. Finished it it time to take
a bus to our plane on the runway. Let state that the Spb airport looks
neither large or modern and then I get this fantastic flying machine.
Next to it, as i can only imagine, our three "service" vehicles.

See next post for picture and story.., it involves me being questioned
by the Russian police.

My stately hostel

It wasn't fancy at all but it was safe, convenient, and thier russian
visa service was great. Off room showers and WC (toilet), dim yellow
lighting, and bedding designs that makes one long for the sensible
style of the early 1970's gave me flashbacks to my time floating
around eastern Europe in the early 90's.

Good times!

Good bye Russia

St. Petersburg was an incredible city. Despite the heat the trip was
fantastic. I didn't see everything I wanted to by I knew coming in my
plans were ambitious for thee days and two nights.

I saw so much. The Russian Museum and the Hermitage didn't disappoint
in any way. The city is beautiful and the people of SPB couldn't have
been any nicer.

The city has old world charm but is definitely a hip place. (The fact
that I use the word hip shows just how unhip I am) I would highly
recommend a visit to this city but plan on at Least 4 to 5 full days.

I walked till I exhausted myself. I probably drank at least 5 liters
of water yesterday.

It is also nice to know that I can still pull off the self planned
travel. My last three big trips were to Asia and planned by others.
That way has it's definite benefits but doing the planning on your own
gives me that "buzz" that I've missed.

I love figuring our the transit systems and finding the more difficult
things. I know it sounds wierd but this is my ideal type of fun.

River cruise

This mornin after meeting Tommi and his girlfriend for breakfast we
opted to take a cruise of St. Petersburg by boat. The heart of the
city is an island and there are at least three rivers and countless
bridges. It was hot but enjoyable. It's been in the mid 90's the
entire time here, with barely if any AC. Wowsa. Lots of sweating!

St. Petersburg update

Yesterday I had a great surprise as Tommi and his girlfriend came to
town from Helsinki for the night. We grabbed some pizza off Nevesky
Prospect (the main street of town) and then walked around town
sightseeing/grabbing a few drinks.

Tommi is Päivi's brother who is my age. He visited our family several
times, even staying with us or a decent part of one summer. His
girlfriend has dual citizenship from both Russia and Finland so it was
quite nice to have a their company plus the fact that Russian is her
native language. The town is even more beautiful at night.

When they came I decided to skip the bike tour. First of all I had
walked nearly 30 miles in two days. Let me remark that St. Petersburg
should naonly been seen on foot. Second I would have missed seeing
them becuase the bike tour was from 10:30pm till 2am. And finally The
traffic was insane. The combination of my exhaustion and the crazy
traffic would have been a bad combination.

The three of us grabbed a dew drinks and wandered around the heart of
the city till after dark, sunset was at 10:30pm. It was great. The
city was filled with action and people on the street until well past
1am.

The Hermitage

The photo is of Hercules wrestling a lion. This is kinda how I felt
trying to take in all the Hermitage has to offer.

The museum has everything from ancient to post impressionests. The
palace is stunning. What really blows you away is the fact that this
was an imperial palace.

I just lest after spending about 6 hrs there. There was much more to
see but my brain can only process so much until it all starts to blend
together.

You could spend days here and still not see anything.

As a small aside i bought a scalped ticket to the Hermitage this am. I
overheard a German tour guide say that they had an extra ticket and
they would sell it cheap. The price savings were minimal but the I was
able to skip the line by goin in with them. I was in the museum only
ten minutes after it opened. I left the group after getting through.

She said that my German was good, i think maybe she was flirting with
me. Oh I should mention that she was 60.

Good night

I close with a photo of the Moscow train station. It is names as such
becaue it sends it passengers to Moscow, among other places.

I walked a little under ten miles today. That distance plus the 4 I
ran this morning means I covered nearly 14 miles on foot.

Peace pit'

Stealing wifi

Sorry for all the posts. Wifi, especially free wifi is not easy to
come by in St. Petersburg. So this franchise, which roughly translates
to "coffee house", I think, and has free wifi.

They have shops all over town. They are the Starbucks of St. Pete.
Btw, haven't seen one of those here. I drink a lot of coffee but not
enough to post all my stuff (crap). So I post to my old iPhone, and
since it had no cell service it operates like a very small laptop.
The posts go to my outbox so when I happen past one of the coffee
shops I grab the wifi from outside the place and it sends my stuff.

Sunduk and it's bathroom "art"

Um..., well..., awkward turtle.

Sunduk

Very funky inside. The fish was great.

Monday dinner

I enjoyed a great salmon dinner last night at a place called Sunduk.
The fish came with a mushroom cream sauce, very nice!

They had live Jazz, not great but eh, it was free. Sunduk was
decorated in a funky kitsch way. I'll post some photos to the blog.

Travel Essentials

After walking over five miles today (it's only 6pm here) I needed a
break.

This photo contains the essentials of travel.

Lonely Planet - I always travel with thi series and it has NEVER let
me down. The map is included with the book (btw).

Water - If you wait till you're thirsty. It's too late.

Potato pancakes - when in Russia...,

Patagonia bag - it's a lightweight bag that can collapse into my back
pocket. And NO, it's not a Fanny Pack or a European Carry-All.

Bag Contents; hand sanitizer, guide books, maps, passport copies, and
baby wipes. European and specifically Russian TP is..., not good.
Nuff' said.

Beer - I don't have to explain this.

The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

The colorful domes stand pit along a canal. Just awesome.

The Winter Palace

St. Petersburg Metro

Here is some artwork from the same station. The metro has a classic
feel to it. If it wasn't for the fashion of it's riders the scene has
a cold war feel.

St. Petersburg Metro

I love mass transit and the metro in St. Petersburg has a classic
feel and great art work. Here is the hallway of the Green line at the
Vasstaniya Station.

Getting my bearings

I've stopped to caffeine up and grab a snack while I orient my self
with the city. The cyrillic alphabet throws me off a bit although I'm
managing. Beautiful sunny day!

До свидания!

Arrived in Russia

All is well. The flight was late but the driver from met me at the
airport no problem. I'm checked in to my luxurious hostel, kidding.
What it lacks in luxury it more than makes up for in location.

Later everyone, I'm off to tour.

Headed to Russia!

I'm off to St. Petersburg. Let's roll!

Sent from John Stephany's Old iPhone

From the sauna of DC to a Finnish "sauoonah"

What a wacky day. After being up for roughly 32 hours I'm hitting the sack. I've already been to three countries, with a 4th, Russia, in store for Monday to Wednesday.

I left the miserable 100+ temps of DC to finish my night with a fine meal, great company, and a few beers while enjoying an authentic Finnish "sau - oonah".

I'm totally racked and ready for some sleep. 

The contrasts of travel

This morning I was in the 100+ degree oppresive heat of Washigton, DC
helping high school students move out and in a diaspora head across
the country to thier hometowns. They were sad and crying which
indicates that they had a pretty good experience. Now I'm on jet in
Frankfurt, Germany on a chilly rainy day (@57 degrees) waiting to head
to Helsinki, Finland.

Today I've essentially eaten brunch twice with Deutsche frühstick
(German breakfast) thrown in for good measure.

I running on about 5 hours sleep and if I can make it till tonight I
should beat jetlag.

I'm lookin forward to visiting Päivi, essentially my big sister, and
her family. She lived with my family for a year as our exchange
student when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. Her brother Tommi, who's
my age, stayed with us numerous times also. We have all stayed in
touch and this is actually my second visit to Finland, my first was
very short and in the heart of winter. I reality I'm visiting family.