Far Flung Forays

Wandering Around Saint Petersburg

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Todd

A soviet building in SPB

Last night was an uneventful night after the hockey game. I got back around 11pm and tried to post a blog, but it got deleted when I was just about ready to submit it so I gave up and went to bed. Friday is my last day in SPB and is going to be a day around town. The only issue is that the sights I want to see are scattered around the city.

I started with quiche and hot chocolate for breakfast. This hot chocolate was really small and had two toasted marshmallows along with a glass of water. I drank some of it with a spoon. This style of hot chocolate and a croissant would be the best breakfast.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, the richest hot chocolate ever, you needed the spoon once it cooled down a tad

I then subwayed to the other side of “downtown” SPB and went to a monastery. This is different than most of the other churches I went to because it was an active church and I was the only tourist around. I then walked through some cemeteries the monastery is known for. I then decided to bag a palace I hear was really good because I had already been to four and started walking to the northeast part of downtown. Before I went I stopped at a grocery store and grabbed a yoghurt with roe in it. I almost threw up, it was disgusting, imagine all sweetness and tartness of yoghurt being replaced by salt and flavor pockets of very fishy roe. What a waste of 45r (62r=$1). I quickly recompiled myself and found the closest trash can and began my walk. The decor was a mix of old architecture mixed with soviet style buildings (replacing buildings destroyed in the siege).

I ended up at Smoly(sp) Institute, formerly a girls boarding school that was then the Bolshevik headquarters for a bit and is now the SPB seat of government. I then went to an impressive cathedral next door and walked up the bell towers which have a great view, enhanced by it being sunny for a second day in a row (please note the only two days I did not put on sunscreen).

Smoly Cathedral

Each class of kids playing has a different colored vest on

Small power plants dot the skyline. There are a ton of power plants located within the city

Typical intercity power plant

I then started the walk to the metro station and took a shortcut through a park. Spy movies always show people meeting in parks, that is stupid, they are all walled and gated and they try to trap you by hiding the exits, everyone of them, the worse place for spies to meet. There were a ton of mothers and grandmothers walking strollers around the parks. One thing is hey know how to dress kids warm, the strollers have an attic child bag and they all have snowsuits on.

Decked out to run in the muddy park

I went for the pastry option for lunch since I annex to grab an early dinner, 5pm, before the ballet. I was not sure where I was going at this point so I took the subway to the center and once I decided where I was last the connecting subway station so I walked across the river and saw a new island. I then went in the tower of St Isaac’s Cathedral (I had a ticket from another day but it was miserable out and I was cold and wet so I didn’t go up). It gave another good view of SPB.

I then went to the ballet. I have to admit I can’t tell the difference between a good ballet and a bad one. My stall had 7 older ladies in it including one behind me. I used my bad posture and leaning on he railing to try to become as small as possible. I did clean off some mud on my sneakers before I went!!!! The ballet was interesting, but I am glad I ended up at a shorter one, 1:40.

I then went to meet another couch surfer, Eva, for a drink. This meeting’s conversation seemed more “date like” then my previous meetings, but it was still an interesting conversation.

I would not like America if they gave is non alcoholic beer

I then went back to the hostel, are some chocolate and did a little research into what to do in my afternoon in Stockholm tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, Mariinsky, Russia, saint petersburg, smoly institute, st petersburg | Leave a comment

Adventures by Minibus and Hockey in Russia

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Todd

The back view of Catherine’s Palace

Thursday morning I was headed to Catherine’s Palace, a suburban summer palace 30km away. My journey got off to a rocky start when I got off at the wrong metro station and I realized that I forgot my hockey ticket so even if I am running late coming home I can just got straight to the game.

Minibus, not the right one…

I finally got to the right metro station and found a minibus (36r, 62r=$1) that is going to my destination. When I asked the driver if it went to where I was going I got the look in the states that is the “are you speaking Russian” look but in this case was the “are you speaking American” look. He let me off and pointed a direction. I ended up at a train station. I was a tad frustrated and to to it off since I was so far from my last wifi my phone’s GPS was saying I was 6 miles away, oops. I found a man at a bus stop and asked him by showing him the words of where I was going he did a set of definitive hand gestures and it got me started. I then showed it to a kid after 8 minutes walking and the eleven year old said follow me and then said go straight until the road ends and turn right, win. It only took me 2.5 hours instead of an hour to get there. I would associate it with user error.

There are impressive parks all around, but they are a lot less Impressive on the winter

Catherine’s Palace is huge and is in a town, Pushkin, that was occupied by the Germans. The palace was basically destroyed and then the interior rebuilt after the war. The main reason people come here is to see a room completely covered in amber, called the amber room. Normally in the summer individual tourists only have 2 short time slots they can visit and group tours have all the other tickets and during those times you get a guided tour. Since I am here on the off season, I can visit anytime during their opening hours and without a tour. It also means they don’t have maps, just an audio guide. It was a pretty sweet place, but it was nice having half the rooms to myself.

Park bey wen two palaces

I then contemplated lunch, but continuing with my theme or failing at lunch walked through a park to another palace. This one is not heavily touristed (read I was the only one in the entire palace and had about 14 women making sure I didn’t break any rules) and had unrestored rooms which were interesting to see.

Restored palace room

Unrestored palace room

I know had to try to find my way back to St Petersburg. Using my map app that still showed me miles away I saw what I thought was a church I saw on the way in and went there. I did stop and spend 20r on two fresh donuts, more like beignets, with powdered sugar. I then hopped on the same number van/minibus I used to get there. I navigated successfully and it was a short trip. At the hostel I talked to someone who attempted the same trip and he was “very tired” because he got lost and it took him two hours to get back from the palace.

All cops like McDonald’s

Instead of going straight back there was one more museum I really wanted to see and that was the Siege of Leningrad museum. When I got there a women who spoke 43 words of English took me under her wing, showing me the three windows to go to, took me to the cost room, told me to fix my hair because it was all jacked, and made sure to show me where the toilet was. I was only able to spend 1:45 there and could spent longer. When I grabbed my coat from the same lady she studied my number, even though my coat was the only one in the room.

I then regrouped in the hostel and went to a trendy place, Zoom, for dinner. I was hoping for a quick dinner, but alas I was a few minutes late getting to the playoff, potential series winning game between SKA and Torpedo (please note I translated that from Cyrillic myself). I have a front row seat where I have a sweet view of 1/2 the rink and a crappy view of the other side. The seats don’t come up to the glass in this arena. On your seat are two boom sticks and the atmosphere is pretty crazy. One end of the stadium is the fan club with flags and drums which leads the cheering. Fueling the crowd are $3 beers. I grabbed one along with a hat (700r, my first souvenir) during the second intermission. I did make it on the jumbotron as the most crazy fan (or the person sitting next to two women who were crazy fans, you pick). Almost all they songs they played to pump up the crowd were American songs. At the end of the game a bunch of boys came in front of me (read literally climbing in my lap) trying to high five the players and get sticks. It was an awesome 2 hours.

Hockey fans

A guy has blood everywhere so he gets a bag of ice

Kids in my lap at the end trying to high five players and get sticks

Posted in backpacking, saint petersburg, ska, st petersburg | 2 Comments

Russia: Sun Makes People Smile

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Todd

Gold leaf is nor UN short supply in St Petersburg

Tuesday was an art day. I have now had my fill of art museums for at least the rest of the month. I started by heading off to the Hermitage. The Hermitage is a giant museum that was once the Tsar’s main residence. It contains works by DaVinci, Raphael, Monet, Rembrandt, Picasso, ect. A lot of the works were acquired before 1900, but a lot of the French paintings were looted during WWII. It also contains two treasure rooms, a diamond and gold room. They do a good job nickel and diming you: admission 400r (62r=$1), photos 200r, coat room free, each treasure room 300r, audio guide 450r. Of course I went to the gold treasure room and I was little disappointed because the 10 year old in me was expected just mounds of gold, but no they put the impressive 2000 year old gold artifacts in cases.

Lots of impressive floors at the hermitage

A lot of coats for being the small one…

I left the Hermitage at 330 and if you can detect a theme I had not had lunch yet so I started to walk to St Isaac’s Cathedral looking for a store to buy a snack and water in since it was so late. It started to rain and I failed at my food quest so I went straight to the cathedral. After the cathedral I went back to the hostel, had a few pretzels, failed at buying hockey tickets, and made last minute plans to hangout with a Russian hipster (like meet a 15 minute walk away in 20 minutes). There was a slight snafu in our meeting location and neither one of us had data on our phone so it took a little bit to find each other. We walked around town for a bit and then grabbed some ginger tea.

I could have just taken a Burger King flyer and eaten there

At this point I was pretty hungry and walked into a restaurant without an English menu and the people just looked at me and I decided I wasn’t in the mood for the point and pray method of ordering door so I did an ungrateful uturn and headed to a semi expensive Georgian place and had sharp cheese filled dumplings and dumpling soup and a beer (1200r).

Cheese goodness, not meant for one, oh well

I then went to the grocery store and bought some Russian ho-hos/Swiss rolls. The Russians put chocolate filling in their version, but I wasn’t able to read the ingredients to see if they put glycol in them too.

Wednesday morning I cheated and arranged for a guide, Roman, to take me to Novgorod a city founded ~1000AD. We were suppose to go Monday, but he rescheduled because he was sick. The day before he asked if his girlfriend, also a guide could come along. We left at 830am and got back at 730pm. The city was interesting, but it decided to rain for real while we were there. The churches we visited were all painted inside with some of the frescos being hundreds of years old. Roman was full of historical facts and his girlfriend was more of a free spirits who’s English was not as good. We talked probably five out of the six hours in the car. We saw the real Russia from ramshackle wooden houses to five story apartment buildings (Gorbachev era, cheapest to build) to the later nine story buildings.

The car got dirty so Toman had to clean it mid trip

I then came back and went out for dinner. I wanted to get Russian food at a new place, but the other places had no one in them so I settled back at my place I had dinner the first night and had borsch and potato pancakes with mushrooms. When I came back some people asked if I wanted to go drinking, I am old, so I said no and I had not had a free evening (read free after 9pm) since I have been here and needed to figure a couple things out.

Ice fishing on the Neva River

I am going to write a post on the people I have talked to and about Russians a little later.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, hermitage, novgorod, Russia, saint petersburg, soul kitchen hostel, st petersburgh | Leave a comment

Russia is cloudy and cold in early March!!

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Todd

Wow, I have been here two full days. Where to start, my Russian still sucks. I learned that in December St Petersburg got 3 hours of sun all month according to the official weather people (they round up). That explains why it has been cloudy the entire time I have been here. Today I was cold, probably because of the wind combined with my lack of clothing.

This was random street art

Every place you go in has a coat room where you deposit your jacket. It means that I have to stuff my passport, wallet, cell phone, and camera into each of my pants pockets.

Sunday morning I had a leisurely morning and was able to find a place open to grab breakfast, a pastry and hot chocolate (read thick gooey chocolate goodness that I could live on). I ended up in the cafe at the old Singer sewing machine factory that still has its original decor. I went to the Russian Museum which surprisingly just had Russian art. The art museums are held in giant palaces that seem to be way to big for any practical purpose.

Famous russia bicycle art

I then left for a splurge on my trip, the Sunday jazz brunch at the Hotel Europe. The Hotel Europe was one of the main places the aristocracy went. It was pretty over the top: a jazz quartet, an man rolling a cart with Peking duck (he was Asain and SPB is less diverse than Boulder, I have seen one black person), unlimited champagne (vodka and wine too), lots of fish, lamb, homemade chocolates, a chocolate fountain, a waiter that came with horseradish because it went well with one of my fish, herring (still tastes like crap). It was pretty crazy and good for a one time visit.

Round one

They fired the artillery piece on the wall, it was a blank, but it was really loud and made a ton of smoke

Round 5

Round 3

Round 6

I then went to another museum associated with the Russian Museum and then I headed to a metro station to meet up with Leisan. I had got ahold of her on couchsurfing.com, not to spend the night, but to hangout. Well out hanging out consisted of 3 bars, Russian craft beer, drinking from 5-1230, and forgetting about dinner. She is an engineer (like America 80% of engineers are men) has travelled a ton and just got back from a six month trip. I learned a ton and had a blast and got back to the hostel slightly intoxicated and ate a snickers bar.

Most of SPB in the city center has a nice front, but work is needed everywhere

Monday I was planning on going to Novgorod a city 3 hours away with a guide, but he was sick so I went to plan B. Plan B became Plan C when I discovered that even though I told my credit card I was going to Russia they blocked, but I decided not to worry about and I would figure it out that night, but I had 300r (62r=$1) in small bills and a 5000r bill, try spending an $80 bill, it is hard (6 months ago it would have been a $150 bill and still is to Russians). I used my backup credit card and got some more cash and went to Peter and Paul’s fortress and then to the Museum of Political History which is one of the most well done ones I have ever been to and went from 1850 to 2000.

There are canals with 1800s buildings all over the historic center of town

To get to the museums which are on an island I had to take the subway which is deep underground (read 2+ minutes escalator ride, recommended to make out with people on them apparently). I was starving by that point and went to a kiosk selling pancakes and pointed to what the women in front of me got. It was like a ham and cheese Russian pancake (yummy). After the history museum I was super hungry. When I get hungry I can’t make choices. I ended up in a cafe that just had a menu in Cyrillic on a board. I left. I ended up at a place where I paid 150r for lunch. I then went back to the subway and on the way grabbed a chocolate filled pastry for 45r. Well it turns out I bought a hotdog filled pastry which was a very unpleasant surprise on the first bite and reminded me of the curry paste filled donut I had expecting a cream filled one in Japan.

Stupid hot dog

Lunch that I found while starving

Mystery Pancake

SPB has a ton of free wifi so I was able to coordinate meeting up with Natalya at 7pm at a metro station on a different island. I then went to a church and back to the hostel. I downloaded Google Hangouts and called my credit card for free and got things straightened out. I then met Natalya and realized I had no idea what she looked like, but I did tell her I was 190cm and my jacket had a red zipper and she found me. We went and had Georgian food which was great.

Fat Guy, Big Horse

I made it back to the hostel around 1030/11 and shortly after fell asleep. These blog posts are actually being written on my phone, while in line, at meals, on the metro, so they might be disjointed.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Russia: They May Think I am a Farmer From Idaho

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Todd

Leaving Sweden

I am currently in Russia and the questions that I have been asked more than once is why go to Russia and isn’t it cold in Russia during the first week of March? The easy one to answer is about the temperature, it is way warmer than Boulder and PA, 30-40 degrees. Wanting to go to Russia was stimulated by the currency situation along with my desire to go to places I might not want to go when I am 60. The ruble for a couple years has been trading 30-35/dollar and this month has been 60-70/dollar. Russia has had inflation of about 10%, but even with inflation it is basically half price. The political situation in Russia is “interesting” at the moment, but there aren’t ill feelings from Russians to Americans. I have arranged with at least one and possibly more people from couchsurfing.com to hangout with in the evenings since it gets dark decently early.

Katy Perry is still a big deal here. I listened to her on my cab ride from airport on the radio.

In order to get to Russia I needed a visa, a damn expensive visa. Russia charges $210 for a visa and you need to drop it off and pick it up at the consulate so I used a visa service, my man Zhanna, to get me the visa. When I sent it to him he asked for my electronic visa application password which I gave to him so I really have no idea what my visa application says. I may be a farmer from Idaho for all I know. I have read 2 historical fiction books and am in the middle of a “cultural history” of Russia book which is only slightly more exciting than the title sounds. I have also tried to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Which I kind of know, it just takes me 2 minutes to sound out a word since I have to think about the sounds each letter makes. Everyone knows my prowess for languages, it only took me 16 years to be able to speak English, and I now know a few words of Russian: bar, vodka, politics, mumps, yes, and no.

Not in Spanish

I got to the gate for my flight to St Petersburg (SPB) early, like normal. When they announced that the flight was boarding I looked around and was confused because there were only about 20 people in the boarding area. Three of us had “odd passports” and we were pulled aside and they did extra computer work and needed to see my visa. I was the last one of the 23 people on our Airbus A319 to board and each person could have had their own row if they wanted… I learned my 7th Russian word, chey (tea), and we got half a sandwich with 3 cucumber slices, a piece of meat (turkey?), 2inX2in piece of cheese, and some mayo.

I was out of the airport in less than 30 minutes. Walked up to immigration, handed my passport in, waited 5 while she examined my passport and scanned it 7 times, she stamped it and handed it back, no words spoken. Grabbed cash from 2 ATMs, the first had a 6000r (less that $100 limit, 64r/$1) and found the taxi booth (regulated 900r, 45min). My hostel (5500r for 7 nights) is pretty cool. I was given a 15 minute intro into to the city/hostel and headed off to Nevesky Prospekt, the main drag.

A frozen canal and a church I will discover the name of later

Wow, vibrant, the lights of the city bouncing off of clouds, buzz of young people walking, a giant smile on my face. I walked up and down the street for an hour looking at the 100+ year old European architecture until I grabbed dinner. I was lame and went into a Russian food place that had an English menu, but at least I was the only non Russian person there.

Initial impressions of SPB
-Gloom while landing, 5 minutes of descending through clouds and everything was grey once we broke through the clouds.
-The Russian language is pleasing to hear. In normal conversation there are not hard sounds. I was surprised by this.
-Vibrant, the city is moving, lots of people out with smiles on their faces.

-It is 34* and it is a fashionable place. Everyone has their jacket on, lots of fur and puff. Lots of skirts and leggings (not on men) and jeans.
-Whoever writes dictionaries should not put “iy” as a translation, how do you say that? I have no clue.
-I have a big smile on my face.

The taxi driver had a bottle of vodka in the back seat

So I bought the same type

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, Russia, st petersburg, Sweden, vodka | 2 Comments

Thoughts and Musings on Sweden

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Todd

When I first arrived in the Stockholm airport the Scandinavian women out numbered the men 3:2 and 1/8 of them were carrying Ortovox airbag backcountry skiing backpacks. I wondered if the entire country was like this, it isn’t.

I know how Thor got giant arms, Nordic skiing. Seriously they rarely use their legs, they just use their arms and they pass me at warp speed. Note to self, never compete in a Nordic skiing event.

Swedish style beer chiller

Sweden is cheap. Well compared to what I was expecting from Norway it is. Coupled with the strong dollar alcohol is about have the price as in Norway and eating out is maybe 2/3 the price, max.

Alcohol in Sweden must be bought in a “state store”, but a lot of towns don’t have them (Abisko, Bjorkliden). In those towns you can place an order and a few days later your order is delivered to the grocery store. I think the solution to this problem is always having a large supply of alcohol on hand.

Tourists drive me crazy. I have been feeling like I am tourist while I am here. Where we are staying we were given giant fluffy singlet costumes that are worn for activities. I think it is slightly absurd since I tramp around the mountains of CO on a regular basis and am not cold.

Walking around town you can tell who works/lives in town just by their clothing. Most of the tourists here are here to just see the northern lights and not really the typical winter outdoor type and their clothing/habits make it very clear.

My dad likes his 14 layers of clothes

The three largest employers in town: Tourist Station Hotel, railroad, and the grocery store.

I was able to have a successful encounter all in Swedish. A man in a store came up to me and asked if I needed help and I replied, no thanks in Swedish. Well that is my version of the encounter. He could have been asking if I wanted a million dollars or if I knew the directions to Kiruna.

Toilet paper. Swedish like it ruff, not the flimsy cheap rough public restroom America style, but well made tuff, sturdy, and rough, comparable to paper towels, just narrower. I am not a fan.

There are a ton on English tourists in northern Sweden and not a ton of American tourists. Abisko had way more Americans than Bjorkliden.

Sweden’s economy is not based off of oil like Norway’s. Sweden does contain the world’s largest iron mine in Kiruna. They are actually going to start mining under the city and there has been some “settling” so their solution is to move some buildings and rebuild the rest of the town in a new location. The project is expected to take about 30 years. Sounds expensive.

I am currently chilling in the Stockholm airport waiting for me flight to Russia. I am slightly nervous, but things will be fine and I have a pretty low key first evening planned: getting a taxi to my hostel.

The rest of this post is about what we did the past couple days, mainly for my memory. I would stop reading now if I were you. The posts on Russia will be WAY better.

Brewed in Sweden, they don’t have Fat Tire, but…

On Wednesday we went and did some ice fishing. Which is basically walking to the late, drill a hole, and jig for 2 hours while getting cold. The guy who runs the trip is fun to talk to at least. We were skunked on fishing. That night we did a northern light photo trip. The northern lights didn’t reallt come out, but this photo has two streaks faintly in the back. Our guide was really great though, he hated his job. He was a commercial photographer for the UN, mainly spending time in war zones and lately running ordinance disposal projects. He was the person going in with one or two technical analysts and setting up the unexplored bomb removal. He switched to guiding tourists to take the same photo every night when an IED went off 100 yards away from him. He has since decided war zones are safer than tourists and is heading Syria in a couple weeks. He is leading the UN’s unexplored bomb program which has the blessing from Assad. Starting in a couple weeks the UN will have an official presence in Syria,but it will not be published and fly under the radar of the media.

The following day we went on the world’s worse snowmobile tour. We averaged about 15km/hr and it was tedious. It was so bad it was funny. I started to enjoy myself because it amused me that this what people thought snowmobiling was and the people in front of my parents ran their snowmobile into a tree, winning!!!!

Guess who crashed the snowmobile

We then played some Settlers and I lost for the first time during the trip. It clouded over and we were skunked again for the northern lights.

Friday morning we got an early transfer to Kiruna. Kiruna is a mining town with the mining company owning most of the housing. We went on a horse backing riding trip to see moose on Icelandic horses. It was awesome, we were trotting through the snow, saw 30+ moose and overall I had a great time. The people running the program were Sami, the indigenous people of northern Norway/Sweden/Russia, but there operation was pure commercial. The lunch was reindeer, but not a lot of effort went into it. That evening my mom and I wandered around Kiruna and went to the liquor store. It was awesome. I was a kid in a candy store.

In a park in Kiruna

Ice slide!!

$2.75 each, fresh from CO

My trip to Sweden was great I had a great time with my parents and am now off to Russia.

Kiruna Airport

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abisko, and an overgrowth of weeds (not the golden rod that covers the countryside). It took a walk of about 250 meters to discover the old town and why I came here. I so far have found the food to be very me, assad, backpacking, horseback riding, kiuna, northern lights, Sweden, swedish beet, un in syria | Leave a comment

Aurora Borealis in Sweden

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Todd

The reason that I am in northern Sweden (farther north than Nome, Alaska) is to see the northern lights. Abiskofalls in the aurora belt (this link will give you all the species about where auroras can be seen and what causes them http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora) and is located in a rain shadow on a lake where an east-west valley intersects a north-south valley causing clouds to frequently be on the horizon, but the sky over Abisko is clear.

Even though we are in the place to see the aurora borealis, doesn’t mean that it is easy to see (especially if you want any sleep).
Night -1: There was an aurora, but my parents were asleep and I was still in the states
Night 1: aurora with clouds, not the brilliant colors you would expect, a soft glow, came out better in photos than in person
Night 2: clouds, 15km away they saw it
Night 3:clouds
Night 4: a brief aurora across the entire sky with dancing greens and soft reds and purple, moving around, unable to photograph because we were on a chair lift
Night 5: aurora around 6pm, minimal aurora on our “photo tour”, but super clear
Night 6: TBD, cloudy at the moment

Night 7: I can’t tell the future

There is still hope for some sweet photographs, but the dancing aurora was awesome and they said it moved quicker than normal.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abisko, Aurora, aurora borealis, back packing, Bjorkliden, lapland, lights over lapland, northern lights, Sweden | 2 Comments

Dog Sleds and Snowmobiles

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Todd

Dog sledding in Abisko

Snowmobiles in Bjorkliden

Sweden has turned into another great trip. I do really feel like a tourist while I am here, something that I don’t really like. Abisko has a year round population of 150 people which balloons to 650 in the winter with seasonal employees. The thing is there is not a lot of housing in town and all the build able land has been built and the surrounding land is owned by the government and is used by the Sami people to herd their reindeer (all reindeer are owned and they are the same species as caribou, but smaller (60-70kg smaller) since a Sami herder is with them, protecting them and preventing natural selection). In order for the town to grow it would have to petition to the government for more land and take it awY from the Sami people. A lot of the seasonal employees live in campers, crammed a million into an apartment, or their cars, but rent is reasonable cheap, $500, for a small two bedroom plus despite the housing shortage.

Mom and dad

Yesterday we went for a 2 hour snowmobile rode which was pretty cool and it was a super sunny day up until 6pm when it started to snow. The sun does stay low over the horizon all day long since we are in a transition period to the midnight sun.

Steve and his dogs that didn’t wanted to follow the track of everyone else

We went to the grocery store and grabbed some smoked salmon, a pound of hard cheese which is a mix between manchego and Parmesan, a beer, crackers, and a diet coke for $25. The beer is a ton cheaper than Norway, a beer only costs $6-9. If you want any alcohol greater than 3.5% you need to order it from the grocery store which acts as a liquor store agent and then it comes in 2-3 days later in the standard shipment. Planning is a must to drink….

Today went dog sledding, it was a 6 hour tour, consisting of hooking up your team of 4 dogs (the guide thought I was fat so I got the big dogs, I was the largest person of the group), driving your own sled 15kmish, eating lunch of butter fried smoked reindeer and onions put in heavy cream.

Libby and Steve in the way behind

Our guide/owner of the dogs frying up smoked reindeer and onions served stew style in heavy cream

At the grocery store, at least not a no gun sign

Gluten free crackers…

Winning!!!!!

It is cloudy at the moment and we are going to the sky station in an attempt to see the northern lights again. We have been skunked the last two attempts.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abisko, aurora borealis, back packing, beer, dog sledding, northern lights, Sweden, Swedish beer | Leave a comment

Sweden, It is Slightly Chilly

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Todd

A famous gate

Cold Swedish woods

I am heading to Sweden for a week and St Petersburg for a week. Luck was on my side on my first travel day which consisted of a flight to Newark, a flight to Stockholm, a flight to Kiruna, a taxi ride, and then a train ride to Bjorkliden. On my flight from the states to Stockholm there was no one sitting next to me and my seat on the flight to Kiruna was an exit row seat without a seat in front of it, double win. When we landed in Kiruna the pilot announced that we were in Kiruna and we landed “exactly on time”, like he expected people to know when we were suppose to land to tell what time it was. Swedish efficiency.

Sunrise in Bjorkliden

I then met up with my parents in the train station, about the size of a train car, and we caught the train to Bjorkliden which is a ski resort in northern Sweden about 300 miles north of the Arctic circle. Upon checkin we were told that they were overbooked and we were being downgraded to a cabin with bunk beds and a single bed instead of double beds and they were going to give us the room for free. I think that they had tried to downgrade several people and we were their last option.

There was a tad bit of snow in the front of our cabin

A church I found while skiing, the only way there was snow mobile and skis

We grabbed dinner, then went on a night time dog sled ride. This was not one where you drive your own sled and the aurora borealis was not super visible. There were 2 teams of dogs, each carrying a sledge with 3 passengers and the musher. After the ride we got back, picked up our camera gear and started trudging up the ski hill to an aurora viewing point. The aurora was pretty cool, it wasn’t the bright green that the pictures show, but more of a muted green.

We then trudged back down the hill and I ate it over a large block of snow which I swear wasn’t there on the way up. It was then bedtime, 11:30, capping my 32 hour day with about 3 hours of sleep.

The next day I went cross country skiing. Never have I been the worse at an endurance physical activity, but Thor past me multiple times and so did Mrs Thor. I think I was going at about half speed compared to everyone else on the 12km ski track which I only managed to ruin once when I fell going close to a million miles an hour down a 100+ meter hill with TURNS.

An ancient Land Rover

We then went and played settlers and drank some beers. It started to snow for real and when we left dinner around 930 it was still snowing, windy, and we couldn’t see the aurora. I check a few hours later (read I fell asleep and looked when I woke up so I wouldn’t feel guilty about missing the aurora), but it still wasn’t visible.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abisko, aurora borealis, backpacking, Bjorkliden, northern lights, Sweden | 2 Comments

Norway, land of the $40 Heineken 12 pack

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Todd

I can say without a doubt that Norway is without a doubt the most expensive place I have ever been to. It makes Japan look cheap. Even if you camp and do it on the “cheap” it is still more expensive than SE Asia and a lot of places in Central/South America. I think that if you dwelled on the fact that a beer cost $10-20, a bottle of water/soda $3.50-$5, a ferry ride $30+, an intercity bus ride $8, a small whopper value meal $16 (did not partake), air=free, museum entry $10-$30, bike rental $50 for 24h, and a really cheap hostel $50+ it would take a lot of the fun out of the trip.

$40,12pack

Our first afternoon in Balestrand the weather was pretty temperamental and I walked around town for a bit and rented a bike for the next day. My strategy (George W pronunciation) was to take the fast ferry for 15 minutes across the fjord to Vik, see a stave church with my parents and then split off and ride 26k on a road that dead ends after passing a couple of non touristed villages. I was then going to retrace my steps and continue onto Vigness (please note I am omitting several letters of the town name) and take the car ferry back across the fjord to Dragvik and then ride back to Balestrand for about a 50 mile day. The weather forecast called for 0mm of precipitation, score

Well when Saturday arrived I had a lackluster breakfast at the hotel and we grabbed the ferry. We then managed to find the church and of course it started to rain. We chatted with a 17yo who worked there for about 30 minutes until the rain decreased to a drizzle and then I set off on the bike. I successfully made it through the 1km tunnel without encountering any cars (win) and stopped to shovel some cake like substance and weird orange cookies (the cheapest snacks at the grocery store) down my mouth. The end of the ride took me to a small fjord that ended in over 10 waterfalls over a small village. It was one of the coolest things I have seen in mainland Norway.

Largest raspberry producing area in Europe

Snakes on the ferry?

I don’t need a haircut

The next day we grabbed the 8am, 4h, express ferry to Bergen. Bergen has about 80 sunny days a year (the opposite of Boulder) and we ended up having a mixed day between sun, clouds, and rain so heavy it bounces off the ground and gets you wet again. We hung around Bergen which is a pretty cool city, I imagine off the beaten path with less tourists it would even be cooler, grabbed some ice cream. We then parked ourselves at a beer bar serving Norwegian beers, two Belgian sours (common ones), and Rouge Chocolate Porter and watched the world go by. I realized at that moment that if cruise ships docked at Boulder and discharged a boat load worth of people off I would not like it. Our stay involved 3 beers and running inside twice to avoid some heavy rain. I was in charge of dinner and picked an area a little away from the harbor, hoping it would not be all tourists. We ended up in a bar/pub that had a good selection of beers and turned out to have really good food. We had previously had really, really bad whale in Svalbard which was cooked well done plus some. You need to cook whale like a mammal since it is one and has a high iron content, transforming our first serving into something tasting like over cooked liver. We noticed another person who got whale and it was cooked well so we asked our server if there were different ways to cook it and I ended up with some medium rare whale which was really good (Norway harvests a small number of whales a year, not like Japan, and there is not a lot of controversy over their whaling practices). Dinner was really good and we headed back around 930 at night, in bright daylight.

Hmmm

Bergen

10pm

This morning we headed to the airport and I am on my way back to the states after another good vacation.