I
don’t really have much to say about our first stop, which was
Warnemunde/Rostock. Namely because none
of us decided the four hour+ round trip into Berlin was worth it, so we mostly
tooled around this coastal port and its neighboring city. Both places were charming enough – for Germany
– but, again, nothing spectacular to write home about (as noted by the very few
pics I took and that I shared grouped in with my pics of Tallinn on
Facebook). SO….moving on….
TALLINN: Almost directly across the Gulf of Finland
from Helsinki, this place could best be described as “charming.” J
It’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ooooh! Almost one-third of the entire population of
Estonia lives in Tallinn. The city was actually known as Reval from the 13th
century until 1917 – and again during the Nazi occupation. What struck me most as we took our guided
walking tour was the succession of conquerors: Danes, Swedes, Germans (multiple
times), Russians (multiple times), etc. Our guide told us that since their
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, this is the longest consecutive
number of years that the Estonian flag has flown over the capital. Accordingly, it was hard to determine a true “Estonian
culture” there – a lot of Scandinavian and Russian stuff. A few more fun facts: the city has never been
razed or pillaged, and the spire of St. Olaf’s Church was actually the tallest
building in the world between 1549 and 1625. Throw THAT tidbit out at a cocktail party to show how smart you is!
ST.
PETERSBURG: Ah, the flood of memories
from being “back in the USSR.” J
The dill. The surly Russians who
always sound like they’re arguing with each other. The drab Soviet architecture. While I wouldn’t say I was “disappointed” in
St. Pete’s (Peterhof alone made it a cool trip), I will say it was not quite
what I’d hoped for (see list of things mentioned above for why). I am sure that, in its pre-Soviet days, it
was a MUCH more stunning and amazing city overall; you can tell it was
definitely built to be an Imperial Capital.
Part of what made it a bit of a bummer trip was that we did not get the
hydrofoil boat ride back from Peterhof that we were promised and thus had to
slog through the notorious St. Pete’s traffic for the second half of our
excursion on day one (we had an overnight in the city). Also, said slog back was delayed by an HOUR thanks to an incredibly selfish/rude Scandinavian guy and his mom who went “off
the reservation” during the Peterhof tour.
Our Russian guide was as pissed as we were and made several snarky
comments throughout the rest of the tour about these two incredibly selfish assholes. ANYWAY, as mentioned, Peterhof alone made the
trip worthwhile to me – even though we could not take pics inside the palace
(and talk about a crush of people – complete with fighting Russian tour guides!). But as you can see from the pics I posted/will post on
Facebook, the grounds are amazing and it’s clear that Peter the Great was
suffering from “Versailles Envy.” J
My
friend David was put off by the near constant bragging of our tour guides on
both days. I’ve always felt the Russians
have a bit of an inferiority complex and it was definitely on display by our
guides. Although, to be fair, during the
days of their two “greats” (Peter and Catherine), Russia was indeed something
to behold. And Peter created a truly
remarkable city that will hopefully/eventually be restored to its full glory
once the final remnants of the Soviet days and architecture are
vanquished. I told David if he wanted to have some fun with the tour guides re: their bragging, just throw out the tidbit/factoid that some of Russia's greatest leaders were either German (Catherine) or Jewish (Lenin) which I used to torment my bragging Russian friend Zhenya with (the Russians are notorious anti-semites). As it is, there are still
plenty of remarkable sites to be seen besides Peterhof: the Hermitage, the Church of Spilled Blood,
St. Peter & Paul’s fortress (where I got to see both Peter and Catherine’s
tombs – bonus for a history major!), etc.
And while their glory days may be long gone, I can’t begrudge the
Russians their bragging – after all, they lived throughout a vast majority of
their history as slaves basically. Poor
things.
HELSINKI: Though not quite so downtrodden as the
Estonians, Finland also has a long history of “oppression” – mostly from the
Swedes and Russians. It was actually a part of Sweden from the 12th
century until 1809, and then became an “autonomous Grand Duchy” as part of the
Russian empire until 1917. Oddly enough
(to me, at least) Helsinki was established as a
trading town by King Gustav of Sweden in
1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the German
city of….wait for it….Tallinn (then called Reval). But apparently it didn’t
work as Helsinki remained a tiny town plagued by poverty, wars, and diseases (a
plague in 1710 killed most of the city).
Anyway, on the whole, we were all a bit disappointed in Helsinki. We are assuming/”hoping” that part of it was due to the fact that we were there on a Sunday and the city was pretty dead
(although it did seem to be livening up a bit as we left). It’s pretty enough, and clean, but there was
no “vibe” to it (as Doreen astutely pointed out). I will say that one of the very coolest
things I saw on the whole trip was the Church of the Rock (or Temppeliaukio Church as it is formally known). I posted pics from our visit, but you should
google image it to see more – the church is basically carved out of rock and
has such excellent acoustics it is often rented out for concerts. VERY cool.
STOCKHOLM: Every single one of us in my travel group
complained about not getting to spend enough time in Stockholm (we arrived at
8am and left at 4pm). If I ever have the
chance, I would like to go and spend at least a few days. As “confirmed” by Wikipedia: The city is known for its beauty,
its buildings and architecture, its abundant clean and open water, and its many
parks. Sweden
also has an interesting history with early subjugation by the Danes until
growing into a major power of their own in the 17th century. For some reason, the two formerly “strong
empires” that always “throw” me are Sweden and Poland. Anyway, according to a blurb I read somewhere
in town, nearly one-third of the city’s area is made up of waterways, while
another one-third is made up of parkland.
And then, of course, there is the ABBA museum! Seriously, while expensive (hell, everything
is expensive in Scandinavia!
EVERYTHING!), this was definitely one of the cuter/funner “boutique”
museums I’ve been to. On the whole,
Stockholm definitely has a more lively vibe/is much more cosmopolitan than
Helsinki, and hope I get to see it again
some day. Tracy, Dooley, Jeff, and I
also ducked into their Ice Bar for a definitely unique experience. Highly recommended (the ice bar AND the city,
that is!) J
PARIS: I’m sure people have heard me squawk enough
about how awesome Paris is, and my second visit did nothing to disabuse me of
the notion that, along with San Francisco, it is one of THE most awesome cities
in the world. It remains my dream
retirement city, although—as previously mentioned on Facebook—my trip to Paris
Disneyland was a bit of a bust. C’est la
vie!
ZURICH:
No matter how many times I hear it, I’m
always surprised that there is no Swiss language. While I enjoyed my time in Zurich, on the
whole, like with Helsinki I was a bit disappointed. I don’t know what I expected – again, maybe more of a cool “vibe.” But maybe because the majority of folks are
of German heritage, it’s just not there. Ha!
It’s a pretty city, rather compact in terms of the main part, clean,
etc. I enjoyed it more my second day
when I wandered through the old town.
Still, I’m glad I saw it and as odd as this sounds, I’m always kind of “relieved”
when I go to a new place and don’t love it so much that I wish I could go
again. There are still so many places I
want to see, it’s hard (for me, at least) to “justify” returning to somewhere
I've already been (though I WOULD be up for a second visit to Barcelona and/or Istanbul if anyone wants to "entice" me!).
Coming
soon: notes on Copenhagen, and my overall “ranking” of the places I saw on my “2014
Grand European Adventure.”
No comments:
Post a Comment