Big_T's Travel Blog - Big_T

The day that didn't happen...
Osaka, Japan
I say this because I tried to wake up at 8:30 or so, sat down on the couch and felt the floor of the boat hit the roof... The day before, our friend Brian had called and said that there was a typhoon blowing off of Hong Kong, we of course paid no heed to this, but the next morning heed came and kicked us in the nuts...
Adam had said something about if you feel sea sick make sure you're touching a surface, well I tried that... No dice! The sea was angry that day my friends! So I gave up trying to be human and lay down... I went back to sleep and woke up again at 11:30. tried to go to the toilet, but each time I stood up, the inside of my guts started knocking on the back of my teeth... “Let me out” it would say. I would lay down again and the threat of vomiting would subside. I didn't eat or drink the whole time, yet I had to get up to go to the toilet 5 times. Can someone explain the science there?
Anyway, I lay in bed all day and all night and woke up the following day. When I finally woke up the storm had broken and it was as though the day before had never happened.
written by  Big_T on August 23, 2008 from Osaka, Japan
from the travel blog: Big_T's Travel Blog

Transit only
Warsaw, Poland
Got off a flight, took the bus to the train station, bought some tickets and then rode the bus to krakow... from the window I was glad I had... Not a pretty city by any stretch of it, but that's mostly because it had the shit bombed out of it sometime in the late 1930s, you might have heard about it...
written by  Big_T on September 13, 2008 from Warsaw, Poland
from the travel blog: Big_T's Travel Blog

A sombre day
Krakow, Poland
Today we got our stuff together and went to a town called Oświęcim in Polish, or you might know it by it's German name, Auschwitz.
Wow... Not a great deal can be said about it... It is divided into 2 parts, Auschwitz and then about 3 kms away, there is Birkenau which was known as Auschwitz II...
Walking around the museum you see and hear and read about the stories of the 1-1.5 million people killed at that very place. They were often brought in under the illusion that they were going to find new riches in an Eastern country, and bought plots of land, and fake businesses from the Nazis. They were then loaded into trains to be taken to either work as slaves or to be killed...
Those who have visited can understand, those who haven't should. There is not a great deal more I can say...
written by  Big_T on September 14, 2008 from Krakow, Poland
from the travel blog: Big_T's Travel Blog

Prague, a beautiful city if not overrun by tourists...
Prague, Czech Republic
We took the overnight train to Prague from Krakow. the train left at 10:20 and we got in at about 7:30 or so... Adam was clearly having trouble sleeping and my chainsaw-like snoring didn't help. He got angry at his lack of sleep and the bear sounds coming from the bunk below and he lost his temper at me a little. Entirely understandable.
We were told that we could check in to the apartment from 7:30 or so because there was no-one in the apartment the day before. Well, when we arrive it turns out that the guy here the day before went and got hit by a car, and needed another day's rest. Talk about inconsiderate! So we were told that we could check in at about 12:00 or so.
At 9 we left our bags at the agents office around the corner, and walked in to the centre of town. A nice 15 minute walk. The new town, especially Wenceslas Square is very nice, busy and active. Lots of young Czechs and foreigners walkinga round, but as we were both tired, and Adam wasn't talking to me, we decided to go to the apartment and have a day of doing nothing. We sat back and watched the 1008 channels of satellite... Every channel had shit on it... Adam went to bed at 10...
Next morning, get up and Adam is chipper again! Yes! Very pleased about that... We went out to do some sightseeing in town. Started with a pizza for lunch, went to the old town square... Millions and millions of tourists there, you couldn't move for tourists... But it was entirely understandable. Prague's old city square is absolutely stunning, and as it turns out, even more beautiful at night.
The same thing can not be said about the smell. The city square, particularly up around the Astronomical Clock smelling like horseshit, mostly on account of all the horses shitting there... The trams, also, smelled like B.O. or at least our one home last night did. It reaked of the two homeless people sat in front of me. Mostly on account of the fact that they needed a shower...
Dinner and drinks followed, and we went to a traditional Czech bar called Caffreys, to watch the second half of the Arsenal/Dynamo Kiev game. Drinks at this bar proved to be expensive, so I only had 2 more after the other 7 or 8 I'd had through the day, and went back to the apartment at 12:30 to play an online poker tournament... My KK came up against AA and I was out just outside the money...
Today, (our 3rd and final day in Prague) is another day of sightseeing. Heading to Prague Castle, and hopefully taking some pictures around the city. I will eventually add some more pictures to the blog and to Facebook. Hopefully I can get that done tonight... And, hopefully, I can survive the smell of horseshit...
I meet up with Mum and Dad tomorrow afternoon, so that's pretty exciting too...
written by  Big_T on September 18, 2008 from Prague, Czech Republic

The Goodbye Party
Tokyo, Japan
Adam kindly organised the venue for this occasion (a place called The Dog's Bollox in Ikebukuro) and we both went about inviting our respective and mutual friends. Somewhere in the vicinity of 60 people turned up to join in the festivities. As the night progressed, we got drunker and drunker and yet neither of us had had to buy a drink. As expected all of this drunken behaviour led to some drunken shenanigans, but no-one was hurt or arrested, so all was good.
Someone had the idea of doing speeches, an unusual event at a normal going-away party, at least for the ones I have been to. Some good friends spoke and explained to everyone there how wonderful we were and then I spoke, followed Adam. As expected, Adam started his speech with some toilet humour at my expense, as I had to go to the toilet quickly after finishing my speech.
As the speeches progressed it started becoming clear how much our friends thought of us, and hopefully our words in the following speeches demonstrated how important those people were to the both of us too. Although Adam did use the “C” word in his speech... Naughty naughty!
The night wore on, with some people going home on last train, people who lived close enough taking cabs, and the last few remaining drunks staying until the morning... All in all, a brilliant evening and a tribute to the great friends that have made my stay in Japan such a wonderful experience.
written by  Big_T on August 17, 2008 from Tokyo, Japan

Moving Days...
Tokyo, Japan
My friend and amazingly hardworking removalist Stephen Watson cleaned up the house, while I gave a small amount of assistance. Lane and Jon were also valuable in this process, thanks for your help boys! Much appreciated... I also had the chance during this time to say goodbye to some very important people in my life. They know who they are... Thankyou very much for being so important to me...
written by  Big_T on August 18, 2008 from Tokyo, Japan

The Second Last Day
Tokyo, Japan
Again Stephen was amazing today. He did most of my moving, I sorted everything out with the real estate agent and left the house at about 1:30.
I rushed as quickly as a fat man with a 20kg pack on his back can to the Mongolian embassy, and after the cab driver got lost (why does no-one know where this place is?) I made it there at about 2:40pm. The embassy official handed mine over immediately but when I asked him for Adam's one, he showed me the passport and application and asked “What the hell is this?” I said “An application and passport.” He said something indecipherable and then he complained that Adam never answered his phone. If your battery has no charge for 3 days and you had misplaced your adapter, your phone wouldn't work either, but the official was having none of that. I asked him if he could make the visa now, and he said that he could, and he went on to do so.
I then proceeded to head down to Osaka on the shinkansen and made it there by about 6:30, checked into the hotel (Hotel Shinosaka), got a call from Mum and Dad who are a week away from their own trip and then went out to get some food. Fell asleep at about 11. Never have I slept so solidly.
written by  Big_T on August 20, 2008 from Tokyo, Japan

Nara and Osaka
Nara, Japan
Woke up at about 9:30 and repacked my stuff... Threw out some things that I knew I could probably live without and decided to be a lttle wiser about how to pack the bag. I realised that I had forgotten some things, most notably a plastic bag to keep my smelly clothes in. I need to pick one of those up on the way. I was in the room at about 11:05 when the man called and told me very politely that checkout time was at 11:00. I told him that I would be down in 1 minute. At 11:45 I got to the front desk and checked out, and then proceeded to get totally lost like a tourist heading towards Nara. Nara is the ancient capital of Japan and so it has... you guessed it TEMPLES! Unlike everywhere else in Japan, there are a lot of Temples, and by “unlike” I mean “exactly like”.
Nara park is an interesting place loaded with grass and trees, it is absolutely overrun by deer. These deer are not like Bambi though, they are more closely related to Cujo. These deer would frighten the Terminator with their out and out aggression. Walking through the park to get to Todaiji (the world's largest wooden structure), I spent the time avoiding deer, deer shit and people shitting themselves because of the deer. Screaming women and children were commonplace, particularly due to the availability of so-called “Shika senbei” which means deer cookies. Morons seemed to enjoy buying these cookies only to absolutely crap their pants when the deers come up to them and try to eat them, which is the reason for their existence.
Get to Todaiji. Fuck! It is massive! It is a very impressive building with a very large buddha statue inside it, and on this day it was jam-packed with Chinese tourists. I still manage to get a great view of the place as well as the inside statue of the Buddha which has him seated on some petals with his right palm showing which obviously has some significance, but I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that he is absolutely monstrous!
Trains back to Osaka and waited for the lads...
Tried to go to a small yakitori place but were told that even though there were no people in there, that there was no space for us. Sometimes I will not miss Japan at all. Telling us we can't enter because we are foreigners is just unacceptable...
Ended up in an izakaya, me, Adam, Dana, and Jeza. Good times with good mates. It is what life is about really... Another couple of bevvies up in the room, and then three hours sleep until getting up ready for the boat in the morning.
written by  Big_T on August 21, 2008 from Nara, Japan

Get on the Boat!
Osaka, Japan
Morning arrives, we eat the regulation free business hotel buffet, and then get a cab to the port. The cab was jam-packed with the 4 of us plus Adam and my massive luggage. The cab driver did not seemed best pleased, especially when the bottom of the car scraped on the gutter as we had overloaded his jaloppy.
Get to the ferry port very early expecting there to be issues with passport clearance and we had to stand around waiting. The port was a warehouse with a few people behind desks and a vending machine. Not a single shop.
While we were waiting Dana befriended a guy whose name we don't know, but my best guess would be “Child-bearing Hips”, or CBH... He was at the port 7 hours early for a ferry to Korea. He offered to take our picture all together which he did with everyone's camera except mine. After he did that he decided to hang around and become our friend... Well, after all, he had taken the picture.
Dana and CBH starting becoming as thick as thieves, so the rest of us retreated hastily outside and talked about how much we didn't want to talk to the other guy. A few more photos were taken and then it was time to board. Some sad goodbyes were said and I can not thank those boys enough for coming all the way to Osaka to make our send off even more special. Then we boarded the “luxurious” Su Zhou Hao. As we boarded we were impressed that our tickets said VIP on them as we had booked the VIP room, but no-one else seemed to give a crap. We ate lunch, sat around, ate dinner had a beer, shot the shit and then went to bed at 11pm... What a sad pair...
written by  Big_T on August 22, 2008 from Osaka, Japan

Arrival in Shanghai
Shanghai, China
Woke up the next day, the sea was calm, and it was though the gut-wrenching hell from the day before had not existed.
We ate breakfast and arrived in Shanghai at just about 12:00 even though we had thought arrival was at about 2:00pm. When we arrived, we spent an hour sitting around waiting to get off the vessel, listening to a group of extremely noisy Chinese kids chanting something that Adam assumed was “Let us off the damn boat!”. I thought it was just making noise for the sake of it. Either way we got off with no Chinese money.
It's an international entry point, right? Surely there is somewhere to change money... right? WRONG! Just as Osaka had been it was an abandoned warehouse, a scene from “28 Weeks Later” no-one there except a few officials. So we came up with our ingenious plan. Adam had a printout that would get a taxi to take us to the hotel we were going to pick up tickets from that night as we were leaving for Beijing the same evening. The Hotel was a no-go, so we had to use a bank.
We first decide to go and have a look at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, but going up the elevator cost $20. $20! In China! I can buy a house for that much! I can buy 50 cans of beer in the convenience store... There is no way I am going to pay that much to go up a tower that looks like a cock. Look over our shoulders and see two buildings far bigger. The first and biggest was the one I had come to see.
The Shanghai World Financial Center is an engineering masterpiece. It is the world's 3rd tallest building including unfinished buildings. The scheduled opening date was originally in April, or so I thought. It turned out that the opening day was August 30th. 6 days later than the day we arrived there, even though I had read about 3 different and earlier opening dates... Very disappointing.
Next door, though, I saw an absolutely monstrous building. It's the Jin Mao Tower. It is an 88 storey gem completed in 1998 with a magic observatory that cost half as much as the Pearl building, but was heaps higher! Win! We got a magic view of Shanghai, the skyline, and the soon-to-be-completed SWFC.
After looking at the view for a while we headed back to the hotel to meet the guy with the tickets. We sat there with a guy sat behind Adam, and we thought I hope that's not the guy. After 30 minutes wait, it turns out it was. We grabbed our tickets and jumped on the train. I met a nice Chinese guy, we ate prison food. We slept. We got to Beijing.
written by  Big_T on August 24, 2008 from Shanghai, China

The Pretty Damn Good Wall of China
Beijing, China
“All in all you're just another brick in the wall”. I have no idea why I quoted that song except they have a name in common. Get to Beijing at 7:15, go to the hotel, leave our stuff, we are in a cab on the way to the wall at 8:15am.
It is a stunning sight. We arrived at the Mutianyu wall at almost 10 and started to walk. When we got there we realized that I had to ride a cable car or walk up 1600 steps. Adam, being the good man he is, and knowing my ridiculously unfounded fear of heights said that I could choose, but after walking about 1% of the number of steps, it was obvious that I couldn't climb, so I bit the bullet and rode the cable car.
After riding up (half the way with my eyes closed) we got there and saw one of the most stunningly beautiful sights I have ever seen. This is a formidable wall. The only disappointments were,
1.The bit we were on is reconstructed a few years ago over the ruins of the old one.
2.I got bitten by a bee.
3.Nothing, it was magnificent.
We then went on to hang out at the hotel for a bit, ate dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant that Mao once ate at, and then walked up to Tian An Men square where Adam got treated like a celebrity. Every girl wanted her picture taken with him... We got a train back and now we are in the hotel. We are off to see the Forbidden City, Olympic venues tomorrow, and then at night we fly to Mongolia.
written by  Big_T on August 25, 2008 from Beijing, China

Forbidden!
Beijing, China
The next morning we wake up and have a lovely breakfast in our classy Hotel. A huge buffet which you can be sure I demolished.
After that we decided that it was time to do The Last Emperor thing and visit the Forbidden City. Another absolutely massive place that has been kept well intact for the last 600 years or so (although the paint job looks about 3 years old at the most). A stunning place and it would have been fricking sweet to have been the emperor and the only person allowed to live there. Although after about 10 minutes every building started to look and sound identical, The Hall of Heavenly Peace, The Hall of Earthly Harmony, The Hall of Glorious Constipation... etc....
Once done with that we walked the 45 minutes to the nearest subway station and tried to go to the Olympic Venues, but as we got near there we were told that unless we had a ticket we would only be able to see it from a long distance. We thought that the 40 minute walk to a bridge where we couldn't see the Stadium was a waste of time so we had a beer.
Back to the hotel taxi to the airport and ready for our 9:10pm flight to Ulan Bataar. 9:10 comes and goes as does 10:10, 11:10...
to be continued...
written by  Big_T on August 26, 2008 from Beijing, China

Arrival in Mongolia, the best of both worlds
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
So did 12:10 AND 1:10, finally at 1:40 or so we boarded, left at 2 and arrived at 3:30 am.
We got into a taxi to take us to our hostel, we didn't have any Mongolian money yet and at 3:30 AM there was no-one there to help us change it either. So Adam asks the taxi driver if we can use dollars. "OK" he says in proud English. We get to the hostel, it is now almost 5. The door is locked, the lights are mostly off and no-one is opening, plus we have a driver charging us 3-4 times the amount of the cab fare mentioned in the guidebook.
The driver suggests that he knows a place to stay, a guesthouse for $7 a night, Adam said, OK if it was included in the money that we had already paid the filthy rat thieving cabby... He assured us it was. We get to the place, it is an apartment building where the Wicked Witch of the West lays dormant, she lets us in and we sleep for 3 hour or so.
When we get up WWoW says that it would be $10, and Adam explains that we had paid the rat-weasel cab driver. She said she didn't know the cabby, and that she didn't care what we paid him. I have no US money, Adam has $9... She wants $10, we don't have it. She threatens to call the police for $1. Adam laughs at her and tells her to get her money from the rat-weasel cab driver. She does, we go and get some Mongolian money (which is called the Togrog, no shit).
Back to our hostel, it's nice enough and then off in a baus to the countryside and a Ger camp. Some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Exquisite. Rolling hills, grassy fields covered in wild horses, cattle, sheep etc. Worst roads on earth!
The Ger is a felt tent and was very comfortable. A little cold at night but Adam went all primal and shit and made fire. The camp provided meals too... Big meals, Adam couldn't finish lunch and I left part of my dinner...
Adam freaked when he saw what the sky was supposed to look like without all the city lights. We could see The Big Dipper on the horizon, very impressive. I dropped my camera in a toilet, not good. Slept to get ready for the incredibly bumpy journey back to Ulaanbataar, our faith in Mongolia, Mongolians and people in general having been restored.
written by  Big_T on August 27, 2008 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Hmmm... Have you ever seen a war-ravaged nation on TV? That's what this city looks like.
We went to the hostel, saw a massive Buddha statue in a monastery... Huge.
Then we walked to town, saw the Natural History Museum... Dinosaur Bones... Then we spent 30 minutes trying to change money. We are in an internet cafe, but about to leave to have dinner and beer... Tomorrow is the first day of the Trans-Siberian railway... Very excited about that...
Will post when I can. Can you guys comment, so I know if people are reading this??? Thanks
...
written by  Big_T on August 28, 2008 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The Train Ride Ulaan Bataar to Irkutsk
Irkutsk, Russia
Thanks for your comments guys, I am glad that someone is reading this, and Stephen, the water was clean, but I did dry it a couple of times.
We went to the worlds worst supermarket to get supplies for the train ride. Luckily we did because there were to be no meals for 25 hours. They didn't put a dining car on the train. We didn't know this, so we walked up and down the train looking for it like a pair of idiots.
As we arrived in the train cabin we met our two travelling mates and settled in. One was a young man named Murat, a quiet 20 year old student on his way back to Saint Petersburg (6 days straight in the train) for university. The other man's name I can't remember, because I only called him Big Boss.
Russia has very high import duties on luxury items, e.g. Jeans, Denim Jackets, etc. Big Boss wanted to avoid having to pay those duties, so he brought box loads of these items on to the train and then during the ride, he distributed the jackets amongst the rooms and bags so that it looked like everyone on the train just happened to like denim. We were in the middle of an International smuggling ring... Fucking sweet!
They share Vodka with us, we meet his friend Olzod who used to be an Asian boxing champion and we watch him punch the shit out of any furniture he can find. We share Vodka with him, but it looks like he doesn't need any more.
We arrive at the Russian border at about midnight... The train slows... We are handed customs declaration forms, Big Boss sits there looking at his form and says something to Murat in Mongolian. We then wait, and as the Russian customs inspectors storm on in their boots and uniforms, Big Boss finds the head customs official and they chat, joke and laugh for about 20 minutes. Then our passports are taken away and inspected while we are asked to get out of the room, so walls and ceilings can be unscrewed so they can inspect inside them. They find something in Olzod's cabin next door, so Olzod comes into our room, talks to Big Boss, they get some money out to grease some palms and he leaves.
Altogether we are at the border for about 3 and a half hours. Although I am falling asleep once my stuff is finished. Adam can't as he needs the toilet but it is closed for 30 minutes before and after stations! hahahaha he had to wait!
Next thing I remember is waking up and we are in Russia. The countryside has changed from rolling hills and fields to thick forest. The train pulls in to the station at about 4 in the afternoon and we get to our hotel in Irkutsk, the Paris of Siberia...
Now comes the 3 day train ride! Will update a couple of days worth in Moscow!
written by  Big_T on August 29, 2008 from Irkutsk, Russia

Trans Siberian Irkutsk-Moscow
Moscow, Russia
77 hours on a train, and it all went smoother than clockwork...
We got on and spent an hour remarking how much better the train was than the Mongolia one had been... The "Baikal" is a gem amongst Trans-Siberian/Mongolian/Manchurian trains. Clean, spacious and comfortable are 3 good words to describe it... We got on and Natasha was getting her stuff ready with her daughter. The daughter disembarked before the train left and we ended up with 3 people out of 4 in the carriage but by the time we had woken up the next day a 4th member had been added... He didn't speak for 24 hours...
His name was Aleksei and lived somewhere near Moscow, that's all he said when Adam tried to engage him in a conversation.
We settled into a routine, we read, slept, ate, drank, visited the dining car, I watched a movie on the laptop (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, VERY GOOD!!!), and then all of a sudden 77 hours later we arrived...
We bumped into a couple of lads that we had met at the station in UlaanBataar, an English and a Hawaiian (Blonde haired and blue eyed, I didn't even ask him about Hawaii football as he didn't look genuine enough) lad... On the final night we had a few beers and a couple of shots of Vodka in true Russian style... They tasted like crap, but it was a great time...
We got off the train, Adam spent 25 minutes looking for the subway station, and it turned out that it was right next to where I was waiting for him... Oops!
We got to the apartment... Beautiful place, our landlady is a Russian lady that used to live in Sydney! Grouse chick, she really took care of us...
Went out to a bar (as it was Thursday night) called BB Kings, we sat next to where Faith No More had signed the wall, and all Canadians will be happy to know that BRIAN ADAMS ate at the same table as ME!
written by  Big_T on September 4, 2008 from Moscow, Russia

Moscow Day 1
Moscow, Russia
As we got up early, we decided to walk the 20 minutes down to the Kremlin and Red Square. We noticed the same as yesterday, Moscow is a stunningly beautiful city... Some amazing architecture, stunningly beautiful old streets and laneways, but the customer service throughout Russia is abysmal, but boys, you all need to visit Russia!!! BOYS! You NEED to visit this place...
We get to The Entrance for the Kremlin at just about 12:15pm and it is open until 5:00 for visiting, but we ended up waiting until 2:30 for entry tickets... That Russian customer service again... We had to take the audi tour things and have them back by 4:00, so the 5 hours we had have become an hour and a half, but we had also bought tickets to the armory where the Faberge eggs and the Czars collections are kept. These tickets are also good till 4:00pm... You see our problem? We ended up seeing both for about 30 minutes a piece...
Dinner was at a Georgian restaurant... You know Georgia, that place Russia recently attacked? That place... The food was phenomenal! A kind of Russian Mediterranean blend that tasted very good. Adam had chicken, I had veal, and we were all happy! Adam has had some toe issues for a few days and today it was causing him some problems, so we had an early night, and I had a few beers in the house...
I have almost achieved my mini project. That is, drinking all 10 varieties of Baltika (a great Russian brew...) I have drunk the #3,4,5,6,7,8,9. I have seen a 0 but I am looking for the #1, and 2... If you can get it, #8 is the best! It's reminiscent of some quality Belgian brews...
Tomorrow morning we are off to see the embalmed corpse of Lenin and see the rest of Moscow... Then in the evening, the train to Helsinki and some non-communist countries!
written by  Big_T on September 5, 2008 from Moscow, Russia

Moscow Day 2
Moscow, Russia
We showed up at the Red Square for the second day straight only to again see it closed up with heavy metal gates that reminded us of what the ter Iron Curtain meant. So no corpse viewing, this means that we missed out on seeing both corpses that we wanted to see (Mao Tse Tung in Beijing and Lenin in Moscow)... Very very disappointing...
So we sat down and discussed our options, and we decided that to try and get a sneak peak at the square from the back would be the best option, so we walked around until we found somewehere for lunch, ate and then continued walking around the square. Walked for about 2 hours and then went to a pub for 6.
Adam went easy on it because of his injury, I was uninjured so i didn't bother to go easy and we got to watch 3 games of soccer with almost no goals, but i didn't mind beacause I celebrated each 15 minute interval with a beer...
That evening at 10:50PM we boarded the train to Helsinki for a 15 hour train trip. A walk in the park after the last one...
written by  Big_T on September 6, 2008 from Moscow, Russia

Vegetable Lasagne
Helsinki, Finland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGWqtwhS2KY
Finland... Land of excitement, thrills, etc. Adam brought a guidebook (Europe on a shoestring) with a short guide on each country in Europe. It even has Andorra in it... The France section is about 30 pages long, Finland, a page and a half.
The 4th attraction listed for Finland is a Cable Factory (admittedly it is now used as an art space, but you get the picture). The one attraction they had which sounded pretty cool was a former fortress island, it was used to defend Sweden, Russia and then Finland after independence from Sweden and Russia. We took the ferry out there and walked all around the place and had a pretty cool time looking at old cannons, battlements and exploring a series of underground pitch black tunnels which led to more underground pitch black tunnels. I tired of these after a while, but Adam seemd to get continually excited about them.
Walked around the island for 2½ to 3 hours and then headed back up to the city to get something to eat. Went for a beer in the pub first (bottle of Stella €5 thank you very much...) The other thing that interested me about Finland was the wacky stuff they eat. I had already eaten Reindeer for lunch and when we got to the restaurant for dinner I chose the Elk and Venison casserole... Absolutely lovely... Adam had Buffalo for lunch and Reindeer for dinner...
All in all, Helsinki is a beautiful old city, with great architecture but there wasn't heaps to do if you don't love saunas... Kind of like that Seinfeld character Vegetable Lasagne (who was Finnish by the way)...
written by  Big_T on September 7, 2008 from Helsinki, Finland

The Boat across and Stockholm
Stockholm, Sweden
Mark, hope this one works better... It's appropriate for the Finland post only though
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=jgTyVkpJY3g
After hitting up the internet cafe for the previous entry we walked down to the port and jumped on our accomodation for the next 15 hours or so i.e. the boat across to Sweden.
We got on on the 7th deck, even though we were staying in the cheapest possible rooms on the 2nd deck... The boat was massive, it went up to about 13 decks... We knew that we would be safe from the seasickness of the Osaka to Shanghai debacle...
We were, we stayed up and had a few bevvies, slept and were awoken by the captain telling us we were an hour and a half from port...
We arrived at the hostel which was a former prison after following the directions (well written, but they underestimated the walking time by about 300%)... Of course, as we had arrived in the morning, we couldn't check in yet, so we had to leave our bags and do sightseeing as we were...
We visited the main sights of Stockholm, much like Helsinki a beautiful old city, some really cool museums and old buildings... I got frostbite as it was about -140 degrees... We walked around until about 5:30 when we went back to the hostel to check in... Smallest room ever!
I guess as it was designed for prisoners, there wasn't much chance of a suite at the Park Hyatt, but it was a real 8'x3' job... The 2 of us slept in a bunk bed, at the end of it there was a locker and on the side there was a small table and 2 chairs...
We decided to forego the guidebook for our dinner location tonight and walked around and see what we could see and we found a restaurant/bar in this cool part of Stockholm... The food was good and the service was really cool... I have started to appreciate that much more since Moscow, where if you ask for help, it is like you set their Grandmother on fire...
Next morning was Adam's birthday, and we were going to do 2 things from my 1000 places to go before you die book. First, we got up and visited the Vasamuseet... A museum that houses the Vasa a gigantic warship from the 17th century that sank after 1 nautical mile... It is 95% intact and one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen...
After that we ate for lunch what the Swedes are famous for, Smörgåsbord! We headed about 10Km north of Stockholm to a lovely country inn that is famous for it's smörgåsbord... Even the King of Sweden has been known to eat there, and we know he has a diamond car with platinum wheels (subtle movie reference there)...
The food was awesome, and again we ate reindeer! The Finnish reindeer was better, but that was specifgically prepared and much more expensive... This was on a buffet table...
We left, headed to the port again for the ferry to Latvia... This time, the boat was pretty big, but a rain started just as we got on and this was not a great sign... I felt OK most of the trip but at about 11PM we were having a beer on the top deck and the constant up and down of the boat started getting to me...
Adam could notice I was getting a bit green in the gills and suggested we head back to the room... We did and within 30 minutes we had both passed out... We would have the birthday dinner at another time...
written by  Big_T on September 9, 2008 from Stockholm, Sweden

Riga
Riga, Latvia
Get to Riga in the morning and the Hostel lets us check in early. The guy at the counter is very friendly and helpful... The room is very spacious indeed too...
We do the Riga walking tour, lots of 17th and 18th century buildings, most in quite good condition and then we arrived at the Occupation museum...
This is the place that explains the constant occupation of this country by foreign invaders from 1940-1991... USSR, Germany, and then USSR again... Pretty much had their way with this country and no-one did anything to help them... When the Germans came, the Latvian people thought that they had been liberated from the Soviets, until the Germans started exterminating people they didn't like... When the allies beat the Germans, the Latvians thought they would be independant again, until They were handed back to the Soviets and it took until 1991 to gain independance...
We left the Occupation museum in a cheerful mood and found a traditional Latvian place to have Adam's birthday dinner... Adam drank a local booze called Latvija Balzams... Looked, smelled and tasted hideous! (but a great treatment for Scruffula) He couldn't look straight after drinking it either, but he had a good time for his birthday dinner and that's all that mattered...
Slept and now we are awake, about to head to the bus station for our bus across to Lithuania... This will be the 4th country in 6 days, we are there for less than 24 hours before flying to Poland... Things start to slow down a little there...
written by  Big_T on September 12, 2008 from Riga, Latvia

Krakow! Stunning!
Krakow, Poland
What a stunning city! I thought I had seen some good places, but this one tops all of them...
Krakow is over 1000 years old, and it was Poland's old capital. Looking at the place it surprises me that is not currently, but according to legend, Hitler forbade the destruction of the city and that he may have been planning to live here after the Germans won WWII... Whether any of thats true or not I would say that he couldn't have picked a lovelier place to live...
Beautiful castles, the world's largest medieval square, churches, fortifications, streets, etc. Lovely, except for the fucking weather...
It has hardly stopped raining since we left Moscow, particularly in the Baltic States. It has been raining cold and miserable almost every day. Even on days like today when the morning was a little cloudy and about 15degrees, it starts raining in the afternoon... SHITHOUSE!
Well it's about 5 now, we have a train to Prague tonight at about 10:20pm... I am excited because my brother said he might be coming out to meet me and my family in Europe next week!!! Very happy about that, so me and Adam might go and get drunk before the train!
Will write again from Prague!
written by  Big_T on September 15, 2008 from Krakow, Poland