I need a vacation to recover from vacation

[prosodic]

Back from the cruise.

I would love to say that it was fabulous and wonderful and restful and fantastic, but I cannot say that. This was, in fact, one of the most stressful vacations I've ever taken. And it was mostly due to there being 4-5 cruise ships in each port everyday, and a cast of thousands trying to get through the same tourist attractions. I cannot stand that. I need room to move...room to breathe. I hate huge crowds, and this whole trip was full of them (our ship alone holds 2700 passengers, not counting the crew).

There were some good things though. The weather was pretty great. It rained a bit in Oslo (our first stop) and in Copenhagen today and we had some wind between Finland and Sweden, which made the sea choppy and rocked the boat quite a bit, but otherwise, I have no complaints. It was REALLY FREAKING HOT in St. Petersburg, with about 93% humidity.

Favorite places:

- Stockholm, Sweden
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Copenhagen, Denmark (although Lance and I did this on our own today)

Tallinn, Estonia is incredibly beautiful...or at least, the Old Town is. But we took a crappy tour and didn't get to see much of the Old Town. Gdansk, Poland is gorgeous...once you get to the Old Town. The rest of the town is really ugly and depressing looking, thanks to all the old Communist-era buildings. Neither of us cared much for Helsinki. Oslo was cool, but I wouldn't call it a beautiful city...it's elegant, but not beautiful.

The cruise food gave me indigestion EVERY SINGLE DAY.

The entertainment on the ship was good though. They had special guests perform, such as this duo called Live Wire, who does Celtic music. They were absolutely amazing. They also brought in the Troika singers and dancers who perform in St. Petersburg.

Anyway, it's late and I have about 500 photos to sort through (I'm not kidding) and tons of stuff to write about at a later time. Right now, the bed is calling me. Lance is off tomorrow as well (or today, rather) and we have to do grocery shopping and get caught up on household chores.

If anything exciting happened in your life during my absence, direct me to it in comments.

Comments

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

New and exciting: I moved. :) I'm finally in Cleveland.

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

YAY! I hope you really love going to Kent State.

[emtqueen85.livejournal.com]

Hey, I have a friend who lives in Tallinn. I would love to see where she lives.

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

Oh, Tallinn is WONDERFUL. It's a great mix of the very old and the ultra modern. And unlike Gdansk, Poland, I didn't see many run-down areas at all.

Old Towns

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I've learned over the past 20 years or so that much of old Europe that I want to see was blown to rubble in World War Two. Or that much of what remains, like the Old Town of Warsaw, is a post-war reconstruction.

Don't get me wrong--I'm gratefully happy that the reconstructions are there, and wish that more had been done along those lines (Exeter, England is a good example of wishing this), but it does feel a little odd.

--Danny, who wonders why the Athenians never reconstructed the Parthenon after it got blown up in the 17th century

Re: Old Towns

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

That is the case in many cities...Tallinn, however, has kept its original Old Town. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, particularly because of that, and it's amazingly well-preserved. Stockholm was also untouched by the ravages of war.