No matter how well I understand logically that the sun doesn’t set here until almost midnight, when I look outside at 10:30 pm and see bright sunshine, my mind can’t understand why my body is so ready for sleep. Today I got acquainted with Reykjavik. I walked around on my own, then took a free guided…
Yesterday was mostly a travel day, so there wasn’t a lot to blog about, and there still isn’t, since I just woke up and am at a neighborhood coffee shop having what they call an Americano. (I’d call it a slightly watered down espresso.)
I’m going to start today’s post by talking about an interesting confluence related to my trip. About ten years ago when I was singing with the Esoterics, we performed a wonderful piece by the Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae. He wrote this piece in 1997 in memory of the more than 852 people who…
Pretty much all I did today was walk. Helsinki is a very walkable city, but I really covered a lot of ground today.
Today was an “Intro to Helsinki” day. Mary and I bought one-day Helsinki Cards, thinking we’d cram as many of the things the card covers as we could into one day. It was a good idea in theory, but there was only so much cramming we could do, especially given that Mary was suffering from…
Saturday, 26 May 19:30 I’m on the ferry, about an hour from docking in Helsinki. We left Tallinn about five minutes before the scheduled sailing time of 18:00, and I’ve been looking for a place to plug in my phone on this boat because I was bad about conserving the battery today. I finally found…
Thursday 24 May, 22:30 We set sail at 17:45, went through about 4 hours of the most beautiful scenery, the sun has set but the horizon is still glowing red out my cabin’s porthole.
First, I have to thank everyone who’s left a comment or a “Like” on Facebook. One of the best cures for the occasional loneliness that sets in when traveling alone is the feeling that my friends and family are a part of the experience. Keep those cards and letters coming!
I’m at a restaurant that’s actually in the same building as the apartment where I’m staying, and it’s one I’d read about before my vacation started. It’s called The Urban Deli. Niklas also recommended it. Unfortunately when the waiter came and I asked him to recommend something, he recommended a cod dish and then remembered…
The train ended up arriving in Stockholm 35 minutes early last night. And then I had some tense moments.
I just deleted my entire blog post as I was attempting to copy it. So this is my second attempt, and it won’t be as interesting or as witty as my first.
It’s actually Day Eight, Sunday, May 20, 9:30. I didn’t blog last yesterday because I was on the go all day and was too tired by the time I got back. I started the day the same way I ended the day on Friday, with a walk around Kalmar. It’s a nice town, built largely…
