Tag: vacation

Aug.7, 2001

08:30 Helsinki. My stomach aches from breakfast. Oh! Kaisa. Going to the fortress of Finland.

11:45 Coming back from the fortress on a ferry. Ghosts stories to tell. Dark tunnels. Granite walls. I wonder if you can ride a mountain bike through there?

13:00 Fast, fast, fast food. Stomach churning. Burgers by some brown brothers is good.

13:25 Going back into Helsinki. Tour of the city. What’s her name? Tuija. Arne are our guides. 5 million people. 500,00 in the city.

15:00 Rock Church. Looks like the Planet of the Apes church. Blasted out of rock.

21:05 After dinner walk and wrote some email for outragous prices. Still feel fat.

Helsinki, Finland. Very neet place. Land of Linux. In fact the tour guide pointed out Linus Torvalds house or the house he had lived in as a child. They are really proud of him there. The city is small. The island fortress was cool. The Finns call there homeland Suomi. I want to go back.

Aug. 6, 2001

01:00 We are losers!! Hot chicks. We are losers. At the Disco. Old man at the disco.

07:50 Woke up early for tour of Stockholm. Breakfast. Wait for tour to start.

08:00 Viking greet us on shore. Note next time Walter take axe. Nynashamn w/Avia our tour guide. Uva is our bus driver and he’s a viking.

15:10 Gerry is late. Gustav built this town of Stockholm. Visited Valhalla.

16:00 Goodbye, Sweden.

Stockholm, Sweden was cool and grey. The port of Nynashamn on the Baltic was very pretty. Situated in a calm bay, it looked like a dock on a lake.

Aug. 5, 2001

15:20 Woke up @ 11:00. Breakfast. Now wandering the ship looking for things to do.

17:45 Getting dressed. Lots of wrinkles. Am I wearing something good for formal?

This must be the day we spent on board at sea. Also, the formal Captain’s Dinner occured that evening. On a cruise, there is usually nothing to do but eat, since the food is free. It’s the drinks that cost something, even the drinks at the casino.

Aug. 4, 2001

07:30 Free porn in the morning. Got to get up.

08:25 Breakfast. Check in.

09:00 Copenhagen City Tour. Winnie is our guide. Christian is our driver.

10:30 Palace of the Queen. Beautiful wood floors. I wonder if Pergo makes them. Sleepy.

Saw the famous little mermaid on this tour. My brother started his hot dogs of the world tour with a red pulsa in the park.

8/3/2001

07:10 Iceland!! 48°F in summer. Cool. What time is it?

12:50 Danish time!! Jumping and dancing in the sky. Not to much sleep so far. Land this sucker. Icy stewardess.

14:15 Denmark time. Danish Kronar. Simon is our guide. Mom’s hand carry is on the other bus. Bye. Bye. 4 billion bridge!!

14:50 Radisson Hotel. Confused because too much to do. It’s a beautiful hotel. Getting registered for the cruise.

15:50 We’re going out to town. Mistaken as a porter by some guests. Porn on TV. “Log Jammin'”

19:00 Tivoli Gardens is nothing more than Busch Gardens in Denmark. Can’t wait until Duff Gardens opens. Feet sore. Tired. Dinner at Shanghai Garden. Farther from home, the more we eat Chinese. Gerry is sleeping.

We went through European customs in Iceland, and then in two hours, we caught our transfer to Copenhagen, Denmark. This was the proper start of the cruise. We would stay in the city for a day before boarding the ship.

Now Copenhagen is a fine city from what I have seen of it. Tivoli Gardens is there amusement park featured in the center of the city. Some Filipino maids told us how to get there by walking. Almost all maids or hotels workers we ran into were Filipinos. The main attraction is a shopping promenade which we walked and found a Chinese restaurant. The waiter was from Canada and complained about the taxes. Across the street was the a large Tuborg Beer sign. The suite we had in the hotel must have been the business man special, because we got porn movies. We did not watch much because I thought we would have to pay for it. The porn was not on the hotel bill I paid.

Aug. 3, 2001

0:30? -> I don’t know the time. Walked around the plane. Drunks in the back. When do we land? listening to the oldies channel. Better than really bad Euro film, “Russian Doll.” Naked Mariah Carey on the screen?

??? 2 hours to go. The kids in the front ringing the stewardess button. Hot stewardesses. Blonde!

??? Greenland on the left and the sun’s coming up. That’s so cool. The kids up front finally losing their energy and going to sleep. Waiting for “start me up.”

It was a six hour flight to Iceland where we had a lay over before continuing onto Copenhagen, Denmark. We left around 8:30 pm, which would have put us in Iceland around 2:30 am EDT or about 6:30 in the morning. Smokers and drinkers were in the back. The movie was atrocious and must have catered to the Europeans on the flight, so I didn’t bother to watch it. Greenland was a darker shade in the dark shadows of night. I think there was no moon during the flight. Greenland loomed rather large in the plane’s window or was it just the Artic Ocean? The onboard radio station had only one good channel of music and also, I believe, a comedy channel. I remember listening to Neil Young’s “The needle and the damage done” at least 10 times during the trip if not more. Made me want to learn the song on my guitar. Can’t wait to see Iceland’s airport. I want to see land soon.

Aug. 2, 2001

Iceland Air

20:00 -> plane to Reykjavik is late will board @ 20:20

22:45 -> served dinner. stuffed shells & spinach, salad, bread, choc. cake. bland but good to fill stomach

I was raring to get this vacation going. Nervous, because of flying. Anxious to see Scandinavia. Was dying to see Iceland. Interesting that I noted the airline food. Iceland Air was not a major airline. I think that it is somewhat a budget way to travel to Europe. The best thing is that they have direct flights from BWI. No need to stop at Newark or JFK for an international flight; it’s just one airport to Europe.