Last day abroad!

I woke up feeling a lot better - probably because I knew I was soon to be on a plane home. Lesson - whilst lots of stopovers are nice, don't go crazy. The trip home can be short.
I packed up my stuff, checked out, and left my stuff at the front desk and wandered up the street to a large temple. Probably the Akasaka Temple, but not sure. It was nuts - very high up, with escalators leading to the top! I wandered around and got some photos, then headed back to collect my stuff.
I headed to Ueno to store my bag and go see some stuff before heading to the airport for my early evening flight. I went back to my lovely tourist information people who gave me directions to the Museum of Contemporary Art and headed my way to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station. At the station, I was a little lost, but then saw that the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art had little signs posted showing the way. So, I walked for about fifteen or twenty minutes only to discover that it was closed! Argh! I was so disappointed, and talking to other people since, I have heard it is an amazing gallery. I can't believe they close the whole joint to change the exhibits rather that just closing a wing or two at a time. The perils of travelling out of season. Luckily, as I left the station, I noticed a large enclosed garden, so I headed back and discovered the Kiyosumi Gardens. Incidentally, it was raining all day - not heaps, but enough to require sporadic use of umbrella, which I found very annoying. I paid some amount to get in, and wandered through the peaceful scenery taking lots and lots of photos. I really like the description on the brochure: "Famous stones, greenery and history reflected in pond". I don't think that sounds very nice at all - but it really was gorgeous.
From there I wandered through a park with several amusing no-dog signs, and then headed back to Ueno. I still had probably five hours before my flight, so I thought I'd spend perhaps an hour in the park at Ueno, then head to the airport. And I did just that - for about an hour, wandered through aimlessly, enjoying the sights. Then, grabbed my bag, to the airport and as it happens, had to wait for ages to check in because it seems I arrived at the prime time for check in for my flight, annoying.
Flight was fine, at Sydney I had to grab my stuff, transfer to the domestic terminal, then check in to Melbourne. The nice thing about this was that Mum and Dad able to meet me as I walked off the plane rather than having to wait for me to get through customs. The not nice thing was that the luggage from Sydney took longer to get off the plane than anywhere overseas. Hopeless. Embarrassing also, as the first thing to come through was my umbrella, which I had to jostle my way through to get, only to discover that it wasn't mine, and put it back when my umbrella came through. Seemed like I was wasting everyone's time over an umbrella... oh, well, we all got our stuff, and that's all that matters. And I was home. Back in Australia, having missed an extremely mild summer for some quite cold conditions - although in the week after I returned, suddenly high 30s were the fashionable place for the temperature to sit. Argh!

Hiroshima

I had a reasonable sleep, although my room was so hot, and the window provided little relief. So, I got up early to get an early train to Hiroshima to try to get as much time during the daylight hours as possible. I was on the train about 7:30 or so, and the train took about three hours. I got off at Hiroshima and I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was not all of the massive billboards and noise and etc. just like Tokyo. I guess I hadn't really considered the size or long history of this city. So, using my very, very poor map, went searching for stuff. I thought I'd start at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and then work my way across the map, but, lo and behold, I got lost. I was following the river, and what I thought was the road (at least in Kyoto I picked up a map that had street names. This time, I had a map with no street names. Annoying.) but it turns out, it wasn't. Plus, only the main roads were on the map, which was especially annoying because I had thought that I was on a main road, but they all looked main. But, I had a smile on my face because the traffic lights make interesting noises. Let's face it, everything in Japan makes interesting noises, but the 'wait' and 'go' sounds on the traffic lights for the sight impaired are kind of like unusual bird calls. I'm not totally sure, but I think they are different depending on which direction you are crossing the road. Anyhow, after totally not figuring out where I wanted to be, I just wandered. Eventually, in the distance, I saw Hiroshima Castle. I thought I'd head there later, but would go for a wander first. I checked out the Museum of Art, (not contemporary art) but there was something on which didn't grab me - I can't recall what it was.
So, I kept wandering and made it to the A-Bomb Dome - which is pretty much the only structure remaining in Hiroshima after the bombing. Pretty amazing and moving stuff. There were structural tests being carried out on the dome, so scaffolding was around it, but this didn't take away from its intensity for me. From here, I headed past many of the memorials set up around the town and headed to the Peace Memorial Museum. I was just ahead of a bus group, and so enjoyed wandering through the museum relatively alone - it was, as you can imagine, very moving, with lots of documents and personal stories from the day of the bombing and the time afterwards. Horrible. I couldn't get through all of the personal accounts, and headed out into the rain. I headed back towards the castle, getting more and more grumpy (how unusual) and decided to get directions to the station to go home. But, when I asked for directions at the gift shop, the salesperson sold me an umbrella, very funky see-through number, and I investigated Hiroshima Castle for a while.
Eventually, I really had enough, so meandered my way back to the station, and back to Tokyo, back to bed for my last night before returning home.

Koyoto

I had hoped that a long sleep would allow me to wake refreshed and feeling great about the world. It didn't. I had a bath, then grabbed everything I needed and headed to the front desk. I thought if I can just get into the Internet, do a bit of research, get the info Deb from work had given to me (and i had left at home, and Mum had searched for and found and emailed to me) then I'll be ok. Ha! I'd gotten a map for getting to an Internet cafe the day before from the concierge, a lovely girl. I now asked the two men behind the desk where I could find tourist information. Blank stares. I asked about 10 times, trying different ways, they tried desperately to help me, eventually we all gave up. I screamed inside a little. Then, spent half an hour traipsing up and down the street where the Internet cafe allegedly was but not finding it. I asked several different people in convenience stores and coffee shops - no luck. I had a coffee. I screamed inside, had a minor panic and thought about the fact that I don't even know where in Tokyo I am, or what station serves Tokyo... is there a Tokyo station? I then remembered that I had my train maps in my bag. I grabbed them out, had a look and discovered that yes, there is a Tokyo station, but that Ueno was probably better for me as it has a tourist information booth. I got a station person to help me figure out my fare (it was wrong, but rather than getting in trouble for not having the right fare, you just see the fare adjustment person who issues you with the correct ticket and you pay the additional if you need to) and made it to Ueno. And then set about finding the tourist information. Which ended up being crazy difficult, because the tourist information is in the other Ueno station. There are two. How I was supposed to know this, I don't know. A Starbucks employee helped me out.

I found it, eventually, and it opened at 10. It was 9:30. I screamed a lot inside, then grabbed a sandwich and coffee from the shop next to the tourist information booth and sat and waited. When they opened, I went over and asked for directions to an Internet cafe. They spoke perfect English, (and no, I'm not one of these people who think everyone should speak my language etc. etc., but I was terribly relieved to get good, clear directions which I fully understood. If you were unsure previously, you should know that I have a terrible sense of direction... more of that shortly...) and gave me very, very clear directions on how to get to the Internet cafe. It was upstairs above a shop, and had very kooky beds which you can lie in whilst playing Internet games and the like. Essentially, you are booked into a booth where you stay as long as you require then pay on the way out. Apparently, a lot of people do online gaming and stuff overnight. I only wanted minimal time there, and so tried to keep it just under twenty minutes, but still ended up paying for 30. Whatever. As I hadn't figured out the exchange rate (and did not manage to get my head around this the whole trip), I may never know how much it actually cost. The Internet there drove me nuts, because whilst I managed the multiple language keyboard in Finland, in Japan, the keyboard was fine, but I kept getting error messages in Japanese and had no way of figuring out what to do. Being grumpy Margaret, I just copied down the information I wanted and left. Possibly overcharged. Whatever. By this stage, I was just so over it...

All I knew was that I wanted to escape. I didn't want to think, I didn't want to talk, I just wanted to sit. If my hotel had been any more comfortable, I may well have just escaped there. Luckily for me and my travelling experience, it was too hot and pokey and not welcoming for just hanging out. So, I went back to the very helpful tourist information people. One thing Deb had suggested was a daytrip starting at Kyoto looking at the Temples, then stopping in Hiroshima. When I spoke to the tourist info folks, they said that there is not enough time in one day to do both. Perhaps in summer it is ok, but the days were kind of short (nothing compared to Helsinki, but still short). So, Kyoto it was.

I grabbed a ticket for who knows how many yen and jumped on the Shinkansen, the fast train, to Kyoto. Absolutely beautiful - the scenery was amazing, and it is a very fast train! It was probably about two hours, and when I arrived there, I went straight to the information booth to get ideas on where to go. In Tokyo I'd been given a couple of absolutely useless maps, and the lovely rotary man at the info booth gave me a slightly better one and the advice to make sure I saw the famous bamboo forest -so famous I've never heard of it. Actually, I think that may say more about my knowledge than anything else... I jumped on a local train to the area which had a lot of temples, and possibly a palace. Kyoto is particularly famous for the temples. I looked at the map and planned a route (unusual for me, I know) and then set off. And got lost. Quite spectactularly lost, actually. I just kept wandering, and seemed to be heading into farm land, but didn't really want to just turn around. The light seemed already to be dimming as the place I was wandering was in a valley, so eventually I asked a little old local lady to show me where we were on the map. And, in any indication of how bad the map was, she couldn't. But we walked a bit, I stopped to take photos whilst she continued to walk, and then she figured it out and pointed it out. Surely enough, I found my way back to the main road, just in time to find that the temple I wanted to see was closed. But about five minutes. Nice one. So, I then wandered up to the bamboo forest. The sun had gone behind the mountain top by this stage, but it wasn't too dark yet. Who should I bump into? The lady who gave me directions. We laughed and waved and I said "konnichiwa" and she was very excited at my one word of Japanese. And so was I. I then decided to meander my way back to the train. Kyoto was definately a delightful place to wander through, and there were temples and little shrines and the like everywhere, which was gorgeous. But, my mood really wasn't much better, so back to Tokyo.

By the time I got back to Tokyo it was well and truly dark, although not really all that late. I had planned to go to Hirshima the next day and was not sure how late i would be home, so I decided to check out the night lights. According to Deb's notes, Hibiya???? was a good place with all of the massive billboards and screens and the like, so I decided to check it out. It was impressive and bright and fantastic, but grumpy Margaret didn't want to stay long, so just shot off a couple of snaps, wandered for a couple of minutes, and headed back to the hotel and sleep. I can't remember where else I ate - I think I grabbed a bento box at the station which I ate on the train, and perhaps just had some stuff from the 7Eleven when I got home... Cannot recall. Kept thinking I should go to a restaurant, but didn't really feel like interacting.

Konnichiwa

So, after a long and annoying flight, I arrived in Tokyo. I was grumpy, tired, confused and not in the mood to deal with yet another country. That was my downfall, I think. I was overtired, and I was ready to be at home, and I was not wanting to deal with language and transport I wasn't familiar with and money which I couldn't get my head around. But, I came up with a mantra for the last few days - fake it til you make it. I didn't want to just sit in my hotel room and read and sleep and watch TV, I wanted to attempt to appreciate where I was. So, I started faking it. And I think I really started to let go of my angst and truly enjoy myself about 2 hours before I headed to the airport to return to Australia... but have been left with the strong will to return to Japan and do it properly!

When you get off the plane at Tokyo Airport (Narita), you need to catch a tram to the main terminal. It is weird, and the first place you start to see that the cartoons are really based on reality. There are little musical noises that accompany everything and reassuring female voices giving messages in Japanese and English. The tram/bus thing is on a track, but it doesn't have a driver, so the carriage fills up and then it trots along to the terminal. From there, I grabbed my bags and found tourist information to figure out how to get to the hotel I had booked. I love the way the tourist information works here - they have either colour brochures or colour computer printouts of maps and the draw arrows for where you need to walk and circle where you need to go.

The train into Tokyo took quite a while - perhaps an hour or so, (although I just looked at Wikipedia and it says two hours) and this is when I started to nod off. It was not the more luxury airport train I caught, but the standard rail train thingy, although I have a feeling I paid for the more expensive one. Annoying. The scenery was quite varied on the way in - lots of small towns sparsely spread out in the mountains, then getting more suburban to finally the city. Throughout my time in Japan, I loved seeing all of the standard suburban buildings then suddenly a random temple!

Once at Nippori station, I made the change to the Odakyu line, with the confusing help of several of the transport worked. Annoyingly, at Nippori there are kind of two stations, Nippori and Nishi-Nappori, and I found it extremely difficult on several occasions to negotiate my way between the two. Note - I did see the men in the uniforms with the white gloves that is typical on YouTube, but I have not experienced them pushing large crowds onto the train. In fact, almost everywhere in Japan was very quiet. It must have been the time of the year and the lack of tourists, or perhaps just the areas I went to, but Japan seemed empty. I liked it.

I eventually made it to Akasaka and followed the directions to my hotel. I was a bit concerned, because it gave distances in time travelled (walk for 5 minutes) rather than distance, but before I needed to ask anyone, I found my hotel. Sure enough, I couldn't check in, but thank goodness, I could leave my massive bag. I asked the concierge where I could go to fill in a few hours - she seemed very confused. Eventually, I suggested perhaps there was a park nearby (the sun was shining, and after lots of very cold weather, I was looking forward to any outdoors warmth). She gave me a little coloured map and showed me where there was a local park which was directly next door to a massive shopping mall. I thanked her and wandered around to the park. It was very nice - one section had a beautiful Japanese garden with little water falls and bamboo sculptures, I sat there listening to some podcasts and watching the water for quite some time. There was also some modern art - I think there was a gallery also in the park, but I was too tired to cope with investigating that. I sat outside and watched a lot of people with their very small dogs and felt a bit homesick for my own small dog. My favourite moment, which my nephews loved hearing about, was when I saw a woman crouching by her dog and I thought she must just be getting a bag up for its business. Then, she pulled out a tissue and a little spray bottle, sprayed the tissue and wiped the dog's rear end - yuk! I wished I had been closer to get a photo. I soon found out why there were so many well groomed dogs in the area - inside the shopping centre there was an exclusive dog shop with grooming facilities. I nearly bought some crazy dog treats and toys but was unsure of the exchange rate and didn't want to spend $75 on a dog chew or something equally ridiculous. I spent quite a bit of time just sitting on the bench listening to podcasts (in Japan i got through almost an entire year of Radiotherapy and Einstein-a-go-go) and watching people. A lot of people walk through the gardens, and a lot of people sit and eat their lunch and read books. And why wouldn't you? It was lovely. I was in a t-shirt, with the sun on my face and arms. I eventually decided to check out the shopping mall, which seemed like a very exclusive place - lots of open space, shiny floors and felt like everything would be expensive. Upstairs was the Suntory Museum of Art, so I decided to go in. This was where I discovered more of the wonderful quirkiness of Japan - there were free lockers for your bags and jackets, and free umbrella lockers. I'm not sure if I can explain these. Like a wine rack (for very small bottles) on its side so the the umbrella could be placed in an individual hole, which would lock around it so that your umbrella was safe. Funny! The exhibit which was on at this time was Export Lacquer: Reflection of the West in Black and Gold Makie, which was the history of Makie work, which I had never heard of. It was beautiful, but I was not really in the mood to study this master craft work in detail. Quite frankly, I was falling asleep. I decided to see if the hotel would mind if I just sat on the couches in the foyer, and luckily for me, they were happy to let me up to my room early. I went to my overheated room, had a quick shower and jumped into bed. For about 14 hours. Can't say it was the most satisfying sleep, but at least there was lots of it!

Ah, Finnlandia

It's April.  I guess I have had little time to finish the last five days of my travel blog, although thinking about it immediately prior to getting the old laptop set up, I think there have been a couple of psychological factors.  Firstly, the longer I leave something, the more difficult I find it to return to it.  I just need to look at the large stack of half-read books by my bed to get that.  Secondly, I didn't really enjoy my last few days. But, I'll write more on that when I get to Japan. And why would I really want to document stuff I didn't really enjoy (especially when it is likely to sound quite good.  Ah, the human mind!)? But the biggest thing is that when I've written it down, it is really over.  Having said that, I just had a bit of a look through all of my receipts and stuff to get a few maps to remember place names and stuff, and I'll get to do some reliving come tax time!

So, I'm at Beach Rd, sitting on the couch, I have the wireless keyboard on my lap, Bop with his Elizabethan collar on (having had a small fatty lump removed from his elbow, plus two dew claws removed from his back legs) laying alongside me, and I am going to attempt to finish this blog.  Although, given how long it takes, it may need to be finished tomorrow... I'll have it done by the end of Easter, I swear!

So, last entry was the Estonia entry  -what a beautiful trip!  Of course, it had left me with chilblains or frostbite or something all over my legs, so I was not the most comfortable of people - if I had my lovely thermal underwear on, I was ok, but just the baggy jeans tended to rub against the sore skin and made me miserable. My legs had patches of sandpaper roughness for absolutely weeks - it was not very pleasant.

I just went back and quickly read my other entries from Finland - I am hoping to not be too repetitive.  Just had to check that I hadn't complained about the room yet.  The room was fine.  If I ever get around the adding photos to this post, I will put the photo on.  Small room, clean, basic.  Own sink and tea making facilities.  Little cupboard.  Single bed.  Oh so hot.  Had I realised how hot it was going to be in the hotel room in Tokyo, I would have ditched my lovely thermal pyjamas then and there. I have a real issue with accommodation in centrally heated locations that don't allow you to turn off the heat in your room or have  a decent window to open - having said that, I didn't actually ask if I could turn off the heat.  I opened the window, and tried to keep it open during the day, but the latch was broken and it would slam shut.  Sometimes in the middle of the night - good sleeping!

My last day in Finland - I had a pretty decent sleep and got up about 9 or so for breakfast.  Then, packed up all of my stuff into my trusty massive backpack and the lovely little bag I bought at a craft shop (the tourist info makes much of the craft shops, which I thought would be a bit, well, crafty, but actually they were very cool  - often a series of artists who shared shop space.  I bought a few gifts for others and for myself.  Very nice.) and headed into town.  I was meeting Anna at a specific time (and almost three months later, I cannot actually remember what time it was).  I dumped my bag into a locker at the station and wandered over to Kiasma to meet Anna.  Locker security - in London and Edinburgh, they have a guy who takes your bag, pops it through an ex-ray machine, and it is very safe and secure.  In Finland and Japan, it's the old school coin operated locker system.  Interesting.  Well, probably not, actually.

Anna and I had a coffee, the headed in to look at the exhibits.  As I think I mentioned when I went to the exhibit with Dukes in London, I'm not really great at going to stuff with people. I tend to wander off a bit, and I don't expect them to wait for me if I like something, or to be offended with me if I walk off.  It was easy with Anna, possibly partly because I had seen half of the stuff  and didn't mind racing through some stuff.  Also because she was marvellously critical of a lot of it - not rude, just "I don't get it".  I found one of the museum booklets for an exhibit called Full House which was "The Kouri collection of American Minimalist Adventures" and recalled "Untitled (Public Opinion)" by Felix Gonzalez-Torres which was essentially a large pile of licorice candies (wrapped) piled into the corner or a room.  The sign said you should take one, so we did, and were very happy about it - art that really gives back!

After the Kiasma, Anna and I headed to a Nepalese restaurant near the Theatre building next to the station.  Beautiful meal, then we said our goodbyes and I jumped on a train to the airport.  Fairly uneventful wait for the plane... I think it may have been delayed, but I can't quite remember... no. actually, it wasn't.  I'd been vaguely hoping for a delay, as I was checked in to a hotel in Tokyo which I couldn't go in until 4 and knew I would be tired and wanting a shower.  I was due to arrive in Tokyo about 10am, wasn't wanting to carrying my huge backpack around for hours.  Anyhow, uneventful flight.  I couldn't sleep, so I watched some crappy movies (and some good ones... but lots of crappy ones) and that takes me to arriving in Tokyo.

Estonia! Who'd have thought?

After my night on the town in Helsinki, it was quite hard to get myself out of bed to head off for my day in Estonia, but I managed. I grabbed a quick bite at the Hostel (salad on the breakfast buffet… I could never get used to that!) I grabbed a tram in to the station, and successfully found the next bus to the ferry. Once there, I exchanged my receipt for tickets and waited four almost an hour to board. I finished my book (The Book Thief) and had a little cry in a quiet part of the boarding hall – such a wonderful book! Annoying, though, because it meant I had to carry the book with me all day – dumb. The ferry was very warm, and so I (in the bathroom, obviously) removed my thermals – big mistake. Well, the mistake was not popping to the loo at the ferry arrival lounge to put them back on – the queue for the loo when we were arriving was far too long, so no luck there. By the end of today, I had chilblains (or frostbite – essentially, it was like I had been sunburnt through my jeans) thanks to the lack of warmth. Stupid. Ferry ride was quite boring – not much to see, once Finland was gone and until Estonia turned up.

In the arrivals hall, I met my guide. I’ve forgotten her name, unfortunately, but I think it was Girta, or something close to this. I was the only member of the tour group, so I was very lucky to have such personalized service! We met the driver of the car, a nice Estonian man who kept making a joke from Police Academy (“Move it!”) and was, I think, slightly offended when I didn’t laugh on the thirtieth time the joke was made.

The tour commenced with about an hour in the car getting a feel for the wider town (city?) of Tallinn and some of the sights. Estonia separated from the Soviet Union in 1988, and had been under Soviet rule for fifty years or so prior to this, and a lot of the tour covered what life was like during this time. We drove past many old wooden buildings, some of which were restored, which had fallen to ruin during the Soviet time, apparently because all property was shared, and people were moved in and out of houses with very little notice. There was very little rent paid, and the consequence was that there was very little incentive to maintain properties properly. Once Estonia broke free, property was returned to the original owners, but few people could afford (and still can not) to restore their properties, so they stand in ruin. Some have been demolished, most are covered in graffiti and are falling apart. Those that have been restored are gorgeous – beautiful Gothic sort of designs, lots of detail in the woodwork. We stopped at Kadriorg, which houses the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art (or possibly just art in general…) designed by the same person who designed Kiasma in Helsinki. We walked though a minute amount of snow down to the Palace and saw the gorgeous gardens with all of the plants covered for the cold (I can really understand why most people travel in summer, I really missed a lot of things by being out of season). This park is gradually being restored, as Peter the Great (Peter I of Russia) did not complete his plans before he died. The guide was very impressed and continually pointed out the fact that you could see through the park to the sea. I wasn’t so impressed by this.

We then headed to the outdoor music stadium that is sort of like the Myer Music Bowl, but a lot larger (I think). Apparently, a choir of 30,000 can stand on the stage and sing. I have such a terrible sense of space and size, so I cannot tell if this is the case at all… looking at it, it seemed possible, but then 30,000 are so many… In the winter, the amphitheatre grounds are opened up for people to sled down – and there were heaps of kids sledding along, looked like fun!

We then drove through a lot of the new buildings to the old convent that is a very basic ruin. Tall, pointy, triangular stone walls left and not much else. But, this can be seen clearly from all over town. From here, a quick drive through the main part of Tallinn (with a lot of very impressively ugly buildings from the Soviet time). We got dropped off at the gates of old Tallinn and commenced the walking tour. I think we walked for about an hour and a half before lunch. There were many beautiful old buildings, and we went through the ornately decorated Orthodox Church. The old town is made up of two sections – the upper and lower town. I cannot recall who she said lived there during Soviet rule – prior to this, it was divided into different areas for different people, but apparently very few Estonians. Now, foreign groups – mostly embassies and the like, in particular own most of the upper town.

Wages in Estonia are still very low, and cost of living is relatively high. After Soviet rule, there was a strange system put in place to distribute housing to those who had not previously owned property, or those who needed housing. Essentially, for every year each family member had lived in the (mostly) apartments, they were granted a certain amount of square footage. I’m not sure of what happened if you did not have enough to cover the whole apartment, but it basically meant that there was no cost to own your own property. However, the deal was not totally fair as some people had newer, better places than others. Most people live in new Tallinn, as it is very very expensive to live in Old Tallinn and it is generally all tourism now – cafes, souvenir shops, craft and art shops and the like.

I needed a loo stop, and luckily one of the shops was open – I had to pay to use the toilet, but it was so cool – deep under ground, I had to walk through a system of cave/cellar type things to go through to the bathroom. I regret not getting a couple of snaps here – and not putting those damned thermals on. We then continued through the upper town to the lookout which was very spectacular, however really shows how much the harsh revolting architecture of the Soviet rule jars with the beauty of the old town. We walked through a street called Bloody Alley which was called this because it was so narrow that two men on horses or two women with the large dresses of the time could not pass, and regularly duels were fought over who should pass first - eventually, the men had an agreement that they would both compliment the beauty of the other’s wife, proclaiming her to be far more beautiful than their own (whilst neither believed it) and they could pass – and for women, the younger allowed the older to pass. Less blood on the alley then.

There are two paths/streets down to the lower town – the long leg and the short leg (and that is their names in Estonian… too cute!). We took the short leg, I believe, and wandered through the beautiful houses and shops to end up at the St Petersburg Hotel where we had lunch.  Most of the year the tour groups have their lunch in a restaurant which serves traditional Estonian fare, however it is closed for renovations.  For once, being out of season has worked to my advantage - the hotel is beautiful, and I imagine usually probably out of my price range.  However, it was worked into the cost of the tour (which, even though it included ferry, guide and lunch, was maybe a bit pricey, but I personally think it was so, so, so very much worth it).  The normal restaurant is owned by the same group who own the St Petersburg Hotel, and so they keep the meals happening in the hotel during renovations to maintain the partnership.  The staff were in traditional Russian outfits - I want to say Cossack, but I am not familiar with exactly what that means.  The restaurant was very, very ornately decorated, with traditional Russian paintings and sculptures on the walls and every surface, beautiful crockery and cutlery, some just for show, very wow.  It was a little odd having a candlelit dinner with the tour guide - I had originally thought she was in her late 60s (but a very sprightly and fit late 60s) but she mentioned that she could retire at 54, so she was clearly a lot younger - life under the soviets was hard.  The conversation covered a lot, including the fact that the young people in Estonia really do not comprehend what their own families went through - so many people sent to Siberia and never seen again, and the food shortages and oppression and all of that.  It's amazing to think - I know I couldn't really have any concept, or real understanding, of what she had lived through.  She told of an English professor at her university (she attended university and during Soviet rule was a translator in a factory - she spoke Estonian, Russian, Finnish, English, and a little German and Italian) who was married to an Estonian poet and whilst they could see the Soviet forces gathering (many Estonians fled to Finland and Sweden around this time) he stayed hoping it would get better, and when the occupation occurred, he could not leave, and so I believe he died without ever seeing his beloved England again.  Another topic of conversation was language, as  apparently Finnish and Estonian are very similar, although the differences are quite pointed (the word for husband in one is prisoner in the other...).

Lunch was delicious - a beautiful pea soup followed by a chicken schnitzel (well, sort of, not quite, but close) with mashed potato and salad and an absolutely gorgeous cheesecake dessert, only their cheesecake is nothing like ours - far richer and more, actually I don't know how describe it.  Amazing, served with beautiful fruit.

After lunch, the guide showed me a few last things, and then left me to wander the old town on my own, having given me a very clear path to the pick up point for the driver who was to taken me to the ferry at eight.  I had wondered earlier in the day if I should offer a tip, as in many countries it is expected, but wasn't sure, and as it happened, it would have been most awkward as she disappeared.  On my own, I wandered past many of the places that she had recommended, including an old building which now hosts eight female artists creating beautiful clothes, leather goods and all sorts of stuff.  I probably wandered for about an hour, it was getting quite dark but was still only about 4:30 or so (lunch was very late in the afternoon).  I visited some shops, but bought little because I couldn't get my head around the exchange rate between the Estonian EEK (Kroner - but how cool is the EEK!) and the Euro, so wasn't sure what I was paying.  I was absolutely freezing, and decided that enough was enough, and headed to the hotel where I was to be picked up from.

This hotel has a four story shopping centre around it, and whilst I was not in the mood to shop, I did need a new book, and the guide had mentioned to me that there was a good bookshop there.  So, I found it, browsed the surprisingly large English language section for a while before eventually settling on Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Saffran-Foer, which is now one of my favourite books ever.  In the hotel foyer, with about an hour and a half until pick-up time, I bought an hour of Internet time and a beer and did a bit of the blog, and then sat and read until the driver arrived.  He dropped me off at the ferry and I made him laugh by, instead of saying goodbye saying "Move it, move it!" Ferry ride was very uneventful and very empty, and it was about 11:30 by the time I got back to the accommodation.  In the shared area on my floor were two very ugly men watching TV and smoking until all hours, which was a bit annoying.  What a long day!

Long nights in Finland

Sibelius. That's the name of the composer. So, I am well and truly back in Melbourne now, and have not been inspired to finish the blog. But, after three days over over 40 degree heat, and several more prior to that in the 30s, it is now a balmy 25 (I can't believe it! They said 37! This is just lovely!) and I again feel like doing something more than stting in front of an air conditioner reading. Not a lot more, mind you, but something. I've just spent a fair whack of time searching for an English translation of "Missa Kuljimme Kerran" which is the Finnish play I went to see in Helsinki. The title means "Where we once walked" and it is the story of Helsinki between the two world wars. It was written by Finnish author Kjell Westo who writes in Swedish (Finnish and Swedish are both the official language of Finland, and all of the signs in Finland are in both, which I found most confusing as I expected the second language to be English and kept trying to read it...). It's been translated into a few languages, but not yet into English.

I left the previous post having been to Suomenlinna and returned, and then in an Internet cafe in Japan unable to email (with error messages in Japanese, I left that issue behind). Once I returned to Helsinki from Suomenlinna, I caught the tram to the Kiasma, which is the Helsinki Contemporary Art Museum. I had a little time to check it out before heading back to the hostel to meet Anna, and was concerned about whether it would be open on Sunday to see before I flew out. It was, but I took the time to quickly race through about half of the gallery. It is a beautiful gallery, a very unusual shape - like a crescent, with sort of four floors of exhibition space (architect Steven Holl, but now I have in mind Steve Holt from Arrested Development...) I say sort of, because there are sort of half floors as well as full floors, and exhibits are displayed all over - in nooks and crannies and in large spaces, and one even in a cleaner's cupboard. The current exhibition is called Pilvin pijrretty, which in English is Drawn in the clouds. It is an exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art, and there was some beautiful work. My personal favourite were the large photos by Li Wei of people in very, very unusual positions, apparently created through use of wires which are later removed from the photos. My favourite was called "Love at the High Place 1" which has a petite Asian woman seemingly spinning a man around her head by one foot... that really does not describe it well. Anyhow, I bought the catalogue because I loved these photos so much. If you would like to see more, here's his website - http://www.liweiart.com/english/works_photo.htm .

I went back to my accommodation and got changed, then hung out on the Internet and waited for Anna. Once she arrived, we headed to the first bar for a couple of beers- and I had the smart idea of putting the names of the bars into my phone. The first, Om'pu, was almost like a cafe - lots of tables and booths in rows and filled with a lot of very cool looking 20- and 30-somethings. Great for a general catch up and stuff. We then tried another, but there were no seats, so we moved on to a different one - Cafe Mascot. This was at the bottom of a large apartment building, and was a very large open space with couches and tables. Most places in Finland are either smoke free, or have a separate room for smoking, and it is usually very effective - and you can't take drinks into these rooms, so people move through quickly. A lot of people seem to smoke in Finland - more than I have seen in most places so far. And often you see them looking very cold by the door of a venue! This place was also very busy, but Anna and I joined a couple of women probably in their 40s, I'd say. I found them interesting, because it seemed like they were probably a couple who had had a fight, and I couldn't figure out why they would be out together - one simply read newspaper after newspaper, and the other stared into space. And I think eavesdropped on our conversation! Anna's boyfriend came and joined us, and we had several more drinks and chats before heading to an underground reggae venue. It was in what seemed to be a courtyarded residential building, and if you did not know where it was, you would be hard-pressed to find it! It was quite busy inside, and so once we'd checked our jackets, we managed to score a seat and amused ourselves watching the people. By now, I was quite tipsy, which was not helped by the two shots Anna bought on top of our beers... the first was like a Fisherman's Friend lolly - very, very like salty Dutch licorice. Apparently, very good for colds and making you better. By this stage, I still had an annoying cough, but was feeling a lot healthier. The other was a more typical Finnish shot, but I cannot recall much about the taste. Except that I liked it! The funniest moment was spotting a guy with low slung pants at the bar - so low slung, that his entire bottom was hanging out. He was a little drunk, so did not notice for a while, which was actually not so pleasant for those of us watching! Eventually, I had to leave, because I am up early in the morning, heading to Estonia, but by the time I had gone to the loo, I met them again at the coat check and we walked home together.