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Hi! I am back! It was awesome!
Things I learned:
1) Northern Europe looks very much like northern Ontario. (It's a latitude thing)
2) Northern Europe is insanely expensive. Like, insanely.
3) It's really strange when the sun is still up at 11:00 p.m. (those of you in Alaska/northern Canada already know this, but still...)
4) Everyone hates the Nazis. Except the Germans, who hate the Russians. And the Swedes, who don't want to talk about it, thanks.
5) St. Petersburg is...overwhelming is probably the best word.
6) Mediaeval architecture, Soviet era architecture, and modern architecture do not blend as seamlessly as you'd imagine.
7) Cyrillic made my brain hurt. I wanted to read it all. (Never mind that figuring out what sounds the letters made hardly helped at all when the actual words meant nothing.)
8) I still don't much like fish, no matter how freshly caught.
9) Denmark (the Copenhagen bit of it, atleast) appears to be obsessed with McDonalds. Five of them in one mall? Why?
10) Tallinn was a revelation. A lovely mediaeval town worth a visit. (I'd ask our tour guide about a building and he'd say - "Oh, that's of no historical significance - it's only from the seventeenth century.")
11) Copenhagen - rush hour - we counted 500 bicycles in 20 minutes. An alarming number of these cyclists were texting while they pedalled in crowds 50 thick. Almost no one wore a helmet. Sigh. Humans.
12) I'm glad I took a hoody. And a raincoat.
So what have you all been up to??
Things I learned:
1) Northern Europe looks very much like northern Ontario. (It's a latitude thing)
2) Northern Europe is insanely expensive. Like, insanely.
3) It's really strange when the sun is still up at 11:00 p.m. (those of you in Alaska/northern Canada already know this, but still...)
4) Everyone hates the Nazis. Except the Germans, who hate the Russians. And the Swedes, who don't want to talk about it, thanks.
5) St. Petersburg is...overwhelming is probably the best word.
6) Mediaeval architecture, Soviet era architecture, and modern architecture do not blend as seamlessly as you'd imagine.
7) Cyrillic made my brain hurt. I wanted to read it all. (Never mind that figuring out what sounds the letters made hardly helped at all when the actual words meant nothing.)
8) I still don't much like fish, no matter how freshly caught.
9) Denmark (the Copenhagen bit of it, atleast) appears to be obsessed with McDonalds. Five of them in one mall? Why?
10) Tallinn was a revelation. A lovely mediaeval town worth a visit. (I'd ask our tour guide about a building and he'd say - "Oh, that's of no historical significance - it's only from the seventeenth century.")
11) Copenhagen - rush hour - we counted 500 bicycles in 20 minutes. An alarming number of these cyclists were texting while they pedalled in crowds 50 thick. Almost no one wore a helmet. Sigh. Humans.
12) I'm glad I took a hoody. And a raincoat.
So what have you all been up to??
