Baltic Cruise: Days 1-3
Page 1: Tues., June 29 to Friday,
July 1. (Amsterdam airport, Copenhagen)
Page 2: Sat., July 2- Sun. July
3 (Estonia, St. Petersburg)
Page 3: Sun. July 4 - Mon. July
5 (St. Petersburg, Helsinki)
Page 4: Wed., July 6 - Thurs., July
7 (Stockholm and Visby, Sweden.
Page 5: Fri. July 8 - Mon. July 11 (Wismar and Schwerin, Germany; Aarhus, Denmark; Copenhagen again!)
Wed., June 29, 2005
Amsterdam, 2 p.m. local time
At the airport, waiting for my flight to Copenhagen after a day fraught with delays and weird turn-arounds.
Yesterday, Laura (my roommate and companion on my last 3 Geek cruises) called about an hour and a half before we were to pick her up and take her to the airport. She’d been up all night with a sick dog (Murphy, right) and was waiting to get in to see the Vet.
By the time I called from Chicago, he seemed to be doing better, and perhaps he’ll be well enough in the next day or so for Laura to catch up with the cruise ship. Either way, if you’re reading this, hold a good thought for them both!
It was a weird shift suddenly having to get used to the idea of doing this trip on my own. As it is, I spend so much time on airplanes by myself, it’s always a treat to travel with someone, and Laura and I travel well together.
The trip, and my connections, did not go smoothly. We were delayed getting out of Albuquerque and again in Chicago, this time for another 3 1/2 hours. When I got to Amsterdam, my SAS flight had already left so I had to walk to the opposite end of the airport (a long walk) to pick up my ticket for a KLM flight to Copenhagen. That’s where I am right now. This flight, too, seems to be delayed.
Thurs., June 30, 2005
Copenhagen, 6 p.m. local time
At the hotel, a converted warehouse with enormous timber supports and 30”-thick walls. I’m looking out at this canal with a large, 3-masted ship right out my window. Seems like a nice place. My room is hot even with the sliding door open, though a fan seems to be helping.
I should have been here hours ago, but I just got in. The flight here was fine once we finally took off—I even had an empty seat next to me (my upgrade privileges did not extend to this leg of the journey, so this helped).
Nice views from the plane, though nothing that particularly screamed “Europe” to me flying over the Netherlands. (I did see some windmills but they looked like the ones on the way to Fresno.)
I was grateful to finally get here, however I would have been infinitely happier had my luggage shown up as well... (Second trip in a row, kids!)
I’m told there are three more flights in from Amsterdam today and that it will be delivered, but there was no way of checking (they have to “file a report”) and I have nowhere to call until tomorrow morning. They gave me a very nice little toiletries bag and a white tee shirt that sort-of-almost fits, but I’m gone two weeks this time these amenities are only going to go so far.
I’m pretty high maintenance on the road and have a lot of stuff packed that will make me a lot more comfortable than I’m likely to be with what I crammed into my carry-ons, donated tee-shirt and toiletries notwithstanding. And although I’ve got my power adapter with me, my transformer is in my suitcase, which means I can’t recharge anything until I get on the ship (which has 110 power outlets), and can only work on this computer as long as the battery holds out. Or until my bag gets here.
Damn.
Copenhagen, 4:24 a.m.
A week after Solstice and the sky is alnost daytime-light just after 3 in the morning. I’ve been up for an hour after about 2 1/2 hours’ sleep.
It’s not the light that’s keeping me up, though. I’m wired and really anxious about my still-AWOL luggage. Not a word. Which could mean anything with three airlines in three countries involved.
The baggage service says they have the ship’s schedule and can deliver it to the next port but that’s still another 2 days away and a long time to go on the outfit I’ve already had on for 36 hours.
I hate the thought of trying to find a store where I can maybe find a bunch of replacements for stuff I don’t actually need beyond this current predicament. (This was hard enough in Columbus, Georgia last month!)
Meanwhile, I did do a bit of touristing last night. Met up with old friends, Aili Pogust and Terri Burik at this Brazilian restaurant with a friend of theirs who, with his partner, dances Tango for the restaurant’s patrons. A terrific and entertaining floor show, put on by this former Jersey boy and his Icelandic partner.
We didn’t stay for dinner, but walked down the pedestrian street where I grabbed a great felafel sandwich for my take-away, eat-as-we-walk dinner—and stopped by one of the local McDonalds for a placemat in Danish to add to my odd (but intriguing) foreign-placemat collection.
Then off to Tivoli gardens which we knew nothing about except it just seemed like something we needed to do since it was one of the few things in Copenhagen that we had actualy heard about.
Not quite sure what we expected (Gardens??) but were quite surprised to find it to be a theme park with lots of rides and ice cream places and a Disney-like, larger-than-life-size puppet show with fireworks.
Lovely as it was, for three women with New Jersey roots, this was a lot like going a long way to go see what basically felt like Wildwood or Asbury Park (though neither of those places, I believe, have a “Vilde Vesten” cowboy exhibit). Pretty trippy.
Speaking of trippy. The sun is up, actually shining on the rooftops of the building below my window, and it’s just past 4:30 a.m. Must sleep.
Copenhagen, 8:23 a.m.
My last thoughts before I fell asleep: At what point does this start feeling like a vacation? Well, some guy named Peter just called from the airport to say I’d have my luggage by noon, more likely, within the hour! Good start.
As they say here in Denmark (I learned this in the taxi yesterday): Mante Tak! Thank you very much!
Copenhagen, 1:25 p.m.
I’m on the ship, sitting on the deck of a stateroom that looks nearly identical to the room Laura and I had on the last cruise. And while my bag has not yet been delivered to my room, I did have it in my possession long enough to dig out one of my own tee shirts and put on something—anything!—I hadn’t been wearing for the previous 48 hours.
I’ve already met 3 guys from the Star Trek convention and some unaffiliated (but very nice) people from New York. I’m looking forward to my bag getting here and to unpacking for the next 1o days. I feel like I’ve been jumping through hurdles for the past few days and FINALLY am getting my energy back in my body. Like I’m actually, finally HERE!
At sea, out of Copenhagen, 10:45 p.m.
I’m watching a spectacular sunset, sitting in the lounge just outside the Internet cafe on the ship. I’m online, my luggage is unpacked, and I’m feeling more whole than I’ve felt since I left home.
I’m glad I came over here (to the ship) as early as I did. Once I got my stuff and settled in, I think my jet lag—or the effects of traveling and being stressed for most of the past two days—caught up to me. I shut my eyes for a minute and the next thing I knew, they were announcing lifeboat drills, about 2 hours later.
The ship is nearly identical to the one we were on in October so I gave Aili and Terry the TOUR, in the process running into a few friends and familiar faces from previous cruises.
Not much to report. I’m just so happy to be able to pick up email and connect with home. Disappointed to hear that although Laura could get to Helsinki by next Tuesday, the airline had cancelled her return trip when she didn’t show up on Tuesday morning, so there is no way she could get back home again!
Want to wrap up and get back to my cabin. We’re at sea all day tomorrow on the way to Tallinn (Estonia). We change time zones tonight and lose an hour, so it’ll be a short night (and a sunrise 4 hours from now doesn’t help).
Fri,. July 1, 2005
At sea, somewhere in the Baltic, 8:25 a.m.
I see a ship off in the distance, but otherwise, it’s open ocean; we could be pretty much anywhere I’ve been on a cruise. It’s chilly enough on the veranda to warrant breakfast inside today. Gorgeous day, though. Some air later will be nice.
I decided to restructure this page. New entries will be at the top and previous entries will be below, so if you’re just getting here, scroll down and read up!
Between the time change, a very slow internet connection and then finding a blown fuse I wanted to take care of before I went to bed, I didn’t get to sleep until close to three in the morning. But I slept really well and am now ready to go off to my first class.
At sea, somewhere in the Baltic, 2:15 p.m.
In a class, learning Garage Band. Wonderful. I’ve also been in two terrific classes, one on iTunes (which I use a lot and still learned a bunch of stuff), and iMovie (which I’ve never used and still learned a bunch of stuff).
In the iMovie class, we actually made a really bad (and really funny) movie. I even got a speaking part. I’ll post it on this site as soon as I get a copy.
This is cool. And the real reason I’m here.
At sea, somewhere in the Baltic, 11:15 p.m.
In the internet cafe, getting ready to log off and go to bed. This has got to be the world’s slowest wireless internet connection—a common complaint on these ships!
So here’s tonight’s sunset. I’m determined to get in bed before 2 tonight! Aili, Terri and I are meeting my friend Monika in Tallinn tomorrow and I would like to do the day on a little more sleep than I’ve been getting.
There are so many nice people down here to talk to, it’s actually hard to get out of here. And today was such a nice day, the classes so interesting and fun. Very cool place to be right now.
Page 1: Tues., June 29 to Friday,
July 1. (Amsterdam airport, Copenhagen)
Page 2: Sat., July 2- Sun. July
3 (Estonia, St. Petersburg)
Page 3: Sun. July 4 - Mon. July
5 (St. Petersburg, Helsinki)
Page 4: Wed., July 6 - Thurs., July
7 (Stockholm and Visby, Sweden.
Page 5: Fri. July 8 - Mon. July 11 (Wismar and Schwerin, Germany; Aarhus, Denmark; Copenhagen again!)
Other “Highlights” pages: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. For an index to all blogs, photos, and other personal information, click here.
Jane’s current Blog.
Where in the World? 100 Countries: Check progress on my life goal.
