Adventures in Scandihoovia (and the Baltics)

Where do I begin?? I ecstatically parted ways from Sandy and Jolie and flew from Venice to Oslo (through Copenhagen, which has a great airport) and arrived not at the main Oslo Gardemoen airport but at the tiny Sandefjord airport. I swear the airplane dropped me off on the southern edge of the country in the middle of a forest. The airport was totally deserted (this was 7:00 on a Sunday night of a holiday weekend) and I had no idea how I was going to get from Sandefjord to the city center where I had a hotel reservation. I finally managed to find someone who informed me I had to take a bus (oh by the way--it's raining and 36 degrees) to the gas station down the road and then take another bus from there to Oslo. All of this required Norwegian kronor (apparently Norway has not joined the EU because they don't want to give up their fishing rights) and by some miracle, there was a functioning ATM in this teeny tiny airport. This series of buses deposited me at the central bus station in Oslo (still raining, by the way) and I have no map. After attempting to find my way, I gave up and hailed a taxi... 100 kronor later, I arrived. Norwegian hotels (and by extension, all hotels in Scandinavia!) are beautifully clean and warm (with heated bathroom floors) and I slept better this night than I had for the previous three weeks. At left is a Stave Church - I have always thought they are very interesting and unique to Norway. This one was built in the 12th century about the same time as Salisbury Cathedral in England. Can you believe that? There are only about 30 of them left in Norway, this one is at the outdoor Folk Museum and was transported from Gol in Hallingdal.

I was up at dawn, though, to go meet my dad at the normal Oslo airport which is beautiful and new and exactly what you would picture an airport in modern Norway to look like. It was a happy and slightly tearful reunion and it seemed strange for a little bit that he was actually here. I was so happy to have him as my travel partner for the next week. After taking a train back to the city center and struggling to get a handle on Oslo's public transport, we arrived at the hotel. This was Monday, May 1st and Labor Day in Norway -- we were just in time to witness the socialist parade down Karl Johannsgate complete with marching bands playing ABBA songs. It was gray and very cold and the whole thing just seemed like a rough introduction to this country I have wanted to visit since I was mesmerized by the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. My two semesters of classroom Norwegian at St. Olaf was slightly helpful although English is universally spoken in most of Scandinavia. Over the next few days, we dabbled in most of the city's museums including several on polar exploration (Norwegians are tough cookies), the Vikings, and maritime ventures. I even drug my dad to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump (pictured above), about a half hour outside of and 1,000 feet above the city. The actual jump was used during the 1952 Oslo Olympics and hosts a ski festival every year. It is BIG. We actually got to climb to the top of it and stand right where the skiers stand before they take off. Holmenkollen also has a great museum on the history of skiing, both cross country and downhill, and even a ski simulator to let you know what it feels like to fly down a ski run in Lillehammer at 130km/hour. My dad's birthday was while we were in Oslo, too, so I took him to a fun place where we sampled seafood soup and yes, smoked moose meat which was really very tasty. We couldn't shake the cold and gray until the morning we left for Helsinki... and then the sun came out and we were able to shed a few layers. Oslo is a pretty little city with a lot of good things going for it - the mixed-use harbor front development (Aker Brygge) is especially nice. In Norway everything is clean and you don't have to pay to use the public toilets. Cool Scandinavian design and wool sweaters are everywhere you turn, but it all comes at a price. At about 6 kr to $1, it was hard to try not to have a heart attack when looking at prices and we were constantly dividing by 6. Norway is a beautiful place -- I think I need to go back in the summer time to witness it in all of its glory but it's definitely "my" kind of place.

On Thursday, we flew to Finland and arrived in Helsinki in the early evening. Helsinki is a difficult place to describe -- it felt much more lively and extroverted than Oslo but that may be just because it was sunny and warm the entire time we were there and everyone was out and about. The architecture in Helsinki is distinct and different than elsewhere in the Nordic countries -- you have to look carefully to notice the carefully considered details and unusual ornamentation. At left is the Rautalieasema Järnvägstation (train station) designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen in 1916... it is distinctively guarded by four men holding lanterns. These four figures show up in TV commercials and advertising and have become icons of Helsinki. Their uniqueness captures the independent Finnish spirit.

Because Finland was once part of Sweden and was also a duchy of Russia, it is an interesting mixture of east and west. Our first night there we ate at an authentic Finnish restaurant where we had reindeer soup and plates full of heavy, hearty fish and meat and potatoes. It was here that we discovered that Finns like their drink -- nearly every table around us was passing around some sort of vodka-looking substance. You could argue it's necessary to handle the long, Baltic winters... Helsinki is at 62 degrees north latitude. (Omaha is around 41 I think, on the same line as both Rome and Barcelona!) Of course, Finland is also home to one of my favorite architects, Alvar Aalto and his presence is quite evident throughout the city. Finnish design is very unique and my dad and I had a good time wandering through shops looking for interesting things to take home. A highlight of the trip was attending a Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra concert in Finlandia Hall! It is probably Aalto's most famous building which houses a phenomenal concert hall and a congress center. While we sat in seats in the very last row of the balcony, the acoustics were so great that it felt like we were sitting about four feet from the stage. On the program was Haydn, a strange Stravinsky piece, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. When my dad was in Helsinki in 1974, Finlandia Hall was only 2 years old and he had never been inside it (pictured at right). It was a memorable event.

As we were coming out of the concert, we noticed black smoke. Walking further down a street I can't pronounce (Finnish is an impossible language!), people were gathered all over the steps of the Parliment Building, in the street, on the lawn... watching what looked to be old railway sheds engulfed in flames. The Finnish fire department has some sort of chemical they spray instead of water that puts out the fire much more efficiently but the building is a total loss. It didn't look to be too historical but it was sure exciting to watch! I will always remember Helsinki as a place where the sun was always shining (it comes up around 4:00am and sets around 10:00pm this time of year) and the sky was a brilliant, cloudless Midwest blue. At left is the Sibelius monument, built to immortalize Finland's great composer Jean Sibelius. Standing underneath the pipes and looking through up at the blue sky is beautiful. And listening to Sibelius's 3rd Symphony IN Finland is definitely a must.

I had been reading in my guide books about Tallinn, Estonia, a city only 50km to the south across the Baltic Sea from Helsinki. Regular ferry services run between the two cities so on Sunday morning, we boarded a hydrofoil and made the trip in about an hour and a half. Obviously, Estonia was once part of the Soviet Union and since it declared its independence in 1991, it has grown and created quite a name for itself along with Prague, Krakow, and Riga. It is packed with history and a similar intersection of eastern influence from Russia and western influence from Finland and Scandinavia but it definitely feels more eastern. A quarter of all Estonians are native Russians. My dad and I didn't really have a plan for our day in Tallinn so we spent it wandering around Toompea and the Old Town. The colorful old buildings against the perfect blue sky created a photographer's paradise. Although Estonia joined the EU in 2004, they still use their own currency, the Estonian krooni. There are 13 EEKs to $1 so everything is quite inexpensive. (Especially having come from the rest of Scandinavia where things are pretty pricey.) We did some interesting shopping in Tallinn and I found myself having to make a trip to McDonald's at the end of the day just to get rid of the equivalent of $20 that I had pulled out an ATM that morning... I still couldn't get rid of all of it! The US$ goes quite a ways there. It was a great little adventure and Tallinn is a beautiful city with a lot of things going for it. If you ever have a chance to visit the Baltics, go. It's off the beaten tourist track, they speak pretty good English, and it's something you'll never forget. Above is my dad and I on Tallinn's town square. All of a sudden it was our last day of the trip and we realized we didn't have any pictures of us!

So here I am, at 1:32am in a hotel room near Heathrow Airport with the contents of my suitcase strewn over the floor and bed, praying that when I get to the terminal tomorrow, it doesn't weigh more than 70 pounds now -- otherwise I am going to have to throw things away. I had to go back to our London hostel to get my bags tonight and between buses and the long Piccadilly Line tube ride, it took FOUR HOURS. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry. It's comforting to be back in London, though -- I know how things work here, I know where to go. After travelling for these nearly four weeks and being chained to a map (sometimes a compass), it's somewhat liberating to return to somewhat normalcy. Oh, and London got green while I was gone, too!

I have no idea what to expect when I arrive in Omaha tomorrow night with thousands of pictures, four curriencies in my wallet, and wonderful memories. I'm sure it will feel like home but I don't know what kind of adjustment I will go through. Leaving Norway this afternoon and watching the endless pine trees fade into the smooth blue of the Atlantic (left), I was a bit sad to see such beauty disappearing. It has been truly amazing to see all of this, to jump on a train and be in another country three hours later, to walk out the door and see Helsinki's Uspensky Cathedral or the Spanish Steps in Rome, to have to make a conscious effort to think about which language I should say 'thank you' in. (Merci, grazie, takk, kiitos, tänan...) I have seen some amazing things, gone through ten different countries and these four months will go with me wherever I go now.

To those who might be wondering, Bahr Vermeer Haecker Architects in Lincoln offered me a summer internship! This is extraordinarily good news because not only does it give me experience to pad my resume, it provides great income, allows me to take fewer credits in the fall and focus more on my thesis, and will be a great learning experience.

As it's 1:43am GMT, I am off to bed on this, my last night in Europe. I have LOADS of pictures to sort through so you'll have to be patient with me but I will get them posted eventually. Thanks for reading all this time!
Ha det!