Canadians in Stockholm

The list of new ways to say cheers continues to grow. I can now add Skål from Sweden and Prost from Germany. My days in Sweden were spent with more Canadians than Swedes. The first night there I was put in a room with two guys from Quebec (Pierre-Sneaky Pete and Walid-Wallet) and a Torontonian named Donny. We all arrived in time to join the Wednesday edition of the Stockholm pub crawl. The crawl was disguised as a walking tour which didn’t make a lot of sense in the dark of night. If anyone stays at the same hostel in the future I recommend not signing up for the tour and just follow them to the bars as they go. The landmark info was poor at best and we didn’t get any free beverages included in the trek. Despite the odd set up for the event it was still good times. Our Canadian clan joined up with a group of American ladies and stayed out far too late into the night. My final night in Stockholm featured a new group of Canadians all decked out in hockey jerseys at the Hovet arena to watch AIK VS Frolunda from the Eliteserien. Two of the boys were wearing their team Canada jerseys which became the focus of some minor controversy as the away team’s colour is red. The game itself was a defensive affair and was won in a shoot-out by the home team after being tied at 0-0 at the end of overtime. The on ice product was high quality and not much below that of the NHL, but the major difference was in the stands. European sports fans continue to amaze me with their enthusiasm and dedication to their teams. The supporters section in the right corner of the arena didn’t sit down the entire game and rolled through a wide range of songs and chants.  The away goalie took a dive early in the game to draw a penalty and became the most hated man in the arena for the rest of the game.  I enjoyed my Swedish elite league experience I added the AIK jersey to my collection despite having zero room left in my backpack. The non-Canadian highlight of Stockholm was the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a ship built for the King of Sweden in the 1600s, but it turns out it wasn’t built very well.  Merely 1500 M into its maiden voyage the useless piece of junk tipped over and sank. The waters off the harbour provided a great place to preserve the ship almost in its original state until it was raised and restored during the 1960s. I said the ship was a piece of junk, but that was just a comment on the engineering of it and the fact it ended up at the bottom of the harbour. The ship itself was quite impressive looking and the hundreds of carvings and statues must have taken a long time to complete and a fortune to pay for. The Vasa museum is definitely at the top of my list of museums visited so far and will be tough to beat. A 5am wake-up call set me on my way to Munich to take in the Oktoberfestivities!

Temporary Best Friends

Long term traveling is an experience that is difficult to describe/understand unless you’ve experienced it yourself. I’m not saying I’m an expert as its only 2.5 weeks into a 3.5 month journey. I met a guy (Ryan from Winnipeg) who has been cycling around the world for the past 4 years, so compared to him I’m quite the amateur. Despite my amateur status I’m going to try and provide some insight into how relationships work and what has gone on through my head in the first few weeks. I am technically traveling alone, but except for a few intentional solo missions, I have rarely been alone for more than a few minutes upon arrival at any hostel. The interactions always begin with the same routine questions: Where are you from? How long are you traveling? Where have you been? Where are you going? What is your job back home? Something in the answers usually is the bridge to the second part of the conversation. A discussion of the common places you’ve been or questions about your hometown etc. After the introduction/small talk has run its course the next topic is always: What are you doing today? My favourite example of this was when I arrived in Tallinn. I walked into my dorm room at the hostel, put down my bag and was immediately greeted by two students from Germany ( and the aforementioned conversation took place). No less than 15 minutes later we were en route to go out for dinner and a night on the town.  Its pretty amazing how quickly you can become “friends” with complete strangers. It’s a shame this type of human connection doesn’t exist in normal life. When was the last time you sat on a bus or walked through a grocery store and just introduced yourself to a random stranger? My mom has a rare ability to get complete strangers to tell her their life story mere moments after meeting, but for the rest of us it’s a rare occurrence.  Its becoming even more rare as we are plugged into headphones or mesmerized by our iPhones in more and more of our daily lives. I hope when I get home I’m able to take this process and disconnect from the wired world long enough to meet a stranger on a bus. Ok, that was a bit of a social commentary/tangent, so back to finish the story of travelers. Random strangers from all over the world become your best friends in a very short term, and just as fast as they become friends, they are gone! Paths may cross again somewhere down the line, but in most cases its just a series of hellos and goodbyes. I don’t recommend this if you have attachment or abandonment issues. I’ve been fortunate to meet some great people in a short period of time, and the modern technology of facebook means there is a much higher probability that someday, somewhere down the line I will reconnect with some of them. I expect the parade of new best friends will continue throughout the trek, but for now I will just say there is a definite part of me that misses the familiar faces back home.

Stockholm VS My Home

After 24 hours of being in Stockholm I have noticed several small things that make it quite different from Vancouver. The traffic light rotation is not in the same sequence as I’m used to so it’s a bit of a guessing game when crossing the street. I could always just go when the little green guy lights up, and stay when his red counterpart is visible, but what fun would that be? Secondly, 7/11 is EVERYWHERE. It is in more places than Starbucks is on Robson St. I have yet to see a Starbucks in my short time here, but there is a chain called Wayne’s Coffee that looks suspiciously like it came from Seattle. The next observation may not be a difference but after spending a week in Estonia I feel as if I’m currently bleeding money. I realize Van City is on the list of most expensive places to live in the world but there is something in the conversion rate that makes Stockholm seem worse. I’ll give you an example using a six pack of beer (0.5L cans). In Canada we would pay somewhere in the neighbourhood of $12 for this item. In Sweden I just spent 71 Swedish Krona (currently $10.65 CAD) to bring home a sampling of the country’s finest brews. It just hurts to pay 71 of something! The conversion rate also makes it difficult to figure out what I’m truly paying for things. Time for a quick math lesson, so feel free to skip ahead. My previous two stops both used the Euro. 1 Euro is equal to approximately 1 and a third Canadian dollars. I could just multiple the price by 1 and 1/3 and have a rough idea what an items value was. Currently 1 Swedish Krona is worth about 15 cents or alternatively 1 Canadian dollar is worth 6.67 Krona. Neither of those numbers lend themselves to simple calculations so for now I’ll rely on my handy iPod app to do that for me.

Two quick similaries.

1.       Vancouver is 16 degrees and raining vs Stockholm is 12 degrees and raining

2.       Vancouver likes hockey vs Stockholm had hockey on TV at the restaurant

The weather for the rest of the week is forecasted to be much nicer than today so I have planned my walks and other outdoor travels for then. Today has been a day of errands and getting settled in. My next project is to actually buy a ticket to the AIK vs Frolunda hockey game on Saturday night. My two previous attempts have failed as the ticket site is in Swedish and doesn’t translate properly. If this next attempt fails it means I’ll be forced to make friends with a Swedish person, and you can bet she’ll be blond with blue eyes ;)

Terviseks, Kippis and Magic Dancers

Its been a while since my last post so there’s lots of updating to do. Some people like to bring back souvenirs from their travels. My backpack is far too full to buy anything so I will be collecting memories and words. I could simply search the net for the way to say cheers in other languages but I prefer to learn them from locals as I share in a pint of brew. So far I have collected two words: kippis in Finland and Terviseks in Estonia. Terviseks also happens to be the name of the hostel I stayed at in Tartu. This fine establishment is owned and run by a fellow Williams Lake, Colin Wenger. I had a great time there and ended up staying a day longer than originally planned. An extremely friendly student town and a great collection of hostel guests made for an enjoyable few days. The fact beer is almost free (less than 1 euro for .5 L) and bars are open until 5am paved the way for some late nights. One of the hostel guests was a great cook, so the rest of us pitched in for some ingredients and he cheffed up some tasty meals each evening. The city featured a historic main square and was much more modern/western than my ignorant imagination would have thought. It was only a few years ago when I learned of Colin’s business venture that I looked up Estonia on a map. I was bunkered down in my dorm at 4am on Saturday evening (I guess it was actually Sunday morning) taking part in my annual hockey pool draft when I mentioned my current location. I’m pretty sure there was a brief spike in internet traffic trying to find where the heck Tallinn is. Good thing for google maps! My two days in Tallinn were spent seeing the sights of old town and a long walk to see the palace/government building. Given the fantastic buildings and sights of old town I was definitely disappointed in how plain and uninteresting the gov’t grounds were. Two more nights of hostel employee led pub crawls, beer pong and other foolishness and then I was on my way to rendezvous with the Calgary ladies for our overnight cruise ship voyage to Stockholm. The ocean waves were much kinder than my previous voyage across with Baltic which made my stomach happy. The ship was amazing and I’ll be writing BC ferries to inform them of where they can take lessons on how to make time on a boat more enjoyable. The boat was more than a ferry it was a luxurious cruise ship. The evening’s schedule was filled with magic shows (more about that in a minute), musicians and all kinds of entertainment you couldn’t possibly see them all. It was more of a floating city than a method of transportation. The promenade featured a wide range of restaurants and cafes to go along with the duty free and tacky tourist shops. My favourite part of the night was spent in the English style pub listening to cover songs played by a talented Swedish lady on her acoustic guitar. When prompted as to my country of origin she followed up the question with a Neil Young classic Keep On Rockin in the Free World. Being that it was a Monday night the pub wasn’t very busy so we were able to get in more than 1 request. Natasha taught me some fancy two step dance moves a while ago during our Shuswap houseboat adventure. When our Swedish songstress played a country tune by Keith Urban it was the perfect chance to test them out. We had our 4 minutes of fame and were given a round of applause for our efforts.

And now for the stories about the magic shows and their performers…

We decided to fit two of the night’s scheduled magic shows into our itinerary. The first show was possibly the worst thing I have ever sat through in a theatre. The magician loved to mention that he was from Hollywood and over the course of the show performed 2 tricks! 2 tricks in an hour! I’m pretty sure Hollywood is glad he left. To fill time between the lame illusions and even worse jokes we were “entertained” by a dance group named the Magic Dancers. I will admit they were talented performers but the routines were over the top and jam packed with cheezy smiles and strange cheers of excitement.  We left the theatre uncertain we would return for a 2^nd helping later in the night. We realized that the 2^nd show would not be the same performer so we decided to give it another run. Round two was much improved. The Spanish illusionists had some stage presence and crushed the previous record of 2 tricks by performing at least 5 times that many tricks during his routine. The Magic Dancers once again filled the time between tricks and were just as ridiculous as before. The show ended and we rode the glass elevator up to the New York night club on deck #13. The massive club was sparsely attended but that didn’t stop our dance party. After a late night of dancing the tradition back home is to indulge in some late night food, but that tradition was in jeopardy as all the restaurants on the promenade had closed for the night. As we were about to head to our quarters I spotted one of the Magic Dancers and asked him if there was anywhere we could get some food. He felt bad for us and snuck us into the crew cafeteria to fulfill our need for a midnight (actually 4am) snack. Several others from the dance group joined us for the meal but a major language barrier between Russian and English meant the once dancer with a solid handle on both languages because the translator for the conversation. It was at this point in the night that my bed was calling too loudly for me to ignore. Our kind hosts invited us to join them for a late night sauna, but I decided to part ways with my Alberta friends and the Magic Dancers. Their adventures continued further into the wee hours of the morning and mine took me off to sleep. The girls and I toured Stockholm on foot for the day before they headed back to the ship for their return voyage to Helsinki. I said goodbye and ventured out into the Swedish evening solo. It was great to have company of familiar faces in Colin, Michelle and Natasha over the first portion of my trip, and now I look forward to having some adventures on my own. I haven’t planned my Stockholm escapades and I’m not going to even start that process tonight. I will be heading to sleep early so that I have plenty of energy to get a running start at Sweden in the morning.

Williams Lake to Tartu

The three things listed below were never motivation for taking this trip.

1. Finding myself

2. Meeting “the one”  

3. Figuring out what I want to do when I grow up

I’ve wanted to travel for many years now. Experience different worlds and things I would never see inside the Canadian bubble. The timing was finally right and I had run out of excuses for not taking a break. I am now a week into my travels and although I don’t expect to solve issues 1,2 and 3 it is becoming obvious that some of my experiences may help at least push me in certain directions. This afternoon it was one of those experiences that has now helped me to eliminate anything nautical as a career.  This morning I took a Viking Line ship across the Baltic Sea (Helsinki to Talinn) as the remnants of Hurricane Katia stirred up the water and generated waves larger than any I ever saw during my many crossings from Vancouver to Victoria. The waves tossed around the massive metal ship as if it was an inflatable dingy. The rollercoaster stomach in your throat feeling only caught me off guard on the first drop, similar that to that of a plane in turbulence. I survived the 2.5 hour voyage in much better shape than many of the green faced passengers.  I’m assuming that survival means I could handle a longer voyage in tough sailing conditions, but it also made me realize, I don’t want to! Sorry water based professions but you are out.

I am now sitting in a hostel in Tartu, Estonia. Go ahead and take a moment to google it and locate it on the globe. I definitely couldn’t have done it several months ago. Why did I choose Estonia, and why did I choose to visit Tartu instead of the capital city of Talinn? That answer began in the fall of 1987 when my family moved to Williams Lake and I began grade 1 at Marie Sharpe elementary school. It was in that class that I met my arch rival (later turned friend). Colin Wenger and I attended school together from the start of grade 1 all the way through elementary school, junior and senior high, and even on to UBC. After university our paths went in dramatically different directions. While I got caught up in the corporate world he took off traveling the rest of the world. He eventually settled in Tartu and now owns and operates a hostel.  It is at Colin’s hostel that I sit and write this update. I am just over 7,400 KMs away from Williams Lake, but only a minute away from sharing a pint with a Laker. Williams Lake is everywhere!

Swinglish at Llamas

September 13 marks day 6 of my travels (91 to go) and it will be tough to top this posting title. A slowly unfolding day finished with a 6 person dance party that lasted well into the early morning hours, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Monday was going to be my attempt at doing something to add a little culture to my life. I met with one of my sister’s former exchange students and he gave me advice on what attractions to see during my time in Helsinki. I settled on spending my afternoon at the Ateneum to see an exhibit of Finnish masters (not named Teemu Selanne or Jari Kurri). I was actually looking forward to seeing the works, but unfortunately when I got there the doors were locked and it was closed for renovations on Mondays. Not having a plan B I started to wonder around the main square and got caught in a major league down pour. The rest of the afternoon was spent wondering in the rain and then drying out back at my hostel while I cooked myself a late lunch. Side Note: I have cooked more meals for myself in the past 4 days than I did the entire month of August back home. After catching up on my hockey pools and other sporting news back home I ventured out to meet up with the Calgarian ladies and their Finnish host, Antti¸ for his birthday dinner. My illiteracy came into play once again as I walked past the restaurant several times confused that I could not find a place called Kolme Kruunua, only a large green neon sign that read Ravintola. Ravintola was not the name of the restaurant; it was in fact the word restaurant itself. Antti ordered me a traditional Finnish meal of reindeer and mashed potatoes. I apologize if Santa is a little slow this year because Rudolph is no longer with us and it’s partly my fault. Michelle also ordered reindeer. Our dinner was relaxing and enjoyable but after a bottle of wine or two the girls were hoping to get their dance on. Antti left us to get some rest because his alarm would be going off at 6am so that he could make it to hockey practice. I considered trying to find gear and join him, but then I remembered how much 6am sucks and joined the ladies for another night on the town. We spent the majority of the time at bar called Llamas that featured rope swings instead of bar stools. Our love affair with Fisu was taken to another level as many rounds were purchased. We did learn that Fisu varies greatly from bar to bar and this version was a closer relative to the syrup family than our previous encounter with the beverage. We quickly made friends with the two swinging neighbours to the left of us, Toni and Ville. Toni broke the ice by asking us if we spoke “swinglish” and it was an instant friendship. Toni bought us a round of what he described as “his only weakness” which was called Salitos. A Salitos is similar to a Desperado and is a bottle of beer flavored with tequila and served with a lime. The lights came on at Llamas and we parted ways with Toni and Ville, but it was not the curtain call on our evening. Michelle and Natasha had not yet had their shot at a dance floor. Three locals pointed us in the direction of a bar called Lost and Found that was open until 4am and had the dance floor we were looking for. The locals and us Canadians were the only ones in the bar and we definitely made the best of it. Another successful night was once again capped off at Big Momma’s pizza. Tonight is my final evening in Helsinki before I move on to Estonia. What will tonight hold? I hope its not more Fisu!!

Suomenlinna, Silence and Fisu

Chapter 1

My first full day in Finland was a tale of two completely different volume levels. The first half of the day was a solo mission and I didn’t talk to anyone until the beginning of chapter 2. I had a quiet morning mapping out my plan of attack and preparing for the day. I made myself a nice little breakfast of yogurt and granola and set off to check out the island military fortress of Suomenlinna. It was a great afternoon with just my iPod, my thoughts and some gorgeous scenery. I’ve never really been interested in the details of history so the significance of the fortress and the battles fought there is best left for Wikipedia to describe. What remains is a remarkable track of land with tunnels, canons and tourist trap café’s and stores. I wondered the fortress without a map and spent a good chunk of my time checking out some tunnels that ran deep underground. Not a lot of light makes it that far underground but luckily the light on my camera doubled as a flashlight.  After about 4 hours of exploration it was time to head back to the hostel and chef up some average (at best) pasta. I have a new understanding of what it’s like to be illiterate, as shopping for groceries in Finland is a bit of a crap shoot. The words resemble nothing I can comprehend or pronounce, so I was forced to shop based on the photos on the packages.  My photo recognition skills were good as my meal did consist of ground beef, tomato sauce and pasta. A quick shower and it was on to a night out.

Chapter 2

The second part of the night started with a bang…literally. The tram ride down to meet up with my houseboating friends, Michelle and Natasha, was an adventure in itself. A group of teenagers started a brawl in the back so the driver was forced to stop the tram and kick them off. 500 M further down the road my tram crashed into a delivery truck which meant the track was blocked and I’d have to walk the rest of the way. I made it to Tavastia Kulbi just in time to catch the last few songs of a concert and try my first shot of Fisu. What the hell is Fisu you ask? It is the new drink sensation that will be sweeping North America as soon as I return.

Recipe: Take a large bottle of vodka and empty out a bit, ground up some fisherman’s friend, dump the FF into the vodka, allow the powder to fully dissolve, poor into a shot glass, enjoy!

We bar hopped around Helsinki led by our Finnish tour guides, Antti, Monte and Henrik. We stopped at Elmo the sports bar, Green Room the rock bar (my fav of the night) and our last stop was Onnila the dance bar. Some tasty late night pizza capped off a fantastic night, or should I say morning. 5 am and finally off to sleep makes for a short nap until day 2 of exploring Helsinki. Anyone for Fisu?

Iceland and more

This is the first European update coming to you from the Northfields hostel in London. After a little more than 24 hours, several bus rides, two planes and a short stint on the tube I finally arrived at a much needed bed. The surprise of the day was a stamp in my passport that I hadn’t planned on getting: I ended up with a 9 hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. 9 hours in an airport is never an exciting prospect so I decided to take a bus into the city and see what I could find. It was at this point I made my first traveling friend Katie. She was on the same flight as me and also had time to kill before we continued on to London. We boarded the bus and away we went, but the problem with our decision was that an unplanned layover of this length meant that we left North America in shorts and sandals. The temperature in Iceland was a lovely 5 degrees and extremely windy, so needless to say our clothing was less than appropriate. My coat and warm clothing had been checked through to London in my big bag so I had to make due with what was in my carry on. After putting on 2 t-shirts, my UBC hoodie and a pair of jeans I was able to brave the weather and do some minor exploring of the city (still in sandals without socks). The city of Reykjavik appears to be quite new, clean and use a large amount of green energy. The landscapes were like nothing I've seen before. Shaped by the large amount of volcanic activity the grass covered lava fields extended as far as the eye could see similar to the farms of the prairies back home. If my adventures ever take me back to Iceland I will make sure that I have enough time for a stop at the blue lagoon and its thermal hot pools. It was only fitting that I boarded the plane to leave Iceland with its most famous resident, Bjork. I didn't take a photo of her and seeing her in person did not make me appreciate her music any more. I had the room at the hostel all to myself and was able to get a pretty good sleep. This morning I feel like I'm pretty much adjusted to European time and ready to head to the airport to "Finnish" the rest of my journey to Helsinki.

48 Hours

There are only 48 hours left between now and getting on the plane to begin my adventure. The unexpected holiday weekend closure of my storage locker has put my packing behind schedule, and means the last few days won't be as relaxing as I'd hoped. The next two days will be full of last minute errands and saying temporary goodbyes to friends and family. I'm happy to be traveling at this point in time as things such as blogs, wifi and skype* will make it much easier to keep in touch than in the past days of payphones and snailmail. My backpack is full of 24 lbs of things I've deemed to be essential for this trip. I wonder what it will weigh upon my return? I wonder what important item(s) I have left behind? My vacation will be a mixture of solo travel, visiting friends who live abroad and meeting up with others who happen to be on the same travel sched as I. 97 days away from the comfortable life I have carved out in Van City over the last decade or so. 97 days that will take me away from the westernized world for the first time as I venture to Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. How much different will Van be when I return? How much different will I be when I return? So many questions running through my head, and the only way to actually answer them is to get on the plane!


* skype name: steve.reynolds99