Tag Archives: ferry

How we planned our Baltic trip

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When Dan and I talk about our recent (June, 2018) trip to the Baltic region, mentioning all the cities we visited, invariably someone asks, “Were you on a cruise?”

No. We were not on a cruise. Let me dispel that idea here and now, once and for all. We are not cruise people. We might become cruise people one day, when we can’t get around by ourselves very well any more or suddenly transform into extroverts–but not now. Nor were we planning, originally, to make our trip look like a cruise trip. It just sort of . . . happened.

It all started as a trip to Helsinki, a city Dan wanted to visit because of its reputation as a center of clean, modern design and the home of the famous architect Alvar Aalto. We thought we might go there over midsummer, knowing that there are fun celebrations in Finland at that time. And besides, Helsinki isn’t that far from St. Petersburg, a city I’ve long wanted to visit. That simply, we had the beginning of a plan: Helsinki and St. Petersburg over midsummer.

First, we investigated airfare to and from the region. We like nonstop flights, but it wasn’t a surprise to discover that there are no nonstop flights from San Francisco to Helsinki–much less to St. Petersburg. The closest we could get nonstop was Copenhagen, another city we’d hoped one day to visit. So, we added Copenhagen to our list of vacation destinations.

At this point, with three cities in the plan and an estimated timeframe of about two weeks in late June, we encountered our first problem: the World Cup in soccer was to be held in Russia at that time, starting on June 15th. And a friend had a horror story of being bumped from his confirmed and prepaid stay in a St. Petersburg hotel when there was some tourist event in town and the hotels could get more money. So–sorry, they “lost” his reservation. They found him a place to stay miles outside of the city–the best they said they could do. To avoid a similar problem during the World Cup, we decided to stay in an American chain hotel where Dan had a preferred traveler relationship. And, to be safe, we also decided to move our trip earlier than we’d thought–timing it to be leaving St. Petersburg just before the World Cup began. This decision anchored the start date of the trip. The end date was anchored by our desire to be in Helsinki for midsummer, and then spend a few days in Copenhagen.

Getting directly to St. Petersburg, it turned out, involved many hours of travel, and considerable expense–at least on the dates we had narrowed down to. We found that we could travel more easily–and with less stress–by breaking the outbound part of the trip up in Helsinki, spending an overnight in a real bed at a hotel airport, and then flying to St. Petersburg the next morning on a different airline. Thus, the plane reservation: outbound to Helsinki on June 7, 2018 via SAS Airlines, return from Copenhagen on June 26th. With an arrival in Helsinki on June 8th, we were able to reserve a hotel room at the airport, allowing time to decompress from the long flight, and fly to St. Petersburg the next day on Finnair, with a flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen on Finnair toward the end of the trip.

We now had a trip framework in place. It was time to figure out where we were going between June 9th and June 23rd (and how we were going to get there). And, of course, to make the necessary hotel reservations.

Four days in St. Petersburg seemed about right, and it would get us out of Russia two days before the World Cup started. Between that and the now-fixed departure to Copenhagen on the 23rd, we had ten days to spend in the Baltic. We knew we had to be in Helsinki last, but how many days would we want to spend there?

Research into “what to do in Helsinki” suggested that four days would be plenty, assuming we didn’t want to travel north into the Finnish countryside. But, interestingly, a side trip to the city of Tallinn, Estonia, via a relatively short two-hour ferry ride, was widely, and highly, recommended. It took only a few photos of the World Heritage medieval old city, and I was on board. But no need for an afternoon excursion: we had the luxury of spending a couple of days.

Given the frequent ferry connection between the two cities, we could potentially do them in either order. I decided to let the ease and cost of getting there from St. Petersburg enter into the decision process — and discovered almost by accident that the easiest and least expensive flight out of St. Petersburg was to . . . Riga, Latvia.

Well, why not! It seemed we had the time, and it wasn’t like we were likely ever to get another chance to visit. And besides, Riga, it turns out, also has a World Heritage medieval city center. And it’s fairly easy to get from Riga to Tallinn by land, giving us a chance to see some of the Baltic countryside.

A little research into travel methods, even more research into hotels, and the framework of the trip now looked like this:

A few notes of importance for anyone planning a trip such as this:

St. Petersburg
  • Traveling from the USA, as of this writing, you need a visa to get into Russia (and, even more important, to get out again). Allow plenty of time for this, as it’s a real process. The website  https://waytorussia.net/RussianVisa/ contains a good step-by-step guide.
  • The Renaissance Hotel is expensive; however, we were able to use Marriott points.
  • Buy your Hermitage tickets in advance, and avoid the lines! See https://www.hermitageshop.org/tickets/.
Riga
  • We did not like the Redstone Boutique Hotel, and do not recommend it. The two really good features were that the rooms were spacious and nicely furnished; and the staff was as helpful and friendly as you might wish. However, it was very hot in Riga when we were there, and the air conditioning did not work in some of the rooms, was marginal in others, and in any case was shut off centrally around midnight. The hotel was in a very loud location. And, to make matters worse, the management allowed parties on the roof until after midnight, with concommitant noise of loud party-goers coming and going, easily audible in the hallways and rooms. A word to the wise: Try someplace else.
  • We found the World Heritage medieval city center a bit touristy, with a lot of bars and restaurants and souvenir shops. And the building stock had a lot of infill of later eras. But it was nice enough.
  • We were completely surprised by a huge Art Nouveau district with some totally amazing buildings. For this alone, Riga is worth a visit. If I were to go back, I would try to stay in this area.
  • There’s also a lovely park ringing the old medieval city.
Tallinn
  • The Three Sisters Boutique Hotel is fabulous, and very well located just inside the city walls of the medieval city. It comprises three centuries-old buildings, totally renovated.
  • The medieval city center is very well preserved and full of interesting shops and other sights.
  • There is an up-and-coming artsy district called Kalamaja just a short walk from the old city that is definitely worth a visit.
Helsinki
  • Hotel F6 also turned out to be a good choice; the location was excellent, as was the hotel itself.
  • The so-called “Design District” was disappointing. There weren’t a lot of design-oriented shops or ateliers compared to just regular cityscape.
  • The just-regular cityscape is quite nice.
  • It turns out I don’t care much for Alvar Aalto’s architecture, though his bent-wood chairs are kind of cool.
  • There’s a great underground church in Helsinki, worth a visit. They charge you to get in, but don’t provide bathrooms for the public. Plan ahead!
  • Oh–and most important–in Finland, they do not necessarily celebrate midsummer at, well, midsummer. They celebrate it on the first Saturday afterwards. We left that afternoon, and missed the bonfires there. But another word of advice: They also do not necessarily celebrate midsummer in Helsinki. Everyone closes up early and heads to the north, to the woods. So we would probably have missed the bonfires in any case. Who knew!
Copenhagen
  • It turns out that in Denmark, they also celebrate midsummer on the first Saturday after midsummer, and they’re not shy about doing it in the city. So we arrived just in time!
  • We’d reserved a (relatively) inexpensive room on the back side of the hotel, but a room was available facing the harbor, and since (by chance) the Copenhagen midsummer celebration was to be held right there, we splurged and upgraded. And it was worth it.
  • A word about money: Copenhagen is expensive. Plan on it. Capuccino and a croissant for breakfast in a simple neighborhood bakery/cafe can run you $8 to $10.
  • The design scene in Copenhagen is wonderful. I still wish we’d bought the sheets and duvets. And the furniture is simple and beautiful.
  • There’s a neighborhood called Nørrebro that’s a little off the beaten track and worth a visit. It has edgy, unusual shops; a beautiful park-like cemetery; the old Jewish cemetery; and a vibrant, interesting Moslem immigrant neighborhood. I mention this, because your guide book might not.

That’s about it for trip planning. I’ll also be posting some pictures and commentary on various sights from time to time. If you’re thinking of planning your own trip, I hope you find this information useful — and feel free to contact me, should you have further questions. And have a great trip!

Yangon – Crossing the Yangon River

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So…it was nearing the end of our last day in Yangon, which was also our last day in Myanmar, and we still had some time to explore one more facet of Burmese life that was not on the regular tourist trail. We decided to take the regular commuter ferry that runs every half hour from the Pansodan Ferry Terminal back and forth across the Yangon River to the suburb of Dalla; look around in Dalla for a bit; and then head back to Yangon.

For all its air of decay, Yangon is an expensive place to live–well beyond the means of the average worker. For the many people who choose instead to live in the much-less-expensive Dalla, this is their daily commute.

Our ferry about to leave the Pansodan terminal

Intrepid Zaw buys our tickets and tells us to hurry; the boat is about to leave. We race madly down the gangplank along with several dozen other stragglers, barely making the boat in time, catching each other’s eyes and grinning.

Then we got a look at where we were.

The lower level of the ferry

Good thing it wasn’t rush hour, when it would have been really crowded!

Upstairs, there was more room, and there were small plastic chairs you could rent if you wanted to sit down somewhere other than the floor. It occurs to me now to wonder whether going upstairs required a higher class (more expensive) ticket. I don’t recall anyone actually checking tickets.

Upstairs

Here are some views looking back at Yangon from the river.

The Pansodan Ferry Terminal, from which we had just departed

Yangon skyline, possibly former government buildings (?)

At the Dalla Ferry Terminal, an unprepossessing structure, people were already waiting for the ferry to arrive. Most were passengers waiting to cross back to Yangon; others were vendors hoping to serve a hot meal or a snack to the passengers.

Dalla Ferry Terminal

Waiting for the ferry

We all took our stuff and left the boat.

Passengers disembarking

At the ferry terminal in Dalla, the passengers got into taxis and other conveyances and went their separate ways to home.

Ready to go home

Dan and Zaw and I walked around the neighborhood for a while, and then we headed back to the terminal for the trip back to Yangon.

At the terminal in Dalla

When we reached Pansodan Terminal in Yangon, there was already a crowd waiting for the journey back across. Er…yes, those are dead chickens hanging from the bicycle handles.

At the terminal in Yangon

 

Views near Golden Grove

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I’m going to skip over the sunsets from our last weekend on the island and go right away to the moonrise. The moon was full–so full that objects cast sharp shadows in the silver light. On the night we left, the moon was rising as we waited for the ferry. It was mostly veiled by clouds, but I caught this moment at Old Harbor.

Hard as it is to believe, I will be out of the country–and probably without my computer–this time next week. If I am able to make posts, I’ll write about my trip. So for now the sunsets are on hold. More in January!

Happy holidays, everyone!

My life on standby

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My life has been on standby since we got in the standby line for the Block Island ferry at 7:30 this morning. The first ferry of the day left at 8:30, and there were already three cars ahead of us. Two of them got on.

I’ve gotten friendly with the Interstate Navigation employee, Joe Houlihan, who is running the standby lot today. “How’s your writing going?” he asks me. So I tell him the story of my writer’s block and getting past it. And he shares with me his story of a warm and personal rejection letter from an agent who read his manuscript. For, you see, Joe is a writer, too. We are both on standby today.

There are now five cars behind us in line. Two large trucks are waiting in the same lot for the 11 o’clock ferry, but they’re not on standby. They have reservations. At about ten minutes to the hour, Joe comes by on his bicycle and sends the trucks over to the ferry as we folks in the standby line watch hungrily, hopefully, despairingly. “Sorry,” he tells us.

Nine cars are waiting in line for the 1:30 ferry, seven behind us, one in front. Another truck has also shown up. “What happens,” I ask Joe, “if a car has a reservation on the 1:30 ferry but doesn’t get there in time?” “Oh, then he’s on standby just like anyone else.” “Back of the line?” “You bet.” Then Joe tells the story.

“They used to have a policy where there was a priority standby line for people like that,” he says. “You can imagine how well that went over with all the people like you who were waiting in line since 7:30 in the morning, and now this guy comes along at 1:35, and he’s first in line. I saw it almost come to blows a couple of times. People would be yelling at me—and it wasn’t my fault. I’d tell them, ‘Hey, I agree with you. Go complain to the company.’ Well, I can tell you, that priority standby didn’t even last two weeks.”

Another truck pulls up. This is a really big one, carrying major steel beams. I tense up, but then the driver tells Joe that he’s on the 5:15 ferry. Not a problem. Well, not yet.

“What are the beams for?” I ask one of the men with the truck. “Construction,” he says. Well, duh! Hey mister, I’m on standby here; I have all the time in the world. “What kind of construction? They’re too big for a house, aren’t they?” “I can’t say,” he says. “You don’t know?” “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say.” “They’re for a restaurant,” says the other man with the truck. “Oh, really?” I’m at my peak of no-hurry friendliness. “A new restaurant? Where?” “No, it’s for moving it.” “They’re moving a restaurant? Which one? Where?” And he tells me. The things you don’t learn.

An additional truck shows up last minute. Dismay replaces optimism in the standby line. Joe pedals around on his bicycle. I have learned: he’ll come to the drivers’ side of the cars if he’s going to board some of us, to the passenger side if he’s dealing with the trucks over there. It’s the drivers’ side—fantastic! But he crosses over. Rats! He’s on his walkie-talkie; he relays truck measurements and then bikes back again. Up and down the line, hearts sink. A moment later, he returns and sends the car ahead of us to the ferry.

But they take no more.

So now we’re number 1 in line, and we’re on standby for the 3:30 ferry. Time to recharge: lunch for us, an electric plug at the restaurant for the computer batteries.