Cruise - Tallinn through pictures

When all 6 of us were ready, we went around exploring the ship. There's all sorts of entertainment and activities on board to cater from young to old. I think I'll fit better into the old category.

Exploring the gym, sauna, steam room and trying out a bit of the facilities on board.

Better get a good photos of the start of the trip.

First meal on the cruise. I still can't get used to the fact that every single edible thing within my reach was free! Muahahaha. But I think I can adapt easily.

Buffet lunch. The food was delicious.

First night on the cruise, one will think that it'll be smooth sailing from this point on but no, something happened to me. I've never left my camera before and this time, I don't know how I forgot, I left it on the dining table after lunch. I rushed back to the dining hall, asked the waiters there if they saw my small black camera but my efforts were in vain. Last resort, my friends accompanied me to the Lost and Found but nobody has yet to return it. The lady at the counter asked me to return in a few hours time and she said usually things are returned on this ship.

After all that consolation from my friends, I was still devastated as all my photos from Copenhagen were in there and there wasn't any backup. I think I was saddened more by the fact that I lost my photos instead of the camera. Haih....I spent most of that evening till dinner sulking in the room while the rest went to explore the ship. Hopefully I didn't ruin anything for them.

Dinner:

Dinner in the really grand dining hall. Luckily there were so many cameras that I could borrow to take photos of the good food. We even have our own waiters who will be serving us throughout this journey.

Finally, after accepting the worst, my friends accompanied me back to the Lost and Found. The happiest moment for me was when she produced my camera! Yay! She said someone just returned it a few minutes a go. What a relieve. From that moment on, I grew to love my camera even more. The moral of the story is, you'll appreciate something more when you've lost it. Ok, back to the main storyline....

As all of us couldn't apply for a Russian visa in time, we were already planning to just stay on board for the whole day tomorrow when the ship is docking in Russia. Luckily for us, we had good news from the Explorations Desk. We could get down in St. Petersburg provided that we are following an organised tour by the cruise. 2 good things happened to me that day.

Busy choosing tour packages for St. Petersburg.

Masquerade - the place for our nightly dose of entertainment

We were so engrossed into choosing our tour package that we missed the first magician show that night. Oh well.

The many decks on board.

Supper:

Cruise is not the best time to start a diet. The maximum time that they let us starve is 4 hours, which is between 2am till 6am. Hahahhahaha. Other than that, there's always food somewhere.

Time moved 1 hour forward that night as we cruised into Estonian waters.

Breakfast:

Salmon with cream cheese, scones, scrambled eggs and fruits. What more can I ask.

Tallinn:

We got off at the port at Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. With such fine weather, it was time for us to explore.

I like it how close the Old Town is to the port. Within 15 minutes (including photo taking time and getting a bit lost), we reached the town.

First stop was at Fat Margaret's Tower, overlooking the Old Town.

Town Hall Square. It's recommended not to wear any high heels here there are cobble stones everywhere.

We came across this small little bakery selling interesting pastries and cakes, but sadly, our plan to have tea here in the afternoon never happened.

Groupie

On our way up Toompea hill towards Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. While we panted away, at least there was some music accompaniment. Hahaha.

Postcard writing time! We were there for only half a day and time was limited even to send off our postcards.

The City wall.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the top of Toompea Hill. It is Estonia's main Russian Orthodox cathedral built in 1900.

More views of the cathedrals. You'll only find churches with onion-shaped domes in Europe.

St.Nicholas Church

Another groupie.

The many unique doors around Tallinn. The green door with red stripes and golden flowers is the door to the House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads. It is a Medieval guild made up of young, single merchants and foreigners. Not sure what's the purpose of this brotherhood.

The many different architectures of Tallinn.

Interesting things that I came across on my explorations. The clock face is on the facade of the Holy Spirit Church, and it's Tallinn's oldest public timepiece.

An old bookshop where we exchanged for other types of coins from Estonia. They're switching over to Euro soon from Estonian kroon.

So many interesting souvenirs and people in traditional costumes.

Our attempts at making a comic strip. Make up your own storyline. hahaha.

Finally, back to the cruise.

We had a meet and greet session with the captain and crew.

Formal Dinner:

Everyone was so beautifully dressed and made up. Time to be pampered.

The picture describes it all. As usual, everything from service to the food was excellent.

Back to the Masquerade theatre for Boogie Wonderland.

We came back to our rooms to find Elly the elephant waiting on the bed.

Time to retire early. We're losing another hour before we reach St. Petersburg the next morning.

Next: Cruise - St. Petersburg through pictures

The different types of KFC

One may think that it's not worth trying out fast-food when traveling in a different country, but you should at least eat once. Let me tell you why....

Marrakech - hot and spicy? They'll do it with a lot of extra spices sprinkled on top of the chicken. Verdict: One of the best hot and spicy KFC that I've eaten.

How do Malaysians compete then? Well, we need to have something different, something new, something the world has never seen in Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets before! We have....

Kentucky Fried Chicken  Prawns!

5 small little shrimps for RM5.20. Very expensive for flour coated deep fried shrimps.

A quick taster of Stockholm and the start of the cruise

Apologies for the long delay. I'll be continuing from where I'd left off, which was from Copenhagen Through Pictures Part 2.

It's 6.40 in the morning, after a grueling 9 hours bus journey, we pulled into Stockholm bus station. Feeling groggy due to the lack of sleep, we dragged ourselves into the station. There's still a few hours to go before the start of our cruise. Boarding time was from 11.30am onwards. One of the first things to do.....

...was to settle my stomach and break my money into smaller denomination. The Swedish hot dog which was not bad as it had crispy fried onion sprinkled on it and a bottle of yogurt drink.

First point - the Central Station. It was located just opposite the bus station. We tried looking for a map but couldn't get one. Oh well, based on my memory from more than 2 years ago, and M's from 4 years ago, we somehow managed to reach the town centre.

The House of Nobility (Riddarhuset) and the City Hall (Stadshuset) on the shores of Lake Malaren.

We walked till we reached the sea and you can do this there...

Sing your heart out. At least there's some accompaniment.

 

Entrance to Gamla Stan, the old town. The last time I came to Stockholm was during the cold winters 2 years ago. Not much changes except for the warmer weather.

The Swedish Parliament seen from the slopes of the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace.

M was already warned by the guards at Copenhagen, so you can see how big the distance she places herself and the guards nowadays. Hahahahaha.

The National Museum.

Does this sign mean beware of sharks?

Teatime:

We came across this cute little cafe in the old town and decided to have tea there.

While waiting for our Mocha and Hot chocolate, M was wondering why was the barrister mixing our drinks in a bowl and we were shocked that that was supposed to be our cups. So big!

Nobel Museum revisited. One fine day, you may see my name in the museum. Hahahah, but now, this dream is being clouded by financial want.

Colourful buildings.

Strolling along the little streets.

Midsummer Tree. We found this all along the port. This tree is raised to celebrate the Midsummer festival by dancing around it. Maybe I did dance around, maybe I didn't. Hahahaha.

Walking along the sea.

The crown prince and princess.

Finally, it was time to make our way to the port to board our ship.

The price for the bus was supposed to be 30kr, but we didn't know that we were supposed to buy the bus ticket at the bus stop and the driver can't take cash on board. So, we ended up getting a free ride. Muahahaha. Yup, the port is called Frihamnsterminalen.

The first building we saw when we alighted was the Banana Company.

To get to the terminal, just follow the blue line. It took us almost 20 minutes to get there. I guess people who take cruises are rich and 99.9% will arrive in cars.

We were greeted by a massive queue at the terminal. The other three quarter of the group arrived half an hour after M and I.

Making our way to the ship. So excited!!!

We shared a triple room. Each of us has our own swipe card which acts as a credit card on board. This is such a good marketing scheme. Just spend first, worry about payment at the end of the cruise. I really like the room as it is really comfortable, en-suite and we have our own room attendant who introduced himself to us after we've settled down. First thing to do was to take a shower!

Coming next: Cruise: Tallinn through pictures

Procrastination

Inspired after reading Flower Monster's blog entry Promise, I will also plagarise her entry:

I promise to blog tomorrow...nooo...tomorrow is going for share talks day...I promise to blog on Monday!!!

It's so weird that there's so many reasons to blog and not to blog. When exams is near, suddenly blogging doesn't seem so tedious and I'm impressed at the extent that I would go to blog, including giving-up the extremely precious time to sleep. Then the holidays arrive and suddenly, I'm extremely bored at home but I rather be bored than making the effort to extract photos from the DVD, arrange them, upload and blog. Humans are still most productive when place under pressure.

Actually I'm not as relaxed as I may sound. I'm busy learning new skills and chasing my dream of retiring rich and young. Yes, I've decided to pursue this dream at this point in time. I think I may be able to use my medical degree to wrap nasi lemak in the near future.

Back in my own sweet home

Breathing in the 'heavy' air and trying to distract myself from the heat, I'm still trying to digest the fact that I'm back in Malaysia.

Initially, I thought that my life will be peaceful and calm but this EPL who is staying with me at the moment, has been laughing crazily since she starting brewing this idea of hers pose a really high risk of me not being able to have this sort of life.

Need to go out now.

Saying 'back in Liverpool' for the last time

Yup, I just got back to Liverpool this evening from my road trip to Isle of Skye. It feels so weird to be saying that 'I'm back in Liverpool' tonight knowing that this will be the last time that I'll be able to say it before I pack my bag to catch my flight back to Malaysia in less than 48 hours from now.

Will I miss this place? Only time will tell. Will I ever come back? Again, only time will tell. Will I continue blogging? Most probably I'll be quite active for the next 2 months before I officially start using my license to practice proper medicine. It's going to all the untold stories from where I left off. After this, I think I'll revert back to the old dull person that I used to be. Maybe that will be the time for me to retire.