Keep Oslo in your Prayers

We are overnighting tonight in Oslo, Norway and up until just a couple of weeks ago, I was quite excited about it.  With the devastation with the bombing and the killing of all of those children, I was anxious to see what the city looked and felt like after everything had happened.   Myself, Stephanie (Youth Staff) and Cassandra (Youth Program Coordinator) went in search of the site of the bombing (as bleak as it may sound) to see things first hand.  We were a bit scared to ask anybody about is as not to offend or upset anybody.  It came down to “this looks good” or “this looks interesting” when we had to choose between turning left or right.  It didn’t take long before we saw a huge crowd of people surrounding barricades that had been set up around of the flowers, candles, letters and photographs that mourners placed in memory of the deceased and missing.  This particular location was not the exact site of the bombing, but it’s where the largest portion of the memorial resides.

There is no way to describe the energy and sadness that filled the air along with the perfume from the flowers.  The silence was deafening.  I walked around the perimeter of the barricades, took a few photos and looked at the photos that had been placed next to candles  which had been placed next to stuffed animals and flowers.  No words can describe it – so here’s a few photos. 

   

There were so many things written in foreign languages and I must admit that I’m glad I couldn’t them.  I don’t know if that’s something I could have handled.  I have so many more pictures – I’ll post them on facebook soon so you can see even more and see a bit more of what I saw – jaw dropping. 

Around the corner is where the actual bombing took place.  The memorial is not too evident here – it seems as if they are keeping the area clear while they clean up some of the damage to the buildings and surround areas.  Lots of the businesses and store fronts all have shattered windows along with other damage.  As I said before – it’s indescribable. 

Once we saw all of this, we talked about how lucky we are and how terrible some of these families (especially the parents of those children killed) must feel and how much their hearts must hurt.  WE began to wander deeper into the city and found that people have literally put flowers everywhere – in the fountains, on the statues – anywhere and everywhere they could find. 

 

I was ridiculously thirsty, so we stopped at a café and ended up sitting to chat for awhile.  Again, this was a picture perfect day of weather which makes me feel guilty.  It’s hard to think of myself having a wonderful day enjoying my friends and the weather and feeling so carefree when so many people are struggling with the current events.  After sitting for awhile and reflecting, we decided to walk to the other side of the city to see the new opera house that they’ve recently finished.  Before crossing the bridge to the opera house, we found a few ::ahem:: interesting sculptures. 

 

The opera house is right on the water and once we reached it, I didn’t want to leave at all!  There was a live band setting up for the evening and since we were overnighting, I was so tempted to sit and enjoy it but unfortunately, Cass and Steph had to go back to work.  We took a few pictures of the opera house and the multi-million dollar moving iceberg thing in the water before  heading “home”.  Apparently, this iceberg sculpture cost over $3 million dollars…for what?!?

   

Grateful for new friends these days!  God bless Oslo, Norway – please keep them in your prayers!

Quote of the day:  “The best way to get even is to forget.”

A day with the crazy Russians….

This morning was crazy...I didn't sleep well (as usual) and the clocks went hour forward (again) and Russian immigration gave me a hard time (typical!!).  By the time I made it through immigration, I was sure I had missed my tour because it was so late, but luckily the shore excursion manager got me on a different bus instead...so, crisis averted!  I would have been so disappointed because the thing I really liked about this tour is that there was three hours of free time where I could explore on my own minus the narration from a tour guide. 

The weather was highly unusual for St. Petersburg - there was sunshine and not a cloud in sight! Beautiful weather is definitely something we needed this cruise since we had already missed Warnemunde, Germany because the weather was so awful and it poured down rain in Tallinn, Estonia (I could ring out my clothes they were soaked so much...three hours later).  These guests (and crew) were definitely ready for a nice day of sunshine and warmth. 

This tour had lots of little stops, which was unfortunate in the sense that we couldn't go in anywhere only take photos from the outside.  But hey...at least I'm here, right?  The first photo opportunity was at St. Isaacs Cathedral which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world.  The columns on the outside weigh 100 tons EACH!  Then, a quick stop to take a photo of the sphinx statues along the Neva river, which were gifts from Egypt to Russia.  The ones in Egypt were better :)

   

We stopped by the Spit of Vasilievsy Island to see St. Peter's cathedral (St. Peter and Paul Fortress) and the spire,  these two rust colored  columns called the "Rostral Columns" that were originally lighthouses for St. Petersburg because it was one of the original ports for Russia and the Trinity bridge.  

     

This ship was also located alongside the bridge – it was a gift from Holland to Russia.  It’s no longer a working ship, but now a very fancy restaurant!

As with any country, theme park or tourist attraction, we had to stop at the token souvenir shop.  The shop was huge and full of Matryoshka dolls (the dolls that have 5or 10 smaller dolls stacked inside of it) with pictures of every political figure like Obama painted on the front.  There was amber in every form of jewelry as well as glassware, books, key chains and every other trinket (or dustables) as mom would say.  I glanced as the prospective purchases but Chose to head to then restrooms and tea that the guide told us were waiting at the back.  I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the back of the shop to find coffee, tea, vodka and plum liqueur.  I opted for the plum liqueur...it is only 10am and didn't want ton hit the hard booze too early :).

It took about 45 minutes, but we finally got all of our guests out of the souvenir shop and back onto the bus.  We only drove about 15 minutes and arrived outside of the Church of the Spilled Blood which would also be our meeting point following our three hours of free time.  I chose to go inside of the Church, so I jumped in the long line to wait for tickets.  The detail on the façade is incredible – vibrant colors painting scenes on individual tiles that border the church and the texture on each of the bulbs all over the top.  Inside the church (aside from a million people) the walls felt like they were a mile high with paintings and mosaics decorating the walls from floor to ceiling. 

     

Here’s the spot where Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated – giving it the name “Church of the Spilled Blood”…

It only took me about 15 minutes to be OVER all the people in the church, so I ducked out the back exit to explore the city a bit and get some food because I was hungry!  After about an hour of wandering around and looking at menus, I found “Mama Roma’s”  (yes, I came all the way to Russia to eat Italian food).  When I walked in, Stephanie (one of my friends on board) called my name.  She was on a tour as well and came in to grab lunch – so I sat down with her and ordered a Cesar salad and a pesto pizza.  Before my meal arrived, she had to go meet up with her tour, so I ate alone and read my book on my iPad.  I absolutely loved it – great food, fresh air (because the restaurant was outside) and a good book.  I was HAPPY!  After eating, I walked slowly around St. Petersburg and took a few photographs and just enjoyed the fresh air. 

Next cruise (our last cruise through Russia), I REALLY want to go and do the White Nights cruise but I think it might be too late in the season because the White Nights might be close to over…maybe next year?!?!

Would you like a Corny Bar?

Nynashamn, Sweden (The Gateway into Stockholm)  - Jo and I had talked about going into Nynashamn that morning but didn't have any idea what we would do. I had asked around to other crew about the port and nobody had much feedback so were ventured in blindly. The ship actually has to tender this particular port because there is no true dock, only a small floating pontoon that can easily accommodate the ships tenders. It happened to be another one of those amazing European summer days where the sun was shining, the flowers were in bloom everywhere and the sky was perfectly clear. As soon as we got off the tender, we found some new friends...

The walk into the center of town was close to 20 minutes but because the weather was so nice and the town was so clean and pretty – it felt like no time at all!   Everyone had huge pots of brightly colored flowers on their patios...made me crave for my own place even more!

Nynashamn was very quiet...I think most of our guests took the train into Stockholm (30 minute train ride), so it left lots of places for us to roam without crowds to get in the way. We ended up walking into lots of clothing stores as well as home type shops. Jo,like me, really wants a place of her own. When the two of s walk into a store like that, we sound like two women ogling over newborn babies when in all actuality we're admiring sheets and towels. After an hour or so of whirlwind shopping, we were both hungry (I know your probably not surprised that I was hungry because when am I not?) and found a small cafe with sandwiches and salads. I went with a baguette with a shrimp salad of sorts and I think Jo ted for a chicken sandwich. Mine was alright...nothing to write home (or blog) about. After lunch, there really wasn't much left to do there. I noticed that there was a grocery store next to the restaurant and those are one of my favorite places to go in any foreign country. Not sure of I like them because they make us feel like "normal" people or just because I love to see the foods and items that they sell. For example, check out this "Corny bar Big"...

Thirty minutes later, Jo and I made our final purchases as well as an ice cream bar (they had the Magnum Ice Cream bars which are amazing...I saw they are starting to pop up I the states as well) for the walk "home". Jo wanted to see if she looked like the advertisement we saw for the ice cream....

Close, Jo...you almost look like the girl on the poster! An ice cream bar and long walk later we arrived back at the tender pier and waited for our chariot to take us back to the ship....and back to work :(  We just followed the sign to the “Utfart”!