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01.SEP.2002
Another thought about travel, choose your hobbies accordingly. I
unfortunately decided I want to bring my photography hobby with me.
I believe being a traveling mason might involve more hauling, for
that impromptu chimney, but it's close to dragging a camera bag everywhere.
I now consider a little piece of heaven just taking my day bag
off. I had this brilliant idea of using an old soviet backpack to
hold the camera bag so it wouldn't stick out so much. Good, except
this pack has the ergonomic appeal of, well, most things SOviet I
guess. More on the debauchery which was the flair of SOviet design.
...
We survived our overnight ferry ride from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia.
Ah, sleeping on a bench, this is the life!! To say these boats
are party barges is kind. You'd think everyone was a sailor off
an 8 month tour. When we got up at 5, since sleeping was overly
comfortable, the karaoke bar was still jamming away. The singer
who performed early on the trip was seen stumbling up the stairs,
with drink still in hand. People did finally go to bed about 7
am, apparently to sleep all day and take the return trip to Stockholm.
Tallinn's old town is truly beutiful. It's an old Medieval city,
which has been tremendously restored over the past 10 years, and
they're still going strong. It looks great, with lots of reasonable
bars and restaurants, but it doesn't have that Disneyland feel like
in Germany. We were fortunate to stay with Marten and his family
outside of downtown. We went to their old family farm, which they
were able to reclaim after Estonia regained independence. The farm
is right next to Latvia, which we snuck into to go pick mushrooms.
On the border you can play the fun game of hopping from side to
side of the shallow trench, "Now I'm in Estonia, now I'm in Latvia,
now I'm in Estonia" Thanks for the idea Jon. We had our first
sauna experience, which I enjoyed thoroughly and now plan on how
to build one someday. It was over 100C in there, above the boiling
point of water, and then you use birch branches as a sort of natural
flail to smack yourself with and make yourself even hotter. At this
point I thought I may actually be cooking, so you run and jump into
the spring fed pond. You need to be that hot to handle how cold
that water is. THen you do it again, and again, and again, while
sampling the varied selection of Estonian beers of course. That's
what you need to do to keep punishing your body like this. It was
a great time, thanks Marten.
Another busride and we're in RIga, Latvia. This older American man,
who wouldn't shut up the whole time, got pickpocketed as he got
off the bus. Good start. We manage to find the dump we'll call home
for the next few days, the Aurora. Yep, barricaded the door at night,
and carried all valuables with us. Yeah, I needed my backpack a
bit heavier. We had some great sightings of old Soviet bizarre devices.
This trolley was driving along on the tracks and spraying water.
It had the graceful lines of a steel, square hippo, with nozzles
on the front to spray. We first thought it was to make sure the
cobblestones stay slippery, but Sandra made a brilliant deduction.
It's been so hot, they need to keep the tracks cool or they'll
buckle. I will not use this as an opportunity to describe the coefficient
of thermal expansion for eutectic steel, maybe next message. Hot
track grows, too much and things start popping, which is bad. There
was a derailment is Maryland because of this. They need the hippo
car. Riga had some really beutiful old buildings as well, but it
was a much bigger city, and it felt like it. We gorged at an all
u can eat buffett breakfast, mostly because we couldn't figure out
how you get just individual items. Ah well.
We took the train to the resort town Sigulda outside of Riga. Well,
we walked the whole area in about 4 hours, so it's not a big exploration
type of place. They do have the old USSR bobslead track there though,
which you can take a wheeled car down. We didn't. We didn't have
a high confidence in some of the gear after seeing the cable car.
We first thought this old wreck of a building was some sort of
old ski jump. Then we realized the cable car was attached to it.
I have a nice photo of the stairs which had fallen away and the
exposed rebar decor. Apparently they bungee jump off of this thing.
Well it is a high risk sport.
22.AUG.2002
Due to the intricacies of mass mailings via. internet cafe, we are
now well in Riga, Latvia. More updates to follow........
The question one must ask oneself, regarding international travel
for an extended period, is what kind of hat one will bring. I ponder
this since I nearly left mine in a park today, and it simply wouldn’t
do to have to replace it so early in the trip. A decent hat is really
a companion of sorts, so it should be one you’ve spent some quality
time with in your past. You don’t try out new shoes on a long trip,
and you don’t bring a new hat. Mine was discovered in a bar in
Troy, NY called Sutters Mining Tavern. Whatever dubious history
it may have, this Mont Tremblant baseball hat has now been with me
for a few years. A true friend it is in both comfort and ability
to show filth as an infusion of character. Enough about that...
This is my first message about our honeymoon around the world (if
I can get this Swedish keyboard to work properly!) Our trip started
in the exotic Montreal, Quebec. With their insistence on French
everywhere, it’s been easier to travel in Sweden. Thank you Victor
for your place. As is the tradition in Montreal, we ate Vietnamese,
and then flew to the equally exotic JFK airport. After a mere 10
hours sitting on the hardseats there we flew to London. This was
my first trip to the UK, and in the true American style, we were
there less than 24 hours. We were hosted by the friends of Sandra’s
from the Rotary of Bromsgrove. The countryside there is as I imagined,
and the roads are narrow enough for me to shudder at thinking of
cycling through there. The barbeque they threw for us was a "proper"
good time. Oh yes, and I saw boats, lots of boats. This area (around
Birmingham) has an amazing old canal system which is largely being
restored so people can holiday on it in a canal boat. Since the
locks can be no wider than 6 feet, the boats are certainly not that
wide. But they are long, perhaps 35 feet? That’ll have to be a
"someday" trip.
We arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark to visit my cousin Eva-Stina Jardehag
and her husband Lars, children Henrick and Anders. The new bridge
connecting Copenhagen to Sweden was built by the engineering company
Lars works for. It’s the longest in Europe, and unfortunately I
never had a clear day to take a picture of it. Our week with them
in Hollviken, Sweden was fabulous. From bike paths that are separate
off the road, to courteous drivers who stop at every intersection
so you can cross (it is the law too). Having braved the US streets
for quite a long time, this place was cycling heaven. Plus it was
flat in this area and plenty to look at. This is nearly the Southern
most area of Sweden, and surrounded by shallow water, like the
Chesapeake
but clear and colder. We had one nice, cold, swim in the Baltic
and I was satiated with that desire for awhile. Much like the US,
it has been very hot here for Swedish standards. Of course, as
everyone should be, I’m intrigued by their boats. They’re double
enders, two pointy ends instead of one, and just look like they’re
built to take a beating. While biking you pass the WW2 pillboxes
awaiting the German invasion which never came...
We were lucky enough to have a traditional crayfish dinner here.
It’s an old Swedish tradition, but unfortunately to a disease
most of the crayfish are imported today. It reminds me of the MD
crabs in the US. My cousins taught me how to properly eat a crayfish,
including stabbing it in the back and sucking out the insides.
Think of a shellfish pixie stick (I love imagery like that) tasty!
We drank OP Anderson aquavit (I don’t clearly remember what it tasted
like for some reason), and attempted to sing traditional songs along
with everyone. It’s a sad thing that we in the states don’t have
this repetoire of songs we can all start into at a given event.
It was a pleasure to have my great uncle Bertil’s wife, Karin
Stromberg,
there to celebrate with us at 85. I speak no Swedish, she no English,
but we still had a good time.
In Lund we saw the cathedral there with a very famous clock in it.
It stands about 30 feet tall, indoors, with a carved staircase
even in it to access the workings. Being an engineer, it is truly
amazing to think this clock will tell you the year, month, day, zodiac
sign, moon phase, hours of daylight calculated to Lund, and even
the time, with the bonus of little dolls which dance and music twice
a day. It was built in the 1400’s, not bad, not bad... We visited
Tolstorp, Sweden where my grandfather Arthur was from, as well as
his father, his father, his father - and mothers I suppose, not to
be sexist. My great, great grandfather is buried in quite a prominent
spot in the church grounds there since he was a colonel. His name
was Fyr, but his son Alexander was the first Stromberg of the family.
The last names were given in the army , Stromberg meaning fast
moving mountain stream. In fact I want to now be called Christian
Fast Moving Mountain Stream to keep things straight. It was sad
to see Mossaberg, the home and land where my grandfather was raised,
is now in nearly a complete wreck. After my great Aunt Agnes died,
it was unfortunately sold. The new owner cannot manage to keep
the place as well as a 93 year old woman. Of course she was a
Stromberg...
Since I’m inclined to do these things, I was figuring out what we
would need to fix there, etc. Perhaps the family will own it again?
I had the chance to row on the lake behind the property since Eva-
Stina and Eva-Lena’s aunt still lives there. It was a good row,
with my cousins in the boat with me, although it had a tendency to
pull to the right a bit, if I just had a wrench I could adjust the
oar...
For the past week we’ve been in Knivsta, Sweden with my cousin Fredrick
Stromberg and his wife Katarina. They live next to the old church
here in what used to be the church school’s teacher house, because
Katarina is the head of music for the parish. We’ve been discussing
how different this is from the states, where most parishes don’t
have any payed staff. 80% of Swedes give to the church, 9% actually
go. They are honest about that.
You can’t avoid seeing a McDonalds here, Coca Cola (what’s Pepsi?),
Burger King, and all that other crap which is seen as a US export.
However, the cathedral in Upsalla was started in 1276 and finished
in the 1400s sometime. Some things are very different than the US.
Kids play a LOT of soccer here, and they have this sickening addiction
to graffiti. My grandmother told us how clean Sweden was, how you
would be publicly scolded if you littered. Not so anymore. We’ve
had discussions about it, but essentially until Sweden gets a handle
on punk kids it appears they don’t mind their public places looking
like complete crap. I’ve seen better kept train stops in New Jersey.
It’s that bad (that’s my litmus test, is it worse than NJ?).
They’ve got their problems, we’ve got ours.
The countryside, where we’ve just finished a few days of cycling,
is still beautiful. We are about a half an hour North of Stockholm
(capital). There are so many active old farms here, it nearly feels
like it’s all a tourist show (it isn’t). Most of the houses are
still painted in the Swedish red with white trim. They’ll have a
nice garden with greenhouse, an old barn with clay tile shingles,
and a bunch of apple trees (some older than the US probably). I’ve
even seen a few thatched roofs as well. The old barns look like
they could withstand a missle strike, lots of rock and the rest is
squared logs interlocked (Lincoln logs). You could definitely spend
a vacation just bike touring here checking out the rural lancscape
like the US barely has left.
So tomorrow we get on the ship to Tallinn, Estonia on what I think
is considered a booze cruise. Since the alcohol tax here is STEEP,
as well as nothing else being particularly inexpensive (except
cheese and hearing we think), Estonia is the place to go to party.
We shall see, and I’ll let you know. Until then...
Christian
PS Fish eggs ground into a paste and put into a tube is TASTY!!!