Exterous' trip to Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia and Latvia

[Exterous]

this is mostly a gypsy racket though.

I'm not sure thats true anymore as we've noticed a definite shift in ethnicity but its not like I live in those cities so hard to say for sure

Love the indoor pics! Do you usually edit them? How fast is the Tamron lens?

Thanks! I don't edit a ton - usually just throw a preset filter at them in Lightroom and some minor adjustments. The Tamron is pretty fast although I've never tried to get action shots with it

 

[zinfamous]

And now the Latvian over here is also upset that there are no Latvia pics yet. Pressure is on!

 

[Exterous]

So one thing I didn't mention was the added stress of our flights. Heaven forbid we have a trip without significant potential difficulties. At 1am the morning we were scheduled to leave I got a notice from Delta about a travel waiver - basically they felt the weather might be terrible in Boston that they were letting people make flight changes for free. Thats normally a bad sign. So of course I got up at 1am to try and figure out how to salvage our timeline, except I didn't see any bad weather scheduled for Boston - at all. I checked 4 weather sites and the worst I could find was light rain scheduled for about an hour. So I made a list of alternate flights we might be able to find room on if we ended up arriving late and then I went back to bed with an uneasy feeling that continued until we got to Boston. I still don't know why Delta chose to do that since there was zero bad flight weather. The only thing I can think of is that they are waaay more paranoid about it after their Atlanta screwup.

And of course we were flying through Heathrow on the way back which put us smack in the middle of BA's Union strike that affected only Heathrow flights so we had that hanging over our heads during the cruise. Fortunately everything went off without an hitch but I would have preferred to avoid the worry. I did learn that Iberia keeps their planes hot enough that even Spaniards complain so super excited I booked them for a trip to Italy next April...

Anyway here is one more of Yusupov's palace

Hermitage:

St Peter and St. Pauls Cathedral:

Catherine's Palace:

(8 min private traditional Russian acapella singers)

 

[Exterous]

It closes every Saturday at 3PM and is closed all Sunday. Monday should be normal are you sure you are not drunk?

Very sure and its those damn Socialists' fault. We went to the first store at 2:23pm (shortly after we landed) and it was closed so we looked up the hours of the nearest other two stores and those closed at 2pm as well. Since we left at 7pm Sunday we had no chance to stock up

And now the Latvian over here is also upset that there are no Latvia pics yet. Pressure is on!

Well you should have made Latvia come earlier in the cruise schedule!

 

[Exterous]

Ok last day of St Petersburg

Peterhof Palace

I also found Russian architecture very interesting. Even though they've abandoned the "Square concrete block" look they are still building massive complexes and never seem to build just one. All around the city there were at least 2 identical looking high rises and usually 4+ of them. They also don't seem to build anything but as there is no transition zone. Its just field and then *Bam* high rises.

Here is an example - a bunch of high density apartment buildings and then suddenly - nothing for miles and miles afterwards.

They had these all over the place. Here is another example of 4 high rises (and 1 being built) surrounded by nothing but fields for miles. Sadly the pictures from the van don't really do justice to the random placement feeling of passing nothing for a long time and then a tiny cluster of tall buildings and then nothing again.

Closer to the port it was even crazier. They had more 15-20 thirty plus story skyscrapers right next to a completely empty field. No road - stores, small buildings or even trees. Just grass and shrubs that abruptly ended with the 6 new skyscrapers (of the exact same design) going in. Unfortunately we didn't get close to those and we didn't bring our telephoto lens. Our guide told me that area had all been swamp previously that had been filled in. This left me seriously questioning the rapid construction of such tall buildings in a swamp area

 

[Exterous]

Not my picture but it kinda gets the idea better across - except there was just grass and shrubs instead of cranes. But basically you hit a certain street and the city\development just stops.

 

[bigboxes]

Again, thanks for the updates and the pics.

 

[Tequila]

Awesome pics! I love St Petersburg more than any European city. Did you get a chance to visit the Russian Museum? It is way less crowded there than the Hermitage. I went on a Thursday when they stay open till late and there was no line at all in September. Hermitage isn't too bad of a wait if you buy your ticket at the vending machine but the worst part is the cloak room arg! Especially exiting and getting your stuff back the lines are madness.

Btw, 3 year tourist visas to Russia are easy to get for Americans. The visa application is a long one to fill out so checking on 3 year vs two week makes it worth your time. Many Europeans I talked to over there could only get two week visas.

Church of Spilled Blood and St Isaacs are amazing. Too bad all I had was my iPhone camera because my pics are shit compared to yours.

I really want to go back in the winter sometime.

 

[Exterous]

Again, thanks for the updates and the pics.

You're welcome

Awesome pics! I love St Petersburg more than any European city. Did you get a chance to visit the Russian Museum? It is way less crowded there than the Hermitage. I went on a Thursday when they stay open till late and there was no line at all in September. Hermitage isn't too bad of a wait if you buy your ticket at the vending machine but the worst part is the cloak room arg! Especially exiting and getting your stuff back the lines are madness.

Sadly we didn't get a chance to visit the Russian Museum. So much to see with so little time and yeah the cloak rooms were pretty bad. Good to know about the 3 year visa - thanks!

 

[zinfamous]

Sadly we didn't get a chance to visit the Russian Museum. So much to see with so little time and yeah the cloak rooms were pretty bad. Good to know about the 3 year visa - thanks!

well, did you get a chance to visit the Occupation museum in Riga? A rather educational experience about what Russia actually means to the rest of Europe.

 

[Exterous]

Our next stop was Tallinn. Our ship got in much earlier than scheduled so we had the pleasure of being the first off the boat around 7am. We walked a short distance to the bus stop and got into the city early enough there was basically no one else around.

Of course that changed as more people started getting off the ship and several more ships showed up

(Ours in the middle)

 

[Exterous]

well, did you get a chance to visit the Occupation museum in Riga? A rather educational experience about what Russia actually means to the rest of Europe.

Yes although it has been temporarily moved to a new location. A person who I am assuming is a native Latvian was kind enough to explain in English the directions to find it - which of course meant backtracking.

 

[highland145]

That is some blue sky in the 1st 2.



All of these pics and no pics of the wife? Sad panda.

 

[zinfamous]

That is some blue sky in the 1st 2.

he's using a polarized filter on his lens, I believe.

 

[zinfamous]

Yes although it has been temporarily moved to a new location. A person who I am assuming is a native Latvian was kind enough to explain in English the directions to find it - which of course meant backtracking.

Oh right, I think I heard that. So did they destroy the buttugly Russian shithole building that was dropped in the middle of the main square, looking awful as hell, or are they just renovating it? I think it was the local seat of the Soviet council, which is nice that Latvia turned it into a shrine of their occupation and decades of Soviet murder.

 

[Exterous]

All of these pics and no pics of the wife? Sad panda.

I've been around long enough to know better

he's using a polarized filter on his lens, I believe.

Nope - we were just out early enough to catch the morning 'Blue Hour'. We actually don't travel with filters as its just one more thing to juggle around. I'm sure if we spent more time to get more familiar with them they would work out well but the desire isn't there at the moment

Oh right, I think I heard that. So did they destroy the buttugly Russian shithole building that was dropped in the middle of the main square, looking awful as hell, or are they just renovating it? I think it was the local seat of the Soviet council, which is nice that Latvia turned it into a shrine of their occupation and decades of Soviet murder.

Just renovating it and it was just the inside that was being renovated while we were there so I dont think the exterior is changing

 

[zinfamous]

Nope - we were just out early enough to catch the morning 'Blue Hour'. We actually don't travel with filters as its just one more thing to juggle around. I'm sure if we spent more time to get more familiar with them they would work out well but the desire isn't there at the moment

well, a simple polarizing filter isn't really anything extra to carry around--most people leave it more or less permanently affixed to their lenses, as they double as an effective shield and dust protection for the far more expensive glass underneath. ....I don't think I removed mine in years. Most of them, you can simply rotate if you don't want the polarizing effect, depending on your angle, so it's like it isn't there at all.

Either way, kind of amazing to see sky like that without the filter on, because the light definitely looks polarized.

 

[bigboxes]

I see no piers. How did you get ashore?

 

[Elganja]

very cool, love seeing your vacation photos!

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Omg your pictures make me want to visit Russia next year even more.

 

[Exterous]

well, a simple polarizing filter isn't really anything extra to carry around--most people leave it more or less permanently affixed to their lenses, as they double as an effective shield and dust protection for the far more expensive glass underneath. ....I don't think I removed mine in years. Most of them, you can simply rotate if you don't want the polarizing effect, depending on your angle, so it's like it isn't there at all.

Either way, kind of amazing to see sky like that without the filter on, because the light definitely looks polarized.

Its possible we got bad filters or something but when we tried our pictures were darker. That was fine outdoors but most landmark buildings in Europe tend to be quite dark and its often hard enough to get the shot with a reasonable ISO and an F2.8 as it is so I didn't want to deal with constantly putting the filter on and taking it off.

I see no piers. How did you get ashore?

There is actually a large concrete pier between our ship and the one next to it. It starts right by the tent in the corner and runs between them.

very cool, love seeing your vacation photos!

Thanks!

Omg your pictures make me want to visit Russia next year even more.

Its definitely worth a trip

 

[zinfamous]

where is today's update? I don't want to see that "work" excuse!

 

[Exterous]

where is today's update? I don't want to see that "work" excuse!

I thought about just putting up another picture or two of SPB just to be a dick but fine

 

[Exterous]

The last port was Riga and the weather was very hit and miss with some brief showers and was a tad on the warm side with some pretty high humidity. I also learned that there are some churches that ask you not to go in at all if you are wearing shorts. So I stood at the door and peered in but still wouldn't have changed my tourist attire because of the aforementioned weather.

The harbor was quite far out and there was no public transport so we had to buy bus passes for the 35min drive into town. They had a ton of buses running so the wait wasn't too bad and the prices wasn't as outrageous as it could have been. On the positive side we were the only cruise ship at the port and looking at the various itineraries I think RC is the only cruise line that stops at Riga.

We ended up heading back around rush hour but the bus drivers seemed pretty intent on shoving their way through traffic. At the pickup spot they did a U-turn across 5 lanes of traffic to head back to port and didn't care too much about traffic. Basically "Fvck you - Ima bus - you move"

The somewhat rainy weather also made for some excellent sky for photographing

After that it was a nice relaxing day at sea and then back to Stockholm. The flight home went smoothly despite the strike with the plane being somewhat empty so we could spread out a bit. Didn't get quite as long in the ports as we would have liked but thats most cruises for us. The positive side of that is I wasn't tired going back to work and it seemed like just the right amount of exercise for my mom.

 

[zinfamous]

I thought about just putting up another picture or two of SPB just to be a dick but fine

Russian sympathizers, everywhere!