(sent from my mobile)

(sent from my mobile)

The Keizergracht

Originally uploaded by dwightgunning

This is the lovely Keizergracht.

Finland’s capital turned out to be quite cool with a few interesting skate and street wear shops. I only had a few hours to explore and the rain was almost torrential so I didn’t achieve a whole lot.

Riding the trams around a fairly flat town center reminded me quite a bit of Melbourne. I might have felt like this because of the rain but I definitely think there were some similarities in the architecture of the two cities.

For accommodation, I picked up couch with a guy named Antti. He had a pretty sweet little flat and a good outlook. Since he was coming off a big weekend and had to work Monday, we just chilled out and chatted with a couple of his Spanish friends who made a brief appearance.

Not a bad litle way to spend a night. Hopefully next time I’ll be in town when it’s warmer and there is more time to check things out.

I’ve decided this was a good thing because the Capital, and Russia as a whole, is such a unique place. I’ll admit it’s probably the most difficult place to be in that I’ve ever visited. I guess that’s all part of the charm.

Through the first few days I managed to see Gorky Park, Red Square, Lenin’s Mausoleum and of course the Kremlin.

After burning out on tourist attractions I arranged to meet up with a few Couch Surfers for coffees, lunches and trips to less touristy destinations. Still later in my stay I spent a day inside the flat, tried vodka for breakfast, and ate plain rice because I deemed it too expensive to eat out.

Moscow really was all that I expected. It’s cold, wet-snowy-wet at this time of year, and generally pretty depressing. But that’s just the on the surface. The people I managed to have genuine conversations with were all wonderful people with bright and interesting stories to tell.

As it stands with visa requirements, I won’t be rushing back. On the other hand, if these things change or if I get the opportunity to go out on business, I’ll definitely jump at the chance to visit Moscow again.

With the mandatory “tourist invitation” and visa in place, I managed to do all that on this trip. What was amazing was that there’s so much more to see and do which I didn’t really figure out until doing some proper research.

I will never profess to understand or be a lover of art. Regardless, The Hermitage was an amazing experience. I was quite taken by the quality of the exhibits and the breath of the collection. Being situated in the Winter Palace, even the exterior is photograph worthy.

St Isaac’s Cathedral was another great find which actually came about by chance. I was struggling to see or find anything with so much snow falling around the Armoury. Then a Hungarian bloke asked if I would mind taking his photo in front of the large, but otherwise innocuous, Church that I’d just spent a few minutes staring at.

All in all, St. Petersburg was not an easy place to visit. It’s damn expensive too. But on whole it was well worth the effort.

]]> http://dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/2008/12/17/st-petersburg/feed/ 0 http://dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/2008/12/16/maastricht/ http://dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/2008/12/16/maastricht/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:17:23 +0000 Dwight Gunning http://www.dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/?p=260 Maastricht, in the south of The Netherlands was a nice little one night detour.

I didn’t have a lot of time to see the sights, but went for a nice walk in the afternoon and managed to get a good feel for the place.

Yet another river city with beautiful old buildings and lots of green areas. Maastricht is unique for it’s abundance of university students (about 10% of the ~120,000 population).

]]> http://dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/2008/12/16/maastricht/feed/ 0 http://dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/2008/12/15/amsterdam/ http://dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/2008/12/15/amsterdam/#comments Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:22:25 +0000 Dwight Gunning http://www.dwightgunning.com/stuntshow/?p=259 There’s not all that too much to say about Amsterdam. I arrived Saturday evening and departed fairly early on the following Monday.

The most humorous anecdote was when Matt and I had to drag a punter from one of canals at about 1am Sunday morning. Wes was too busy taking photos to lend a hand.

The guy had fallen in on the other side of the canal. Unfortunately I only saw the splash. From what Matt described, it involved him stumbling backwards in a drunken stupor and tripping on a bicycle. A very Amsterdam moment indeed.

What was interesting from there was that I think the guy actually took a liking to the water. It didn’t seem like he was at all interested in getting out as he casually swam in our general direction. This was despite the fact he was wearing a leather jacket, denim jeans and heavy boots.

Those of us on dry land decided pretty quickly that his fun wasn’t going to last. So we got down to the edge of the canal and pulled the guy up the meter or so to bring him onto the embankment. He mumbled something and then asked if any of us could spare a cigarette.

Just to cap things off, as we walked away somebody had the presence of mind to start up a round of the Baywatch theme song. Here’s the first verse in case you’re ever in a similar situation:

Some people stand in the darkness
Afraid to step into the light
Some people need to help somebody
When the edge of surrender’s in sight.

I successfully negotiated the back streets of Antwerp to catch a 6:20 express train to Brussels. The change I needed to make to get to Cologne didn’t really go to plan. Firstly, I’d managed to disembark from the Antwerp-Belgium train at the ‘central’ station and not the station where international trains depart from. Second, I couldn’t make a reservation on any of the express trains that day because they were fully booked with tourists heading home after the public holiday /long weekend.

I eventually made it to Cologne by taking regional inter-city trains and changing a further two times.  But I wasn’t done yet. In Cologne I booked into a return journey south to Mannheim and set off to meet a few old colleges/friends.

I had a neat little afternoon in Mannheim. I saw a bloke run off down the street after shop lifting from a chemist. I made a few legitimate purchases myself and enjoyed some coffee/wifi while waiting for Dom and Christian to finish work. We had a  snack for dinner and a few beers but there wasn’t much time before I needed to get back to the station and head back up to Cologne. We’ll have to sort that out next time!

It was great to arrive in Cologne, catch up with Anna, meet her parents and sisters, and feel a part of a functioning family. It was also really cool to get into town and be in ‘real’ coffee shops and original stores rather than the generic tourist traps you so often find yourself in when in unfamiliar cities.

To cover off two of Cologne’s most well known icons, we stopped briefly at a beer hall to try Kölsch. We then walked around to take a look inside the grand Kölner Dom (Cologne cathedral). The place is massive and I’m really not surprised it took over 600 years to construct.

Three days wasn’t long enough but I needed to get across to Amsterdam to meet up with Matt and farewell Wes who was due to head home to Australia.