Our Christmas Vacation (Part 1)

Brian and I had such an amazing time on our Christmas and New Years holiday!

We have so much to say about it and so many pictures we want to share with you all so we will be breaking it up into different parts. This first part we will talk about our trip highlights as well as other important info that we feel are worth mentioning. The other parts will be broken down into the different countries that we visited along the way.

Part 1:

We had most things planned and booked for the whole trip including transportation and accommodation months in advance. We were very prepared, and even though we didn't pack until the night before, were ready to start the adventure.

This is our initial planning for the whole trip:

Zurich, Switzerland --> Helsinki, Finland (by plane)
Helsinki, Finland --> Tallinn, Estonia (by boat)
Tallinn, Estonia --> St. Petersburg, Russia (by bus)
St. Petersburg, Russia --> Riga, Latvia (by plane)
Riga, Latvia --> Berlin, Germany --> Basel, Switzerland (by Plane - stopover in Berlin)

So on Saturday morning, December 23, we set off to the Zurich airport to begin our 2 week vacation. We departed around 13:00 (delayed until 14:00) and arrived in Helsinki by 18:00 Finland time. We were in Helsinki from the night of the 23rd until the 27th.

Exciting highlights/sightseeing from Helsinki:

• Uspensky Cathedral
• Senate Square Cathedral (sang Finnish Christmas carols here on 24th evening)
  
• Temppeliaukio Church (Rock Church - went there for morning mass on 24th)
• took a boat to Suomenlinna Sea Fortress on small Island
• Opera House (couldn't get tickets)
  
• Olympic Stadium/Tower
• Sibelius Monument

Helsinki was a little disappointing overall. It wasn't that nice of a city and while we were there almost everything was closed from 24-26, including supermarkets, stores, and most restaurants. So that was too bad but we saw a lot of cool sights, buildings and went to some nice churches. Since most things were closed it was hard to find places to eat, but with the help of our hostel we were able to find something.
On Wednesday, the 27th, we got on the boat around noon. She was called Rosella! The boat ride was only about 3 hours and we were able to watch TV for some of the time. It was a lot less swaying and tippy as we imagined so that was great.

Tallinn was beautiful! We didn't even leave the old town; it was so nice, clean and cottagey! Our hostel was great; really cool people, very new and classy place and had a free sauna! Perfect. The whole time we wandered all over the old town checking out all the neat buildings and cathedrals. Most of the time we bought food from the supermarket and cooked it in the hostel kitchen. We did eat out a few times though - went to a Pancake house twice (supper filling or dessert filling) and to "The Oldest Tallinn Pub" once; that was really good. Tallinn overall was a great city to visit, we really enjoyed everything about it.

We got on the bus early Saturday morning on the 30th and traveled until the Russian boarder. Everything with customs and our Russian visas worked out great; there were no problems for us at all the whole time. So that was great and such a relief.

Exciting highlights/sightseeing from St. Petersburg:

• Winter Palace / Hermitage Museum (2nd biggest in world - we only spent a few hours there unfortunately)
• Church on Spilled Blood (very cool and unique on both inside and outside)
  
• St. Isaic's Cathedral (gorgeous on the outside)
  
• Paul and Peter Fortress (Cathedral/Buildings from/Museums about the history of St. Petersburg)
  
• Opera House/Mariinsky Theater (saw The Nutcracker ballet performance!)

We really enjoyed St. Petersburg; the "down town" area was beautiful with really cool and nice buildings all over. There was a lot there for sightseeing at night and during the day. The opera was wonderful; such a good first ballet for both of us! The Hermitage and Winter Palace were the same building just one part is called the palace and the other is the Museum. St. Isaic's Cathedral is the nicest and most modern Cathedral I have seen in all of Europe; it is for sure my favorite. We didn't go inside cuz it cost a lot of money but it was cool. The Church on Spilled blood (also called the ) was so neat and fancy. We did go inside here since it is very famous and it was definitely worth it. It was so amazing; every inch of the walls, ceiling, and floor were covered with beautiful and colorful mosaics and patterns on the floor everywhere. It was honestly incredible. This Fortress wasn't really worth seeing in our opinion. It was pretty boring and the buildings and cathedral weren't really that nice. The museums were sort of interesting about the history but not enough to say we enjoyed it a lot. But overall St. Petersburg is a must see for sure. There is so much to do and see and it is very beautiful. Of course other than the main parts of the city the rest is very run down and ghetto like and basically scary (where our hostel was) but I guess it is to be expected in Russia.

Last, but not least, we visited Riga. Riga is a lot like Tallinn, very nice old town; but the city has a lot of very modern parts as well. It reminded me of Calgary actually; the nice parts of Calgary anyways. Riga had some of the best restaurants with amazing food for a good price, we ate out quite a bit here. We hung out in the old town a lot during the day, taking pictures but our hostel was in a different area so we were able to see both a lot. It rained a lot in Riga so it was harder to see as much as we wanted and to take pictures. We did go to the Museum of Occupation about how Latvia was taken over by USSR and Germany and how they finally survived to become/stay their own country. We went to a similar one in Tallinn as well about Estonia's history; which was neat as well.

While we were in Latvia we decided to take a day trip to a town in Lithuania called Siauliai. Since it rained a lot in Riga and we had more than enough days there to see everything we thought this would be nice. So we took a bus for a couple hours and spent a whole day here. It wasn't the nicest town and not a lot to do but it was nice to get a scenery change and see another country! It felt good to just be relaxed and not have to rush around too much here. We enjoyed ourselves and when we needed a break from the cold we went to a cafe and had a hot drink and a dessert.

Our plane ride home was fine, long because of stopping in Berlin for 4 hours cooped up in the airport, but okay nonetheless. Our Christmas trip overall was absolutely great for both of us. It wasn't too cold and unfortunately it only snowed once in Russia for New Years but that's okay too. We were able to see 5 countries altogether and we are happy with our choices for sure. We got a lot of sightseeing done and were also able to relax and enjoy ourselves as well. So really we couldn't have had a better trip for Christmas and New Years this year!


All about Helsinki, Finland next!