I’m finally back from my vacation. Actually I got back to Paris 2 weeks ago, and just the day after, one of my cousin, whom I never met before, arrived in Paris and stayed in our home for 2 weeks. My family and I made him visit Paris.
My vacation were AWESOMEEEE ^_^ I really had a blast!!! We visited many beautiful places, and we also took ton of photographs haha.
I’m going to put up some of my pics here, but if you want to see all of them (I took A LOT of pics haha), you can see them on my facebook page, my myspace page, and on my flickr account, enjoy!!
So my parents, my brother and I went on cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. Basically, this company is best known for its Freestyle Cruising concept, which means that there are no set times or seating arrangements for meals, nor is formal attire required.
The cruise started at Dover, UK, so first we had to go there with all our luggage. We took 2 trains then a ferry to go there. We left very early in the morning on August 11th. Actually it was my dad’s birthday, so just before leaving we offered him our gifts haha. Anyway, I thought it would be a pain in the neck to go to Dover, but it was ok.
But we were relieved to finally arrive to our cabins. The ship was impressive. It’s huge; there were 15 decks, 11 restaurants, 13 bars, 2 swimming pools, a church, an Internet cafe, a gallery, a store, a spa… Our cabins were great; we had a balcony & a TV, and enough room to put all our stuff. We had two cabins, one for my parents and another one for my bro and me.
All the staff (except the people at the reception and at the shore excursion desk) was nice and very helpful! Each time the housekeeping ladies cleaned our cabin, they made us a towel animal, and they all were really well done.
There were many activities on the boat, but most of them were sportive activities, so it wasn’t for me haha. Every night there were a show then a party but neither my parents nor my brother wanted to go… So I never went because that’s not funny to go to a show or party alone, everybody knows that ^_^. That’s the only deceiving point. But we especially enjoyed the restaurants! There were French, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Mexican restaurants… a steakhouse… Our favorites were the French restaurant, the Japanese restaurant (it’s delicious, plus the chef cooked in front of us, and he was pretty funny), and the steakhouse.
The cruise lasted 12 days, and we were 4 days at see + of course every night.
We visited several wonderful cities: Copenhagen, Berlin, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm. We stayed one day in each city, except in St Petersburg where we stayed 2 days. Of course all the excursions were in English, fortunately we all understand English, except my mom (but she’s improved a lot her English skills during this trip), so we had to translate the main facts for her.
Here are more details about what we visited in each city:
Copenhagen, DENMARK: This capital is very cute!! We were lucky because we had a sunny day. The excursion was called Panoramic Copenhagen, it’s a driving tour in the city, the bus took us to the main sights and attractions : We saw the Old Stock Exchange, the Royal Library’s new building, the Black Diamond, the Opera House, the Old Fish Market, the Amalienborg Palace, and of course the famous Little Mermaid Statue. We were surprised because the statue was very small, but of course very beautiful. It’s one of the main attractions of Copenhagen. The true story of the Little Mermaid is quite sad, but I like it, and I also love the Disney movie haha. Anyway ;) The Amalienborg Palace was nice; it is the winter home of the Danish royal family. It consists of four identical classicizing palace façades with rococo interiors around an octagonal courtyard. We had lunch at the Old Fish Market, and it’s my favorite place, it’s colorful and verv lively. We just got one bad feeling; we found that the Danish people were quite cold with tourists (even our guide).
Berlin, GERMANY: It’s the city I like least … but I think it’s because we spent a long time in the train and also because of the guide. Plus, I fell down when I wanted to get in the bus, I hit my head and my thigh and got 2 big bruises, so of course that’s not good memories ^_^. Anyway, our ship arrived in Rostock very early in the morning, and we had to take a train to go to Berlin. The train ride between Rostock & Berlin is approximately 3 hours each way through Mecklenburg countryside. We were in a reserved carriage, and in the morning a light breakfast snack was served, and in the evening a snack was also provided. So it means we spent about 6 hours in the train… We did a tour bus, and it included photo stops at the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichtag, Charlottenburg Palace, the East Side Gallery, and Checkpoint Charlie. We also did a boat ride along the River Spree (but it was a closed boat, and we weren’t near the window, so we didn’t see so many things). We also went to the famous Pergamon Museum. The 60-minutes, self-guided tour showed the Pergamon altar and the fabulous Ishtar Gate of Babylon. It’s interesting, but unfortunately I visited only 3 rooms because there were too many steps to visit the other rooms … I think it’s really weird that a such famous and huge museum is not well handicapped oriented. Anyway, we also had lunch inside an Old Prussian Palais. It’s very good, but I think the food wasn’t typically German. The guide was nice, but she had a strong accent, sometimes it was hard to understand her. Plus she couldn’t stop talking haha, so at the end of the tour we were kinda tired, and most of the facts she told us about Berlin were historical facts, I mean that’s not so interesting because we can read that in books. I prefer to know some anecdotes & legends.
Tallinn, ESTONIA: Tallinn is definitely my favorite destination (with Stockholm). It’s a small medieval town, with lots of gothic treasures. This town is way too cute. And our guide was awesome, she’s really fluent in English so it’s easy to understand her, and she was very friendly and also very funny. She told us many things about Tallinn, and also many legends. We saw the Old Town, offering excellent views of the ancient city wall. We also saw the Kiel in de Kök CannonTower (in the Upper Town), the castle (now the seat of Estonia’s Parliament), the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Town hall Square (the center of the Lower Town), the Great Guild, the Holy Ghost Church, the 15th –century Apothecary Shop and numerous medieval merchants’ homes. The Town Hall Square is one of the best preserved Gothic Town Halls in Europe and has been at the center of Tallinn’s life for six centuries. Unfortunately, there were two bad points: The weather was horrible, it was raining cats and dogs, and it’s also cold and windy. And almost all the streets are cobble stone streets. I think it makes Tallinn very charming, but it’s horrible when you are in a wheelchair. My dad had huge difficulties to push my wheelchair. Sometimes we have the same problem in Paris, but the cobble stone streets are much bigger in Tallinn. But I definitely loved this tour!!
St. Petersburg, RUSSIA: This city’s gorgeous!! I love its architecture, it’s really beautiful. The first day we visited the Hermitage Museum. I loved it, this Museum is splendid, the architecture is beautiful and there are so many paintings and other beautiful objects to see. Basically, it’s the largest art museum in Russia, and ranks among the most prestigious and fabulous museums in the world (and seriously I understand why). Originally founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 as a private court museum, it evolved into the most remarkable collection, containing nearly three million objects. I didn’t like the guide so much, because at the end of the visit, we were longer to leave the museum, because of course we had to take the elevator, and we had to wait for it for a long time because many lazy people use it ^_^, so all the other people from our group were already in the bus, my bro too, but the guide forgot that my parents and I were still in the museum (that’s weird because she helped us during the visit and I was the only person in a wheelchair in our group), she asked the driver to leave, fortunately my bro came straight to her and told her we were still inside the museum … That’s not really professional. But I definitely like this museum!
The evening, we saw a Russian show and it was awesome. We could hear some Russian songs (of course we didn’t understand anything haha), and there were beautiful costumes. I took many videos with my camera so I’ll put them on my Youtube account (that is tinkerbell92400).
The second day, we did a driving tour to explore the most remarkable sites of St. Petersburg. We enjoyed the magnificent view of the Neva River and the Rostral Columns, the Hermitage Museum, the St. Peter and Paul Fortress…We also saw the beautiful Church on Spilled Blood and the Isaac’s Cathedral. We also went to a souvenir market, and there was another one at the port. I bought so many things over there, because they sell beautiful souvenirs. I bought a real Russian doll, and also a Russian box, I don’t know the right word in English, you know the beautiful boxes that Russian people make by hand. I also bought two books of Russian fairy tales (you all know I love fairy tales ^_^) and also some jewelleries (they make beautiful small eggs as necklaces). And of course I also bought ton of souvenirs for the friends haha. So I think my credit card definitely hates St. Petersburg.
We’re disappointed about only one thing: We wanted to visit Peterhof, the town of palaces, because rumor has it’s stunning! But the woman who was in charge to sell us this excursion refused to sell it to us. First, she told us that it wasn’t handicapped oriented. Then when we told her I could climb the stairs (we’re very motivated), she told us that the wheelchairs weren’t allowed inside the palaces, because they damage the wooden floor. It’s totally unfair, and we’re way too disappointed.
Helsinki, FINLAND: Many people told me they didn’t like this city, because it wasn’t beautiful. I was surprised (in the good way) because we saw some nice places. We did a driving tour to see the main city highlights. We stopped at several places, as the Senate Square (including the Lutheran Cathedral), the Sibelius Park (where we saw a monument constructed of 527 steel pipes honouring the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius), the Temppeliaukio Rock Church …
After having visited the Temppeliaukio Rock Church, I freaked out because I lost my bag (and I have all my life in), fortunately our guide was lovely , she went back to the church and to the souvenir store to see if she could find it, and guess what, she did!!! It was in the souvenir store, next to the counter, I think I was carrying too many souvenirs in my arms and as my bag is quite heavy, I wanted to put it on the floor for one minute and I forgot it… I really suck sometimes ^_^. A huge thank you to our guide, who was very patient!!
Stockholm, SWEDEN: Stockholm was definitely our favorite destination during this trip. It was our only excursion in French and our guide was nice and very competent. We got lucky because we had a really nice weather. This city is really cute; there are many interesting museums to visit, and also very nice places, as the Old Town. We did a driving tour and we stopped at few places. First of all, we went to the imposing City Hall, renowned for its architecture, murals and as the site of the Nobel Prize Banquet. Completed in 1923, this building is the result of a 12-year effort by artists and craftsmen. We also went to Fjallgatan, offering a splendid panoramic view of Stockholm. We visited the Swedish warship Vasa, once considered one of the worlds largest and the pride of mighty Sweden’s Navy. The present Museum is built around the 17th century warship which sank in Stockholm’s inner harbor on her maiden voyage in 1628. Its discovery in 1956 and subsequent salvage in 1961 is one of the most important events in marine archaeology. We also passed by the Old Town, that is a very nice and colorful area.
Even if there were some organisation issues, I definitely loved this cruise!! A huge thank you to my parents!! I came back with ton of great memories!
