Russia and Scandinavia 1999

12 March 1999
	Started our long flight to Oslo, Norway from Fairbanks, Alaska.  Our route is: Fairbanks to 
Anchorage to Seattle to Chicago to London to Oslo.  We spent the night in the Seattle airport.  Tomorrow 
night will be over the Atlantic Ocean.

14 March 1999
	We finally arrived in Oslo at 11am today.  We got on a train at the airport to go to the train 
station.  We buy reservations on tomorrow's train to Stockholm and then reservations from there on a 
sleeper car up to Boden.  We have a ScanRail pass so all we pay for is the reservation.  Tonight we spent 
the night at a cheap hotel in Oslo.  It is a nice old building.  The room has a small kitchen, balcony, 2 beds, 
and bathroom. It is walking distance from the train station.

15 March 1999
	Left Oslo this morning on the train.  We had to switch trains at noon. We had about 3 hours in 
Stockholm.  We went shopping for a watch with an alarm.  The train station in Stockholm is huge!  Our 
sleeper car reservation was for the wrong day, it was for tomorrow.  Luckily, the conductor found an empty 
compartment for us just a few doors down the hall.  It was neat. Unfortunately I managed to get food 
poisoning and spent much of the night in the bathroom. This train car even has a shower.

16 March 1999
	Arrived at 630 this morning in Boden.  From here we take a bus to Kemi where we re-board the 
train. In Kemi, we bought our tickets to St. Petersburg.  We had to spend the night in Rijimaki since the 
train leaves from there at 7 am tomorrow.  We took a cab to the hotel since it was getting late and we didn’t 
want to wander around to find one by ourselves.

17 March 1999 (Wednesday)
	We walked to the train station this morning and boarded the train.  We somehow got a car to 
ourselves.  Near the border a man boarded the train car but when the conductor made him move.  They are 
real insistent about being in the correct seat going over the border into Russia.  We had no trouble at the 
border.  We arrived in St. Petersburg about 330 and were met by a man who took us to the home where we 
would be staying.  Our hostess name is Nina.  We are to stay in her apartment in the guest room.  We 
unpacked a little then went to lunch at a hamburger place nearby and went for a short walk.  We found a 
movie theater and watched “Six Days, Seven Nights”.  It was dubbed into Russian rather than subtitled.  It 
was fun trying to figure out what was being said.  We were able to understand parts of it because Ray had 2 
years and I one of Russian language at UAF.

18 March 1999 (Thursday)
	Today  we spent the entire day walking around the city.  First we went and tried to buy railway 
tickets, but they wouldn't take credit cards.  The we went to the Peter & Pual Fortress where we ate lunch 
in a bar.  Then we went to the Hermitage, where we hired a guid for $10. Turned out to be well worth it, 
because the first thing she did was to save us $20 by pointing out that students got in free!  She also gave 
us a good speel about it. After spending a couple of hours going through the Hermitage (which also
includes the Winter Palace, and is where the 1917 Revolution started) we walked home (well not home 
home, but back to Nina’s apartment).  After dinner we got out the map and figured we walked 13 
kilometers today, not counting the walking we did in the museum or train station.

19 March 1999 (Friday)
	Today has been something of a slow day; we spent the morning studying (catching up on some of 
that school work we are missing).  This afternoon we went to get tickets to Helsinki (and got them  for 
Monday afternoon). We went to a different place than yesterday, and at this place they take credit cards!  
Confusing...
	While in getting tickets we saw a little place that said 'Internet'.  So we stopped in to send this 
note, and to check our other email. Gosh, this internet connection here is good.  The delay isn't any worse
than when we were in Hawaii!!!  But it is still slow enough so I haven't been correcting many of my 
mistakes.
 	We will arrive in Helsinki Monday night, spend the night there and then take a ferry to 
Stockholm, and the train on to Oslo/Bergen.  Probably arrive in Bergen possibly late Tuesday or 
Wednesday (?? we haven't checked schedules yet so we aren't sure about this).
	

20 March 1999 (Saturday)
	Tonight we went to a folk show.  It was dancing and music, very entertaining.  We walked there 
but because it was 1030 when it ended we took a cab back to the apartment.
	

21 March 1999 (Sunday)
 It rained today so we spent much of the day inside studying. I brought my Russian and Nina 
helped me with my homework as well as other general language questions I had.

22 March 1999 (Monday)
	We did some last minute gift shopping before we left.  Nina helped me finish the homework we 
were working on yesterday.  We ate lunch at a stand in the train station.  We also bought homemade 
doughnuts and a bag.  We wanted the extra bag because the one we had was heavy.

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