Fight Club

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We boarded the ferry that would take us from Stockholm to Helsinki overnight. It looked like a nice large ferry - featuring 2 nightclubs, a casino, bars, shops, restaurants, and even a hair dresser. The Contiki staff affectionately call the ferry the 'Love Boat'. It turned out to be something else totally...

One of the guys on our tour, Miles was celebrating his birthday, and we went to one of the nightclubs on the ferry. It all started off as a good night, with most people dancing, or chatting at the sides. And then it happened. A gypsy girl pushes one of our girls from a dance podium. And then a large gypsy guy comes out and kicks Miles, and he crashes to the ground. I was sure it was going to esculate, and I took a position behind the large gypsy guy so I could easily lock him up or put him in a strangle hold if I needed to (Judo can come in handy). Fortunately some of the other guys came in, pulled them apart, and tried to smooth things over. The gypsy girl was still trying to start fights, and kicked me. I just ignored it... the tour manager had come over and told us they sometimes look for fights. It really put a dampner on the night, and I ended up spending most of it keeping my eyes out for the others on the tour.

The Contiki staff affectionately call the ferry the 'Love Boat'. It turned out to be something else totally...

Church of Rock
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Morning came and we arrived in Helsinki. We had a quick tour of the city, and the most impressive part was the Rock Church. It's a Lutheran church that was dug out of granite rock. The rest of Helsinki looked like a typical European city... We didn't get a good chance to look around as we were only there for a night. It's not as impressive as Stockholm was, but looked like a nice place to live. And I believe the rumors that it's the home of European heavy metal. There were a number of gothic people around.

Graeme on the Church of Rock
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Dinner was great... raindeer was on the menu, and it was followed by some local beers that were quite palletable. And then onto the bar where we would meet another Contiki group who were being amalgomated into our own for the Russian leg of the trip. We eyed each other across the room like nervous teenagers at a highschool dance, and got into the introductions. Unlike our group most of the girls on this one were single, and seemed nice. There were also a lot more guys too - and really good looking ones. I could see some of our girls with their mouths wide open with drool dripping on the floor.

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Leaving Helsinki was not much fun... two of the girls from the new group failed to get up, and we only realized 15 minutes into the trip, and we had to go back for them. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. It only took us an hour to get through the notorius border crossing into Russia, and we got to peer behind the iron curtain.

The first town we came across was Vyborg... a small dingy city with the locals staring at the coach that had entered their domain. We weren't there for long... merely a toilet break. At least the rumors were confirmed about Russian women. They're certainly far better looking then the average Russian male counterpart. And they like to dress up too even if just going to the shops. The girls on our tour were wondering how they manage to walk so far in heals so high.

Marina
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And then we continued our journey onto the beautiful city of St Petersburg.