Horne's Swedish Exchange

Hey everyone,

Last Saturday I returned from a trip to London where I stayed from the 25th to 28th visiting Shehz, Kariim and Ryan Hindle, buddies from my engineering program at UW who had recently graduated and were kicking off their backpacking trip of Western Europe. We stayed in a hostel called Picadilly Backpackers, located right in the heart of downtown London just outside Picadilly Circus (and also, as we discovered, a couple minutes outside of Soho, the gay area of London).

To quickly summarize our trip, we did the traditional tourist thing visiting London's main tourist attractions: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, London Tower and the Tower Bridge. We also went to the British Museum which contains the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Egypt as well as half of the sculptures from the Parthenon in Greece. Other notable destinations were Trafalgar Square where a large number of Liverpool FC fans had gathered to cheer on their team including one older man who ended up swimming naked in the fountain at the centre of the square and Harrod's, a ridiculously-priced luxury department store in Knightsbridge.

The few impressions I had of London are outlined below:

1) Obesity and crooked teeth are much more prevalent in England than Scandinavia
2) Prices in London are VERY high - for items such as food in restaurants or drinks in clubs, don't be surprised if it costs the same as in Canada but in pounds -- so 2.2 times as expensive as home. That being said, we did manage to find an excellent Italian food restaurant called Pollo close to our hostel that prepared authentic Italian food for a relatively cheap price.
3) Travelling on the Tube is quick and easy but can be expensive. The best thing to do is buy an Oyster card right when you get into London. There is a 3 pound service charge when purchasing the card but after that you may top it up with as much money as you like and use it in place of tickets, thus saving you from having to queue to get tickets. The Oyster card also gives you a discounted rate for fares -- purchasing tickets on a trip-by-trip basis on the other hand can cost you between 4.60-6.10 pounds for a single trip -- ouch.
4) Crowdedness - the streets of London are packed with people, especially areas like Picadilly Circus and Oxford Circus.
5) Happy Hour - most restaurants and bars, at least ones in the Picadilly and Soho areas, offer discounted prices on beer and appetizers between the hours of 5-7pm on weekday nights. Accordiningly, these places fill up quickly with young businesspeople looking to wind down after their day in the office.

Picadilly Circus

British phonebooths - typical tourist picture

Doubledecker bus with the London Eye in the background

Big Ben

Trafalgar Square

Supporters of Liverpool FC gathered in Trafalgar Square

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Marching band leaving Buckingham Palace after the changing of the guard

Inside the fortified area of the London Tower

Tower Bridge

Shehz, Kariim and Ryan posing for the camera

St Paul's cathedral

Looking out over London from the top of St Paul's cathedral (108m above the ground)

Egyptian artifact inside the British History Museum

The crowd on the sidewalks of Oxford St

Hey everyone,

I got back from Russia Wednesday afternoon and it's been a busy couple of days so I apologize for the lateness of this post.

The trip was awesome: met some great people, had good fun and saw some cool sites.

I'll give a quick rundown of the trip so those of you just interested in the pictures can skip to them now :)

DAY 1-3: March 31 - April 2nd, Stockholm

Myself and four other guys (Frank, Peter, Andy, Clemens) decided to head over to Stockholm early before meeting up with the rest of the tour group (the group consisted of app 150 students from universities all over Sweden) on the 2nd
Clemens, having gone out the night before missed his train and met up with us a bit later
At the train station we met up with 4 other guys (Canadian Dave #2, Chris, Davide, Alex) from Lund who were also going to Stockholm early
Visited the Vasa museum, got a tour of the Royal Palace and saw the changing of the guard, walked through Gamla Stan (the old part of Stockholm located on a central island) and took a ferry through the archipelago
Went out Saturday night to a club called Cliff Barnes - played mostly 70's music, was an older crowd, alright venue
Met up with the rest of the tour group Monday afternoon and boarded the ferry to Turku, Finland
Partied on the ferry

DAY 4: April 3rd, Turku and Helsinki

Arrived in Turku early Tues morning
Bus drove us from Turku to Helsinki
Went on sight-seeing bus tour of Helsinki
After checking into the hotel, did some of our own sight-seeing of the city
Partied at a club in Helsinki that night

DAY 5: April 4th, Travel from Helsinki to Russia

Left in the morning on an 8hr bus ride form Helsinki to St Petersburg
Had to stop 3 times for checking of passports
Arrived in St Petersburg in the evening then went out for dinner with the boys
Partied in a bar called Griboyedov that used to be an underground Bombshelter (very reminiscent of Phil's)

DAY 6: April 5th, St Petersburg

Went on bus tour of the city
Visited the State Hermitage Museum
Went on a booze-cruise through one of the city's canals then partied at a club called Metro

DAY 7: April 6th, St Petersburg

Got a tour of Catherine the Great's Palace
Did some of our own sight-seeing
Left on 12hr over-night bus ride from St Petersburg to Moscow

DAY 8: April 7th, Moscow

Arrived in the morning, went on bus tour of the city
Did some of our own sight-seeing
Saw a ballet at the Bolshoi theatre
Partied at a club called the Hungry Duck - expensive drinks, sketchy clientelle, would not recommend it

DAY 9: April 8th, Moscow

Tour of the Kremlin
Started snowing hard, walked around the city, stopped in a couple of cafes/sushi bars
Left on 12hr over-night bus ride from Moscow back to St Petersburg

DAY 10: April 9th, St Petersburg

Arrived in the morning, did some of our own sight-seeing
Attended a traditional Russian folkdancing show - was awesome
Partied in the hotel's nightclub

DAY 11: April 10th, Travel from St Petersburg to Turku

8hr bus ride back to Turku
Boarded the ferry from Turku to Stockholm
Partied on the ferry

DAY 12: April 11th, Travel from Stockholm to Lund

Caught a morning train from Stocholm to Lund
SLEPT

Words and Numbers:

Trash - the rural streets of Russia are lined with it: from beer bottles to abandoned tires, the roadside garbage is visible as soon as you cross over the Russian border

Taxis - when you wave down a taxi in St Petersburg, you may get a licensed taxi or you may get a random driver willing to drive you to your destination for a negotiated fee

Bartering - when purchasing anything in Russia (souvenirs, taxi rides, nightclub entrance fees) be prepared to barter with the salesperson. In most cases if a Russian sees that you are not a local they will try to rip you off by charging you unordinarily high prices.

English - most Russians don't speak it.

Thieves - are everywhere. Never keep your wallet in your back pocket and if you can, avoid carrying a pack on your back. While in St Petersburg I felt hands on my back pocket and witnessed a couple of individuals trying to unzip my pack while I was wearing it.

Women - Russian women are among the most beautiful in the world. If you like the tall, skinny, runway model-types, this is the place for you. Be wary though that prostitution in Russia is rampant and many girls are looking for a way out of the country.

Strippers - both male and female, are common in Russian nightclubs

Food - is slightly cheaper in Russia than at home.

Vodka - is cheap and of high quality in Russia. A 1L bottle of Russian Standard (one of Russia's best and smoothest vodkas) costs 10EUR ($15CAD) at the duty-free store.

Beer - same story: cheap and good.

Extremes - Russia is full of them, from extreme poverty to extreme wealth.

Communism - symbols of the theory that shaped Russia's political history and caused the country so much hardship can still be seen in the country's architecture and museums