South African Itinerary
So since our trips are usually confined to the two weeks we can skip out on work plus the surrounding weekends we usually only get away for around 15 days. On limited time trips I like to have a pretty solid itinerary setup. I’m sure know this goes against most backpacking ideology but like I said, we don’t have time to burn, idly sitting around debating our next step or bouncing from hostel to hostel looking for vacancies. So once I know where we wanna go I put together a plan. Figured the best way to start writing about our trip was with a general overview of when and where we were.
- Feb 13th - Flight SAA 207 Dulles to Johannesburg
- Feb 14th - Arrive in Jobur, overnighted at the Protea Wanderers Hotel
- Feb 15th - Drove east to Kruger National Park, “camped” at the Berg-en-Dal site
- Feb 16th - Kruger National Park (Berg-en-Dal)
- Feb 17th - Back to Jozi for a quick flight to Port Elizabeth (PE)
- Feb 18th - Drove from PE to Jeffrey’s Bay, checked into the Island Vibe Backpackers
- Feb 19th - JBay
- Feb 20th - Drove to Knsyna, stayed at
- Feb 21st - Drove over to Cape Town, met our new friends Gert & Aneen C.
- Feb 22nd - Hiked Table Mountain, headed to Stellenbosch
- Feb 23rd - Wine Touring in Stellenbosch, staying at a B&B
- Feb 24th - Back to Cape Town, rented an apartment on Long St.
- Feb 25th - Explored Cape Town
- Feb 26th - Drove to Cape of Good Hope and back to CT
- Feb 27th - Last day in Cape Town, caught the night flight to JNB
- Feb 28th - Landed in NYC
Wow, writing it down like that really doesn’t do it justice. We crammed a lot into the 16-18 hours of time we were awake each day. Beach time, hiking, many many many beers, shopping, surfing, and safaris…
Boy did we have ourselves some fun over the course of our 12 days in Northern Europe. From camera-shy prostitutes to 4am Happy Hours to claustrophobic boat cabins, we made enough memories to last a lifetime. Traveling with my brother- and sister-in-law could not have been more fun. It was neat to see all things European through their virgin eyes. Sometimes a seasoned traveler can forget the little things - like how its a little odd that all the chairs at an outdoor cafe point in the exact same position (better for people watching obviously) or that when you order soda do not expect ice (or a large portion for that matter - you’re getting 100mL in a little curvy glass bottle).
Again going the nautical route (as opposed to the planes and trains of our earlier journeys) we booked tickets for the “fast boat” to Tallinn. It did cost twice as much but promised to deliver us there in half the time. Anxious to get to our last (and cheapest) city we eagerly boarded the “Merlin.” Boy was this a mistake. In our hungover state, bouncing across choppy waves was not a good idea. The worst part was that no one else seemed to notice that we were completely out of control. I was it was kinda crazy when the lady started drinking a bottle of red wine - but it was completely ludicrous when another women starting painting her nails! We were literally jumping off of whitecaps in the North Atlantic but if you looked at our co-passengers you woulda thought we were on the monorail at DisneyWorld. The best part though is that the boat just drops you off at a seemingly random pier on the outskirts of town. Immigration? Yeah, there was a “Closed” sign hanging haphazardly in booth and streams of people filed straight past it without a cursory glance. The usual touts who are outside of every train station and bus depot? No where to be found…in fact we were quite lost - good thing they provide that handy oversized map (pictured above). 
Part of the fun of Finland is just getting there. We opted for the overnight steamer from Stockholm and 14 short hours later we arrived at the port of Helsinki on the edge of town. There are several options for getting into the city centre but the cheapest is to follow the people and hop on the tram. This is easier said then done when lugging a 20lb bag and the tramcar is full of cranky, ornery locals who, like us, probably didn’t sleep so well on the ship. Then again maybe they did - it wasn’t the rocking or the claustophobia that kept me up, it was my brother-in-law’s snoring. As you can see from the photo though, as soon as we got into town, it was all smiles and sunlight. and sunlight. and more sunlight. We stayed up all night - and so did our friend the sun. In late June, that far north, the golden ball never stops rolling along.
I received some great news today. After submitting a restaurant review to LonelyPlanet.com last week I was notified that my entry won me a great prize. You can read my review 
One of the most scenic (and easiest) ways to enter Sweden is by way of the Øresund Bridge linking Copenhagen with Malmö. The bridge actually begins as a tunnel on the Danish side before rising out of the sea. A 15 minute train ride brings you into the central station in Malmö where you can make connections to regional and intra-city trains and buses. This is exactly what we did, catching a bigger train for the 5 hour ride to Stockholm. Using the time to write, nap, snack, and listen to music was a nice bit of forced relaxation after the frantic pace we had been following.
Another Hamlet quote, this one from our prince to his friend Horatio, implying that if you stay in Denmark long enough, their strong drinking habits will start to rub off on you…wow, only took us two days! It did help that we found The Moose Bar, a graffiti-covered locals hangout hidden in plain sight. Its just off of Strøget near the city center but its somehow free of tourists. Save for us, the conspicuous Americans in the corner. I ordered up our first round of pints and the bartender replied with a quick “100 kroner”. That works out to about $16, not bad when ordering 4 at a time. Seeing my astonishment, or maybe just sensing it, when he handed over our drinks he whispered “Is pretty reasonable…” in that European way that’s both a question and a statement. Reasonable indeed and we stayed there for over an hour enjoying the cheapest beer we had yet to find. 