Author: Annikki

Our two weeks journey is about to end.

Waiting for the ferry to Turku in Stockholm. We also had time to meet our friend Liisa at the restaurant of Fotografiska- museum. She managed to speak us into the restaurant without paying the ticket as there was not time enough for the photos.

To get from Poland to Sweden we travelled across the Baltic Sea with a brand new Stena Ebba. On that date September 28th, 29 years ago Estonia drowned in storm with hundreds of people, but we could enjoy mild winds and sunshine.

Relaxing on Stena Ebba, during 10 hour’s ride over the Baltic sea.

Ferryharbour in Karlskrona was on half hour drive to the town. We were very few passangers without own car, but luckily there was local bus in front of the terminal.

Karlskrona is a small and sympathetic town in southern Sweden. After one night rest in the hotel Siesta we continued our trip towards Stockholm, first with two local trains to Alvesta. Due to electric failure on the main railway the trains to Stockholm were delayed. That has happened to me earlier, previous time I was here the delay was three hours, now only one hour.

Krösatåg to Emmaboda train looked like a train in fairytales

Our train came finally 13.38, but SJ has a good habit to inform of the delays and missing bistro in the train with SMS. When the delay increased, you could at least get coffee and snacks for free.

Baltic Sea with its sandy beaches and sunny warm days offered its best to us.

Those beautiful beaches, and autumn is perfect on the beach, as it is not too hot.We just enjoyed walking there, watching waves, birds and children playing. I also enjoyed the good coffee that was string enough for me

Funkis Gdynia and old Gdansk, where was the great Museum of World War II from 2017.

The museum of World War II

Gdansk Glownu- Main Railwaystation

Boats belong to Gdansk

Gdynia Glowna-Main Railwaystation

Must be more than 10 years I have used Polish trains. On smaller stations only Polish is spoken and written, but you still get personal service there. Mixing languages and writing we anyway managed to buy seat tickets. Trains were quite comfortable and clean and the conductors were often young English speaking ladies. There were no restaurant cars in our trains, but on the stations you could find modest kiosks or small restaurants.

Engins were electric, but coal wagons could be seen on the stations

Szczecin Dabie station

On our way to Gdynia we changed trains in Szczecin Dabie. It is former independent town, but today a small suburp of Szczecin, and there were not many alternatives to eat before 4 hour’s journey.

Zurek? was a soup that tasted better it looked.

You have to take a ferry to get from Swinoujscie Centrum station to Swinoujscie station.

Our journey forwarded via Copenhagen and Hamburg along the Baltic shoreline. First night in Germany we spent in Schleswig which was a cozy small town and our hotel Deutscher Hof had a nice beer garden under appletrees. A friendly lady at the reception found us buses back to the railwaystation as walking from there with our backbags was sweaty.

Although the town was nice the railwaystation was in ruins inside.

Our next step in Germany was Rostock. It is a modern city, with layers of history. In the Kulturhistorissche museum we learned that it was important and independent during Hansa time, but lost that status due to 30 years war and the big fire.

Marien kirche was first built around 1200, but it had been rebuilt and enlargened during the years. It had originally paintings on the walls, but it was painted white when it turned lutheran. Rostock was among the first to advance reformation. Luckily some of the paintings are still seen, and that inspired me as I am reading a book of church painters in Finland, Hattula church. The organ of the church was biggest I have seen.

The Rostock hotel was big and kind of mistake. I prefer smaller hotels or hostels and personal atmosphere. It was clean and steril and no personal touch. The name was Art hotel Ana, maybe the name was misleading me. However, the tramstop was near. A day trip to Warnemunde with S-bahn was easy to do.

Warnow river in Warnemunde

Warnemunde was a real turist attraction with its beaches, promenades, fishkiosks and old lighthouse.

Old lighthouse from1912

Long long beach, ann soft sand.

Malmö has again shown its friendly faces to us. In the news are warnings of the street gangs and terror, but our schedules are propably different than that of the street gangs. Here are big parks and channels and plenty of bikes. For me this was fifth time here. Morning sauna and swimming in Riberborgs Kallbad is one of my favourites here. Sitting in the saunas, watching the open sea, swimming and back again. After relaxing in sauna and sea you can also have lunch at their restaurant.

Turning Torso needs to be checked everytime.

Best view to the Bridge over Öresund is from Torso shore.

In various parks are also interesting statues.

On the first evening we managed to get tickets to the musical “Everybody’s talking about Jamie”. Jamie is a16 years old boy who dreams about becoming a Drag queen. Audience was mainly young people, who lived loudly with the play.

Now, thankyou Malmö we are happily moving forward over the Bridge.

This time we are heading to the southern coast of Baltic sea and coastal small towns in Germany and Poland. Pekka, my husband is my travelmate. Three problems arouse, just before and early during the trip. But all the problems were solved with the help of friendly experts.

My tooth broke, savior was my skilful dentist Thomas from Providental who started his day one hour earlier and could take me in quickly.

Interrail ticket can only be in one device at a time and both our tickets were in my tablet . When in Stockholm I realized there was no mobile connection and tickets could not be opened. The savior this time was Operator’s customer service. Tablets with only 4g did not find new connections automaticaĺly and after some steps connection was found and tickets saved.

Pekka’s bankcards did not work. Some faint idea told me that there could be self-made limitations and he could change it.

After these small obstacles morning coffee at Stockholm railway station tasted good. Solving problems is actually rewarding and you cannot avoid them when travelling on your own.

I had still two weeks left of the two month’s interrail ticket. I was interested in Malmö, inspite of its reputation. In Finland we hear the news of shootings in Malmö and we have watched the police TV- series Thin Blue Line, which describes the police work in Malmö. However, Malmö showed me its friendly faces. It is lively modern city with beautiful parks, canals, nice cafes, theaters, beaches, and interesting museums. One example of the friendliness of people was when I wanted to buy mittens from Christmas sale on Gustaf Adolfs torg, I did not have local money and they did not have a card machine. They just gave me the mittens and asked me to pay at a shop on another place Lilla torget. Could that ever happen in Helsinki? I staid in Teater hotellet near Triangeln train station. From there were frequent connections south and north, so I could spend a day in Lund and Copenhagen. In Lund I visited the great cathedral and there happened to be a midday service with music and some prayers for Ukraina. In the historical museum the story of Lund university from year 1666 just a few years younger than Turku university was illustrated. I also saw Kulturen, the outdoor museum that was like a small town, and a bookshop of course.

The actress as Hedda was familiar of the Police series, and that disturbed a bit.

I travelled also in Denmark. My classmate lives in Jylland countryside and her house was my base for a few days.

Stockholm has to be visited both first and last on a rail journey. There I could overnight at my friend Liisa visit a few photography exhibitions together with some Photography friends and finally take a ferry to Turku. Must say that getting from the Turku Harbour to Kupittaa railwaystation was the biggest challenge during my trip.

Central station was beautifully decorated

Back to Finland in November, after a week I am already missing the light and warmth of Italy.

During our last week we spent time in Palermo. There was hustle and a little too much everything after two and half weeks of travelling. It was lively, loud, pompous and shabby at the same time. Huge palazzos, theaters, fountains. Traffic with no rules, at least that is how it showed to us. Motorbikes pushed through narrow viccolos. Crossing the streets needed courage, but if you just go you can somehow zigzag over. Safest it was if you follow baby carriage or an elder with a cane.

We visited huge Teatro Massimo, opera house, with five storeys of boxes, King’s box, ceiling paintings and lamps of Murano glass. We found our way to Cappuccini catacombs and waited it to open after midday break at 3 o’clock. It is a cemetry of 8000 mummies in long corridors, most of them in standing positions. No photos were taken there. Visit to Norman palace with golden mosaics required lining up with hundreds of others. Near our living area murals of 27 victims killed by Mafia in Palermo were painted on a stone wall. Among them were authors, journalists, and several police officers. Locals told us that nowadays Mafia is no more killing people, but more focusing on economy. However, people on the streets were friendly and easy to contact.

From Palermo we took a night train to Rome. The quality was about the same as Snälltåget between Stockholm and Berlin, except only four beds in one cabin. We slept well on the narrow benches anyway. After those, the Finnish sleeping cabins feel luxury.

Rome felt really well organized after Palermo. It was clean, people followed traffic lights and streets had names written on the corners. We lived in a residential area in the northern part of Rome and it was pleasant to have morning coffees and dinners with local people away from the flow of tourists. But when in Rome you had to check some of the tourist attractions like Fontana di Trevi and Spanish stairs with thousands of others.

Small town Cefalu between Rocca mountain and Mediterranean gave us four peaceful nights, lively days and delicous fish meals. Allthough there were plenty of tourists you had a feeling of a small city as people were greeting and talking to each other. Old people , mainly men, sitting on benches and chatting with each other.

Pride of Cefalu is the Basilica built by the Normans. With its simple ruggedness it looked like a fortress. We climbed up to the tower and walked through a narrow corridor from northern to southern tower studied the mosaics the museum and small chapels.

Beach was easily reached in the middle of the town. Allthough the beach was full ot people, very few were swimming. For me the water temperature felt warm and pleasant.

Climbing up to the Rocca mountain was a must. Before entering the path you got a number and when coming back you had to inform at the registration. The path winded up the steep slope and climbing was hard in the sunny warm weather. View down to the town and Mediterranean was an award.

Our goal was Sicily, but on the way we stopped in Salerno, that was familiar to us from earlier journeys. For me it was actually third visit to Salerno and Amalfi coast. My favourite hostel Ave Gratia Plena, former cloister was unfortunately temporarily closed. Instead we chose a small bed & breakfast in old town. At common breakfast table was fascinating to meet people from different countries. During our short stop we visited old garden for medicinal plants Giardini Minerva. They serve delicious herbal teas and the plants are beautifully spread on terasses. Salerno is a good base to visit Amalfi coast small towns and islands like Capri and Ischia and ruins of Pompei, but now south tempted us. Some kilometers south of Salerno is Pattibaglia, which is mentioned in the novel of Waller, Madison Bridges, (Hiljaiset Sillat in Finnish). I was kind of curious as Robert Kincade in the book describes it as a beautiful place, which was also Franceska Johnson’s home town. I askel that from the B&B hostess, but she described it an ugly industrial town, home of mozzarella cheese. So we passed Pattibaglia, but I still wonder why the author wanted to mention it.