Birthday Cruise

We just got back late Sunday night from our most recent trip -- this time, we took a cruise to the Baltic Sea. This turned out to be a last-minute trip, but it was awesome!

We had been planning for a while to try to take a trip somewhere around my birthday weekend. We had been looking into several trip packages similar to the one we took to Madrid, to all sorts of random places. We are completely open about where to go on vacation -- if it's a good deal, we're there, whether or not we've ever thought about that place before!

So, this time it turned out that we were eyeing a cruise out of Stockholm, our new favorite city. The cruise was on Royal Caribbean, and went to Tallinn, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. The price was mega-cheap and kept dropping lower so finally we decided to go for it! Carl turned in his leave and I had enough comp time to take 4 days off. (with still more than a week's worth of comp time left - yes, this is different from regular vacation time. Did I mention I have worked a lot of hours outside of work??)

The cruise was fantastic!! Neither of us had ever really thought about going to Russia, and Carl had never even heard of Estonia before, but this gave us a nice opportunity to see Gabriella and Simon again if even for a lunchtime, and have a relaxing trip this time. We love going to new cities and places and have become sort-of experts at navigating metro's and airports, but a cruise allows the opportunity to get there and not have to worry about anything.

The cruise was a 4-night cruise with one day in each Estonia and Russia and one day at sea. Here's a little breakdown of the port cities and the ship experience:

Tallinn, Estonia -- A very nice town. It is a mideival walled city, very similar to Rothenberg that is near us in Germany. There wasn't much that we found to do though, except wander around and shop and look at the old buildings, which we did. We enjoyed it nonetheless. We decided that Estonia is definitely the best place we have come across --ever-- for people-watching. The women were probably the most beautiful we've ever seen, which surprised us both. We also found a neat maritime museum on our way out of town that offered a secret little gem -- you could go to the top of the building and look out over the port. Very nice views!

St. Petersburg, Russia -- It was amazing to think we could go to Russia. We didn't have to get visa's beforehand to enter the country (probably wouldn't have had time anyway since we booked the cruise only a week before going) because we could take an excursion with the ship and they give you a one-day visa. We took walking tour, which was nice, except for the stupid girl on our tour who made everyone wait about 30 minutes because she needed to use the bathroom. Ugh... anyway. St. Petersburg was actually a very beautiful city, once you got inside of it. Lots of waterways and shiny buildings. The day we were there was also the day of their University graduations, so there were young people out all over the city celebrating. We also saw no less than 20 brides walking around in their dresses -- that was odd. Traffic patterns were the worst I have ever seen. It seemed like they had no laws or rules on driving the way some of these people drove! (We were in a bus from the ship to the downtown, and then back again after walking around the city). The only bad thing was that they were having a heat wave, and it was very, very hot, especially for me because I wore my trusty jeans because I wasn't thinking clearly.

The ship -- Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas. Very nice! It was exactly, I mean exactly, like the ship we were on for our last cruise a few years ago in the Caribbean, so that was actually nice because we already knew our way around.
Not only did we get a super-cheap last minute deal on the price of the cruise, but we also got upgraded to a larger room, so that was pretty cool, too.
Last time we took a cruise, we were duped by the art auction. Granted, we got some very nice art work out of it, but this time we knew to stay away. However, we weren't prepared for the spa people to find us! I planned to get my hair done anyway, and Carl was going to try something for his aching back. Well, I ended up getting my hair cut and colored, along with a facial, neck and shoulder massage and deep conditioning hair treatment, while Carl tried accupuncture. Then in a raffle I won a free body content analysis thing (where they tell you how fat you are -- perfect to learn while on a cruise...) so we also just paid for Carl to get the same thing done. The only bad thing we found was that we felt like everything was one giant sales pitch. They wanted us to buy every single product they used on us, and believe me, they were not cheap. ($300 for a 3-month detox system? $300 worth of facial products? $200 for chinese herbs? $85 for a nutrition analysis? What?!) Luckily we held our ground and didn't buy anything beyond the initial treatments. The best news is that Carl had a blast playing Blackjack in the ship's casino, and pretty much won enough to cover the treatments we had originally budgeted for in the spa!
The rest of the time, I mostly enjoyed relaxing and reading. There were 1,900 people on the ship, and 1,200 were from Sweden! They had lots of activities for everyone while on board, including bingo, trivia games, raffles, sing-alongs, demonstrations on things like cooking, ice sculptures and folding towel animals, along with nightly entertainment including an illusionist, a Beatles band and a juggler and variety show.

The whole time I kept thinking, I can not wait for our cruise in October!! Wait, what cruise? Oh, did I forget to blog about that one?? Hmm... well, yes, that is the big trip I had hinted at a while ago (before Madrid and this trip). My parents are coming here again in October and we're all going on a Mediterranean cruise to Turkey, Crotia and two islands of Greece! Yayyy!!! I CAN'T WAIT!! This trip was fun, but having them there will be so much better.

In other news, Jen moved away this week. :( I am super happy for her but I will miss her. She's headed to a new job here in Germany where her boyfriend lives. They'll be about 2.5 hours form us. Also, Carl's best work friend here, Shane, moved to England today. So, we're both sad about losing our friends but we still have some good ones here and it is PCS season now, so who knows who else might show up and move here now, too!

I'll try to post some pictures from the cruise tonight!