Living the Dream (sic)
Saturday, September 8, 2007 
I know, I know, it's three weeks since I last posted (a heinous crime in blog world) but I have an excuse. First, I went on holiday. Second, I had a mountain of work to deal with when I got back. More of that later.
The holiday was a 12-day Baltic cruise, stopping at Warnemunde (Germany), Tallin, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen, in that order. I'd never been on a cruise before so I didn't know what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
The speed and efficiency with which we embarked and disembarked (at Dover) left most airports in the shade. The ship arrived and departed every port on schedule and without a moment's delay.
The Norwegian Dream (above), was staffed by 50 different nationalities who could not have been more helpful or more friendly - better than any hotel I have ever stayed at. The cabins were comfortable and quiet. And the food - well, the food was excellent. The only problem was, with so much time to sit, eat and drink, I came back half a stone heavier. (I was fat before. Now I'm gross.)
I won't bore you with anecdotes (worse, even, than showing you our holiday snaps), but I can reveal that coaches in Estonia and Russia still have ashtrays in the headrests although (for the "comfort" of Western visitors) smoking was banned on board.
I will definitely go back to Finland, Sweden and Denmark and explore further. And I will definitely go on another cruise. It's the only way to travel.
Simon Clark
OK, just one anecdote. In St Petersburg our Russian tour guide introduced herself as follows: "Hi, I'm Ira. That's I, R, A - Irish Republican Army." You couldn't make it up.
Reader Comments (1)
How nice for you Simon!