The Baltics

That title is more interesting than just saying 'August', right? Because that's what we did in August! We went to Europe! More specifically the Baltics.

Here's how it all went down...

We had tossed around the idea of doing a big European trip in the future for maybe some big anniversary thing so I periodically looked at flights and cruise capacities to see if there was a ship we could get onto (this NCL employee thinks of cruising when I think of traveling because we can get some great deals.) Near the beginning of August I noticed that some of the cruise dates at the end of Aug/beginning of Sep had some cabins still available. This is rare. That cruise is usually sold out and hard for employees to go stand by on. This cruise departed from Copenhagen, Denmark and stopped in Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden before returning to Copenhagen. Nine days of heaven.

Seeing those rooms available set me off in search of some decent airfare. Don't worry, this is a usual thing for me to plan trips in my imagination. Its the world traveler in me. I liken it to a smoker who has quit smoking but still needs to hold a lighter and flick it on and off. Its torture yet keeps the travel bug at bay. If you ever need help planning a trip, I'm there.

I checked flights and they had dropped by about a 1/3 the usual price. That really set the wheels spinning! I found a hotel for the night before the cruise, the finances etc and as soon as I got home to Seth that night I dropped the trip on him out of the blue. I gave him til the next morning to decide. With availability and pricing where it was at, we needed to pull the trigger right away and make sure my work was going to give me the time off. I didn't have enough vacation time to cover this 10 day trip, but if I'm on an NCL cruise they often just give unpaid days off. Sweet, huh?

Well, the next morning we woke up and the first thing he said was 'yeah, let's do it.' Bam! I flew out of bed and off to work to submit the paper work. 2 hours later we were all booked with time off approved. 2 weeks later we were on a plane headed to Denmark.

Seth had never been to Europe so this was really exciting for him. I have been all over Europe, but I hadn't been to half of where this cruise was going. That's why I chose it.

We flew a KLM red eye and landed in the am the day before the cruise started. I had found a great new hotel that had a tiny room with BUNK BEDS and a tiny bathroom where the shower head was just on the wall and you stood almost over the toilet to shower. ha ha crazy Europeans. It was clean, cheap and easy to get to (once we got a lost a couple times and had our bearings strait) so that's what we stayed. We took the metro, trains and buses everywhere in the city that day. We walked for miles and just soaked in all the cobblestone street goodness. I also fell back in love with Danish pastries. Yum. They are absolutely amazing.


Beautiful Copenhagen

Seth soaking up his first day in Europe

I love that the women use prams instead of junkie strollers like we do in the States



Left: Everybody uses bikes. Love!
Right: We saw a crazy guy climb up onto the fountain and he couldn't
 get down so he decided to just chill. His outfit was amazing.

The next day, we boarded the ship after a long walk with our luggage from the train station. I thought I was going to fall over when we got to the ship. I forgot how much extra walking you do when you travel. We got to the ship starving and scarfed lunch down on the pool deck. I'm sure the Europeans were looking at us food crazed Americans like we were diabetes poster children, but I didn't care.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing on our balcony. When the ship sails out of Copenhagen, it goes past dozens of wind energy turbines. Very cool to watch. Seth had never sailed in a balcony. He instantly understood how awesome they are. If you cruise, cruise in a balcony if you can. Its an entirely different experience from inside or window cabins.

View from our balcony as we sailed away

The first stop was in Warnemunde, Germany. Its the port town that allows access to Berlin. We had quite an adventure here so settle in for a story.

I had bought train tickets online to get us into Berlin. We figured this may be our one shot to see that city so we committed to the 3 hr trip each way to get there. The ship was in port for about 12 hrs so we knew we would be rushed, but were taking the chance. Stupid = chance in this situation.

We rushed off to the train station 1st thing in the morning. We had to catch this train to catch the next one and so forth. Once we were on the train, Seth got off to use the bathroom in the station. This was my fault. I told him to check there because I didn't know if the train had a bathroom since it was a small local train. Well, he left everything with me and no less than a minute after he got off the train, it pulled away from the station without him on it. My heart sank and I went into battle mode.

I said a quick prayer to get some direction as what to do. I didn't know if Seth was going to get on the next train and meet me at the station we were headed for next or if he was going to wait where he was for me to come find him. After a moment, I knew it would be the latter. What boy scout doesn't learn to make yourself visible and stay where you are if you get lost?

I knew I had a boy scout husband so I hopped off at the next station, switched to the opposite platform and waited for the train going back to my husband who was probably freaking out by now. Remember that I had all the money, the phone and the train tickets. He had nothing with him. It was his 2nd full day in Europe and his first day in Germany too. Bad wife of the year award right here.

It took an hour, but I finally made it back to the station where I lost him. When I got off the train, I came rushing down the platform toward the station and a moment later I spotted Seth rushing toward me. It was like a scene from the movies dodging through a crowded station toward each other. Cue sappy music.

When he reached me, instead of a hug, he wrapped his arm around me and started pulling me back toward the train that I just got off. Romance bubble popped. He said it was the last one leaving towards Berlin for another couple hours and we needed to be on it. The trains in Germany are unpredictable. They will silently just close the doors and the silently slip out of the station. We learned the hard way that they kind of leave when they want to and not on schedule.

When we reached the door to the train, there a small group of Asian women (sorry to be stereotyping, but they had their peace fingers up and everything) posing for a picture right in front of the door. We paused for a moment to be polite, but the doors started sliding closed behind them! I shouted for the women to get on the train while Seth plowed through them to open the door. I usually wouldn't be so drastic, but I wasn't about to have either of us left behind again because a few silly women wanted a picture of the train they were about to miss.

We got on and it left moments later. That's when we let ourselves relax a little bit. Our original plan was shot, but at least we were safe and together. That put a whole new perspective on the day.

On that train ride we met a Korean couple from California and decided to piggy back on their scheduled route since ours was useless. On the next connecting train, we all met a Chinese family of 4 with 2 adult children also from California. We all became friends and spent the day together. It was a little Californian party in the middle of Germany.

I am so grateful we met all of them. One of them had a notebook full of subway maps and a battle plan on how to see Berlin in a day. Perfect! We only had just under 4 hours to see the whole city before we had to get a train back to the ship. We would have been useless and lost without them.

We finally made it to Berlin and ran around like turkeys trying to see everything. We literally would get to something like checkpoint charlie and spend just about enough time to take a picture, plan our next move and go. We spent most of the time running or underground in a subway station.

Checkpoint Charlie

Brandenburg Gate

East Side Gallery section of the Berlin wall

What really saw the most of- the subway stations



Our time was up in Berlin and we made it back to the main train station with plenty of time to spare. We were on the correct platform and feeling good about being well prepared to catch the train when all of a sudden, the destination on the electronic marquee changed. What?!? That means our train must have been moved to another platform. We ran around getting different answers of where we should be. We ran up the escalator, over and down the escalator to a different platform just to find out we had to be on another one. It was mayhem! Running everywhere and getting stared at by entertained Berliners (who don't smile by the way, they just stop scowling at you and have a blank face instead.)

Someone in our group talked to someone and decided on a train to take. We got on it right before the doors closed and it left the station. Not knowing where it was going. Chaos is an understatement.

Eventually some guy that looked like he worked for the rail road came to our car and started telling us in broken English where we were going. He said they were taking us to another train station where a bus was going to pick us up and drive us to another train station. From that station, a train was going to pick us up and take us towards the ship. Really?!? We had no idea what was going on, but it was clear this man knew we needed to get to the cruise ship and that we were complete idiots.

We didn't know there were about 100 other people in the same situation we were in until we got off the train to catch the bus. All these obviously cruise people came pouring into this small town train station and out the front door to the bus stop. When the bus showed up it was like black Friday doors had been opened. The bus was swarmed and it was standing room only. We still had no idea what was happening. It was on that 45 minute bus ride (that we still had no idea where we were going!!) that we learned the trains going north out of Berlin had been cancelled. Why? Because an undetonated WWII bomb had been found and was currently being transported to Berlin via train. Evidently it had been advertised for two days that the trains would be closed, but people from the ship were still sold train tickets for those very trains!! Germany! You kill me!

The 100+ tourists waiting around for a bus we weren't sure was coming

The bus was one of those double length ones with a flexing joint floor in the middle. With the guys in my group standing on the joint. Every time the bus would turn, they would get all turned around every which way from everybody else. I had to laugh at that. What else could I do? :)

The bus eventually dropped us off at a train 'station'. Really it was just a parking lot next to a chain link fence then a strip of grass and train tracks. We were told to sit there and in an hour, a train would be coming to pick us up. In broken English mind you. At this point we realized we were not going to make it back to the ship in time. That's when I threw up the hail Mary and called NCL back in the states. With over 100 people being held up, I figured I had a fighting chance of getting the ship to hold. I'd have to live down the embarrassment of being a gaper and missing the ship, but it would be worth it. It wasn't until after I started that chain of contact to the ship that the rail employee that was with us said they had contacted the ship and it was waiting for us.

The 'train station' we waited at for an hour. Thats the rail road man in the middle with the vest on. I think he was as frustrated with the us as we were with the whole situation.
This guy on the right thought if he watched the tracks the train would come faster.

Let me just explain the relief from that. If you don't get back to a ship in time, the ship will pack your belongings out of the room for you, leave your bags with the personnel at the pier and leave without you. Then you're left on your own to get home. Some itineraries will allow you to fly to the next port to catch up with the ship but some, like this one, you can't legally do it so you're just done with the cruise and on your own. Fun, huh?

Needless to say, when I heard they were holding the ship, that's when I let myself feel a shred of relaxation. It was much easier to swallow anything they told us to do. I'll tell ya, sitting along that grass strip and fence made me think WWII was not over. We were castoffs waiting for the train to come get us and take us who knows where. There was a bomb closing down transportation and we didn't understand what was going on. I was also a hot sweaty mess by now and surely not smelling like roses. Oh Germany, what will we do with you?

We finally made it on a train that took us to another train that finally took us to the ship. The final cap to our WWII reenactment that day was when we got off the train. The station is about 100 yards from the ship and it was dark at this point. As soon as we got off the train, the ship turned on its spotlight from the bridge and shined it down right on us like the beam from a guard tower in a camp. Local people in the town were outside their homes watching even. Awesome. We finally were gloriously on the ship and walking back to our room when it set sail.

I have never even cut it close to missing a ship before. I don't recommend it, but that's a day I will not soon forget!

These are all the pics and stories for now, will update shortly...