cruising time

**Warning: This is the first of many long posts, so feel free to skip ahead to the pictures.



At the beginning of August I was able to go on a cruise with my mother along the Baltic Sea and it was so nice to spend this time with my mom. Originally my parents had planned to go but unfortunately (or fortunately for me) my dad wasn't going to be able to make it so I go to go in his place. This was the first time I had travelled out of the country and I will admit, for some reason this thought made me a little nervous. We went with a touring company and I knew everything was taken care of but it was my mother who was making the plans so I felt like I didn't really know what was going on, for those who don't know I'm a planner and I always like to know where I'm going.

The plan was for my mother to fly from SLC to Atlanta and then on to Newark where I would meet her and together we would fly to Copenhagen. Well, things didn't really go according to plan (a common occurrence on this trip) and due to a two hour thunderstorm in NY my moms flight wasn't going to make it in time to make the flight to Copenhagen.

So there I was at Newark with no mother, no itinerary and no idea where I was going once I landed in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, my poor mother was trying to stay calm in Atlanta. She kept asking the airlines if there was another flight that she could get on to Newark and they told her no, she would have to wait. So when her flight finally started to board they put her on the front row of the plane so that she would be the first one off to try and make it to her connecting flight. She finally got on, got seated and then received three crazy phone calls from me, my father and the travel agent telling her to get off the plane, she was never going to make it to Newark in time and that there was another flight going from Atlanta to Copenhagen that they would try to get her on. So right before the door was about to close my mom told the flight attendant that she needed to get off the plane, and surprisingly they let her off. So there we were, me and my mom, alone in two different airports on our way to Denmark.

Now I'm not complaining because my commute to Denmark was a lot less stressful then my moms but I can not get comfortable on plane's and 7 hours was long enough for me. Before I left for Copenhagen my mother had gotten on the plane from Atlanta and she told me that her plane would be arriving at the same time, so I went through customs alone (I was really nervous for this but it was no big deal) then I found my luggage and patiently waited for my moms flight to show up on the screen. After about 20 minutes of waiting I realized that my mom had probably given me the wrong information. As I was sitting on the bench with all my luggage a nice gentlemen that worked at the airport had obviously seen that I looked like I was lost and asked me if I was okay. I was fine; I am a big girl and have flown several times by myself, I was just confussed and I guess ... a little lost. With a some help from the nice Danish man I learned that my moms flight wouldn't be there for another two hours so I decided to make myself comfortable and bust out the ipod. Every once in a while my little friend would come back and make sure I was okay and ask me if I wanted some coffee or tea and after several no's I think he learned that I really didn't want any. I really loved this little Danish man; he was trying to make me feel so comfortable. We chatted about life, he asked me what my mom looked like, and as people walked by he would ask me if they were her.

Finally, my mother arrived and we had a joyous reunion for about 2 minutes and then went to look for her luggage. Of course, her luggage stayed on the plane that she had been told to get off of and was now in Newark. But we figured this was the case and was reassured that her luggage would be on the next morning’s flight from Newark to Denmark. So we didn't let it spoil the day, said our goodbyes to my little friend and headed for our lovely hotel.

Now you know when you watch a movie and the characters are traveling to Europe and they get stuck in this crazy little hotel where nothing works? That's exactly where we were staying. We checked in and found out that our room was on the main floor, but realized that the main floor was basically the lobby. Come to find out, you have to go into the elevator, push a button, and the other side of the elevator magically opened up to a hallway full of rooms (very sneaky). We decided we would unload our luggage (my luggage), try to some rest for a little while and then go explore all of what Copenhagen had to offer. We were so tired that we didn't even bother messing with the lights or the AC and fell right to sleep but woke up in a sweat about 2 hours later. My mom tried to look for a thermometer to adjust the air and I tried to turn on the lights but only one little light by the door seemed to work, there was just a little brown box but no thermostat. Now I think we would have cared more if we had, had a little sleep but we were too tired to worry about it.

We weren't going to sleep through our day in Copenhagen so we decided to get up and check out the sites. Just down the street was a beautiful canal that I can't pronounce with ferry tours around the city. Now you would think before traveling to a foreign country I would make sure I knew what each countries currency was and the conversion rate, but I didn't. I guess I just thought they all used the Euro and that I would be able to exchange my worthless dollars anywhere. In Denmark they have the Danish Krone but the nice ferry boat we got on took our dollars.

The tour was lovely; we were on the last tour of the night so it was just me, my mom, the tour guide and her friend, so we got our own private tour. Copenhagen was a beautiful city on the water with several canals and waterways connecting all the islands. A few highlights of the tour was the royal palace, the mermaid statue, the hippy island (yes hippies still reside there and refuse to follow the laws), the parliament buildings, the royal ship (the royal family was in town)and many other beautiful sites that I can't really remember.

After our tour we walked down to Trivoli Gardens, a famous square in Copenhagen, with several high-end shops and boutiques and even more 7-11's. I don't know why but on one street there were three 7-11's. No gas, just the convenient store. We found a little hidden street with a few little outdoor cafes and had some dinner. The one thing I loved was that it got a little chilly at night so the cafe provided a blanket on each chair to wrap up in while you ate. My mom wasn’t too excited to wrap up in a blanket that someone else had used but I thought it was a nice little touch, and everyone else was doing it, so I did as the Danish do, and wrapped the blanket around me and ate my pasta.

That night we returned to our dark, stuffy hotel room and tried to get some sleep. After bearing it for long enough I went to the front desk and asked the (not so fluent in English) worker if there was AC in the rooms. She told me no and the rest of the night we just sweated it out. A few days later we learned that the little brown box by the door had a slot in it that you put your credit card in to pay for the AC and lights. (Who knew that AC and lighting were an additional charge, and why didn't they explain this to us at the beginning? Or at least tell their workers what AC means in Dutch)

The next morning there was no sign of my mom’s luggage, apparently the flight from Newark had been canceled and she was promised she would get it when we arrived at our first port in Tallinn. So we got on the bus and were on our way to board the Eurodam (the name of our ship).

The canal


The Mermaid Statue that gives you good luck (our tour guide compared it to our Statue of Liberty)


The old stock exchange building




Next stop … Tallinn, Estonia.