090909 and jetlagged in Japan

As I'm typing this, I am in our hotel room on the 36th floor of our hotel in Japan looking at a spectactular view and listening to the Japanese children program on TV (yes, they are the same here too).

So, first impressions of Japan are a bit blurry based of course on the fact that we haven't slept for more hours than is civilised which means that we are fighting to stay awake. All the same, I think that we have managed alot today:

1. Made our way from the airport to our hotel
2. Bought what we thought was a refreshing local drink - big mistake! Words cannot describe what this drink (see picture as warning) tastes like. We can think of one which begins with V and ends with E... Note to self, water is a much safer option here.
3. Successfully found, ate and paid for a meal at a Japanese buffet (we where the only non-Japanese people there).
4. Used the loo - a real adventure in Japan
5. Negotiated the Tokyo public transport system successfully, including buying the correct ticket and getting off at the correct stop...

The verdict... Tokyo is indeed a very modern, beautiful city with all the mod cons that you would want (and some that come as a bit of a surprise), and definately somewhere that I could live for a while. But like all modern, capital cities, I suspect that Tokyo is just a picture of Tokyo and not Japan. So I will enjoy Tokyo for what it is and be careful to remember that there is a whole Japan out there which will hold it's own unique charms and surprises.

Can't wait.

Less than 24 hours to go

Tomorrow is a day of flying, it will take only an hour to get from Stockholm to Helsinki where we change planes and then we have another 9 and a half to go before we reach our destination of Tokyo. Actually, 11 1/2 hours gets you to Narita airport and then you have another hour's travelling to go before you get to Tokyo... or according to our hotel's website, 66 minutes if you take the airport limousine bus and 67 if you take the train. Can't argue with that kind of precision... makes you want to keep your stopwatch handy though :)

Our stuff in the flat has been moved to the attic (again) and our bags are all packed so we have nothing else to do but listen to soft rock music and surf all the places that we would like to go to.

There is always a strange feeling the night before you embark on something big/ life changing/ in unchartered territory, an anticipation mixed with a nervousness. A twinge of anxiety that something will happen a just the last minute and your one chance will be swept away. I don't know why I feel this way, maybe I'm a natural pessimist (though I've never though of myself as one) or maybe I don't feel like I have done anything to deserve something this special... Who knows... I guess the way forward is to commit it to God and then go to sleep :)

Tomorrow is an exciting day!!

Mr and Mrs

What a beautiful day to get married and start our new life together. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the wedding and we can't wait to see some of the pictures that you have taken and hear the stories of the things that happened while we weren't around. Like the one about the coast guard - I'm sure that there are more...

Well, it's been four days now and we have been so busy with lots of final stuff that it hasn't really sunk in that we are now Mr and Mrs but I'm sure that once I start hearing Mrs Elmström a few times then it will feel official. Today I created a new e-mail address for myself, full marks to anyone who can guess what it is :)

We also have 5 more days before we leave for our big trip. Officially it has already started however I think that we will really start to feel that it has started when we get on the plane headed for Japan... Can't wait!!!

I know that many of you were not able to make it to the wedding so we've put together a few photos that were taken on the day to give you an idea of what the day was like.

If you'd like to see a few pictures from the wedding please click on the photo below.

Back with a thud

For our second day in Tallin, we decided to do something very Estonian - go for a walk in the nearby woods. The Estonians have had a very chequered past, having been conquered by all of their neighbouring countries, yet have maintained a very individual and separate culture through their ideals of closeness to nature and self-sufficiency.

It is a beautiful country, if a little more expensive that we would have liked. I guess that is the impact of the European Union which is uniting Europe in the quality and also cost of living...

We did come across one beautiful Estonian tradition though... We haven't investigated it but it looks as if when couples decide to declare their commitment to each other, they leave this as a symbol for all to see. I wonder if there are any bridges near Nynäs...?

Well, we're back in Sweden now and if there aren't any more posts for a while, it's because we are busy getting married, catching up with friends and family who have come along and then getting ready for this crazy trip.

Have a look at our wedding website if you haven't already done so.

More top tips for Tallinn

Tallinn

Top tip number one. When looking at a menu thinking, mmmm that steak looks nice, rethink. The Estonians do a lot of things well, (kitch-shops, amber, old-towns, views, city walls etc) but beef is not one of them. When given a choice, choose fish.

Number two is more of a warning if you are driving. How many times have you pleaded with the bus driver to let you off when stopped at a red light just outside of where you are going, instead of having to go 2 miles down the road to the bus stop only to be refused due to health-and-safety. Not so in Tallinn, when driving on a main through road (compare it with an a-road in England or a blue 'riksväg' in Sweden), and a tram stops in the outside lane just ahead of you - break, for the love of god, break. That might just be a tram stop and people might start pouring out, as we discovered yesterday. I was ... surprised ... to say the least, but I think we managed to keep the bumper clean.

Top-tip number three is twofold, if you are aiming here to shop for more reasonably priced alcohol, look for beer and spirits, wine is not that cheap. But make sure you have done your price check before. We found a few discrepancies in the pricing here. We've been looking for two types of wine, valpolicella and chardonnay since we are going to need about 40-50 bottles of that soon. So we made tracks to the big outlets, because obviously thats where the cheap wine would be, and we found one pretty soon that had exactly what we wanted and in bulk, so all looked good, right?? Wrong!!!
Fortunately while all the other Swedes ran wild amongst the shelves we've had gotten a few reference prices to check up on;


Masi Campofiore: Sweden 83 SEK -Tallinn 95 SEK
Tommasi Valpolicella: Sweden: 99 SEK Ferry, 91 SEK (262 SEK in the restaurant!) Tallinn : 89 SEK

Lindeman Bin 65: Sweden 73 SEK Tallinn : 100 SEK

And those are just a few examples, fortunately we brought the price list from systembolaget with us. I originally aimed to bring that as a reference to check the descriptions and recommendations, since I am not that good at reading Estonian. It turned out to be quite useful to avoid being ripped off as well.

So come prepared!

Top tip #4. Spend some time in the old town in your walking shoes and do it on a weekday. If you have a look at the pictures, you'll see that there were not that many people around. IT was quite nice to wander around, read the plaques, take lots of pictures and to stop at lovely smelling coffee shops and watch the local kids go wild. I expect it to be quite different during weekends in peak tourist season.


So we might have failed in our quest to get a huge batch of wine, but this is my first visit to Tallinn, and I really enjoyed the walkabout in the old town. It reminds me of Gamla Stan in Stockholm, but with less aggressive shop/restaurant owners trying to sell you stuff. We also managed to book ourselves into a spa hotel and made use of the hotel pool in the evening, as if the 4 hour walk wasn't enough exercise, but it felt really good afterwards.
And on top of that, just next door is a huge marina, with some gorgeous evening views accompanying a decent dinner, but again, be warned - eat fish, not meat .

Slow boat to Tallinn

After the stress of packing up all our stuff and high-tailing it for Stockholm, we decided that we needed a little break before the crazyness of the last minute wedding tasks. Cue a cruise to Tallinn using the disguise of needing to buy alcohol for the wedding...

Contrary to what they will tell you on the internet, it is possible to book a cruise on the day that you want to go, and you will probably get a better price if you do this all at the last minute. Of course, you are taking a punt here so only try this option if you are a little flexible on the dates.

My eyes have now been opened to the true meaning of a booze cruise. This is a true example. As well as the expected restaurants and disco's, a huge area on the boat was dedicated to the duty-free supermarkets. You can buy almost everything there, from wine to whisky to perfumes. Everything it seems, except for a corkscrew! Top tip: take your own corkscrew on board with you if you'd like to enjoy a bottle in your cabin.

Another top tip: don't expect lots of space in your cabin when you go for the cheapest priced cabin. However, we found that you don't actually spend a whole lot of time there so it's a bit pointless to splash out on too much luxury!

After an uneventual night (I only woke up feeling a little queasy once), we were rudely awakened by the speakers announcing that there were only two hours remaining for us to have breakfast and get out of there. Very thoughful of them :(

We approached a very wet Tallinn... beautiful from the distance but still exciting to be in a new country, and on such a noble quest.

More later on how we get on...

Landed

Well we managed to convince the nice BA man at the counter that we did actually have three bags each as our allowance for the flight (note, pay for an extra bag on the internet before you fly - it's much cheaper) and then we were off.

So, we're in Sweden now, and though we will do a few touristy things (if I have anything to say about it), our main purpose here is to set up our flat, get married and recharge before our big adventure which starts on the 8th September.

For those of you planning to come to Sweden for our wedding later on this month, there will be a race for those of you who travel from the airport to Nynäshamn. The clock starts ticking when when you head through the doors from the baggage section to the outside world and ends when the train pulls into the station at Nynäshamn. Prizes for the winners.

For those a little less adventurous, I will be compiling a set of picture instructions which should help you find the way and putting them on our wedding blog.

Now we're off to see if the Swedish authorities will permit us to get married here - yikes! I hope so, or else all this work will have gone to waste... I hope none of the people invited to the wedding are reading this now...