Baltic Sea Geek Cruise

Tallinn, Estonia (Day 3)

• Our first major port of call was Tallinn, Estonia. I skipped the structured tours and spent a highly enjoyable day simply walking around the ancient, cobblestoned old city.
• A street organ festival happened to be in full swing, and during the lunch hour, the air was filled with old-fashioned melodies echoing off the medieval walls from street organs set up around every corner.
• While walking around, I noticed a very distinct and unusual geographical layout: the city is split into two completely separate parts—the lower merchant and dockside town (All-linn), and the upper noble town (Toompea) perched on a steep limestone hill—with almost nothing in between but sheer cliffs and heavily fortified pathways. I later learned that historically, these were separate administrative units that locked their gates against each other at night!

The Magical St. Petersburg "White Nights" (Days 4 & 5)

• This was the first cruise I had ever been on where we spent the night docked at a port. Because it was the height of summer at 60 degrees north latitude, the sun barely set, treating us to the magical and ethereal Russian "white nights."
• Since I didn't organize a custom Russian visa ahead of time, I chose two separate shore excursions.
• On Day 4, I toured the spectacular Peterhof Palace with its famous gilded fountains and grand gardens, followed by an evening attending a mesmerizing Russian music and folk dance show.
• On Day 5, I went on a beautiful tour of the canals of St. Petersburg, followed by a visit to the Romanov Imperial Castle, the historic site where Rasputin met his end.

Helsinki Adventures & Postcard to Linus (Day 6)

• In Helsinki, Finland, I hopped off the ship with Geek Cruises founder Neil Bauman and his wife Theresa. We decided to seek out our own unstructured adventure.
• Neil needed to cash some American Express traveller's checks, which led us on a wild goose chase. We quickly discovered that nobody in Helsinki (or indeed, all of Europe) accepted them anymore! Standard credit cards were universal, even in cabs.
• After a delicious local lunch and a taxi tour of the city, Neil and Theresa did something wonderful: they wrote and mailed a postcard to Linus Torvalds from his home city of Helsinki, sending it directly to his new home city in Oregon.

Tourist Hostility in Stockholm (Day 7)

• Stockholm, Sweden, felt distinctly different. Neil, Theresa, and I spent the day wandering, but found the city almost actively hostile to tourists—shops were closed, directions were consistently wrong, and everything was eye-wateringly expensive ($7 for a simple beer in 2005!).
• Except for the beautiful architecture and plenty of Swedish babes, it came off my list of places I was eager to return to.

Medieval Visby, Germany, & Aarhus (Days 8-10)

• Visby (Day 8): Located on the island of Gotland, Visby is a gorgeous 1100 AD fortress town enclosed by a pristine two-mile medieval wall. I tagged along on a photo expedition with Bill Durrance but opted out of the afternoon hike as my feet were getting worn out!
• Germany (Day 9): We docked in Warnemunde (former East Germany). This was a poignant visit for me, as it was the first time I had ever set foot in Germany—the home of my father's father before he emigrated to the United States. We took a water ferry down to Rostock, exploring the old streets before catching a train back.
• Aarhus, Denmark (Day 10): This was an unscheduled bonus port added by Holland America. Since it was not on our original conference schedule, I blew off the morning lecture sessions to go ashore, taking pictures of the old Danish architecture.

Copenhagen & CGI::Prototype (Day 11)

• I stayed one final day in Copenhagen before starting my grueling 27-hour journey back home to Oregon.
• During my stay, I presented a technical talk on my CGI::Prototype framework to the local Danish Perl Mongers. The Copenhagen Perl community was incredibly welcoming and treated me to an exceptional dinner in exchange.