Overview: Doherty Clan Baltic Adventure

 

When I discovered that another family at my bed and breakfast in Copenhagen shared the same family name as my family, I thought that was a strange coincidence. But when the coincidence turned uncanny, as in one of the family members was a retired firefighter (like my brother), and they were from Colorado, and they were going to be on the same cruise ship as my family and I, I knew the cruise trip was going to be full of awesome, happy surprises that we'd never expected. Since a lot of our conversations with these Doherty's centered around Ireland and the Doherty family reunion that takes places every five years, I figured the trip needed a good name as well. And so it was, the Doherty Clan Baltic Adventure began!

Below is a brief overview that highlights the family favorites from the trip. We had an excellent tour guide along for the whole time - Shannon - who had visited all of these places before. If you are thinking about jumping on one of the cruise's with Shannon, she will be happy to see you! She summarized the trip with these words: "It was a lot of fun showing my family the places I remember exploring from my past trips here, as well as experiencing new things! I love traveling with the Doherty (and Ford!) clan!!!!!"

Dad

Fave country: Russia
Fave site we visited: Peterhof Palace
Best food eaten: borsch
Best dessert: Cherries jubilee
Best place on the ship: Captain’s bridge!
Best part about being on a cruise: Eating all the food without having to make it, plus the entertainment!
Fave show: Night Life

Fave souvenir: Commie t-shirt

Mom

Fave country: Russia (I liked having our personal tour guide show and tell us about her home country. I enjoyed listening to her talk to other Russians in their native language.)

Fave site we visited: Peterhof Palace and Garden. WOW! Talk about living in style! Simply gorgeous setting!

Best food eaten: Tomato soup and an assortment of breads at a café in Copenhagen, when Tim and I were left to survive on our own in Europe:)  The restaurant overlooked one of the town squares where we watched a crepe maker create her crepes for the people going to and from the Jazz Festival! We went to the Jazz festival after dinner. We also returned to the crepe maker the next evening, for our final treat in Copenhagen before we flew home. Melanie had raved about the tomato soup from her travels to Europe, so I had to go with her recommendation.

Best dessert: An ice cream that Shannon and I pretty much devoured in record time! Sadly, Tim managed only a bite or two. This was in a favorite café/internet stop, for the dancers and cast members in Kiel, Germany.

Best place on the ship: Obviously, the theater, but after that, the Crow’s Nest. I liked playing games and looking out the massive windows at ports and being surrounded by the beauty of the ocean!

Best part about being on a cruise: Besides having Shannon and Sean in the same place at the same time, and there was no place to run…I loved the amenities: no cooking or washing dishes, no laundry, plus, somebody else ready and willing to drive us to our next destination! There was always something fun to do.

Fave show: Nightlife, because Shannon was highlighted with each male dancer and she rocked the boat!!!! This was followed closely in second place, by Sean’s Jive performance in the Dancing with the Stars at Sea competition!

Fave souvenir: The book, A Material Life, we bought for Ivan in Copenhagen. After marveling at the history and architecture which surrounded us in every port, we happened upon this resource. We hope it will inspire Ivan with his portfolio.

Shannon
Fave country: Sweden
Fave site we visited: Catherine’s Palace
Best food eaten: Russian pancake
Best dessert: Chocolate soufflé
Best place on the ship: Tamarind Restaurant
Best part about being on a cruise: Traveling the world with your family!
Fave show: Nightlife
Fave souvenir: Painting from St. Petersburg and the pictures with the family

Me

Fave country: Denmark
Fave site we visited: Hermitage Museum
Best food eaten: my daily breakfast: berries and granola muesli, with a Denver omelette, and a Sante Fe omelette
Best dessert: everything with chocolate!
Best place on the ship: The captain’s bridge
Best part about being on a cruise: chillaxin’ with family
Fave show: both of Shannon’s shows that I saw were awesome!

Fave souvenir: cruise ship jacket that dad and I both purchased

All by Myself...

After having spent the past six months living with an incredible mix of people, fluctuating from 3-6 roommates at a time from different countries all around the world, I decided it was time for a change. So I've traded in the 29th floor penthouse apartment in the heart of downtown Shanghai, for a 4th floor apartment, also centrally located downtown, but in a nice, secluded part of the city that is fairly well isolated from city life. Beautiful trees grow in the courtyard and throughout the neighborhood, hiding the surrounding high-rises. In the morning, instead of hearing the chorus of traffic floated up to my window on the 29th floor, I wake up to the sound of bird songs and tai chi music downstairs. And the best part: I'm on my own now - no roommates :-)

Here are some pictures of my new place:

Passing the Time in Shanghai

Life has been much too busy lately, between work and a few other projects I have on my plate, so I haven't had much time for typing up longer updates, as is my style. I have been able to enjoy some different places and activities in Shanghai recently, so at the very least, I will post some pictures so everyone knows I'm still having fun these days, despite the busy work grind!

I went to an English Corner (for locals to practice their English with foreigners and make new friends) in a very random, kind of run-down part of the city and, lo-and-behold, the coffee shop is a almost perfect replication of the coffee shop featured on the Friends TV series. The coffee shop's TV was locked on repeat episodes of Friends, the coffee (I was told by those who imbibe) was good, and the event was fun. So interesting to see a place like this that felt, really, like it was lost within the city: a real hole in the wall.

Here's a view from my apartment with the sunset; the weather has been getting warmer and we are able to enjoy more sun on a daily basis.

This past Sunday afternoon, I went with my German roommate, Fabian, for some rock climbing at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium. It was certainly the biggest wall I've ever looked upon, not to mention been on. But I made it up all the way - two times!...on the beginner course. When I tried a more difficult course, I could only go about 1/3 of the way.

Kind of looks like I'm going up the side of an apartment - but scaling buildings is more for my firefighter brother to do!

What Rats Can Teach Us About Courage

I was listening to a most interesting podcast this morning: Big Ideas (a TVO production) with Jordan Peterson, a U of Toronto Professor of Psychology, entitled Slaying the Dragon Within Us. The speaker started by talking about rats. This was especially curious because I was also already thinking about the proposed dinner of ratatouille that one of my flatmates would cook tonight.

Turns out, rats are basically programmed to fear cats (go figure!). Even if a rat has never seen a cat before, in it's entire life, if it so much as smells a cat somewhere, the rat will immediately flee and return to the safety of it's burrow. There, inside, it will scream for 24 hours! The other rats nearby will be alerted and will remain inside. The speaker comments that this is an especially long period of time to spend screaming, considering a rat only has a lifespan of about one year.

Wait a minute, Sean, you said this was about courage. Right, I'm getting there!

After the screaming is over, the rat re-emerges and does what? Returns to the scene of the smell! It will very carefully run across a small part of the area, then hide. Then run across a slightly bigger area, then hide. It repeats this 'scouting mission' until it determines the area to be safe. Then, and only then, does the creature resume normal rat activities: eating, being sociable at rat house parties, mating, and otherwise annoying humans.

So, the way to look at it is thus: what 'cats' are out there that have you running scared? Do you hide away from your fears for an especially long period of time before you emerge to confront them? Do you emerge to confront your fears at all? Some might say that the rat who returns to the scene of the smell is a stupid animal and soon to be cat food. Perhaps. But it takes courage to go back and see if the coast is clear. And if the cat is gone, then the whole world is that rats oyster...er, garbage can?

Answer Key to: Family in Ice and Snow

Mom for her favorite flower: lilacs (this flower is not a lilac, but close in color)

 

Ivan on his motorbike

myself (of course!)

Melanie (the ever watchful and all seeing, wise big sister)

Jill (for the horses!)

Shannon (a dancin')

Ryan (a bit tricky, because the snow rifle does not have a full barrel, but this is a snow hunter)

Dad (and his birds)

Polar Yin Yang

I spent some time in Polar Land on my recent visit to Harbin, and the majority of that time watching this particularly fascinating polar bear. He spent the entire time I was watching - about 30 minutes - swimming the same lap circuit, back and forth, 10 meters each way. His friend, also equally adorable, did not catch my attention as mush so since he chose to spend the same time sleeping. As I observed the bears, I had to wonder at how much their captivity influenced their behavior. 

Bear 1: Was it his anger at captivity or his joy for life that moved him to a constant swimming motion?

Bear 2: Was his slumber guided by his sadness at being in a cage or his acceptance to be calm in life?

And a question to readers: if, heaven forbid, you should one day find yourself in a cage, surrounded by people who holler and take pictures throughout the day, which bear would you be?

Harbin, Day 3

The morning of Day 3 began with another car ride as I returned to Harbin from the small 'hills' where I'd been snowboarding. Then, I visited "Sun Island" to see many impressive snow carvings. There was another international snow sculpture competition here, with teams from around the world (even Thailand!).

 This was also where I was to go on my 'dog sled' ride, which was supposed to be one of the major highlights. However, the sled ride was not at all what I imagined in would be. There were certainly dogs, but not much to say about a sled, and it was nothing like the grand Iditarod that I was hoping to recreate. I sat down and two German Sheperds pulled me around a frozen lake for a grand total of two minutes, with the 'driver' running alongside guiding the dogs for the full two minutes. I could have accomplished the same but for a longer period of time with a pack of dogs I know back home...So disappointing!

Next I went inside to warm up: into Polarland, an indoor aquarium / zoo that is famous for it's choreographed water dance with beluga whales. There was also a pretty entertaining show with some seals.

 After the shows, it was time to get back outside in the cold. You can gauge temperature from this ice tower thermometer here:


The thermometer and the next pictures are from Snow and Ice World, where I spent the last evening. I could only manage my gloves off to take photos for about five minutes, then wander around for about ten more minutes, before having to go inside one of the cafes to get hot tea or to eat some warm dumplings. After heating up, I could go take more pictures!