Okay, I’m ready to be done with my last vacation, but it took me this long to pull together my favorite photos out of the 250-some we took and load them onto a Flicker slideshow. So for those of you who would still like to see more of the Russian fabulousness, the link is HERE. (If you’re a Facebook friend, you don’t need to bother — this is essentially the same one I had there, except with the personal shots taken out.)

If you haven’t used Flicker before, you should know that you have the ability to turn the photo captions and comments either on or off. If you put the cursor somewhere on the slideshow, some menus will come up at the upper right. Clicking on ‘Show info’ will toggle the captions (on if they’re off; off if they’re on). The ‘Options’ menu next to that will give you some other choices. Moving the cursor off the slideshow entirely wlll take away the menus in a second and let you see just the images. I think my favorite way to see these things is with the captions off the first time around, then with them on.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that almost all of these pictures were taken by Greg, who’s a much better photographer than I am. Anyway, it’s all there, so pour yourself a shot of vodka (or water that you pretend is vodka), crank up the Nutcracker Suite and enjoy!

I’m very late catching up on some old business that came my way before the trip. The one I really want to get to is a mistake I made back HERE when I was reviewing “The Boundless Garden” by Alexandros Papadiamandis (known as “The Greek Dostoyevsky.”) I said then that the book was out of print, but I was wrong. I got an email from Denise Harvey, a publisher and one of the editors of “The Boundless Garden.” She gave me THIS LINK to her site that allows you to buy it and have it shipped to the U.S. (Hardbound: 45 euros; Paperback: 22 euros; First class to send: 3.05 euros. Not sure how that converts to dollars, but some enterprising soul can figure it out.)

She also gave me the link to Fr. Luke Hartung’s site that you can purchase it from - HERE - but I notice it’s listed as ‘out of stock or not yet available,’ so you may have to keep checking back there. The cost there is $32.95.

Glad to correct the error. The book seems like a rare gem, and I felt almost guilty having a copy when others couldn’t buy it. So power up, get out your credit cards and check out the Greek Dostoyevsky.

(Denise pointed out that both sites allow you to sample the book. They even give a whole story you can read.)

It’s a terrible thing to find that you’ve used up all the superlatives you can think of, just when you need them most.

Saint Petersburg was always the biggest attraction of this cruise for me. Judging from the fact that the cruise stops there for two full days, it obviously is for a lot of people. But I had started to worry about the stories of tourists being harassed there. Saint Petersburg is the only city we’ve ever cruised to that doesn’t allow tourists to wander around without a guide. That level of supervision had me concerned, and I wondered if the city would be all Soviet and scary or something.

When we first approached it in the morning, it started to look like it just might.

But then …
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When we last checked in with our heroine, she was whining that Copenhagen was too modern to suit her tastes. What a fine bit of irony, then, that the next stop in the cruise was Tallinn, Estonia. Not to say that a person can’t find Starbucks, McDonalds and such in the newer part of Tallinn. But since we spent our time in the old part of town, I eventually really started to feel like I was in medieval times.

And how was it? Well, the sugared almonds were heavenly. The pig’s ear specialty was beyond our capabilities. But at least I found a place I could say a prayer for a friend.

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Oh dear, I was afraid of that. We didn’t care much for Copenhagen.

Well, there’s nothing to say you have to make a love connection with everyplace you stop. And I don’t think it’s any reflection on Copenhagen. It’s breathtaking, bustling, full of life.

But the reason it wasn’t a hit with me is that it’s definitely a modern city. And like a lot of American Orthodox converts, I’ve got an ancient heart, or something like it. Bistros and ice bars don’t light my fire nearly as much as cathedrals and cobblestone pavement. So I’m the weirdo here.

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Since we had walked over some of the basic Edinburgh sites back HERE in ‘05, I was looking for something a bit “off the brochure,” and also wanting to indulge a current interest in the abbeys and monasteries in the U.K. that were shut down in the 1500’s. A Scottish commenter on a cruise chat board suggested Dunfermline Abbey, an 11th century monastery that was built into the church and palace of the Scottish kings for a time and still houses the remains of King Robert the Bruce enterred under the altar.

It was perfect. Just absolutely amazing. And for a couple glorious hours, we had the ruins all to ourselves, to wander and scramble over and wonder at and, if we wanted, fall down and break our necks in.

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With most of the ports on this cruise — Dublin, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg — the question wasn’t “What do you do?” but “What don’t you do?” Knowing what to leave off the itinerary can keep you from running around trying to do it all. But that didn’t seem like it was the problem with Barrow-in-Furness, England. Looking over the list of cities in the itinerary, little Barrow in the northwest of England looked like the 100-to-1 bet in the Kentucky Derby. But then there were intriguing bits of information about the countryside providing home and inspiration to both Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter, and so we opted for one of the two excursions offered — “A Scenic Tour of Cumbria.”

And scenic it certainly was. Almost worth being crippled for the rest of my life.

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Our little onboard intro to Dublin says: Intimate and friendly, compact, relaxed and easy to discover on foot, Dublin is a city full of surprises. It almost looks like a small town with gorgeous architecture left there for safekeeping.

And so it is, with winding streets full of little shops, street performers and lots and lots of remarkably well-behaved pedestrians.

But being in Ireland right now also broke my heart.

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Does it sound just terrible to say that on our big first day in fabulous Dublin, we landed at the hotel, sloughed off luggage and yesterday’s clothes and slept for five hours? I hope not, because that’s what happened. But that’s why we gave ourselves an extra day, to get rid of some jet lag — and the mental baggage I just mentioned — and get our minds right.

Besides, it’s not like we didn’t manage to take in some local color before and after The Big Sleep. For instance …

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Going off on the big cruise. I don’t so much want to get away. I want to come away.

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