Tour "Conquered by beauty ... Scandinavia" from 07/26/2014.

I want to say a big thank you to the Accord-tour travel agency for organizing the tour “Conquered by beauty ... Scandinavia”, flight No. 811 dated 07/26/2014.

Everything was top notch!

I liked that we were met at the railway station. station, after specifying the time when it would be more convenient for us, and we were taken by bus to Terminal A. It is located outside the city, but it does not take long to go there. It is very cozy there, a left-luggage office, a mini-market, a tasty and not expensive cafe, a recreation area. From there we started our journey. And here is a small wish - to leave early, at 8 o'clock, no later. We stood at customs for 2 hours - this is normal, but still we did not have enough time to see the ancient city of Lublin on the way to Gdansk. Therefore, we drove all day, and although sanitary stops were always made on time, the crossing turned out to be long - 800 km and tiring. There was one wonderful stop for lunch at a kolyba type cafe, a very exotic cafe.

We tried the Polish soup "Zhurik" there. The portions are very large.

An ethno-festival with a fair and songs was held in Gdansk. I liked the city and the festival very much.

On the second day we went to the castle "Malbork". The castle is 700 years old - it's like an excursion into the Middle Ages. It was built by the crusaders. It is huge and in good condition. As a child, I loved to read books about the Middle Ages, and this excursion gave me a chance to see firsthand the place where the characters of my favorite books could live. Then there was a night on the ferry across the Baltic Sea. I have already traveled by ferry, so I didn’t have the delight of the “first voyage”, but I liked the ferry.

On the morning of the third day, we arrived in the long-awaited Scandinavia, in Sweden, in Karlskrona, and after driving 350 km, we saw Gothenburg. The road through Scandinavia is very interesting - either well-groomed fields, or beautiful houses, or rocks on which trees grow. I immediately remembered the film "And Trees Grow on Stones" - that's for sure.

Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, the capital of the west coast, a port, a gateway to the North Sea, a city of sailors. I liked the city, green, many canals and ancient monuments. We visited the "Fish Temple" and I tried a shrimp sandwich. Fresh shrimp is something.

On the fourth day we reached Oslo. Hooray! I'm in Norway!

I dreamed about Norway since childhood, when I saw the film "Vikings", filmed in 1958. with Kirk Douglas, who played Spartacus: http://www.ex.ua/146395 . And most recently there was a wonderful fantasy film "Beowulf" in 2007. : http://www.ex.ua/77805804?r=1989,23775 and the funny series "Lillehammer": http://www.ex.ua/20887502 . This is the mess that was in my head. I really wanted to see the real Norway. I saw her and I really liked her. Here is a completely different style of architecture, it is felt that this is the north, even though we arrived in the heat of 27 degrees. Oslo hasn't had such heat for 2 weeks for 9 years.

We were unlucky - we wanted to cool off a bit from the heat in Ukraine - it didn't work out. It is a pity that the Town Hall was closed (they were afraid of terrorist attacks) and the group did not gather on the springboard, but we visited the Museum Island, saw the Viking ships, swam on the boat. Loved the Vigeland Sculpture Park. It's a completely different experience than what you get from browsing the Internet. The guide talked about what human emotions each sculpture conveys - you look and believe. In Oslo we had a wonderful guide, my namesake is Tamara, she comes from Kyiv. She told a lot of interesting things about Norway, things that you can’t read on Wikipedia, about how people live there, how society works, how she lives. And she was very worried about Ukraine.

On the 5th day, my most cherished dream came true - to visit the fjords. How many films I watched about the fjords, how many videos - but what I saw with my own eyes was much better.

Not one photo or video will convey those feelings when you see it with your own eyes, you see the depth of the gorge, the height of the mountains, many waterfalls, you feel an unexpected gust of wind due to the turn of the fjord, which knocks down all the chairs on the deck of our boat. The guide said that in Norway there is a saying: "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes." We felt this when we sailed through the fjords for 2 hours - 2 times it started to drizzle, then the sun came out, then there were mountains in fog. Behind every bend of the fjord, a different view and different weather awaited us - that's something! Then there was the Flåm railway - an unforgettable experience - amazing views, gorges, a mountain river, houses, like in a fairy tale, and many waterfalls - it seems that they originate somewhere in the sky. Then we went to the Stalheim Gorge - the panorama is amazing, the road is not for the "faint-hearted".

But the drivers were just professionals (there were such "studs" that the "passenger car" could hardly get out), as they say now - respect and respect to them! And what a beautiful road that leads to the fjords. Either mountains, completely covered with forest, mast pines, or just a lunar landscape - there are no trees - only lichens and moss. The road stretches along a mountain river, which either overflows in a calm surface, or quickly runs among stones and rapids. Along the river there are many fishing houses, cars with trailers and tents - there must be fish. I wanted to try the famous cod, but I didn’t have a chance, but we tried the salmon soup in the gorge - delicious. In Norway, we spent 2 days in a hotel near the airport, a very good hotel - you can’t hear the planes, the breakfasts are excellent. On the first night we could not immediately fall asleep, and then we realized what was the matter - it was light on the street - white nights (well, not quite white, but not black either, let's say - gray).

On the sixth day we returned to Sweden in Helsingborg (traveled 600 km), boarded the ferry and went to Denmark. After 20 minutes we were in place and went to Copenhagen. Copenhagen is the fabulous city of Anderson, where the queen lives in the Royal Palace, where almost all the houses look like gingerbread houses, because they are built from a special Danish red brick, where there is a famous monument to the little mermaid. I really liked the boat trip along the canals, there are beautiful sailboats all around and people drink beer and have fun. The atmosphere is amazing - you always want to smile. And all the time unflattering comparisons with our reality... I wish our country would be happy too.

On the seventh day we saw the castles. At first - Kronborg - only externally, they say that there is nothing to see inside, but I would so much like to see where Hamlet allegedly lived. Then there was Frederiksborg, the summer residence of the queen. The queen was not at home.

A castle of stunning beauty, both externally and internally. Around the castle there is water and a park similar to Versailles. We left Denmark for Sweden along the famous Øresun bridge 7.8 km, which first goes 4 km in a tunnel under water, then along an artificial island and the sea. We spent the night on the ferry.

On the eighth day we arrived in Warsaw. Warsaw is a very beautiful city. And given that it was destroyed by the Nazis by 85%, it is simply amazing how the Polish people managed to restore their capital. I really liked the Royal Palace, especially inside, the park in the Royal Baths, Chopin Park.

On the ninth day we returned to Lvov. We were brought to "Terminal A" and waited 1 hour for us to have time to eat. Our guide gave us a gift - a certificate for UAH 318, which can be used when buying a tour until 22.08.2014. Then we were taken to the railway. railway station. We still had time, and we decided to go to the center to visit the famous institution - "Kraivka".

I really liked the live beer "Zenik" too.

I liked all the guides that were on this tour - it was clear that they all loved the cities they told us about - you feel it. All of them spoke not only about the history and economy of these cities, but also about how people live: families, children, pensioners.

I liked all hotels and breakfasts.

I liked our professional, tidy and polite drivers who did not forbid us to eat sandwiches on the bus.

I liked our accompanying group - Bogdan Giz. He himself insisted on this term "accompanying" - but he told us so much everything that for me he is also an excellent guide. At the beginning of the journey, Bogdan gave us a lot of material on the tour: maps, distance between cities, information about hotels, dictionaries of all the countries that we passed. I used to get these materials from the Internet when I was preparing for the tour.

In the reviews about this tour, which I read before the trip, it was said that there is a problem with food - "malnourished". I brought back half of the food, because. Bogdan always made sure that we could eat. Usually I lose 3kg on the tour, but this did not work out. Bogdan resolved any issues calmly, and surprises arise in any round. With such a guide, I would still go on tour.

I really liked our group. There were 39 of us, many pensioners. We went on this tour at a difficult time for our country. Let's go to have some fun. We are from different cities of Ukraine: Lviv, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Khmelnitsky. They tried not to talk about politics, they understood that opinions could be different. But when we were already returning, we let our emotions come out. And, thank God, everyone was united in one thing, that we all love our home, our Ukraine.

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