Month: May 2017

Live from the MS Harold King (postal ship in Norway)

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Good morning, everyone, it is Shauna, correspondent for Without Bags, and I am here live today actually from the MS Herald Cong, which is a postal ship that travels up the coast of Norway, delivering postage from all … you know going in and out of all the little different cities around the fjords of Norway. So first, I want to say I am so, so happy that I have signals, even live chat with guys, yesterday when they were doing the orientation for the ship, they were talking about the signal being absolutely zilch the entire trip for a week, and you know, I’m so connected to you guys, and I would feel so sad if I couldn’t share with you guys what’s going on, so this morning I woke up and I have three whole bars, I’m so, so happy, so we get to share, which is so exciting.

So, first thing I wanted to share with you guys was the fact that I am actually in a cabin, well, of course I’m in a cabin, but I will be in this cabin for a week. I have never been on a cruise before. Ever. And I’m not quite so sure that I can call this a cruise, you know, many, many people think about a cruise as the huge ships with pools and bars and restaurants. This is a working postal ship. There are only 200 people on board this ship, and so in a way, it’s very private from that standpoint. But of course the other side of that is that it’s very small, compared to you know, normally, when I’m out traveling for Without Bags, I am roaming around land, and there’s buildings, and space and you know, I’m originally from Arizona, which means I live in a desert, where there’s lots of space. So this is very new for me and yesterday, when I first got on the boat, I actually think I had a little bit of claustrophobia. I have never experienced that before.

So very long story short, you know got into my cabin, and literally, actually kind of felt a little bit short of breath, and I was starting to panic just a little bit. So you know, traveling is all about new experiences, right? So this was certainly a new experience for me.

After I had some water, walked around on some of the outside patio decks and stuff … there’s three decks that have external patios … so I walked around on some of those patios and felt better, couldn’t fall asleep, till about 1:45 in the morning, and of course, woke up due to the waves and the motion of the boat this morning at about 6:45. So I’m sure that means I will crash tonight, but maybe that’s good. You know, this is all about new experiences. And anybody who has never been on a cruise before, I maybe would recommend doing like a two or three day, cruise. This is a five or six days on the boat. But I am feeling much better this morning, so no concerns anybody, everything is just fine.

Anyway, so I’m very excited about this trip. I’m going in and out of these tiny cities, so basically there are cities along the way that we’re going to stop at, so for example, today, the city we’re going to stop at, and of course, I’m going to butcher all of the names, so I will have the Without Bags administrative team post a full list of everywhere that I’m stopping, and I’ll try to check in at the cities with pictures and stuff, so you guys can check the Facebook feed and check the blog, you know Without Bags, anyway, so we get to stop in all these little cities and we get to do activities in the cities, so one of the things I was so, so excited about was at the end of the trip I was supposed to go on an ATV through the snow, up to the Russian border, but apparently there has been so much snow, yay climate change, there has been so much snow that that has been canceled. And one of the other options was to go dog sledding, and that has also been canceled.

So, you know, we will find lots of other awesome things to do, so today one of the things I’m doing instead of my original trips there, was to go to, there’s an aquarium and a famous mountain range or something, All Staff I think it’s called.

Leaving Stockholm for Helsinki

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Hey guys, it’s Shauna from Without Bags. I am currently sitting in the airport in Stockholm headed for Helsinki. I wanted to give you guys my recap of Stockholm.

First of all, awesome, awesome city. Was staying very near to the main old shopping district, so was able to walk to a lot of places. It’s very much a walkable city. They do have Uber, which is awesome, but it’s actually quite nice to be out walking. Of course today, there was hail, so definitely didn’t walk today. Yeah, very much liked the city. People are very, very friendly, super helpful. Definitely want to help you with whatever your problem is.

I think one of the biggest things that I’m noticing … In Ireland and Scotland, the look on people’s faces started off, even just walking down the street, everybody looked upset. Here and in Denmark, everybody has a very picturesque, actually, look on their face. Everybody here is quite pretty, generally, very tall, and slender, and beautiful. Anyway, very picturesque look on their face. If you look lost or look confused, they don’t really stop to help you, but if you reach out to ask for help, absolutely. They’re super friendly and definitely want to try and help you, so that’s really nice. That’s really helpful. Everybody speaks English basically, so it makes traveling here really, really easy.

Sorry, there is a very large cart going by. It’s kind of loud.

 

Adventure in lost power!

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Hey everyone, so it’s Shauna from Without Bags and today we went on a little bit of an adventure. Woke up this morning and my powder bank was no longer working, so decided to roam the streets to try and find a place to find power. So luckily enough I found a place called, let’s see Class Ohlson and it is basically a giant Ikea on the inside but the most interesting bit was trying to find the proper adapters to fit both my U.S. plugs and a USB and all the rest of it. So what does this tell us? The tip for today is to always carry a backup power source. The problem with not having any way to charge laptops and cell phones and all the other fun stuff, battery backup packs and all the rest of it. Anyway this is, since I’m here, this is the main shopping street in Stockholm. So basically where all the stores are, all the clothes are, all the rest of it. I found a really cute skirt, so I’m so excited to wear that at a party that I’m gonna have then I get back.

So I figured I would give you guys a little bit of a view. Let me see what I can do here. So what you’re looking at is the main shopping street. You can see, I was way up at the top of that hill and then you see the grass all the way down there in the background. That’s an observatory and so we’ll be going there later today. And in the meantime I’m just roaming around, checking out all the stores. A lot of this feels very much again like the U.S. You know definitely they have a much higher sense of fashion, I would call it than we do. People keep coming up to me in my pink jacket, I was afraid that I was going to be a little too colorful. As you can see a lot of the people here are in blacks and grays. I am seeing some colors but I’ve literally had people coming up to me like touching my jacket. Like “Ohh, what a pretty color.” You know very, very excited about that.

Anyway it’s been an interesting morning. I’m definitely enjoying the … You know, I’ve had fresh tea this morning, like loose leaf tea and love the European breakfasts, you know the spreads are amazing. Cheese, and meats, and eggs and bacon,  I mean it’s a full breakfast. No one of this Danish, first thing in the morning. So anyway just wanted to say Hi and one of the things that I’m finding, I am literally one of the shortest people around here. I’m five foot nine. I’m not exactly super short but many, many people here, the locals are easily, the women, the men, everything easily six foot. Lots of blonds, lots of very pretty people here. So anyway, so far so good. Loving Stockholm and loving Sweden and hope you guys are having a great day and I’ll talk to you guys later. Okay, bye.