This morning we toured and shot footage in Helsinki,
including a famous orthodox church built by the Russians after WWII.
Later, we visited a shopping mall so Bill could
pick up clothes and toiletries, since his bag is still missing in action. Were surprised to see how expensive everything
is here. For example, a standard pair of
Lee jeans was over $100! Later, we
checked in with our contacts at Quark Expeditions, the team that will be taking
us to the pole. We have a wakeup call
set for 4:30 AM, so we are prepping our gear now in order to move efficiently in
the morning.
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| Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki |
Oh, and we've just been told we are NOT allowed to capture
any footage of the port in Murmansk because it is a military facility. Since we don't want to end up in a Russian
prison (as compelling as that sounds) we will keep our cameras stowed until we
are out in the open ocean. On board the
icebreaker we have access to everything except the nuclear reactors, which are
off-limits for security reasons.
