Vapiano is a “fast food” Italian joint that I discovered three years ago while living in Berlin. Graciously called The Vap, Jen and I frequented the establishment at least 5 times a week during our Berlin days.

The last port of call on the ship was to the small town of Kiel Germany. To my amazement Kiel had a Vapiano. From the moment I discovered this I could not wait for the meal. The above shows how the reunion unfolded.

Definitely day two now. Ant and I headed for an ancient fort and then tracked down some Georgian food. The day ended with a harrowing trip back to the ship. The lack of English and the introduction of a new port has confused the tourist/taxi driver communication and almost kept us in St. Pete indefinitely. We made it back in time for “ALL ABOARD” with empty pockets but with full bellies.

Here is the complete photo set from all three Russian posts.

Check out part 1 and part 2 for the full Russian experience.

A bloody church, an impromptu Russian girl party and a Hookah kept Tony, Kelsey and I going when our bodies and minds were conflicted on exactly what time it was. Russia kept us on our toes as we continued to explore the in’s and out’s of St. Petersburg.

The last 10 days I have been on this ship with Anthony. I learned all about life on the Eurodam and what he means by “waking up in a new country everyday”. Although the ship has it’s share of delicious food and wonderful drinks, I am going to keep this post short leaving the reviews to Anthony. Look for those in future updates.

My next few posts will feature the ports of call we stopped in as we pecked our way around the Baltic Sea. I will keep the text short and let the videos speak for themselves. I think they will be successful in giving you a little taste of Scandinavia from the eyes and taste buds of Anthony and me.

In the spirit of having some food worked into every post we do, here’s a picture from my favorite meal on the ship. There is an Asian restaurant called Tamarind. Pictured below is their rib appetizer. Asian style pork ribs with a sweet glaze. The meat fell off the bone and left me wanting two more orders of the delectable slow cooked, swine.

Estonia was the one place on the itinerary that I have never heard of. I had no idea what to expect. It’s a nice little city with a population just over 400K. We went on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the town. We saw a lot of sights and we saw a lot of Hesburger joints. Hesburger is the McDonalds or BK of Estonia. So, I had to make it the one thing I must do before I leave. Get that Hesburger. We hopped off, checked out some sites, and then B-lined it to Hesburger. Check out the video on Vimeo but, it is basically a mix between McDonalds and BK. The burger is the same size patty as BK but they had something that resembled the big mac. I have to say it was not bad for a fast food joint. It’s no Carl Jr. or In-and-Out burger but not a bad whack down. The bonus was, not a bad result after eating fast food. McDonald’s usually makes me feel a little nasty but I felt fine after.

The order:

Megaburger meal – Big Mac look-a-like (with 2 kinds of special sauce. One on the top and one on the bottom) Large fries, and large diet coke (3/4 full. That shit would not fly in NY). Oh, just a note, you have to pay for ketchup packets there.

Bonus:

Kelsey had one bite of her mini cheeseburger and filled up on her fries so I also had her cheeseburger. Also pretty good.

I was a little hungry and new, form the last time I was in Germany, I had to eat a currywurst . I stopped off at a little stand on the street and I’ve got to say this thing was more than a snack. It was about 10inches long and had some girth. (Ok, Minds out of the gutter and back to the food). They chopped it up and put this goo on it. It looked like molasses. Then they sprinkled curry all over it. It was so good to bring back the memories from 2006.

Then we stopped by this candy stand. It all looked so good but I had to hold back because we all know why I should not eat it. The group I was with definitely got a bunch. There all dancers and will burn that off in a sec. Look at those pics, that candy looked good. Ok, So I had a couple pieces … but just a couple.

Living on a ship for months at a time can sometimes cause you to miss certain cuisines. One that I miss a lot is sushi. While in the Caribbean I would go to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands once a week, and decided to spend a couple of bucks and go to a place I heard of called Beni Iguana’s.

A typical sushi experiences for me usually has me over ordering and getting a ridiculous amount of rolls. On this particular day I was dining with my friend Kelsey. At first I was going to order 5 different ”Big Rolls” but decided to cut it down a bit since there was only 2 of us and there was a section down at the bottom of the menu that said SPECIALS; that word sucks me in every time. So here was the order of the day:

Edamame – a Sushi staple
World famous mussels – in the “SPECIALS” section
Kahuna Roll – Smoked Eel, shrimp, & Avocado
Ecstacy Roll – (the name speaks volumes!) Crab, cream cheese, smoked eel, & Shrimp
St. Thomas Roll – in the “SPECIALS” section, Fried Shrimp Tempura inside, Smoked eel & crunchies outside
Topped off with a hot sake

Thanks to Beni, we had a great meal, especially with the World Famous Mussels. I love these things so much I bought a bottle of the special dressing to send home to my parents and Jay for some forking tastings. That picture says it all: 6 New Zealand Mussels (Giant size) steamed on the half shell with citrus sesame dressing, roasted sesame seeds and scallions. In one word, KILLER.

If you would like to see other pic of the sushi I had, check them out here.