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Subject: Sadly thirty plus years dulls the memories. Author: Lesley Ellis [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 13:56:17 02/21/07 Wed I sailed on the Uganda in June 1975 - the Baltic cruise to Visby, Helsinki, Leningrad and Copenhagen. We sailed from Dundee (if my memory serves me well) and the roughest crossing was of the Pentland Firth. Loads were calling for 'Hughie and Ralph' that night. Disappointingly we were in the bowels of the ship and only saw dayight when we went up on deck. I do remember the daredevil game of jumping through the watertight doors as they began to close.Our dorms were a bit sparton and millitary like and our teachers were constately on the prowel to prevent any Hanky Panky going on. I met a young lad called Dave from Dundee at the evening disco, and was later caught kissing him in a classroom - strictly forbidden in the evenings- and of being told by my teacher that my life was practicaly over and my reputation ruined beyond saving. I have a feeling Dave dumped me after that. I think our first port of call was Visby and our teacher insisted we visited the Apothacary's shop, clearly a high point in his itinerary. We were more interested in the hunky blond chaps lying on the grass sunbathing. I feel we were just dumped there and made the best of it for our selves and similarly in every other port bar Leningrad. Memories of Copenhagen consist of almost being killed by a tram - forgetting or not being told the traffic came from your LEFT!! of a large department store we were asked to leave for being unaccompanied and Tivoli gardens at night where we screamed so much on the roller coaster we could hardly speak the next day. Helsikni is a blurr apart from the Sibelius Monument - the Silvery tubes you could walk under and the Olympic stadium. Leningrad is a different matter. This was the first time I'd seen a gun. Soldiers checked our bus before we left the dockside and as he walked down the bus aisle I could have touched it. Our tour bus was quite tired and well used. Even at 12 I could see this was not an affluent city. It was quite shabby in parts and although the buildings were painted it was a colourless city. Some russians tried to buy my Levis from me whilst were we taking photo's of Peter the Great on Horseback. (Sadly I'd chopped his head off - photographically speaking). I was taken aback by the ostentation of the Winter Palace Gardens and all of the Gold coloured statues. I recall a water feature where you got wet when you were not looking. Our teachers insisted we did not purchase any ice-cream fom the vendors in the gardens because hygiene reasons. Still we did it any way and survived. Not forgetting the shopping experience - I cannot remember if this was close to the ship but all it had for sale was Russian stacking dolls. Yesterday I found my Muster station badge - Van Diemen and the SS Uganda badge. From the loft my husband produced the Helsinki Tourist map (all in finnish strangely),a plan of the Bridge of the Uganda (the educational bit) and a tourist brochure of Moscow. We were supposed to go there but for some reason ended up in Leningrad. Sadly my photo's are long gone (including a school group one taken onboad) my Ships Diary and the small green identification card we had for the Soviet Union. Still HAPPY HAPPY MEMORIES. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]