Im back!

 

Helsinki, Finland

 

So we went to go visit Sako even though they said everyone was on holiday. It was about a 50min train ride outside of the city and a 45min walk from there and we came upon this place. It was their investment casting facility, no guns here but the rifle factory was right on the other side, yay! So, we get their, and alas, we get denied a tour

 

 

Superheavy mortar

 

 

Tank museum. The Stug III and T34 are operational. Funny thing is, the Finns purchased a good amount of STUG IIIs from the Germans during WWII and used them into the 50's or 60's if I recall!

 

 

T-55 tank cut open for training. As someone who works with steel, I am impressed with the cuts through the armor!

 

Kapow!

 

 

Firing range tank

 

 

Commuter parking lot at the train station

 

Back in Helsinki, along the water

 

Similar to the ship the Estonia which sank in 1994 and killed something like 7-800 people. Glad to see they still use this style ship lol

 

Suomenlinna sea fortress

 

U-boat Vesikko, built in 1933 and purchased from the germans. Only surviving finnish sub.

 

 

Kings gate at the sea fortress

 

Its an island, so this is from the boatride in

KKK Horse? Nah, its a military horse in winter camo pulling the kitchen wagon!

 

omnomnom

 

My dad behind the quad Maxims

 

Second up, AVS-36. Damn....never seen one

 

Another maxim in a mocked up position

 

STUG III with a jerk parked in front

 

Pub trolley!

 

Tallinn, Estonia

 

 

Steering....lever....?!

 

 

In the tower they had a repro matchlock that I had to pose with

Russian church

 

 

View of the walled in old city. It is said that this is the most well preserved medeival city in europe. It is surrounded by a wall with towers all in great shape

 

 

The wall

 

 

more wall

 

From the wall

 

Bathroom in one of the towers...

 

View along top of the wall from a tower

 

Martime museum had an awesome steam powered icebreaker and you could roam around the engine room. No cameras, no people, nobody monitoring... I was climbing all over, above the boilers, along all these crazy passages, it was so awesome.

 

 

The two triple expansion steam engines in the rear

 

 

4 boiler room

 

The tops of the 2 engines

 

 

Top of the bow engine

 

 

 

Beer bike!

 

 

Soviets bulldozed over the german cemetary to put in this monument

 

Presidential palace guards have..... M14s!!?!??!?!

 

 

Went to an abandoned soviet prison. This place was crazy. Everything was just dropped and its untouched. Papers are still there, stuff in cabinets, etc. Heres the operating rooms. creeeeeeeeeeeeeeepyy

 

 

Bunk room where 36 men would stay

 

 

Hanging room, with a pit...

 

Outdoor cells for the nice cold winters

 

 

Biked around, heres my dad trying to get somewhere we shouldnt have been

 

 

Dark creepy hallway from outside

 

 

 

These guys were doing a huge tour of europe, notice the car is extended. There were 6 of them. Pretty cool car...

 

For all you Russians, pickles and vodka at the russian resturaunt!

 

 

Vilnius, Lithuania

 

In Lithuania, there is a new wedding tradition. You put your name on a lock and you ceremoniously lock it onto the bridge and throw the key into the river. Bridges symbolise connection.

 

 

KGB Headquarters, Prison, & Museum. All the shredded papers found after the soviets left.

 

 

Straight jacket in the padded & soundproofed room

 

Execution chamber. They would take the prisinor down, confirm his ID in an adjacent room, take him in, shoot him in the head, then stuff his body up a chute (the right hand window thing) and into a truck waiting to take the bodies to mass unmarked graves. They would do about 50 a night. There was a drain and hose for the blood. Over 1k known execution were in this room.

 

 

Bullet impacts

 

 

In this cell, the floor was full of freezing water and the only dry spot was that tiny circular pedestal. If you were physically and metally strong enough, you could stay dry...otherwise...

 

 

Prison hallway

 

 

Hey look, they even had carry permits! Just like NJ does!

 

 

Building from the outside

 

TV tower

 

 

VERY NICE! MY NAMA BORAT!

 

 

Poor thing got a hole through every cylinder AND the barrel!

 

 

Colt potato digger!

 

 

Mauser AT rifle

 

 

Self explanatory. Mauser, mosin, arisaka. Plus a winchester 05. Imagine the BOOM and fireball these would put out?

 

 

1942 DSHK

 

 

Pimpin PPSH41

 

Riga, Latvia

 

 

Stockholm, Sweden

 

A trip to sweden is incomplete without a trip to the biggest ikea in the world! Check this out. They had 3 circular outer levels and 3 circular inner levels. Place was huge. About double the size of the one next to newark airport

 

 

Swedish meatballs in Ikea. Couldnt find them anywhere else, lol

 

 

Ikea even had their own bus line running to points in stockholm and back to ikea, for free

 

 

Syrian air got smashed up presumably due to the presidents nasty new habit of killing his people. Its a shame, I was there 2 years ago and it was great.

 

 

Military museum, funky tank...

 

 

TYPE 3 AK!

 

 

I was deprived of my girlfriend...

 

 

Military museum had this very strange small artistic exhibit. The next 2 pics explain it all

 

 

Throw & grow, flower bombs. Silly swedes!

 

 

Presidential palace

 

 

 

Smart-car sports car!

 

 

ABSOLUT ICE BAR! And yes, they provide the goofy cloak lol. It was really cool

 

Look like you had a good trip, great pic's.

 

Harry

Dad and I

 

 

Another steam icebreaker, this one last operated in 2007 but is laid up due to lack of funding. In great shape, such a bummer

 

 

GANG VAG!

 

 

 

Note the parking ticket. I guess when you spend 400k on a car a ticket is nothing

 

 

 

 

Tada!

Great trip!

Looks like you had fun. I like the bacon AK. but the baby/penis gun? WTF?

Thanks for sharing, did you miss any weapons exhibits in the country?

 

Seriously, cool trip!

Looks like fun! Thanks for the pics.

Niiiiiiice! Looks like you guys had fun!

The pics were great.. Thanks for sharing..

 

I guess if you want a divorce in that country you have to jump off that bridge.. I know on of these keys fits that dam lock..LOL..

Thanks Glenn, nice little slide show.

Yo looks like you had a great trip bro! That's awesome you got to visit so many museums and gun/war related places. Pictures came out great!