So I am alive, and I could not be more pleased with my trip to Helsinki, if I wanted to be. So I’m going to write a semi-“brief” account of the 4 days of travel, and then leave links to some facebook albums, since they will have the most information for you. But to “re-cap” I traveled with Peter (Tennessee), Genevieve (Texas), and Kelsey (North Carolina). Yes, I traveled with Americans. But it made the trip so much more wonderful, actually.
Well, we decide to meet at 3:50AM in the lobby of our dorm… but I can’t sleep. I was too excited, and I just wanted to be traveling!!! But we met downstairs and walked to the bus stop. It was lightly snowing, and it wasn’t tooo terribly cold. We then got on the 4:30AM bus to Tallinn, the capital. I desperately wanted to sleep on the bus ride… but was unable. So I just sat there in silence for 2.5 hours. It was a true test of my Estonian emulation, and I think I passed moderately well.
But we arrived in Tallinn at 7AM, and our boat leaves at 8AM for Helsinki, and we know they stop selling tickets 15 minutes prior to departure (they didn’t let us buy online, which is quite silly). We heard it was a walk to the port, but we figured it couldn’t be that far, based on the map. So we started walking. It was really hard to get our bearings without light, and luckily Peter was an amazing map-guide-reader. But we weren’t able to go too fast, because we knew alcohol was going to be really expensive in Finland (4 euro / $6 for a beer). So we were each carrying somewhere between 4-5 liters of beer, which was under the allowed 16 liters. But we speed-walked, slipped several times on the ice, and finally arrived at the port - 13 minutes prior to sailing.
We get to the ticket counter and are told to “Hurry Up Please” with buying our tickets by the attendants. We are yelling at eachother, cuz I have Genevieve’s wallet, someone needs more kroons, etc. The girls start running up the HUGE gate/walkway to the boat, and Peter and I are not far behind them. I cannot explain to you how close we came to not going to Helsinki that day. Seriously, as Peter and I got there, they buzzers were going off, and they were pulling the gate away from the boat. It was kind of ridiculous. But we were on the boat, with maybe 15 seconds to spare. We didn’t realize until afterwards how close we came to spending the weekend in Tallinn.
We arrived in Helsinki, and started our walk to the hostel, and it seemed like it was going to be an hour walk, based on the map. But Helsinki kicks ass for tourists. The downtown/habor area of Helsinki is relatively narrow, and the city grows to the north. So it only took us maybe a half hour to get to our hostel, which navigating the city. We checked into our hostel, and headed to Iguana, a restaurant that we were told by the hostel-lady had a buffet (we’re really hungry). Buffet pizza, salad, and chips and salsa!!! It was sooo good. And the chips and salsa weren’t spicy, but they actually had spice. So it was almost cute, but did remind me of home.
But we were exhausted, 3 out of the 4 didn’t get any sleep, and it was only 2 pm. So we checked into our hostel and took a 3 hour nap. Boring? Of course. But we were freaking exhausted. Best decision we made. Haha.
So we went “exploring” and found that dinners in Helsinki normally range somewhere between 16-35 euro ($24-$50). So we found a market and planned out our dinner and breakfast. We went back to the hostel and had spaghetti and played Spades, while we tested the first of the foreign beers we purchased in Tartu. We liked the majority of the beers we brought, so some were awful. *cringes*
We then decided to hit the town, but discovered before we left that the majority of bars are off-limits to those under the age of 24. I haven’t felt young in Europe until this moment. *cries* But we then decided to pull out our only pre-planned “nightlife” experience and went to the world-famous ice bar. It’s a small room, in the “basement” of a Latin food restaurant, but everything IS in fact made of ice. The tables, the bar itself, the walls, the shelves, everything but the glasses were made of ice. And the vodka drinks you get complimentary upon entrance… holy crap, the Ice Baller was beyond awesome, and it was my drink… naturally. Hahaha.
But then we just walked around and we ran into the bar, TEXAS, and Genevieve and I (the two Texans) were very pleased with our photos outside its walls. We also saw MEMPHIS and Amarillo bars, so the Finns have weird taste in cities…
Our second day was set aside for tourism day. We walked EVERYWHERE. Like I said, Helsinki’s general shape made this possible. In less than 6 hours, we saw every sight that you are “supposed” to see, and we even found sites that aren’t on maps. Yes, we are awesome. (the photos can be seen at the links at the end) Of course, the majority of the sights were churches, but they were gorgeous.
The Helsinki Cathedral (White Cathedral) was such a beautiful building in the “center” of Helsinki. It truly dominates the skyline, and is Finland’s most photographed building. The Upsanki Cathedral, Western Europe’s largest Russian-Orthodox church, was GORGEOUS and made me fly back to the churches in St Petersburg. *sighs* We also went to the Olympic Stadium of 1952, where Emil Zatopek tripled in gold in the 5k, 10k, and the marathon. The distance runner in me was beyond happy to see that Finnish line (get it?). We even found St John’s cathedral, not on a map, and had a snowball fight outside its front doors. It was wonderful.
But the entire time in planning this trip, we knew that we wanted to eat reindeer. I had eaten reindeer before in Alaska, but I certainly wanted to have a more recent memory. So we headed to the Old Market at the harbor, on the rumor that there were Lapland foods (northern-most province in Finland). There we found our dinner… reindeer and bear meat.
We then “Americanized” the meats by putting them on a pizza. *mouth drools* It was the best pizza ever. The meat was excellent (I preferred the bear), but the red peppers we had in there were beyond amazing as well. We cooked 3 pizzas overall, and it was delightful. It was Genevieve’s and my favorite moment of the trip, actually. Just so nice to have had such a beautiful, sight-filled day ended with a delightful, “family-cooked” meal.
In the morning, we had to move out of our hostel and into a hotel. The hostel was booked, blah blah blah. But the hotel was right next to the central train station, so it wasn’t far, and it was perfectly situated. The room was “small” due to it only being a double room, but what else do you think college kids traveling on a budget would do?
The rest of the third day was devoted to museums, since Kelsey and Peter are both Museum Studies. We went to the Finnish National Museum and the Ateneum Art Museum. We spent an overwhelming amount of time in the Finnish National Museum… at first in their pre-historic and medieval exhibits… then the rest of the time in their children’s section. It was soooo coooool!!! We made a life-size log cabin with HUGE linkin’ logs (I think there’s a colloquial spelling of this that I don’t know…). And, then we learned how to saddle a horse, unsaddle a horse, and then how to attach a carriage harness and carriage to a horse. The before-mentioned horse was plastic, but it was soo much fun! Kelsey’s favorite moment of the trip.
We then went grocery shopping and got two huge loaves of bread, turkey, ham, “oven cheese”, and potato chips. But before we ate it… we went ICE SKATING!!! In the center of the train station square, they had a rink, and this had been Kelsey’s number one desire, since it would be her first time ice skating. It would also be mine… and I was AWFUL. I never really roller-bladed as a child, and I wasn’t too terribly good at it (if I remember correctly) so ice skating followed a similar route. I only fell twice, and they were gorgeous falls. My personal favorite I slowly went down on my hands, and then slipped forward slowly, so I just ended up sliding on my stomach for a few feet. But I really did enjoy the experience, as I got to ice skate for the first time in FINLAND!!!
Our final day, we checked out of the hotel, and went to the harbor to catch a ferry to Suomenlinna island, the fortress island in the bay where 650 people live permanently (their naval academy is there). But while waiting for the ferry, we decided to go the Viking pier and buy our tickets for that evening’s boat back to Tallinn. In this process, we learned that we needed to be at the pier an hour before boarding… again, we realized how we really weren’t supposed to go to Helsinki. Hahaha. We also rented a locker for our bags, which would make the island much better. BUT we missed the ferry.
Luckily, another one came 40 minutes later. And we got onto the island… Now previously, the weather had been marvelous. It was cold, but there was sun yesterday, and the sidewalks were dry, without ice!! BUT… on the island, the snow was tall, and the wind was a tad bit colder. We walked all over the island, and Peter and I walked to the north shore to see the fort’s main battle walls. SO FREAKING COLD!!! My hands nearly froze from my picture taking. Ugh. But the coffee and cinnamon rolls in the ferry-landing kiosk were AMAZING. Genevieve and Kelsey didn’t want to walk north with us, so we met them there. I mean, we had walked around for two hours in the bitter cold. Why not one more? Hahaha.
Then we went back to Helsinki, got the same sandwich groceries (except a different cheese) and then walked to the pier. We ate our dinner in the waiting area, despite the stares. And we got onto the boat with 20 minutes to spare this time. The trip across was nice, and we arrived in Tallinn. Without the beer in our bags and confusion in our heads, we got to the bus station in almost half the time, and found that our 11PM bus didn’t exist, but there was a midnight bus. We caught that… I again, didn’t sleep. We all arrived in Tartu – tired and STARVING. So I broke my traveling promise… and I ate at an American food place… McDonald’s. I try not to eat “American” food when abroad, but it is the only place open at 3AM. And the burgers were perfect for just smothering my hunger in unhealthiness. Mmm…
Then I slept, awoke, and headed to Post-Soviet class, which was immensely boring. And now I’m trying to compile all my memories into picture albums and writing. Yay!! We all enjoyed traveling with each other so much, we agreed that we are going somewhere else. We’re meeting later this week to discuss our research, but our possible city candidates are Oslo, Sweden; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic. We’re keeping our eyes out for any other “exotic specials” that appear on the travel circuit, but we are wanting to stay FAR away from western Europe. Lichtenstein or Portugal are the only possibilities that far west. Hahaha. But I must go, in order to eat, and do some homework. Blah.
The photos:
The photos of people:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031205&id=33902677&l=b8168
The photos of Helsinki (2 of them):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031215&id=33902677&l=c7402
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031216&id=33902677&l=89f3d
Loves you!!! Sorry for the delay!!!
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