Angry Sea

Day 184

After a 20 minute walk I was ready to board the boat to Tallinn, Estonia. I had paid a few extra dollars to take the line that Rick Steves said that was the smoothest. The first 30 minutes or so were ok, but then it got bad. I was on a 45 minute roller coaster. It was not fun at all. I really dont know how I managed to not throw up. Luckily the last 30 minutes or so were much better.

It didn't take me long to find my hostel, the Monks Bunk. I could tell right away that I was going to like it. Even before lunch there were people hanging out. No time to sit around though, I needed to get money, food and a map. In the order. I had thought that the boat would take most of the day, so I was happy that I would have extra time here. Tallinn was beautiful.

After eating my first stop was the Alexander Nesky cathedral. It was pretty interesting. There were people filling plastic bottles with holy water.

After some more wandering I found the Tallinn History Museum. It was ok, basically people have been living in the area since 9000 BC. During the bronze age a semi permanent settlement was established. The vikings often raided. During the iron age peasant culture began. In 1207 the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and was Christianized. During the 14th century there was a lot of rebelling against the ruling German aristocracy. In the 16th century Russia invaded. This brought a couple of centuries of famine and violence. This is where the museum ends. Apparently nothing happened after 1700 here.

I wandered the medieval streets for some time before heading back to the hostel for dinner. Its so funny how the backpacking scene differs in Western and Eastern Europe. I definitely prefer the atmosphere in Eastern Europe. Most of the people traveling in Western Europe are younger than me, traveling in groups and on their first trip. I often found it hard to meet people. In Eastern Europe most people are a little older, better traveled and alone. This makes it really easy to meet people.

Everyone was sitting around and drinking and I wanted to join them. I went to the grocery store to pick up a couple of beers. While I was in line the cashier was giving me really strange looks. I really couldn't figure out what her problem was. When I went to pay she asked me something in Estonian. I told her that I didn't understand, she asked me, then, in English, if I was over 18. I cant believe it, I got carded and the drinking age is 18. Estonia is the best country ever!

Back at the hostel I drank my beers and chatted with everyone around me. Eventually we all headed out for some karaoke. One of the girls from Finland who was a bit drunk and when an oddly dressed guy got up to sing she very loudly said "what the &%$§ is that." As there was no music on everyone heard. I felt bad for the guy. After listening to the Estonians attempt to sing in English I decided that I could go ahead a sing. I wont tell you what though!

I was tired from my early day and didn't want to be too crazy so I headed home before the second bar.

Last Day Helsinki

Day 183
In my never ending need to visit odd museums I started off the day visiting the Tourism and Resturant Museum.

In Finland tourism began in the 18th century and was reserved for only the very wealthy. They mainly explored the northern parts of the country. Mass tourism began in the 1950s.

The first modern restaurant in the world was opened in Paris in 1782. Cafes are far older. In Finland refreshment stands were very popular for a long time. Ok, so it was a bit of a boring museum.

To continue the food theme I went to a Finnish fast food place called Hesburger. Mirva had suggested it. Its kinda like McDonalds, but it was way better. After eating I attempted to find the Helsinki History Museum, but I couldnt. Instead I went back to the hostel and took a nap.

I got up just in time to meet up with more of Mirvas friends, Katja, Sanna, Heli and Mira. We started out by looking at a kitsch Finish restaurant before heading to a wine tasting. It was quite cheap and really a lot of fun. I got at business card holder with my wine tickets, I used it to collect cards from each wine I tried.

When the wine tasting was over we headed to a place called Memphis for a Jolly Dragon meet up, this is sort of an international club. Mira had to leave earlier so only Katja, Sanna, Heli and myself were there. It was so wonderful to chat with other women who have traveled extensively.

Unfortunately I had to call it a bit of an early night, I had an early boat in the morning. I went back to the hostel and managed to sleep until one of my roommates turned on the light at 1 am to see if we were all there.

More Cats and Dogs

Day 182
I was up early and I headed to the market square. I braved a boat ride to Suomenlinna Island. This had been a military fort for about the last 300 years and I wanted to check it out.

Althought it had not been raining when I left the hostel, by the time I got to the island it was pouring down rain and incredibly windy. I headed straight to the history museum.

In the 18th century Finland belonged to Sweden. The Swedes decided to build a fort here to protect the area from Russia. It is because of this fort that Helsinki became the large city that it is today. Previously it was a small, poor town. Construction created jobs and brought more people to the city. In 1750 Sueaborg was completed.

Not much later Sweden and Russia were at war and the fort was put to the test. The Swedes won. This did not happen 100 years later when Russia attached again and gained control of the fort. Finland became an autonomous duchy, but was under Russian control. In 1855 the French and the English threw the Russians out of the area.

In 1917 Finland became an independent country, a year later there was a civil war. Political dissidents were imprisoned on the island. When the war was over the island was renamed Soumenlinna, the fort of Finland.

Today the fort is a lovely place to explore with several different museums to check out. I had really wanted to spend the day exploring. It was so cold though and it was raining quite hard, it was also very windy. I was just too cold and the rain was making me miserable. I wanted a warm bed. I decided just to leave.

Back in Helsinki I got some potatoes and sour cream for lunch. I then managed to find an internet cafe that I could actually update the blog at.

Eventually I had to run though, I was meeting up with one more of Mirvas friends, Johanna. Johanna brought another friend along, but I'm really bad and I cant remember her name. We had a good night out at a couple of different places in Helsinki. After saying goodbye I headed back to the hostel and went to sleep.

No Reindeer Games

Day 181
I slept in rather later after my long day. Helsinki is also a small city, so I had plenty of time to see it.

My first stop was Senate Square and the Helsinki Cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful from the outside, but the inside was a bit boring. Next I went to the Temppeliauko church. It's all made out of stone and pretty interesting looking.

I had wanted to do some museums, but found out at the first one that it was closed because it was Monday. I went back to my hostel to consult my guidebook and found out that they are all closed on Mondays. Darn it.

With nothing to do I wandered around the mall for a bit and then went to see Once. It's a cute Irish film. I didn't like the ending though.

When I first moved to New York I met a Finnish girl named Mirva. She left the country and we lost touch. A couple of years later she found me on Facebook. She is actually in New York right now, but she introduced me to some of her friends. I met up with Hanna and Tia for dinner. After checking out the view from a very expensive place we went to a slightly cheaper place to eat. It was really wonderful to get to chat with the two of them. I was really sad to say goodbye.

When I got back to the hostel I spent a bit of time writing before calling it a night.

Three Hour Tour

Day 180
I had to be up early to pack up my things and make my tour for the day. I was a bit nervous about the tour. I would be spending about three hours on a boat. Just sit right back and your hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port about this tiny ship. Ok, so it wasn't really tropic (it was cold), and I don't think that there was any chance of anything going wrong, well, I might lose my breakfast. It was, however, a three hour tour.

Sweden has about 100,000 islands in its archipelago. About 30,000 of these are in the Stockholm archipelago. The last time I was here I had wanted to see it, but because it was winter none of the tours were running. I still wasn't going to be able to see the outer bits, those tours has stopped a few days before, but I was going to get to see the central part.

The tour began with a bit of history. Stockholm became a city in 1252. During the middle ages there was no Swedish capital. Stockholm was picked in the 17^th century because it was in the middle of the Swedish empire. Sweden used to be a much larger country.

We passed a statue on the mainland that was god riding a rainbow. This had been made for the UN building in NYC, but was deemed too religious so it was placed here instead. One of the small islands was used for hanging criminals. Six islands were named after days of the week to help farmers know which one their cows were on on a given day. There was no Sunday because they didn't work then. One set of islands was called the Christmas Tree Islands. This was because the brothers who owned them a few hundred years ago had the last name Christmas Tree Island.

I really enjoyed my three hour tour, especially the part where I didn't get stranded anywhere with someone named MaryAnn or the professor.

After wandering the city a bit more I had to pick up my bags from the hostel. It closed at 6pm. As I was stuck with the heavy bags I went to the train station to type up blog for a bit. Internet in Scandinavia has been really maddening. There are tons of places where I can email or type but nowhere that I can upload pictures or spell check. This means I have a bunch on entries ready to go, but no pictures to put with them.

Eventually I headed to the airport. I had a late flight to Helsinki, Finland. When I landed I was sorta surprised to find out that I was in a different time zone. By the time I got my bag and took the bus to the train station it was almost 2 am. I went ahead and sprung for a very expensive cab. I had no idea where my hostel was from there. Once I had checked in I pretty much collapsed exhausted into bed.