Helsinki and Tallinn

After leaving Russia we caught the train to Helsinki. We arrived around 10 at night (in full daylight) and managed to find our hotel without getting lost. The hotel we stayed at was fantastic. An old gaol that had been refurbished and turned into a hotel. It still had the feel of an old gaol but the rooms were a bit more luxurious than I expect they used to be and anywhere else we've stayed so far this trip.


Our first day in Helsinki was spent getting a feel for the city and we just wandered around fairly aimlessly getting lost and seeing the sites. They have special dedicated areas on the harbour for people to wash their rugs - and they were all full - which made me wonder - how does the rest of the world wash their rugs?? Hmmm the big questions. We had lunch at an outdoor market down on the waterfront and it was delicious - the only hazard being the army of seagulls hovering above your head just waiting for a lapse of attention.

The hallway in our gaol hotel

Scary seagulls at the open market

Ben by the harbour


Flowers - I think they might be Lupins Cath??


Day 2 we decided to do a boat trip on an old steam boat out through the archipeligo and to a town called "Porvoo". The boat trip was around 3 hours each way and was quite relaxing. Lots of little timber houses on rocky little islands. The town itself was very quaint with lots of old wooden buildings. We'd filled Ben's hat with food from the buffet breakfast that morning so we sat down and had a nice picnic in the park. This worked well though pigeons swooped Ben everytime he took his hat off. Then back on the boat and back to Helsinki.



Porvoo streets




Houses on islands


Helsinki harbour


The boat to/from Porvoo

On day 3 we boarded the ferry for Tallinn and sat up on the deck drinking beer as we crossed the Baltic. It was very relaxing.

Tallinn was amazing. It really does feel like you have stepped into a fairytale city. As we couldn't be bothered walking all the way to the hotel with our bags we caught a lift on the "hop on hop off" tourist bus and learnt lots of abstract things about Estonia. Apparantly they invented the architecture craze "limestone functionalism" who knew?

Dinner that night was in the old town square surrounded by buildings over 700 years old. Then a walk around the old town at sunset.

Cheesy photo in Tallinn

Tallinn Streets

Tallinn Streets

Sunset in Tallinn

Sunset in Tallinn

Unfortunately we only had one night in Tallinn and then it was back onto a ferry bound for Stockholm. The ferry was about 18 hours overnight so we had our own cabin. It was similar to the train cabins only with no windows at all. You would think a small window less room would be horrible - but it was air conditioned and the darkest place we had slept for weeks.