This weekend I headed up north to
Finland and Estonia for what was surely the coldest vacation of my
semester. I had absolutely no
expectations and was pleasantly surprised by Helsinki and absolutely blown away
by Tallinn. Helsinki is a very modern
city and is the World Design Capital for 2012.
The downtown area is filled with both luxury and design shops leading to
the water. Along the water you find the
Helsinki Cathedral and Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral. Many government buildings, a university, and several
museums also line the main plaza. On
Friday we walked around all these areas before heading to a traditional
restaurant for a late lunch. At the
restaurant I sampled reindeer soup!
Reindeer and seafood are both quite popular in Helsinki as they are both
local products. After lunch we headed to
a large food and craft market. By the
time we arrived at 4:30 it was already dark out! We shopped around before taking in a
traditional Finnish experience at a public sauna. The sauna was weird. There were many fat men sitting outside the
door in only towels to cool off. The sauna
itself was extremely hot and I didn’t last for more than 10 minutes before I
had had enough. Finland invented the
sauna and the popularity shows—there are 5 million people in Finland and 2
million saunas.
Port just off the main plaza.
Outdoor market stall selling reindeer furs and horns.
Helsinki Cathedral
Uspenski Cathedral
Public sauna
Saturday morning we woke up early for
our 7:30 ferry to Tallinn. The boat was
quite lively as many people drank beer or played slot machines (I guess that is how the
Finnish people act in the morning). We
braved extreme winds on the top deck to take pictures of the city upon
arrival. I was worried that I would get
blown overboard and have to swim to shore in my parka. Once we hit land we took a quick walk to the
Old Town area. Old Town looks like a
fairy-tale come to life and is well-known as a medieval town. The buildings are colorful and the town quaint. Tourism is obviously a huge draw here as many
restaurant and shop-workers here were dressed in medieval outfits. We walked around the Old Town before heading
to a touristy restaurant for lunch.
Though the food was pricey we had great fun looking at all the workers
dressed up and reading the funny medieval words in the menu. I ordered a sausage platter that sampled
bear, wild boar, and elk meats. It truly was a weekend of adventurous eating
for me. After walking around for some
more time, we headed to a café to warm up with some delicious hot
chocolates. We shopped in the knit
markets in the afternoon before listening to an organ concert at a church. For dinner I enjoyed a spinach pie and bowl
of elk soup in another medieval restaurant—this one more budget-friendly. I was sad to leave Tallinn and definitely
want to return again someday when the Christmas markets are open.
Holding on for dear life
View of Tallinn and St. Olav's Church as we pulled into the dock.
Picturesque streets
Old Town Square
This pharmacy is the world's oldest store still operating today.
Display of old medications.
St. Catherine's (!!!) Pass
View of a medieval wall that we walked along above the town.
Atop the medieval wall.
View of Tallin from the medieval wall. Perfect shot!
Olde Hansa restaurant where we ate lunch
My meal of sausages, ginger turnips, berries, and cabbage.
Another church we passed.
Government palace
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
Once again I took photos when it wasn't allowed inside the Nevsky Cathedral.
Orthodox interior.
View near the Kiek in de Kok with St. Nicholas Church in the background.
Estonian Freedom Memorial
My new friend--I especially like his green tights.
Medieval clothing for sale.
In medieval times the length of the toes of these elf-shoes indicated the wealth of the wearers.
A clip of the organ concert inside St. Nicholas Church
Sunday we weren’t sick of travelling
by boat so we took a ferry to Suomenlinna, an island fortress about 20 minutes
south of Helsinki. The fortress was
incredible with old buildings and boats, dark passages you could explore and
brilliant views of the ocean/sea/whatever body of water we were on. The island was fairly empty so it was nice to
explore the fortress on our own. After
making it back to Helsinki I trekked to the Olympic stadium on my own. The stadium and adjoining tower is quite
ugly, but it still is a piece of history.
We visited the Temppeliauko Church in the afternoon. This Lutheran Church was carved into a
rock. It is quite strange and not like
any church I’ve seen before. We then
walked to the Sibelius monument, honoring a Finnish composer by the same
name. It is made of many pipes that play
music when the wind blows. Though it was
windy nearly everywhere we went, many trees blocked the monument and we did not
hear any sound. Once again it got dark
not much after 4 so we headed back to our hotel to get our bags and return to
the airport.
Where we arrived at Suomenlinna
Suomenlinna fortress
View from a tunnel
Dark passageway--perfect for exploring
Dry dock--currently used to repair old wooden ships
War-time cannons
At the end of the island
View from the Uspenski Cathedral
Olympic Stadium--told you it was hideous
Outside view of the rock church
I bet you wouldn't guess that there is a church inside!
Inside the rock church
Sibelius memorial
The weekend was absolutely packed but
I am lucky to have travelled to 2 countries that many people will never
see. I also learned that Finnish may
have the longest words in the world. We
boarded the tram at a stop called “Kauppakorkeakoulut”. If you are trying to spell a Finnish word it
may be a safe bet to assume there is at least one double consonant and one
double vowel. This makes for very
confusing signs and even trickier pronunciation.
