Tallinn, Estonia is only a ferry ride away from Helsinki - the capital of Finland. It has bright orange metros and squeaky clean streets. As a Canadian, I feel a certain type of kinship to Finland due to its northern climate and spars population density.
All in attendance: Eric and Kristen
Eric and I took the first ferry out on Friday morning to Helsinki with Viking Express. The pleasant Scandinavian scenery was rudely interrupted by cold winds and dreary rain. The whole ferry had hardly any place to sit unless you sat in the restaurant and bought over priced food. Plenty of cute single-home islands greeted us as we pulled in the Helsinki port.We got a transit day pass and set off in search of cute brick buildings and clean Finnish streets.
First stop on our one day Helsinki power-tour was the Uspenski Cathedral. Brick upon bricks and domes topped with gold - classic religious luxury. This cathedral was right by the Market Square. Eric and I each bought a bag of berries (I got gooseberries!) to supply us with sugary energy and sticky fingertips for our day's adventure.
Not far from the market (and very easy to spot from many places nearby) is the Lutheran Cathedral (Tuomiokirkko) - Helsinki's most iconic looking cathedral located in Senate Square. Squeaky clean white exterior with a near empty interior (save for one lonely organ). What a beautiful place to eat sticky berries!
Afterwards, we took the metro (after timetraveling and walking through a caveman themed metro station) to a market. Cue: a lot of olives, cookies, and the best find of the day: Leipäjuusto. In English, it's 'eloquently' called "Finnish squeaky cheese" and I would describe it as everything you want fire-charbroiled cheese to taste like and be. My only regret is not getting 10 kg worth of this cheese.I can not stress enough how much I would like to make holy-dairy matrimony to this cheese.
We went to see the Kallio Church next. Which stood in high grandeur but reminded me too much of the grey stone and simple architecture from back home. Eric seemed to really enjoy it which makes sense since he probably doesn't even bat an eyelash to quaint romanesque European buildings anymore.
We went to see the Sibelius Monument (which is shaped like giant organ pipes) and then lounged by the water and waited out a bit of rain. On our way back to the ports, we saw the Temppeliaukion kirkko (aka. Church in the rocks) which is a church built under rocks. Of negligible beauty on the outside but substantial beauty on the inside. Full of natural light and pleasant purple pews.
We boarded a ferry to take us to Suomenlinna - a sea fortress built on 6 islands (also part of Helsinki). Cue: beautiful sights with popsicles and beer by the water.
We got something to eat back in town at an 'asian' restaurant on a busy shopping street and then took the last ferry back to Tallinn. We managed to snag one of the only benches on the whole ferry. The reward for letting your boyfriend have the whole bench so he can stretch out to sleep? Unflattering photos of you sleeping like a homeless person. Thanks Eric!
Things I learnt:
- Streets in Helsinki are written in both Finnish and Swedish
- A lot of Estonians are drinking a bit of hate-or-rade to the Finnish youth that ferry to Tallinn during the weekend nights to get boisterously loud and drunk (prices are much cheaper in Estonia). I imagine this is the same for Canadian/American borders where 18 year old Americans flock to Canada to get loud and drunk.
Things I loved:
- Leipäjuusto cheese yum yum yum yum yum
