Trip 47: Helsinki, Finland

Trip date: Friday August 17, 2012

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

Trip 46: Tallinn, Estonia

Trip date: August 15 -16, 2012

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, the northern most of the Baltic States and is, of course, west of the Baltic Sea. The population is less than 500,000 which includes one fantastic CS host.

All in attendance: Kristen and Eric

There is a deal in Germany where you can take unlimited trains all day for super cheap and combine multiple people into this one ticket. The catch? You have to sacrifice 12 hours of your life to slow regional trains and monotony. Cue: not enough bretzel and schorle. We took a Ryanair flight out of Dusseldorf Weeze - a German airport literally located in nowheres-ville, Germany where the population of rabbits surpassed the population of Germans. We stayed at the airport's own hostel (an old army barrack converted to overpriced dorms) since our flight left early and sleeping at the airport was verboten. There was no food available for purchase around that night so we ate television shows with our eyeballs instead.

We made our way through the Tallinn on transit and by foot to our couchsurfing host's place. He had a lovely bed set up in his wintergarden and we slept among some suspicious plants and woke up with the sun.Our host loved tropical climates and lives most of the year away from Estonia but he returns in the summer because of his love for his home and opens his house to rift-rafts like us.

After scarfing down a huge container of kraut salad, Eric and I set off into the Old Town to have a peak around. Tallinn  has a "Freedom Square" (or Vabaduse väljak in Estonian) with a large glass "Cross of Freedom" towering over it to commemorate the battle of independence between Estonia and the USSR.

We saw a large market by the town hall square where doilies and amber were in high supply. We wandered around for a good while among the whimsical cobblestone streets and castle city walls. We also happened upon some interesting non-permanent art installations on display as we headed up Toompea Hill.

On top of Toompea Hill, we got a panoramic view of the oldtown and stopped by the Alexandre Nevsky Catherdral and the parliament (Riigikogu) which was across the street. For dinner that night, we ate this this sushi restaurent where loud anime and J-pop music videos played on a big screen, the waitresses dressed in cosplay and pink lighting was deemed superior to white lighting. That night, we watched the worst movie in the history of Hollywood while chatting over-top of it it with our CS host.

The next morning, we went to the St Mary's Cathedral (Toomkirik). We ate at Kompressor for lunch - a place which served large crazy crepes. Here, I learned that even though I believe blue cheese to be an acquired flavour, it is certainly not suppose to be acquired in a larger than life crepe. Cue: inedible crepe that Eric could eat like a pro. We also took time to enjoy some fancy old town coffee. We explored out to the docks near Tallinn Bay where we contemplated the non-aesthetic of old communist style buildings. We continued on to Kadrioru park and there we saw the pink Kadriorg Palace, lovely relaxing Estonians, and a beautiful beach. We walked home through the Rottermann Quarter and hung out with our CS host that night.

That night, our CS host gave me a bit of his open-face sandwich which was composed of dark rye bread, margarine and a tasty-salty-cured fish. When I enjoyed my bite, he proceeded to give me 5 more sandwiches until I felt like fish would ooze out of my pores. I later learned this was Estonia's version of rotting-fish that I keep hearing about.

We went on 2 day trips in the next two days but used our CS host's home as our home base. How nice of him to let us extend our stay! He wouldn't even accept a meal of delicious cooked eggs by yours truly.

Things I learnt:

• "Pood & Tuba" = "Shop and Workroom"
  
• Estonia, although the capital city, has a nice 'small town' atmosphere
• More malls here than I've seen in a while

Trip 45: Dresden (Again), Germany

Trip date:August 12-13, 2012

Off the Dresden (again!) to meet up with Eric before our big Baltic trip and a chance to show Tom the sites of a city I have come to love.

All in attendance: Kristen and Tom

Highlights include:

• Drinks at Wohnzimmer (my favourite bar which looks like it's furnish by your average fancy grandmother)
• German spreads
• Currywurst all over old town with Tom
• Being a tour guide
• Wandering around all the cute bars and restaurants that Calgary will never have
• Eating at TU Dresden where the taxes of the German people paid for my schnitzel

Trip 44: Český Krumlov, Czech Republic

Trip date: August 8 - 10, 2012

A small town which, like Prague, is also located along the Vltava River and a beautiful (but overcrowded) place to relax against a beautiful old town backdrop.

All in attendance: Tom and Kristen

All aboard a cheap Student Agency bus towards the south of the Czech Republic into a cute town called Český Krumlov. What do people do here? Join the hoards of tourists in relaxing and eating of course!

A short downhill walk from the bus stop leads us into the town. A quick glance at a public map is all you really need to learn the outline of the small place. The first order of business once checking into our hostel - a much needed load of laundry.

For dinner that night, we went to an Italian restaurent by the river. We had a dinner guest with us that night too; very cute Austrian 3-year old girl figured it was more exciting to sit with Tom and I than her parents.

After dinner, we walked through the cobblestone roads of the old town and tried a lot of strong fruit flavoured spirits. Feeling boozy and snoozy from our previous night out, we slept early in our comfy hostel room.

The next morning we got more Trdelník and set out to explore the Castle which overlooks the town. Sad brown bears were in the moat. Cue: overzealous tourists throwing food down to the bears. We opted to not taking a tour and instead to just enjoy the views of the city from the castle. We picnicked in the seriously under-visited garden and spent the early afternoon relaxing in the dreamy shade. Cue: being stung by a random poisonous plant and ruining the tranquility.

That night, Tom and I made a home made chilli, hung out with people from our hostel (mostly Oz, as usual) and went to the saddest dance club ever (population: only us).

The next morning, we dined on mushy fruit and yogurt and went to a Museum with a lot of works by Gerald Scharfe - notably the artist behind Pink Floyd's The Wall and Disney's Hercules. He also does a lot of political caricatures. Cue: watching the entire Hercules movie in the museum and a relaxing day.

If you're going to relax and do nothing - make sure you have a beautiful setting to do it in.

Things to do next time in the Czech Republic:

We had such a great time in the Czech Republic -  we can't wait to go back!

• Visit Karlovy Vary
• Visit Olomouc
• Visit Bohemian Paradise  
• Visit Litomyšl

Trip 43: Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

Trip date: August 7, 2012

Anyone who spends enough time wasting their life on the internet, researching all the odd and beautiful sights you can find in the world has definitely ran into some obscure website that talks about that crazy human bone church.That crazy church with the skull chandelier is called Sedlec Ossuary and is just an hour by train from Prague which makes for a great bony-creepy day trip.

All in attendance: Kristen and Tom

Let's get out of the posh city and into the scary countryside. Tom and I took the train from the main station to Kutná Hora hlavní nádraží‎ (one of Kutná Hora's train stations). A less than $10 train ride where we feasted on Germans spreads and Milka as Czech landscape zipped by.

The Sedlec Ossuary is a few blocks from the train station. Navigation is a breeze, especially when you follow a New Europe tour. Bonus spy points go to Tom and I who pretended to be part of the tour group long enough to gain free access to the small Roman Catholic Chapel.

Are you all excited for a gruesome history lesson full of sadistic, twisted and disgusting behaviour? If so, I am going to greatly disappoint you. Between the black plague and general population death over the centuries, the church began exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel. In 1870, a woodcarver named František Rint decided it would be a more pleasent idea to store the bones in a more aesthetically pleasing way. The result: bone chandeliers, bone coat of arms, bone decoration.

Don't think that this chapel is a giant endless maze of bones. It's probably equal to the size of your laundry room. However, the longer you're there, the more eerie it becomes - especially when you count the skulls and realize how many 'people' are in that room with you.

After a spooky time, Tom and I winded down at a nearby pub until the next train back to Prague.

Things I liked:

• I'm not sure if people 'like' places like this, but it was a good visit.