Tallinn!

So I added one more country to my "list" today -- Estonia! We woke up SO early (okay -- I was woken up at 6:20 -- so that I had a whopping 10 minutes to get ready and get out the door -- which I did do!) because we had to be down at the port by about 7am. We caught the first ferry across the Baltic to Tallinn which is the capital of Estonia!

It was quite the crowd on the 7:30 ferry -- people were up on the top deck drinking beer, women were having wine, the guy next to me was taking swigs from his bottle of "Estonian liqueur." At 7:30am? No, thank you....we arrived in Tallinn around 9:30 and eventually made our way off the boat. We basically just headed towards the tall church steeples and old looking stuff which sort of led us on a cross country trek across some parking lots and empty fields....

When we entered the old city, it was pretty deserted which was really nice -- I'm somebody who when faced with choosing between going with a huge group of people and nobody, I'll choose nobody any day. We started Tallinn visit with a visit to St. Olaf's church. We were standing outside when they opened it up at 10, and my mom and I were some of the first of the day to head up to climb the tower. Dad elected to stay behind because of his dislike for small confined spaces -- which turned out to be a very good choice on his part. I believe it was about 253 steps -- very narrow and tiny, and then even once outside, the space to move around the steeple is extremely small.

Overlooking Tallinn from the tower

Mom showing how narrow it was! 

Perhaps my favorite picture of the day -- this is how we found Dad after coming back down from the tower 

From there, we meandered around and made our way up another bajillion stairs to Toompea -- or as Wikipedia calls it, Cathedral Hill. It was beautiful except for the fact that EVERY other tourist ever was up there. One of the things we've been finding is that there are tons of cruise ships that dock every morning in all of the cities we've been to, and then at least a dozen tour groups get off and go around town, and they're usually oblivious to everything else going on around them....not my favorite fellow tourists. Up on the hill, we went in St. Mary's Cathedral first, which had tons of different Estonian family crests which were all pretty incredible, and then in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is an Orthodox cathedral. Really incredible churches! And very pretty views of the rest of the city.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

We wanted to get out of tourist land as quickly as possible so we left Toompea and walked down the hill to try and find a place for lunch. We landed on a place called Kompressor which was a little dark inside but there didn't seem to be many tourists inside which was a good sign. Basically all they have are pancakes -- which could be filled with either savory or sweet filling. I settled on a bacon and smoked cheese filled pancake while my parents each had smoked chicken and feta. They were surprisingly tasty! Think almost like a crepe -- but definitely a little thicker and sweeter, almost like an American pancake.

Yum! 

After lunch, we decided that we wanted to come back to Helsinki on the 4:30pm ferry as opposed to the 7:30pm ferry which wouldn't have gotten us back here until 9:30. We went briefly by the ticket office to make sure that that was possible -- and it was -- and then decided to fill our remaining time by going to the museum at the Sokos Hotel Viru -- yes, a museum at a hotel. We've been looking at some of the New York Times' 36 Hours in [City] articles, and brought copies of the one for Tallinn with us. It suggested that there was an old KGB office in the top of this hotel. 

First, the hotel is just pretty weird. It was kind of like being in a time warp and all sorts of people were just crowding around the lobby. It was also directly attached to the mall....which wouldn't really be my top criterion in choosing a hotel. We lucked out and were in time for the English-speaking tour at 2:30. It was one of the most interesting and entertaining tours I've ever been on. The elevator of the hotel only goes up to floor 22 -- but the top floor is actually floor 23. This floor was officially filled with 'technical rooms' but everyone knew that it contained balconies to strategically view the whole city and this 'secret' KGB office. It's crazy to think that the Soviet Union only fell in 1991 (coinciding with my birth year) -- and how insane all of the regulations imposed on everyone were. 

Main Square in Tallinn

View from Hotel Viru's Balcony

Once again -- couldn't get enough! 

Old KGB Office 

I could go on for quite some time about everything there -- it's definitely a high point of the trip thus far! And I'm sure it will continue to be. We caught the boat back to Helsinki and based on the recommendation from one of the guys at the hotel, we ate dinner at a restaurant called Kolme Kruunna - which translates to Three Crowns in English. It wasn't far from our hotel, and it had a range of traditional Finnish dishes. I had a great duck and risotto dish -- and my parents had reindeer! I didn't try it, but they said it was good! Definitely not something you'd find in the US. 

I believe that's about it -- headed into Russia tomorrow which should definitely keep up the level of excitement! 

A demain!