(Please back date to 3/14/13)
It’s remarkable how easy it is to move about Europe. There are no border crossings, no immigration lines, no passport stamping, no customs declaration forms to fill out (at least after the first time you enter). No one seems to care where you go. Once you’re in the EU, you’re in. I just spent the day in Tallinn, Estonia by hopping the ferry for two hours in the morning, and then returned by the same ferry in the afternoon. I didn’t even realize Estonia belonged to the EU. Apparently all the Baltic states joined a few years ago.
I started my morning early, not too early, so that I could have one last leisurely breakfast in the hostel’s kitchen. I can’t say enough about how pleasant the Erottajanpuisto Hostel is. I had gone to the market the night before to buy some yoghurt and some more fresh bread. I had some cheese leftover from a few days before. I sat, did my last bit of homework on Tallinn, and after saying a quick goodbye to the wonderful Finns working at the hostel, stored my bags in their luggage storage room (I would return later in the evening for them), and set out to walk to Helsinki’s west harbor, where Silja Tallink Ferries has their main terminal. An easy twenty minute walk from the hostel, I found the terminal where a behemoth, Titanic sized ship awaited its eager passengers. The ship was painted bright green and must have been six or seven hundred feet long and about 12 decks high. It looked like a cruise ship. Helsinki has several ferry operators that shuffle people between the two cities but in winter there are really only two options. One is this ferry, another is Viking Lines which I will likely use to take to Stockholm a little later. I think the requirement for winter time crossings is that the ship must be massive. So there are no high speed, catamaran style ferries able to make the crossing in winter. The ship must be able to withstand a lot of ice plowing. The entire Bay of Finland is frozen with these huge ice chunks. It’s like you filled the entire bay with crushed ice from the refrigerator, and most of the chunks stuck together to form icebergs. This ship is essentially an ice breaker cruise line.
I went to the ticket booth, used my Eurail Pass for discounted, round trip tickets, and waited in the very fancy waiting room/bar where Finns were already waiting and at quarter to 10 in the morning, sipping pints of beer. My plan was to take the 10:30 ferry to Tallinn arriving at 12:30, and to take the 4:30 back to Helsinki, arriving at 6:30, and then kill a few hours in town and in the hostel, and then head to the Helsinki train station to catch my overnight train to Rovaniemi. The only problem was I would only have four hours to explore Tallinn, which was not enough, as I later found out.
The ferry ride was pretty cool. I had heard from Scandinavian people I had met in the past that these international, trans-Scandinavian ferries were just large party boats. People just crammed themselves in, drank beer for the duration of the trip, and socialized. I quickly found out why. When I boarded the ship, I had some time to walk around and explore. The ship had three decks available to passengers. The bottom six decks were reserved for cars and other ship stuff. The top three decks were reserved for staff and crew. But the other three decks were where the action was. I walked around looking for a good place to sit. But there were no seats that were simply meant for sitting. Every seat was attached to either a bar, a cafe, a restaurant, a buffet, or something in between. At first, I took a nice seat by the window on the ninth deck near the ship’s bow. But the seats were really fancy, the people around me were pretty dressed up, and there was a bar nearby. And everyone already had a drink. I wondered if I had wandered in to a first class lounge but I held my ground. I confidently walked up to the bartender, ordered a Finnish beer on tap, and took my seat by the window. People slowly filtered into the seats and I learned that these were the regular seats, the ship just encourages drinking (or eating, or just money spending).
I had two hours so I slowly sipped my beer (it cost 5 euros) and read through some information guides I had found online about Tallinn and Estonia (the ship also had free WIFI). I guess Estonia had been one of those countries that was never really ever left alone in its long history. It was Swedish, Danish, German, Russian, and then later Soviet, before it eventually gained its own independence when the USSR collapsed. Now it’s a beautiful little country with a pristine shoreline, wooded forests in the interior, and a gorgeous, Gothic capital city in Tallinn. Estonia also joined the EU in 2004, which has drastically increased its tourists from Finland as border crossing is now open and they switched to the Euro in 2011 and goods are generally cheaper than they are up north which makes a day trip all the more enticing.
We eventually pulled into the harbor in Tallinn, I hopped off in the large queue of visitors, and made my way to the Old Town. Everything I had read about Tallinn said that if I only had a few hours (apparently day tripping from Helsinki is a very popular thing to do) than I should stick to the Old Town, a small enclosed area that makes up the heart of the city. The buildings and cathedrals and monasteries and shops in the old town are all preserved perfectly and were built in the Medieval days. All the buildings have this Medieval or Gothic look about them. The small, narrow, winding alleyways are great for exploring, and the town was easy to find because the skyline is dominated by an old church steeple that at the time, many centuries ago, was the tallest building in the world.
I spent the first hour or two wandering around these alleyways. The first thing I hunted down was the old Soviet KGB headquarters located in a small, unmarked building that blends in with the rest of the buildings on this quiet little street. I knew the address so I’m sure I found the right building. The basement windows had been cemented shut in order to hide the goings on of the interrogation rooms that they kept down there (so I read). Later, I bought another magnet at a small souvenir shop (nice!) and then poked around the city square at the heart of the old town. It was fun just to walk around and enjoy the scenery.
But there was one thing I really wanted to do which was to find and eat at a small, modern restaurant called Saafr, which was supposed to be an excellent restaurant (a review I read in the New York Times) that blended traditional Estonian cooking with Nordic design interiors. Apparently this was a popular movement in the restaurant business around the city. Saafr wasn’t difficult to find, just a short walk from the old town, and I walked in and took a seat. It was lunchtime, well around two in the afternoon, so it wasn’t too busy. The restaurant had a cafe vibe, consisted of one room, well lit, with several scattered tables and a long couch along the back wall. Each of the tables and its set of chairs had a different, but Nordic, style to them. Beyond the dining room was a set of stairs that led to a loft where the restaurant also had a small shop. one side for ladies, one for gentlemen, and sold high end “street” clothes, accessories, books, and other fashionable items, including, yup, Monocle magazine - it’s awesome how that works.
There were a few other people in the room: a well dressed, young couple sipping wine and chatting, and a group of four business men, English by their accent, chatting and laughing by the table with the couch. A young guy with thick glasses, speaking English, took my order. I ordered a local Estonian beer that came in a really unique, conical bottle and wild boar served over a bed of mashed potatoes and a mushroom gravy sauce. The meal was incredible. In fact I got exactly what the guy from The Times got, and he was spot on with his favorable review. I sat and relaxed with my beer, enjoying the moment, then I paid and walked through the shop for a while - not to buy of course, these shops are always way too expensive, but to browse and look at the interesting items on sale. I particularly liked the gentlemen’s shaving kit in a wooden box with a variety of blades and brushes and foams.
Since I didn’t have much time, I finished at the shop and walked back to the Old Town to spend my last hour or so walking around. I climbed the old city wall, got some pretty nice views of the town from above, and enjoyed pretending I was an old knight, walking the walls, protecting the city from all of my many belligerent neighbors. I took some more photos, then slowly made my way back to the ferry. It was a different ferry actually, but much of the same thing. I was pretty wiped out from the day so I took a seat in a half-circle couch in a large bar cascading over three deck levels, facing the bow and the seas in front of the ship. As we made our way back to Helsinki, the sun was setting off to our left and the pockets of snow were interlaced with colorful rays from the setting sun. I fell asleep and slept through most of the ride.
But I made it back, the ship was not delayed. I took a detour to Stockmann’s for one last meal at the delicatessen and then went to the hostel to retrieve my things and kill an hour over coffee before heading to the train station for my overnight north. I think what I plan to do is to stay in Rovaniemi for two days, paying for one night, and then take the overnight back to Helsinki on Saturday evening. This should save me a little bit of money.
So then, see you at the north pole!
It’s remarkable how easy it is to move about Europe. There are no border crossings, no immigration lines, no passport stamping, no customs declaration forms to fill out (at least after the first time you enter). No one seems to care where you go. Once you’re in the EU, you’re in. I just spent the day in Tallinn, Estonia by hopping the ferry for two hours in the morning, and then returned by the same ferry in the afternoon. I didn’t even realize Estonia belonged to the EU. Apparently all the Baltic states joined a few years ago.
I started my morning early, not too early, so that I could have one last leisurely breakfast in the hostel’s kitchen. I can’t say enough about how pleasant the Erottajanpuisto Hostel is. I had gone to the market the night before to buy some yoghurt and some more fresh bread. I had some cheese leftover from a few days before. I sat, did my last bit of homework on Tallinn, and after saying a quick goodbye to the wonderful Finns working at the hostel, stored my bags in their luggage storage room (I would return later in the evening for them), and set out to walk to Helsinki’s west harbor, where Silja Tallink Ferries has their main terminal. An easy twenty minute walk from the hostel, I found the terminal where a behemoth, Titanic sized ship awaited its eager passengers. The ship was painted bright green and must have been six or seven hundred feet long and about 12 decks high. It looked like a cruise ship. Helsinki has several ferry operators that shuffle people between the two cities but in winter there are really only two options. One is this ferry, another is Viking Lines which I will likely use to take to Stockholm a little later. I think the requirement for winter time crossings is that the ship must be massive. So there are no high speed, catamaran style ferries able to make the crossing in winter. The ship must be able to withstand a lot of ice plowing. The entire Bay of Finland is frozen with these huge ice chunks. It’s like you filled the entire bay with crushed ice from the refrigerator, and most of the chunks stuck together to form icebergs. This ship is essentially an ice breaker cruise line.
I went to the ticket booth, used my Eurail Pass for discounted, round trip tickets, and waited in the very fancy waiting room/bar where Finns were already waiting and at quarter to 10 in the morning, sipping pints of beer. My plan was to take the 10:30 ferry to Tallinn arriving at 12:30, and to take the 4:30 back to Helsinki, arriving at 6:30, and then kill a few hours in town and in the hostel, and then head to the Helsinki train station to catch my overnight train to Rovaniemi. The only problem was I would only have four hours to explore Tallinn, which was not enough, as I later found out.
The ferry ride was pretty cool. I had heard from Scandinavian people I had met in the past that these international, trans-Scandinavian ferries were just large party boats. People just crammed themselves in, drank beer for the duration of the trip, and socialized. I quickly found out why. When I boarded the ship, I had some time to walk around and explore. The ship had three decks available to passengers. The bottom six decks were reserved for cars and other ship stuff. The top three decks were reserved for staff and crew. But the other three decks were where the action was. I walked around looking for a good place to sit. But there were no seats that were simply meant for sitting. Every seat was attached to either a bar, a cafe, a restaurant, a buffet, or something in between. At first, I took a nice seat by the window on the ninth deck near the ship’s bow. But the seats were really fancy, the people around me were pretty dressed up, and there was a bar nearby. And everyone already had a drink. I wondered if I had wandered in to a first class lounge but I held my ground. I confidently walked up to the bartender, ordered a Finnish beer on tap, and took my seat by the window. People slowly filtered into the seats and I learned that these were the regular seats, the ship just encourages drinking (or eating, or just money spending).
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| The bar where I first sat in the ferry |
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| The wake of our ferry, splitting through the icy Bay of Finland |
I had two hours so I slowly sipped my beer (it cost 5 euros) and read through some information guides I had found online about Tallinn and Estonia (the ship also had free WIFI). I guess Estonia had been one of those countries that was never really ever left alone in its long history. It was Swedish, Danish, German, Russian, and then later Soviet, before it eventually gained its own independence when the USSR collapsed. Now it’s a beautiful little country with a pristine shoreline, wooded forests in the interior, and a gorgeous, Gothic capital city in Tallinn. Estonia also joined the EU in 2004, which has drastically increased its tourists from Finland as border crossing is now open and they switched to the Euro in 2011 and goods are generally cheaper than they are up north which makes a day trip all the more enticing.
We eventually pulled into the harbor in Tallinn, I hopped off in the large queue of visitors, and made my way to the Old Town. Everything I had read about Tallinn said that if I only had a few hours (apparently day tripping from Helsinki is a very popular thing to do) than I should stick to the Old Town, a small enclosed area that makes up the heart of the city. The buildings and cathedrals and monasteries and shops in the old town are all preserved perfectly and were built in the Medieval days. All the buildings have this Medieval or Gothic look about them. The small, narrow, winding alleyways are great for exploring, and the town was easy to find because the skyline is dominated by an old church steeple that at the time, many centuries ago, was the tallest building in the world.
I spent the first hour or two wandering around these alleyways. The first thing I hunted down was the old Soviet KGB headquarters located in a small, unmarked building that blends in with the rest of the buildings on this quiet little street. I knew the address so I’m sure I found the right building. The basement windows had been cemented shut in order to hide the goings on of the interrogation rooms that they kept down there (so I read). Later, I bought another magnet at a small souvenir shop (nice!) and then poked around the city square at the heart of the old town. It was fun just to walk around and enjoy the scenery.
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| The unmarked KGB headquarters building, no. 59, basement windows sealed |
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| The KGB also had an office on the top floor if this hotel, the elevator wouldn't take you to this floor |
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| A view of Saafr from my vantage point on the couch, the loft leads up behind me |
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| My meal of wild boar and Viru, an Estonian beer |
Since I didn’t have much time, I finished at the shop and walked back to the Old Town to spend my last hour or so walking around. I climbed the old city wall, got some pretty nice views of the town from above, and enjoyed pretending I was an old knight, walking the walls, protecting the city from all of my many belligerent neighbors. I took some more photos, then slowly made my way back to the ferry. It was a different ferry actually, but much of the same thing. I was pretty wiped out from the day so I took a seat in a half-circle couch in a large bar cascading over three deck levels, facing the bow and the seas in front of the ship. As we made our way back to Helsinki, the sun was setting off to our left and the pockets of snow were interlaced with colorful rays from the setting sun. I fell asleep and slept through most of the ride.
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| A view of the old town from above on the old city wall, the tower to the left used to be the tallest in the world |
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| The old town of Tallinn |
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| The setting sun over the icy Bay of Finland, on my return ferry to Helsinki |
So then, see you at the north pole!
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