Second Stop: Tallinn, Estonia
Estonia? I know, it sounds crazy. Who's even heard of Estonia? The only reason we actually went to Estonia was because it was super cheap to fly to from Stockholm. I knew so little about Estonia before I arrived, that I didn't even know what time zone they were in until the flight attendant told us. As luck would have it, Estonia turned out to be fantastic. We got super freaked flying into Tallinn because it looked like a tornado had gone through and destroyed the city. Everything was run down and dilapidated - Kaitlyn and I immediately had the same thought: "Oh my god. What have we gotten ourselves into." You can only imagine how surprised we were when we arrived in the Old Town and found ourselves staring face to face with this gigantic medieval town that looked like it was part of a Disney theme park. Not a lot of people have heard of Tallinn, so the town didn't reek of tourist traps or overpriced goods like most European cities. Instead, the opposite was true and Tallinn turned out to be the cheapest city we've visited in Europe.
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| This picture is in honor of our last Ryan Air flight ever. The plane was super empty, so we were able to say a proper goodbye. We salute you, Ryan Air! |
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| Main entrance into Old Town. |
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| Tallinn is located on the north coast of Estonia, or the south coast of the Baltic Sea. |
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| View of Old Town from the top of St. Olav's Church. |
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| Alexander Nevsky's Orthodox Cathedral - the most impressive building in Old Town. |
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| These creepy dolls were all over the city, so naturally I had to get a picture with one! |
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| This super cool street vendor taught me how to brand a coin. It was so much fun, and now I have a random handmade coin from Tallinn. |
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| A typical street in Tallinn. What a stunning city. |
Not only was the city of Tallinn really spectacular, but our hostel was pretty freaking neat. According to Kaitlyn, it was known as the party hostel of Tallinn, and after staying there two nights I can see why! The people staying at the hostel were all super cool. Most of the guests had been traveling for a really long time. They had no plan, no worry, no stress. I admire people like that because I'm not sure I could just stop work and travel around Europe without knowing what my next step in life was going to be. I wish I had to guts to do it, but I'm too much of a planner to just uproot my life and travel around Europe.
Anyways, back to the hostel. Every night at 7pm, a crazy party breaks out in the common room. Beer is sold for 1 Euro during Happy Hour, so people tend to get drunk really fast. For 4 hours, the manager sits on the couch and teaches everyone how to play drinking games. They also have a table tennis and beer pong table for "friendly" matches. It was a really awesome scene to be a part of. Around 11pm, the manger then takes everyone on a free pub crawl through Old Town. The highlights from Monday night are as follows:
- The hostel had free computers to use, so after getting back from sightseeing I wanted to check my email, look at the forecast for the next day, and peruse Facebook for a few minutes. Apparently, the hostel has a rule that if you're caught on Facebook after 7:30pm, you've committed a Facebook Violation and have to do a shot of God knows what while lying on your back on the ground. No one told me about the rule, so before I knew it I was on the ground with a random hostel worker pouring a shot down my throat. Shout out to Kaitlyn for catching this beautiful moment on camera ;)
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| Facebook Violation shot. One of my roommates got caught breaking the Facebook Rule, and I guess her shot was made of ketchup, mustard and mayonaise. Lucky for me mine was 100% alcohol. |
- I was sitting at the table playing cards with a bunch of the other people from the hostel, and someone said their name was Ramsey. I was immediately blown away because I've never met anyone with the first name Ramsey. Ramsey then told me that there's another guy staying in the hostel who's nickname was Ramsey. It was an instant bond - Ramsey 1.0 (first name Ramsey), Ramsey 2.0 (nickname Ramsey), and Ramsey 3.0 (last name Ramsey - me) hung out all night. Kaitlyn kept getting mad at us because she couldn't partake in our Ramsey group. No name, no membership! This got way freakier though when we started playing a game. Everyone at the table was dealt 4 cards, but no one was aware of anyone else's cards. At the end of the game, you had to name your cards and flip them over. Out of two decks of cards, Ramsey 1.0 and me had the same four cards: 8, J, 5, and 6. Whoa...freaky, right? Skipping ahead a few hours, the first bar we went to had karaoke and after downing 1 Euro beers for 4 hours I was feeling pretty good. So, the Ramsey clan went up and sang Backstreet Boys. I'm pretty sure it brought tears to people's eyes...
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| Ramsey 2.0, Ramsey 3.0, Ramsey 1.0 seconds before karaoke |
- Cocaine Shot: Contrary to its name, a cocaine shot is a shot made from absinthe, créme de menthe, and vodka that one of the bars in Tallinn is famous for. After you hear how the shot is done, you'll understand why our eyes were spinning in crazy directions afterwards. After 6 hours of drinking and failing to eat a proper dinner, Monday night went downhill real fast after the Cocaine Shots kicked in. It's after nights like these that you tell yourself: "I'm never drinking again."
- Light the shot on fire and hold a glass over the shot until the fire goes out.
- Place a straw on the table and put the glass over it leaving the end of the straw sticking out.
- Drink the shot, but leave a tiny trace on the bottom - Pour what's left on top of the glass.
- Suck all the air out of the glass through the straw.
- Snort the remainder of the shot off the top of the glass.
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| I stole this picture from Kaitlyn to show you what the Cocaine shots look like. |
Tuesday was a very, very, very low key day. A bunch of us from the hostel went and tried these funky pancakes for breakfast. They were basically massive crepes filled with random food. Mine had salami, cheese, and pickles. I definitely did not understand why they thought pickles would go well in a pancake, but I went with it and gave it a try. Other people's had minced meat or seafood inside. Afterwards, Kaitlyn, myself, and an Air Force guy we met from Nebraska walked through the Old Town a bit more.
In the afternoon, we visited an old Soviet Union prison located on the banks of the Baltic Sea. This was easily one of the freakiest tours I've ever been on. Unlike the concentration camps which have been cleaned up and rebuilt for viewing purposes, the prison looked exactly how it did when it was abandoned. Most of the plumbing and electricity didn't work, the paint was peeling off the walls, and papers were strewn about all over the place. It was so eery walking around. Plus our guide told us they didn't have the key to most of the doors, so if we got ourselves locked in a room chances are it would take awhile to get us out. The freakiest room was the room where people were shot. The room was painted bright red so it was easier to clean after blood splattered on it. Another thing that added to the eeriness of the prison was the fact that it hasn't been out of use for all that long. The collapse of the Soviet Union happened in 1991, so the prison has only been abandoned for 20 years. Our guide was actually from Estonia, and a bunch of his family had spent time in the prison. The strangest part about the whole tour though is that the prison is now being used for raves and parties. Behind the prison is a little beach with a bar. On weekends, our tour guide acts as DJ for raves. Kaitlyn was flabbergasted and asked him whether it was weird hosting raves at a prison where his family members were once tortured. He merely responded that he thought it was a good use of space. So bizzarre.
In the afternoon, we visited an old Soviet Union prison located on the banks of the Baltic Sea. This was easily one of the freakiest tours I've ever been on. Unlike the concentration camps which have been cleaned up and rebuilt for viewing purposes, the prison looked exactly how it did when it was abandoned. Most of the plumbing and electricity didn't work, the paint was peeling off the walls, and papers were strewn about all over the place. It was so eery walking around. Plus our guide told us they didn't have the key to most of the doors, so if we got ourselves locked in a room chances are it would take awhile to get us out. The freakiest room was the room where people were shot. The room was painted bright red so it was easier to clean after blood splattered on it. Another thing that added to the eeriness of the prison was the fact that it hasn't been out of use for all that long. The collapse of the Soviet Union happened in 1991, so the prison has only been abandoned for 20 years. Our guide was actually from Estonia, and a bunch of his family had spent time in the prison. The strangest part about the whole tour though is that the prison is now being used for raves and parties. Behind the prison is a little beach with a bar. On weekends, our tour guide acts as DJ for raves. Kaitlyn was flabbergasted and asked him whether it was weird hosting raves at a prison where his family members were once tortured. He merely responded that he thought it was a good use of space. So bizzarre.
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| Outside the old Soviet Union prison |
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| The inside of this place really gave me the creeps. Paint was peeling off the walls, and I was worried that someone was going to jump out of nowhere and murder us. |
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| The barrocks. Our tour guide taught us a lot about the hierarchy among inmates and the physical/sexual abuse that took place in these rooms. |
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| The "Outdoor Space" which was actually just a small room without a ceiling. |
There are two more things I want to say about Tallinn, then I promise I'll shut up and move on to Helsinki. The first is about a medieval tavern called Ill Draakon. The restaurant only serves two dishes: Minced Meat Pie and Elk Soup. Upon entering the tavern, you find yourself in a dark, cave like room with two woman standing in front of a large wood burning stove and a massive vat of soup. Small wooden tables and chairs are scattered throughout the room, and there's a bed that you can rent for sleeping in the corner. Did I mention that everything in this restaurant is 1 Euro?! That's right. 1 Minced Meat Pie = 1 Euro. 1 bowl of Elk Soup = 1 Euro. So you can literally stuff your face for 5 Euros. I told you Estonia was cheap!
Finally, although Monday night was a crazy shit show for me, Tuesday night was significantly more tame. Thank god.
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| 1 Euro Minced Meat Pie and Elk Soup. I'd recommend the Minced Meat Pie over the soup, but that's just my opinion. |
- The thought of beer was still somewhat unsettling to me come Tuesday at 7pm, so I definitely took it easy on the second night. One of the guys staying at our hostel was from Canada, and he taught us how to play a game called Peanuts. What you do is you form 2 relay teams. Everyone has a glass of beer and a peanut. The first person drops their peanut into the beer, and as soon as it floats back up to the top they chug the beer, slam the cup, and the next person goes. First team to finish their beer wins.
- A Scottish guy from our hostel made a bet with me about who the lead actor was in the original (key word) version of "Oklahoma." I tried to explain to him that I lived in Oklahoma, had seen the movie a thousand, and was positive that Huge Jackman was not the lead actor. But he was insistent on making the bet anyways. Needless to say, he lost.
- At one of the bars we went to I met a girl who grew up in Wisconsin but now lived in Boston. We hit it off right away and had a blast together! By the end of the night, I think we had done 6 Cocaine Shots together. Even with these shots, Tuesday night went much better then Monday. Curse the 1 Euro beer!
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Third Destination: Helsinki, Finland
On Wednesday, we took a short two hour cruise across the Baltic Sea to the Finnish city of Helsinki. I don't want to spend too much time talking about Helsinki though. I found the city to be obnoxiously modern and somewhat boring. Our hostel in Helsinki was really creepy. It was located in the backside of the 1952 Olympic Stadium, and it reminded me far too much of an insane asylum. The corridor was lined with heavy steel doors and the place just reeked of cleaning products. I'm not sure why it smelled of cleaning products, because it was definitely not the cleanest hostel I've ever stayed at. Thankfully we only had to stay there one night. As we were leaving the hostel, Kaitlyn stopped by the vending machine to buy a Snicker's bar. I wasn't watching too closely, but all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw her entire arm disappear into the retrieval tray. Suddenly she stands up and goes "I can't find it. I swear it dropped. This is tripping me out big time!" So I walk over there, stick my hand in, and immediately grab the Snicker's bar. After two nights of partying and getting very little sleep, this "incident" sent us into a fit of giggles. I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time, and I'm sure the worker behind the desk thought we were mental!
One really neat thing about staying in Helsinki was having to opportunity to experience nearly 24 hours of daylight. The sun "sets" at 10:30pm (but it doesn't really get dark until sometime after midnight) and by 2am a faint glow is already visible in the sky. It was a really weird feeling waking up at 4am to a sun bathed room. I'm convinced that it messed with my sleep schedule that night.
We had a few hours to kill on Thursday before our flight to London, so Kaitlyn and I visited the Helsinki zoo. The zoo was actually really neat because it was located on an island. As soon as you walked across the bridge, you were completely surrounded by fields of animals. Although I really like visiting zoos, they kind of make me sad. The birds are trapped in these tiny cages, and the animals only have a small area to walk around. If I was trapped in a cage I'd go crazy!
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| Our cruise ship! |
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| 1952 Helsinki Olympic Stadium - aka home sweet home for 24 hours |
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| Story: We were walking along the banks of the lake when we happened across these ducks. At first everything seemed normal, but then two of the male ducks started chasing the female duck. Duck rape anyone? At one point, the female duck literally started flying at our heads so Kaitlyn and I screeched and took cover. |
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| Parliament Building...I think... |
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| A typical street in Helsinki. Street cars and industrial looking buildings were everywhere. |
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| The Cathedral - from the outside it looks really nice, but the inside is definitely disappointing. It's just this big open church painted light blue and white. There was very little ornamentation and the only impressive object was a chandelier hanging in the center of the aisle. |
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| Locks of Love. I'm beginning to think every European city has one of these bridges. I need to go look for Hamburg's. |
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| Uspensky Cathedral at Katajanokka |
We had a few hours to kill on Thursday before our flight to London, so Kaitlyn and I visited the Helsinki zoo. The zoo was actually really neat because it was located on an island. As soon as you walked across the bridge, you were completely surrounded by fields of animals. Although I really like visiting zoos, they kind of make me sad. The birds are trapped in these tiny cages, and the animals only have a small area to walk around. If I was trapped in a cage I'd go crazy!
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| A cheetah chowing down on a hunk of raw meat. |
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| The camels were kind of gross. They had this double skin thing going on and they smelled pretty bad. |
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| A male peacock |
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| I have no idea what this little guy was, but isn't he adorable? |
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| The dilapidated bus we took back to the city. It puffed out a cloud of black smoke when it started up, a bunch of the windows were painted out, and a big chunk was missing out of the back. |
So as it stands now we are 7 days into the trip, have visited 3 countries, and have been on 2 plane rides, 2 boat rides, and 6 bus rides, and yet find ourselves surprisingly chipper, alert, and ready to take on London.
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| Resting our feet on the way to the airport. |
