Northern Country Joys: Finland and Estonia

Hello again all! And I hope you enjoy my stories about Finland and Estonia, although I doubt you will enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed being there, because I don't know if it is possible to like something more than I liked both of them. We left on a Wednesday night from St. Petersburg, got into Finland on Thursday morning, went to Estonia early on Friday, came back on Friday evening and were in FInland through that Saturday afternoon, before we departed back for St. Petersburg. So here goes the day by day recap:

Wednesday: we went on an overnight "ferry" from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. However, it was not so much a ferry as a cruise ship, and was quite lovely. I explored a bit and watched the ship take off (depart? set sail?) but I didn't buy anything because for one, everything was expensive on the ship and I also had some snacks with me so I wouldn't have to buy the expensive things on the ship. For example, the offered and all you can eat and drink buffet for 33 euros. No way I was going to do that.

Thursday: Woke up and it was still pretty much dark, but it was 8 AM. We got the breakfast buffet provided to us on the ship and it was delicious. They offered all sorts of Russian foods and Finnish foods (I'll get to the part about Finnish food in extensive detail in a bit.) They also had these absolutely delicious pastries that reminded me of cinnamon rolls, minus the cinnamon. Words honestly can't describe how fantastic it was. I stocked up on breakfast because I wasn't sure when the next meal was going to be. Anyway, we got off the ship and met our tour guide who was to give us the tour of Helsinki. At first, it reminded me of a typical port town that heavily relies on seafaring industries. However, I saw a lot more than that on the tour, including a lot of the cool churches in Helsinki. The first we saw was called Temppeliaukio Church (I'll also talk about the Finnish language a bit later as well). Anyway, I think the common English name for this church is Church of the Rock, because it is built semi-underground and out of rocks and lots of copper. The ceiling had supposedly 22 km of coiled copper on it but I think it might have been more than that. Here is a little bit of what it looked like:

The next stop on the tour was the monument dedicated to the famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was just outside of the city and pretty cool looking; it looked kind of like an organ:

I got the impression that Helsinki quickly turns into the countryside, and it reminded me a lot of the 1000 Islands, for those who have been there. Many pink rocks and little islands everywhere. I thought it was beautiful. This picture especially reminds me of them, taken not far from the Sibelius monument:

The last stop on our tour was to Senate Square and the Helsinki Cathedral, probably the most famous cathedral in Finland, and it was quite pretty and large:

The irony of this is that Finland has a lot of churches and while most Finns will call themselves Lutherans, they don't practice. Anyway, afterwards, we went to lunch, where we had salads and some pasta. I was still kind of full from my big breakfast though, but I ate it anyway. After that, we went to the hostel and I finally at long last got to meet up with my long-lost sister, Mari! It was so exciting because I hadn't seen her in 3 and a half years. :D I walked around Helsinki a bit with her and got a more personal tour, and we went inside Stockmann's, which I believe is the biggest department store in the Nordic countries, and Marimekko, a brand native to Finland with adorable patterns, over the years I have gotten several things from Marimekko from Mari. When we went in she bought me a pair of socks and I bought myself a change purse. After that, we went to her and her parents house (about 15 minutes outside Helsinki) where I got to meet her whole family, including her parents, boyfriend, brother and his girlfriend, and aunt for the first time. They were so incredibly hospitable and spoke great English. They had prepared something along the lines of a seven course meal of traditional Finnish foods. This included cream of mushroom soup, Karelian pies (potato or rice in little cups of rye bread) with egg butter, reindeer meat with mashed potatoes and lingonberries (which were not sweet as I was expecting, but bitter, but it went well with the reindeer meet). Mari's aunt actually made a reference to Rudolph when I was eating the meat. There was also salmon with mashed potatoes and sour cream. After that came dessert. First course for dessert was bread cheese (cheese that looks like bread) with cloudberry jam, then blueberry pies, and glögi (Swedish non-alcoholic wine) with gingerbread. All of the food was so fantastic but having eat three meals including a massive meal, I felt like I never wanted to eat again. After dinner we sat around and talked for a few more hours because they were so easy to talk to. Here is me with the family!

Maija (Mari's mom), myself, Mari and Yrjö (Mari's dad)

By the end of the day, after having had such wonderful hospitality from everyone, I decided it was my goal to learn Finnish (I have a strange obsession with trying to learn obscenely difficult languages) and live in Finland.

Friday: Woke up at about 5:30 to catch the "ferry" to Estonia. Again, it was a cruise ship. I was exhausted since I didn't get back until about midnight on Thursday night, but it was worth it. At about 9 (yes, 9) I went up to the top deck to watch the sunrise, which was beautiful. It was super windy too.

Once we got to Tallinn, the capital, everything that I had heard, such as the fact that it was very western looking and cheaper than Estonia, seemed incorrect. The first thing I saw after I left the terminal was a sign for burgers for 6 euros, which is certainly not cheap, and it also looked very post-Soviet. We walked about 20 minutes to get to the area called "Old Town," which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was adorable and reminded me of what I think of in both Willy Wonka and a Grimm's fairy tale. It was also a beautiful day. My favorite picture taken from an overlook:

The one building in the picture that stands out is called St. Olaf's Church. Me being the person I am, who is obsessed with facts finds it cool that from 1549 to 1625 it was the tallest building in the world. Our tour guide, who had apparently never been to an English speaking country but spoke wonderful English, told us that as well as some cool folklore about a few of the buildings and monuments in Old Town.

Here is another one of my favorites:

In Estonia, we were told only to speak English and not to try to converse in Russian because there is apparently a lot of anti-Russian sentiment there left over from the Soviet times. While this is probably the case in the non-touristy parts of Tallinn, I heard a lot of people speaking Russian, since it is a popular tourist destination for Russians, and no one really seemed to care. After the tour I went to a pub with a couple friends called "Hell's Head." Again, the waitress spoke great English, which is good because no one knew any Estonian, which is similar to Finnish. It turns out Estonia is significantly cheaper, I got a big meal that included fish and chips and Estonian cider for around 8 euros. I also went into the Marzipan museum and bought some Marzipan, since the Estonians claim to have invented it. Then we went back to the ferry and went back to Finland. I loved Estonia a lot, and I think a lot of people actually enjoyed it more than Finland.

Saturday: I met up with Mari again in the morning and we went by ferry, this time an actual ferry to the sea fortress called Suomenlinna, which I guess translates to Finnish castle. I really loved this place. It was on an island and had all sorts of hidden tunnels spread out over seven or so islands. It had a few old cannons that the Finns used to defend themselves against the Swedes and the Russians. I know now that no matter what the Russians say, the Russians, not the Finns were the ones who initiated the war that was fought simultaneously with WWII, thanks to the Nikkanens. There were also these cool structures that look like hobbit houses:

Before leaving the fortress, Mari treated me to some wonderful hot chocolate with a little bit of mint liqueur in it. It was absolutely amazing. I also saw the "nicest bathroom in Finland," which was a bathroom located at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Helsinki and had a view of the entire city.

The view from the nicest bathroom in Finland :)

The last thing I did with Mari before having to board the ferry to go back to Russia was go to the Anteneum art museum. They had a super cool exhibit about Lapland and Lappish (?) art as well as exhibits from other famous Finnish artists. We ate at the café afterwards where I had some delicious quiche and salad, courtesy of Mari's parents. It was sad to say goodbye to Mari, but I might get to see her again next year, if she comes to visit the US, here's hoping. Also, I plan to go back to Finland again, hopefully in the near future. All in all, it was a great trip, and I got a lot of stuff from the Nikkanen's including lots of yummy Fazer chocolate, a bottle of glöggi (the stuff I mentioned earlier) to take home, a soft map of Helsinki for when I come back from Mari's aunt Paula, a delicious seven course meal of traditional Finnish food, mint hot chocolate, a mug with a classic Finnish cartoon on it, and a surprise gift for my parents that I can't disclose here. Oh, and did I mention the incredible hospitality? Yes, it was a fantastic trip. I think more people liked Estonia than Finland, but I liked Finland more. Of course, I could just be completely biased. ;) Anyway, I just realized this is really long, but I am enthusiastic. I will write soon about the rest of what I have been up to in Russia as soon as possible. Пока!