For previous posts about our trip, start here and go forward.

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

We decided to take an weekend trip to Tallinn, Estonia, just across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki. It ended up making the most sense to keep our airbnb in Helsinki and just double book accommodation for one night, and then we didn’t have to check out/check in anywhere and we could travel exceedingly light.

We woke up very early after our fantastic evening meal at Grön, grabbed our backpacks, had a quick cup of coffee and caught the tram to the ferry terminal. Did I mention how amazing it was that there was a tram stop right outside of the airbnb we stayed at? It was a ten minute ride to the terminal and we got there around 6:30 am for our 7:30 am ferry. We didn’t have to wait long until boarding began.

The ferry wasn’t as large or fancy as the one from Stockholm to Turku, but it was still perfectly nice. We quickly grabbed some comfortable enough looking seats by a window and then settled in for the two hour boat ride.

We got some breakfast, coffee (which was pretty terrible!) and just relaxed for the ride. We were both tired but excited to see a new country!

The ferry landed at 9:30 am and we headed into the old town, just a 10 minute walk from the terminal. Old Town Tallinn is one of the best preserved and most intact medieval towns in existence today. The city itself is the capital of Estonia, and has a fascinating history–read a bit of it on Wikipedia if you like!

We arrived earlier than the cruise ship crowds, so we walked through the town a bit without all the crowds–we were headed to drop our bags off at our hotel and then to meet a bike tour to, oddly enough, get OUT of the city first and get some biking in and learn a bit about Estonia from a guide.

In Estonia they speak, obviously, Estonian. Many people we interacted with spoke excellent English as well, lucky for us! They use the Euro, just like Finland, though things were cheaper, especially outside of the Old Town (which is super touristy and has the corresponding prices, though it is amazing and beautiful and worth seeing!). Estonia is the first country I have been to that used to be part of the Soviet Union.

We started the bike tour near one the town walls. Back then towns had really high walls to keep out intruders. It sometimes worked too.

Our guide was named Marcus and was a young Estonian man. He was very knowledgeable and friendly, and did a good job. We learned many things about Tallinn and Estonia from him, most especially that Estonians really hate Russia and Putin. They are (understandably) still mad about having been part of the USSR and they are worried about the future, and they really value their independence.

We biked outside of the Olde town, mostly along the sea, which was a lovely route. We visited the Olympic Stadium from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, built by the Soviets and now crumbling and overgrown. We learned that it cannot be torn down because it is “historical” but yet the government won’t approve the money for renovations.

Next we biked to an area with shops, where Marcus told us the Finns would take the ferry over and fill up their trunks with cheap booze to take back. It seems that Estonians think Finns look down on them (and Finns think Swedes look down on them!)–though Marcus was clear to point out he liked the Finnish people he knew, so it was more of a country stereotype than a real feeling of animosity.

We continued along the water to visit the Monument to the Victims of Communism. This was a somber yet gorgeous space.

We enjoyed views looking back at Tallinn, as the road had curved around.

Next we biked to Kadriog Park, which was built by Peter the Great. It is really beautiful, though hard to get a photo without people in it! I guess we were all saying that, haha.

After that, we biked back to the place we started. It was a nice bike trip, though not exceptional. I was glad we did it for the opportunity to learn more from a native Estonian and to get outside of the old town a bit, but it wasn’t a “must do”.

We were starving then, and had trouble deciding where to eat that wasn’t too touristy or too crowded…we ended up at an Indian Restaurant with nice patio seating called Elevant Resto, and enjoyed some nice Indian food (not so different than what we get here).

After lunch we walked around the Old Town more, just wandering and taking pictures and looking at things.

We headed back to the hotel then. We were staying one night at the Merchant’s House Hotel, and it seemed like a nice place. They had a sauna as well, and we signed up to use it for an hour (included with the stay).

The courtyard view from outside our room.

I ended up not staying in the sauna very long at all: I probably did things all wrong, I was already feeling tired and head-ache-y and then I didn’t know what to do and ended up sitting up high away from the steam and immediately felt not good, so I left Louie to it on his own (he didn’t mind) but I learned I should sat lower (duh, heat rises!). (Spoiler alert, we will have another sauna experience that is better). Anyway, I went back to the room to clean up and relax, I think I took a nap as well. Louie came back an hour later having enjoyed himself thoroughly so it all worked out, though I felt like a sauna failure.

We were going to a short opera next, called the Emperor of Atlantis, put on by the Estonian National Opera. We had to walk about 15-20 minutes to the venue, which was in the Telliskivi Creative City part of Tallinn. It was a really nice walk.

It was confusing when we arrived, because the opera apparently started in the main lobby, so we got drinks (very inexpensive, like $5 for a glass of wine) and a snack (olives in a jar!) and sat at a table. The show began with live music and singing in German, and we had no idea what was going on–I had verified before purchasing tickets that there would be English subtitles, but for the pre-show there was nothing. However it was nice, and then we all walked into the main hall, where the rest of the orchestra was set up and the opera began.

Again, I’ll refer you to Wikipedia for more information, but the opera was fascinating and intense. It was written in a concentration camp and definitely was making fun of Hitler and it was just amazing and so upsetting to think of. Upsetting being not even the right word to describe the despair I sometimes feel thinking of how much death the Nazis caused and how much art and music was STILL being made, even while people were being killed. Human beings are amazing and human beings are absolutely horrific.

We would have gone again to catch things we missed, but we weren’t staying in Tallinn another night. But I am so happy we caught the show!

After that, we had 9 pm reservations at Rataskaevu 16, a highly rated restaurant in Tallinn (very near our hotel too).

I was quite surprised when I used the bathroom to see there was a window to the earth below!

Our dinner was fantastic and the perfect end to a very long and exciting day. After dinner we were exhausted and slept well.

Day 15:

We had planned to get up early to “beat the crowds” and do Rick Steves’s walking tour, but we were too tired. We did get up early enough to get the tour in before check out, but not to really beat the crowds.

First, hotel breakfast. It was in the basement of the hotel, a fascinating almost dungeon like place. They had a cold buffet and you could order hot foods as well: I was happy with the cold stuff.

The walking tour covered the lower old town where we were staying and headed up into the upper old town as well. There was so much to explore, but we did hit the highlights.

We saw the Russian Orthodox Church, some important government buildings, and had a great overlook of the lower old town. It was a lovely morning to walk around, and it wasn’t overly crowded in any case. After that, we checked out of the hotel (stored our bags there though) and caught a Bolt (Estonian’s version of Uber) to the Estonian Open Air Museum, which was a few miles out of town. Bolt is the only company that can drive into the Old Town, and they have a few places set for pick up and drop off, one was the well near the hotel (and outside of last night’s restaurant.)

The drive to the museum took us through what I would consider the more “normal” parts of Tallinn, which just looked like you would think a city where people lived and worked would look like. The driver was very quiet, perhaps he didn’t speak English or didn’t speak well, but he got us where we needed to go.

Like all of the open air museums we’d seen, there was more than we could take in in an afternoon, but we had a terrific time learning about the history of Estonia, how people lived, and enjoying the outdoors. The thatched roofs were a highlight and were truly fascinating.

We had lunch at their cafe which offered “authentic Estonian food”.

Brown bread, soup, potatoes, and something else…I sadly can’t recall.

Mashed potatoes with groat and pickles.

After eating, more exploring!

As you can see, there were a wide variety of homes and variety of eras. Some were more decorated inside, others had different displays inside. Some had people in them to answer questions, though we did run into some language barriers.

We met this cat: he seemed friendly and Louie was petting him but then he scratched Louie! We learned later his name was Vasso and we bought a magnet with a picture of him on it, haha.

One of the bathrooms had a lot of information about bathroom use historically, which was super interesting.

We really enjoyed the afternoon at the Museum, and not pictured was an apartment building with various apartments showing the way people lived during the Soviet era. I just didn’t get good pictures of it, not that you couldn’t take pictures.

Anyway, we finally left, took a Bolt back to the hotel and then walked down to the terminal to catch our ferry back to Helsinki.

We had the “Delight Buffet” for dinner, which was a nice buffet with unlimited food and drink. They had wine or beer you could serve yourself–the choices were beer, white wine, or red wine! As well as a nice variety of fish, cooked entrees including meatballs, salad bar, breads, vegetarian caviar (did you even know that is a thing? yes, it is!), and more. We enjoyed a table right by a window as well, and spent most of the time there, even after we finished eating.

We landed in Helsinki around 9:30 pm, and squeezed into a tram to get back to the Airbnb. I mean really squeezed: more and more people kept getting on and it really seemed like nobody else would fit and then more people did! We luckily were near a door as we got off the tram before most people (they were likely mostly going to Central Station which was a few stops further.) We got back to the Airbnb without incident, and felt like we were arriving home!

For earlier posts on our trip, start here and go forward from there:

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

We left off on Stockholm, getting on an overnight ferry to Turku.

We arrived to the ferry terminal earlier than needed, and we did have to check in in person rather than online: I think it was because we had a room on the ferry and needed to show our passports. It’s worth noting that you don’t have to purchase a room on the ferry, but we did, and I got one with a window, though the lowest room in that category.

We finally boarded the ship and found our room quickly. I probably should have taken more pictures, but this is what you get.

There’s a small couch with a bed on each side that folds down. There is also a small bathroom with a shower. We dropped off our things and headed up to the top deck to look around.

We had some great views of Stockholm as the ship left the port.

I’d made a dinner reservation: everybody said the buffet was worth doing, but for some reason on our sailing I was unable to reserve it. We might have been able to walk in, but I worried there were a bunch of tour groups (likely, based on what we saw in check-in) and instead reserved a window table for the restaurant. It did not disappoint!

We had a four course meal for a set price, which was fairly reasonable for this sort of thing, and while we weren’t directly by a window, we were very close and had a terrific view of the front of the ship, the bow. (At first, I was annoyed that we weren’t closer to the window as you pay extra for that, but we quickly realized it was a great table and we really loved the view.)

The servers were friendly and attentive, and we enjoyed a better than expected meal!

One of many desserts involving fresh strawberries we enjoyed during the trip.

We went to bed after that: the beds were surprisingly comfortable! I only wish we could have had more sleep.

Day 12:

One downside of trip: we would arrive in Turku at 7:30 am. I had mistakenly imagined this meant we would roll out of bed around 7 and quickly get ready. No, the ship told us to be ready for housekeeping by 6:30 am and announcements started before that! So I woke up to shower (I had been too tired to do so the night before which would have been smart) and Louie watched through the window as we navigated the Turku Archipelago. We got takeout coffee and croissants from a cafe onboard and waited in our room until it was time to get off the ship: housekeeping did come by to collect the linens but otherwise we were able to sit and wait.

It was a mad house when we got off the ship, but I knew we needed to catch a bus in order to get to our hotel. We didn’t think we would be able to check in, but we wanted to drop off our suitcases first. We lucked out and a bus arrived shortly after we landed (or they just arrive often) and people were loading on. I had researched to learn that buses in Turku could be “tap to pay” which meant you could just tap your card. Louie tried but it didn’t work and the bus driver kept talking to him, but in Finnish which of course we didn’t understand. Finally we realized the reader was broken and he was saying, forget it, just get on the bus and stop holding up the line! So our first bus ride was free.

We got off the bus by Turku Market Square and walked to our hotel from there. It was all very exciting and strange at the same time: here we were in a new country, but we had just spent over a week in Sweden, so things were both similar and different, all at the same time, and we didn’t quite know how they were different. Finnish is definitely a more different language than Swedish. Swedish is a germanic language and so if you know German (or if you have been studying Norwegian on Duolingo for over a year) the grammar makes a lot more sense and you can pick out words that are familiar. Finnish, on the other hand, is really completely different. I did use Duolingo to try to learn some Swedish and Finnish, and really did not learn much of anything useful for Finnish other than learning how to say thank you and learning the word for coffee. The grammar is very complicated and I just found it all very confusing.

In any case, we were staying at the Centro Hotel and found it easily, but it was too early for check in. They offered to store our bags and told us the room would be ready by noon (rather than the advertised 3 pm, so we were thrilled by that.)

What I was most excited to see in Turku was the Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum, an open air museum of old buildings, but a specific group of buildings that had NOT been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1827.

Interesting facts about Turku: many things are written in Finnish and Swedish as both are official languages in Finland. It used to be the capital of Finland until the Russians moved the capital to Helsinki in 1812. And it is Finland’s oldest city! Rick Steves did not think Turku was worth a visit, but I can tell you that it absolutely is, and we would happily have stayed two nights, but one was all we had.

The houses in the museum were laid out in the blocks like they had been originally–the buildings are original though things were added to the insides to make a cohesive story and cover many different people and professions. I absolutely adored this museum, though we were on the struggle bus with exhaustion: in addition to having to get up early, we did lose an hour with the time change, and it just felt like jet lag!

Some of the houses had actors in them to answer questions and tell you about how people lived. One was a violinist!

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the buildings and learning about Finnish history and culture, and I even bought a book about the museum. We probably spent three hours there, including a fika break (which I suppose wasn’t fika as we weren’t in Sweden anymore) but if we hadn’t been so exhausted, we could have spent several more hours. It was terrific.

However, it was time for check in and a nap, so we did that for a bit. The hotel was great, and our hotel was the largest we stayed in the whole trip! After a nap and freshening up, we headed out again and this time to the Sibelius Museum, stopping by the Turku Cathedral on our way. We had a quick buffet lunch at a popular looking place, Unica Kolma on the way, which ended up being seemingly popular with college students and was kind of weird. But it was reasonably cheap and healthy (salads, tofu dish, breads, coffee for around 12 euros) and we didn’t regret it. We didn’t know at the time but we do now: Finns love their lunch buffets. Did I take a picture, no evidently not. No matter how many pictures I take of things, it is never quite enough when I sit down to blog!

We visited the Turku Cathedral, pictured above, and popped in for a bit as well.

The Sibelius Museum was interesting but small. Sibelius wasn’t connected to Turku himself, but a collector of instruments was, so there are some nice displays, some instruments, and evidently a large archive of recordings and books for scholars.

After we finished there we decided to see one more museum and headed to the Aboa Vetus museum, which houses a modern art museum and an archeology museum. We opted for the archeology, and learned about what existed below the museum from the past, which tied in nicely to what we had learned earlier in the day as well.

Our next stop was a concert, part of the Turku Music Festival. It was a singing and kantele concert, lullabies, evidently. The kantele is a traditional Finnish instrument and I thought it would be really neat to hear.

Unfortunately, the concert ended up being more of a lecture recital, and the lecture was…in Finnish! So we didn’t enjoy it as much as we might have, though the music was nice. It was evidently a very interesting and funny lecture, but we missed most of it. Louie was surreptitiously trying to use google translate to translate things which led to some occasional understanding and more often hilarious misunderstandings. The concert took place in an old hospital called the Heideken House, which used to be a maternity hospital, it seemed.

Luckily the concert was just under an hour, and we happily headed to our dinner reservation at Mami.

We enjoyed lovely weather and sitting outside near the river while enjoying some delicious food. Louie and I created our own four course menu by choosing a salad to share, two entrees to share (and asked for them to come out separately) and a dessert. It was a lovely evening and a delicious meal! I know I say that a lot on this blog, but it really was. I don’t recall exactly what we ate: some sort of beet salad, a vegetarian entree, a fish entree, and a dessert with strawberries and other things. It was really quite good–I found quite a few amazing restaurants on this trip, and I would highly recommend all of them.

Day 13:

We slept REALLY well, and woke up the next morning ready to face the day again. Our hotel offered a breakfast, which was very good, though not as good as our Gothenburg hotel breakfast. There were some similarities and some things that seemed unique to Finnish breakfasts. Our plan for the morning was to visit Turku castle, and then check out of the hotel and head to the train station. We caught a bus to the castle (the card reader worked this time, unfortunately, haha!) and got there just before it opened.

We didn’t really have time to see everything at the Castle, but we saw quite a lot and it was all very interesting. We felt fully immersed in the history of Turku at this point, and considered ourselves basically experts by now.

We had to catch a bus back to the hotel, then check out and catch a bus to the train station. The main train station in Turku was under construction (or more specifically, a bridge to the main station) so we had to leave out of a different station, which was easy enough to get to via bus. The station was smaller and had less food options, but we did get a few things to take on the train with us.

And here we are, on the train! We were sad to leave Turku as it was definitely a rushed visit, but we were excited to see Helsinki. The train ride would be around two hours and I was also excited to sit down for that amount of time, haha.

I’ll leave you there for now–next time, Helsinki!

Okay, I’m going to see if I can knock out the rest of our days in Stockholm in one blog post here.

For earlier posts on our trip, start here and go forward from there:

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

Day 9: Sunday morning we slept in a bit: it’s hard to maintain a sightseeing pace for so long, even though we tried! People recommend taking easier days or taking days off, but we struggled with that because there were so many things we wanted to do! But Sunday we ate some food at the apartment before heading out in the very late morning to see Millesgården. It required a train and a bus to get there as it was on the outskirts, or perhaps more accurately, was in a suburb.

By the time we got to Millesgården we were hungry for lunch, so we at the cafe first. Overall, we found museum cafes to be really tasty and good/easy places to eat.

Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor, and Millesgården was his home. The museum contains a sculpture garden, the house, another house, and various other things. It’s a great place spend a few hours and get away from the crowds.

Milles was the artist who did the Poseidon statue in Gothenburg, and there was a copy here.

After we finished at the museum, we stopped by a grocery store before catching the bus back. It’s always so much fun visiting grocery stores!

We decided to take the train to Södermalm next as we hadn’t explored that island much at all. We had a coffee and snack, and then walked around just taking it all in. People describe Södermalm as the “trendy” part of town, comparing it to Brooklyn. Those people had not been to Brooklyn as recently as we have, I think.

Eventually, we had a beer at a bar along a busy street. (Vague, I know.) And then decided to get dinner at the recommended Restaurant Pelikan. We didn’t have a reservation so they seated us in the bar area, which didn’t seem as fun (and less busy) as the main restaurant, but we still enjoyed our experience.

I’ve been eating a lot of meatballs for somebody who doesn’t really eat meat, but I had to have a further comparison to the earlier ones! These were delicious as well, possibly better. Louie loved his meal too.

After dinner we walked back to Gamla Stan, stopping along the way at a place where you can ride an elevator up many floors to an overlook.

Day 10: Kayaking Day. For Monday, I booked us on an all day kayaking tour in the Archipelago. People said you needed to get out into the archipelago, and I found a nice kayaking tour where you drive out a bit and then kayak. We met our group in the morning in…Södermalm again. We went with Green Trails. There were 7 of us plus the guide, and we piled into a large van for the drive out first, which took about 30-40 minutes.

We got to the location where the kayaks were stored and started loading up. Louie and I would share a double and chose carefully what to bring with us and what to leave in the van. We all had to carry our kayaks a little ways to the dock to get started. Stevie, our guide, was very helpful and gave us advice and instructions, and before too long, we were off, paddling /kayaking in the Baltic Sea!

Right before getting started.

It was a really nice day. We paddled for awhile, stopping here and there to chat/catch our breath, and finally stopped at what we thought was an island, but actually was attached to the mainland. Nonetheless, it was lovely. We all took a little hike through the woods to a viewpoint, and then back to the water to relax while Stevie prepared lunch for us all.

Louie was brave and went swimming, but I just waded a bit.

After lunch, we packed up the Kayaks again and paddled around some more and finally back to the place we started. It was great fun and a wonderful day! We finished as we started, back in the van, and then back to their store front.

We had dinner reservations at the oldest restaurant in the world, Den Gylene Freden. Or perhaps at least one of the world’s oldest restaurants. I had made reservations in the “Vaults of Old Town” which was their lower level.

First we had to walk around a bit more and explore parts of Gamla Stan we hadn’t seen yet.

The restaurant.

We had a terrific meal. It was traditional food, so of course I wanted to try the meatballs. We had a server who really got us, and was helpful in suggestions and humor. At the end of the meal we wanted to try some Akvavit since it was our last night in Sweden, and he helped us choose ones that we would each like. It was a fun dinner and wonderful end to a great day! I know I say that a lot on the blog here, but it was true. We were having a terrific time.

Day 11: Our last day in Stockholm (and in Sweden). We had to vacate our airbnb, but we were able to leave our luggage in a stairwell, because that evening we were catching a ferry to Finland.

We finished up the breakfast things we had at the place and finished packing up and then headed out for our last day of sightseeing. We walked around the Royal Palace outdoor area first.

We decide to branch out from Swedish food for lunch and had food at Ima Street in Ostermalm. It was delicious!

Then we went to the Swedish History Museum for the rest of the afternoon and learned about, well, the history of Sweden. Vikings, etc. It was a nice museum, and we used the audiotour for much of it, which slowed us down but also gave extra information.

We walked back to Gamla Stan and got one last fika at Cafe Schweizer.

Then we collected our bags and took the bus to the ferry station. We had booked an overnight ferry from Stockholm to Turku, with dinner onboard. We really got there too early: I was feeling stressed about the arrangements and the unknown so we probably left 45 minutes early than needed (or more) and ended up just having to wait at the ferry station, which was not as nice as I imagined it would be. Oh well!

I’ll leave off there for now, and the next blog post will cover the ferry and our time in Turku, Finland, which, by the way, regardless of what Rick Steves said, we found to be a super cool city and really enjoyed. Then again, we were enjoying it all!