Finland

One thing that Tucan Travel does that I like, is to give us a list of suggested activities for each city we visit.  As much as there was plenty to keep us occupied in Tallinn, one of the suggested activities for that city was to catch the ferry to Helsinki, because I think it's the closest point in Eastern Europe to cross from.  So, in order to tick another country off our lists and to make our lives as busy as we could, Amanda and Steve, Julie and Ian, Kat, Adrian, Tony and I all decided we'd do it.

The ferry we wanted to catch left from Tallinn at 730am, so we figured we’d get taxis and 7am and be there by 710am, and that’d be heaps of time. Wrong. They shut off ticket sales twenty minutes before the boat left. Luckily, there’s not one but five ferry companies that sail between Tallinn and Helsinki. So there was another one leaving in an hour, from a different terminal. So we ran outside and grabbed a taxi and rushed over to the next terminal. The taxi had to do two rounds, but we got all there and we all got tickets just in time to get on the boat.

Personally, I was expecting something reasonably small, with maybe a small kiosk where you could buy coffee and a bag of chips, but these ferries are HUGE. When I looked at it I thought it was about the same as the InterIslander (which sails between the North and South Islands in NZ – for all my non-NZ friends!!), but when I got on board I realised it was far bigger. There was a cafe with a breakfast buffet where we were, and I know there was at least one more café, and that’s only what was in the near vicinity.

It took three bloody hours to get across to Helsinki, during which time we basically shot the breeze. Adrian went to sleep on the table, as he tends to do. He’s 28, and he owns his own business, property managing about three apartment blocks, so something like 260 units. He works far more than what I was doing, seven days a week and far longer hours. He doesn’t employ any staff, so it’s really all on him. Of course as soon as he got here and his phone stopped ringing, he started sleeping all the time. Every time we’re not doing something productive, he’ll be nodding off. He was a bit embarrassed because he had the lowest country count of the group of us, but really he’s achieved far more than most of us have. Hear hear - from Kat.

Church.  Will research significance and proper name.

Part of the Sibelius monument.

By the time we actually got to Helsinki, it was about 11am. Amanda had organised us all into planning on being there at 930am (love you Amanda!), so 11am wasn’t tooooooooooooooo bad I guess. We found a taxi van who could take the seven of us (Tony wanted to wander off and do his own thing), paid him €50 between us, and he took us for an hour around the best sights in Helsinki. There was nothing much to write home about. I quite liked the Church in the Rock and so did Kat (she’s watching over my shoulder, can you tell?), but most of the group thought it was a bit crap. We also went to the Sibelius monument, which was fun to take photos of. It was a very funny tour, there were six cruise ships in so about 12,000 tourists in town, so the traffic was so bad that the roads were almost at a stop, and we had about five minutes to run round the tourists and take photos at each site before we got back on the bus. The driver was excellent though, he spoke really good English and he could answer our questions about the things he was showing us.

Organ, rock wall, roof supports of the Church in the Rock.

  

The town is really really really really pretty. We had lunch on the main street down by the waterfront, but it was odd because they kept telling us they didn’t have stuff that was on the menu. In the end we had the choice of about four different items, from a menu of at least ten. What we did have was really nice, but we were there at 1210pm and we were a bit puzzled that they were in this situation at this point. Ian and Adrian, our business men, were totally taken aback. I wasn’t too bothered, I know what it’s like when you get totally taken and you weren’t really expecting it and you can’t spare someone to go to the supermarket. And it was such a pretty street and so warm in the sun.

That's potentially Ian's shoulder in the very bottom left, Julie, and Adrian,

amid many many tourists.  The whole street, and all the attractions, were totally packed.

After lunch Adrian and I went to the park and ate ice cream, while Amanda and Kat shopped, and everyone else amused themselves as they saw fit. Amanda bought The Most Beautiful Pair of Shoes Ever.  I tried to steal them and Julie tried to wheedle them off her but neither of us succeeded.  Amanda's about 5 foot 10 and a half, so I probably could've fit these shoes.

We’d got Tony to check the ferry timetable for us before we got off the boat, and decided we’d aim for the 430pm sailing with Tallink to get back. So we wandered around the market at the waterfront, then spent 30min trying to find a taxi, and got to the terminal at about 315pm. We went to buy tickets, and the girl at the counter said “there is no 430pm sailing, only 530pm”. Bugger. We kinda failed on the ferry sailings all round with the whole Finland trip. Never mind, we’re all on holiday and we didn’t have anywhere we needed to be, we’d only planned on going home then so that we’d still have some time for another look around Tallinn. So we sat in the bar and drank beer while we waited for the ferry.

Bye Finland!!!