All Good Things Must Come to an End

I have spent the past 3 nights in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn.  It is a medival gem of a city.  The country is small as all are of the Baltic Countries so there are only 1.37 millon people who live here.  The capital has about 500,000 people or so, give or take a few.  There is the Old City as usual that is surrounded by some old walls that are still standing.  I arrived here at 11am on the bus and found my hostel.  I tossed my stuff in the room and then was off to do a free walking tour recommended from the hostel.  As I approached the tour, I ran into 3 girls from my previous hostel in Riga, Latvia, so that was kinda fun.  We did the tour together and then I was off to explore the city for the day.  I spent the entire day just wandering all the winding zig zagging cobled streets here.  I tossed out the map and just went.  I discovered that this is really the best thing to do.  There are some great old churches here that were beautiful.  One of them has a bell tower with the best view looking out over the entire city, so I climbed up it for the view.  Now, I climbed up Notre Dame and the Effiel Tower by foot in Paris and this was much mroe intense.  I think it was probably the equivalent of climbing 10-12 flights of stairs by foot except these are winding stone staircases with very little footing or they are very tall stairs that are nearly to my knees.  I was huffing and puffing by the time I made it to the top, but it was so worth it.  There is an unbelievable view looking out over the entire city unlike any other. 

Yesterday, I took myself on a day trip to Helsinki, Finland.  It is only an hour and a half ferry ride accross to Helsinki so I decided to go check it out for the day.  Getting there and back was torture as my stomach still does not like the water, but it was worth it.  This city reminded me of a little London.  Very clean with tons of people walking all over the place.  The architecture looks similar as well.  There is this great market right by the port that has tons of vendors selling food, fruits, veggies, and other produce.  I tried a reindeer meatball (which tasted kinda like beef) and also these little fried fish that are the size of french fries and eaten like that.  They were not my favorite, but I figured might as well try it while I am here.  Then I was off to explore the city for the day.  I walked all over the place enjoying the churches there and just wandering around.  It was packed as there were several cruise ships that were in port for the day, but by 5pm, most of them were pulling out so there were much less people.  The city had the feel of being a big metropolitin area with everyone walking fast, on phones, trying to get to their next destination.  I loved it and was so glad that I saw it for the day!

Today, I spent my last day here, just wandering around Tallinn again.  I headed over first to the Museum of Occupation as this was also a formally occupied territory of Russia until the early 1990's.  After that, I headed off to walk a bit outside the Old City and see what I ran into.  I was very glad that I did this as I stummbled accross what is a mainly Russian neighborhood still.  As this was Russian territory, the second largest ethnic population here is Russian.  There is a neighborhood, I found out today where many still live.  The houses there are all old buildings straight from the early 1900's and they look the neighborhood probably has not changed a bit since it was constructed expect that there are cars and satelite dishes scattered throughout.  In the midst of this neighboorhood, right behind the old train station, has sprung up a cross between a flea market and farmers market.  I was stoked when I ran accross this cause I love being in markets when I am travelling.  It is seriously probably one of my favorite cultural experiences.  I spotted it and headed straight in.  The market sprung up between some old buildings that must be a hundred years old they look so run down.  There are some stalls inside various buildings and some outside selling everything from fruit, veggies, produce, to clothes, baked goods, old crystal, tools, toiletries, shoes, records, you name it and I probably could have found it there.  It seemed like it was as much a gathering place as well as a place to purchase items.  I saw several older, Russian ladies selling their goods and catching up with what seemed like every person who walked by.  As I wandered throughout, it was very obvious that tourists do not get to this part of town much.  I was clearly out of place as people just watched me walk by giving me that look of "How in the world did you end up in this part of town?"  It was great!  These are the types of things that I love.  I purchased an apple while there for munching purposes and the kind old woman smiled at me, wrote down the price (as she did not speak a word of English) and sent me on my way.  I didn't pick up how to say thank you in Russian, so I said it in Estonian instead and she seemed to understand. 

After that, I headed back into Old Town where there was a huge craft market set up in the Old Town Square as there were several cruise ships in port today.  There was music playing and tons going on in the Town Square.  The sun was shining with a bright blue sky and the perfect weather.  The city is filled with cobbled streets and medival architecture which is gorgeous.  It felt a bit overrun with tourists today, but by 4ish or so they had started to clear out.  It was a day of wandering, finishing up some last minute shopping and enjoying a slice of some great cheesecake in a little cafe.  This city has a cafe culture that almost rivals that of Paris.  There are tons of cafes all over on the main streets and in little back alleys and courtyards.  I stumbled accrosss this one that looked so cute and cosy tucked into courtyard with some other shops in there.  I ordered one of the best slices of cherry, white chocolate cheesecake with milk chocolate and also some orange jam.  It was amazing and so good!  I sat there just enjoying the sun, eating my cheesecake, and reading for an hour or two, basking in the relaxation of my last day before I have to return to real life. 

I take off tomorrow, bright and early.  My first flight leaves here at 6am, then it's off to Helsinki, Finland where I change planes.  Next stop is Heathrow, London where I change flights again for the last leg of the journey home.  I've only been here a month and it feels like it has flown by.  It has just been too short, but I have added a few more places to my list of where I want to travel.  It seems like the more places I see, the longer my list gets of places I want to go.  I love travelling and can't wait for my next trip.  I have now officially been to 30 countries, so hopefully that list can continue to keep growing in the future!  Tomorrow starts the trip back home to real life again.