Into the Baltics

I had a really good time in Finland. There was definitely more for me to see there (yes, including the Moomin amusement park), but it was time to move into cheaper territory.

I took the ferry from Helsinki to the city of Tallin in Estonia. Note - you can save about 10 euros by purchasing a 1-day round trip ticket, rather than a one way as I stupidly did. I heard this from a Polish guy who decided to take the seat next to me, even though there were many empty seats around. Pissed me off at first, but he turned out to be a nice guy. We decided to quickly check out the city together once we arrived.

Tallin is very small; most people come here as a day trip from Helsinki. You can easily see the sights in the old town (the touristic area) in a couple of hours. As in any old town, the main sights include several churches, cobbled alleyways, central plaza, and the town wall. I don't think Tallin even had a museum of much interest...at least we didn't go into any. And there is always this one sight that allows you to climb up to the top for a 360 degree view of the city. In Tallin, this was the church tower.After a few hours of wandering around, moving from one place to another, we decided to have an early dinner at the plaza. I usually don't eat at the plazas since they tend to be very touristy (bad food) and overpriced. But what the heck. I hadn't eaten at a proper restaurant since I left Italy. So we had some Estonian food - mostly some sort of meat with potatoes and a sauerkraut-ish thing. My pork was a bit hard, but the potatoes and cabbages were delicious. Especially with the spicy mustard. Yum. Estonian beer was rather tasty as well.
Dinner conversation centered around travelling. (What else could it be!!!) The guy had done some hard-core backpacking earlier on, and it was so fun listening to his experiences and getting advices on where to go. It wasn't all listening though - he is planning on starting an around the world trip in 6 months and wanted to hear about my planning and about the around the world tickets. (I think I sold him on the One World ticket)
...and then we parted...

On the second day, I went back to many of the same sights. Everything was so rushed yesterday! I must've strolled around the old town area about 3 times! But I really liked the small, cozy atmosphere : ) Then, I headed out to the new town area to get my bus ticket for Latvia and take a look at some of the shopping centers. Yarn is cheap in Estonia.

I've started to get in the habit of cooking my meals here. Bought a small bag of rice (unfortunately long grain) to carry around with me. I wish I had soy sauce; it would make everything taste better. Not that I know how to cook without my recipes.