Finland/Estonia

Ok sorry this took so long. Anyways if you want the short version, Finland and Estonia were amazing! There, now you don’t have read the rest of this post :). But really, I loved them both, for different reasons. Ok where to start? We took a BOAT to Finland. AIFS described it as a ferry, but this thing was a cruise ship! It was an overnight ferry (cruise) so we had 4 to a room and I was with my normal suitemates. The rooms were pretty nice and the beds were comfy. A bunch of us stood on the deck for HOURS watching the boat (cruise ship) crash into the ice floating on the Gulf of Finland and we saw a gorgeous sunset.

After the sunset, we realized we had lost sensation in most of our bodies, so we went inside. The boat had plenty of entertainment from casinos to restaurants, a club, a café, a sauna, a movie theater, a performance room, and probably lots of other things that I never saw. The next morning we got a complimentary breakfast and then we got off the boat and were in FINLAND! I was expecting very stern customs officers who would drill me on my reasons for being there, but instead my customs officer smiled at me and asked if I would be doing a lot of shopping in Finland. That pretty much sums up how awesome the people were in Finland. We got a quick tour of Helsinki by a very nice Finnish lady and had an amazing salmon lunch. Then went to our hostel, which was really nice and very close to the gulf of Finland. This is important because later that day two of my suitemates and I SWAM IN THE GULF OF FINLAND!!

It was amazing and SOO much fun! It was cold (duh) but I would do it again in a heartbeat. It wasn’t even that cold when we got out, even though we swam among floating pieces of ice. The rest of the day was spent walking around Helsinki and hanging out in a restaurant/bar called iguana. This place will be important later. We also went to an Ice bar, which was really interesting.

       

     The next day we got up at 5 to go to Tallinn. Tallinn is quite possibly one of the cutest places in the world. We went to the old city, which is straight out of a medieval movie. Mom, if you are reading this, it is pretty much what you wanted Solvang to be. Anyways all the streets were cute, all the buildings were beautiful, and all the people were nice. I cant comment on Estonian food, but the coffee was good. Oh and they had roasted almonds, kind of like what they have in NYC but WAY better and probably cheaper. Anyways we pretty much had the day to wander around the city and it is small enough that you can go around the entire city in about an hour so we just strolled in the sun. That night we went back to Helsinki. 

  The next morning was our last in Helsinki, к сожалению. We went to the modern art museum, which was amazing and they had a special African exhibit, which I very much enjoyed. Then we went back to Iguana, where Jake and I attempted to win an eating competition where you have to eat a very large, very spicy pizza by yourself and then you get your name on their wall of fame. I should say that I attempted, and Jake succeeded. He did a great job, whereas I only finished half. It was a very large pizza. After that, we went back the dock and got back on our cruise ship and sailed (not literally) back home. I slept the entire way back.