**Warning, the word 'then' appears approximately 8256 times in this post. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DXB-HEL, July 10th
Stayed up all day, flight was at 2AM on the 10th. We dropped
Rupert off at 4PM with his Norwegian friends. We wasted time until 10PM when we
left the house for the airport. Wanted to check duty free for a specific Garmin watch and
then hang out in the lounge, because who doesn’t like free booze? I had two
glasses of red wine and a glass of champagne.
Also managed to get a cheese
plate. Then I went back to duty free and I bought some makeup. Then we flew to
Istanbul. It was 4 hours and I was able to sleep a little bit.
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| Approach to Istanbul |
We had a 2 hour
layover in Istanbul, first we checked the duty free there again hunting for the
Garmin, no joy. We went to one lounge but the TV was loud and playing Fox
News and the people around us were loud so we went to a different lounge, it
was quieter and better. Then we had our 3 hour flight to Helsinki, the airplane
was much less comfortable than the first flight and I was not able to relax, so I didn't sleep. They fed me the exact same meal as they had on the first flight which I found amusing, but that happens sometimes with special meals (GF).
We landed and then took a taxi to the Hotel Fabian, our lady taxi driver was much better than the one's we've had in Dubai. We relaxed and then went wandering for lunch and shopping. When we returned I went to a sister hotel to workout in their gym. I was very annoyed with my crappy headphones so when I got back we went and bought some Beats for me. Then we went to dinner at Friends & Brgrs and they had a great gluten free bun and they only make french fries in the fryer, so I could eat those too :). Then we meandered through a park, there were a few vagrants, but also a lot of beautiful flowers.
We passed a statue that had a seagull on its head and an hour later I swear the same seagull was on it.
We also found the Finnish Parliament building on the way back to the hotel.
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| 9:25PM and it was like it was 3:30PM |
Stopped at a restaurant called The Cock for a glass of wine and then went back to the hotel cause we were tiredddddd.
Helsinki, July 11th
Woke up and got ready, went to breakfast and a happy surprise was
that they had a gluten free section with GF oatmeal, seeds/nuts, and a thin
bread. They also had drip coffee and CREAM. I was on cloud nine. After
breakfast we went to the Helsinki Cathedral,
a couple outside asked me to take their photo so I took a few. Inside it was
really just white. I always find Protestant ones more boring in terms of décor. However, they had a beautiful organ.
Next we went to
the Helsinki Museum,
where the couple front outside of the cathedral saw us and said thanks again.
It was amusing to run into them again. The museum had this sitting area with a weird pillow couch.
I sat
in a rocker, cause I love a rocker. I liked all the old things in the museum that
talked about Helsinki’s history. The top floor was dedicated to the history of
nightclubs in the city and had music to listen to. We again saw the couple on
the way out.
Then we went to El Fant, a coffee and wine bar. I had a coffee, a
red wine, and a big gluten free chocolate chip cookie.
After that we went to
the Russian Orthodox Church which has tons of icons and frescos.
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| I liked this painting of the birth of Christ. |
Then we went to the street market to look around and then a food
hall. Then we tracked down an ATM and went back to the market for lunch. I has
salmon with lemon and pink peppercorns with veggies in dill. Marcus ate reindeer
meatballs. We then found a trivet in the market and then went back to the hotel to rest.
A bit later we ventured out and through a huge lovely park, there
were a lot of geese.
Also beautiful planters with flowers.
We walked down to
the sea, you can see a lot of islands and there are a ton of boats and the
rocks are fun to walk on. Most people pack a picnic and booze and just sit and
relax.
We walked past the US embassy and some others and the Port of Helsinki.
There was a roundabout for cars, bikes, and people, with a tramline
intersecting the whole thing, it was bananas.
We passed a shop selling these shirts.
Then we kept walking and
found some street performers, guys dressed as old women.
Then we went to a wine
bar for a glass, it was not the best wine bar ever. But, we always try to find a wine bar
in whatever city we travel to. The girl working just texted the entire time, a
lot of times wine bars have really fun and interactive staff, not this one.
Then we left and went to find a place to watch the World Cup, we found a place
with a big screen but they only had chips and cheese in addition to drinks, so
we went to another place, it was full, so we went to a third, O’Leary’s. We put
our name on the list and got a drink, we watched about 20 minutes of the game
standing and then there was a table. They had gluten free Vagabond by Brew Dog!
Also I was able to get a gluten free BLT made on gluten free
hamburger buns and it was heavenly. The tables on either side of us and really
the majority of the establishment was rooting for Croatia. We stayed for the
whole game, then walked home. It was still light 10 minutes before midnight
(and after).
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| How is it almost midnight? |
Long day.
Helsinki, July 12th
Marcus got up and went to Urgent Care because his throat had been
hurting, this is the second international trip where he required a doctor. I
slept longer and then went down to breakfast and then back to the gym at the sister
hotel, I had it to myself again. Figured out that I could plug my phone into
something and it’d play my music thorugh all the speakers so that was a win.
We first walked to the Temppeliaukio Church.
It was neat, but as a Lutheran Church again it wasn’t ornate.
Next we walked to the National Museum of
Finland. Pretty flowers outside.
Lots of exhibits from prehistory to now, and a special (and additional
cost) exhibition of Barbie, the Icon…we skipped that one.
The first thing we saw was this axe, and a great description to go along with it.
Then we went and ate Mexican food.
Then
walked back to the hotel to rest before going to the sauna. Then went to Löyly for our 2 hours of
sauna. There are separate changing rooms for men and women and then the saunas
and the terrace are mixed and a bathing suit is required. There is one smoke
sauna, which is the most traditional, and then two other more modern saunas,
one of which is “private” but they were so busy it was open to everyone. I also
jumped into the Baltic sea on 3 occasions, Marcus wouldn’t because he doesn’t
like water he cannot see through and there was a warning about Blue-Green algae. But, I’m from Florida and I’ve swam in worse. Went in and out of all of the
saunas a few times and also had a drink out on the terrace. We met a LA
douchebag in the private sauna and some jerks from Copenhagen. Then showered
and left. Despite the jerks and douchebags we had a good time, Marcus really likes saunas.
Stopped at a place called Birgitta for dinner, it was 9:30P and the kitchen was
closing but we got our order in just in time. Ceaser salad and a gluten free
chocolate torte, burger for Marcus. We bought a bottle of Nero d’Avola-Shiraz
and it was super disappointing, I didn’t even finish one glass.
We walked all the way back along the sea, I stood in the water and looked at the “sunset,” then we walked back through yesterday’s park, there were lots of people still out.
Drinking in the park and skateboarding in it are the two most popular
things. Definitely smelled someone with an illegal substance. We got back to the hotel approximately 11PM.
Helsinki, July 13th
We woke up and went to the water terminal near the market. Then
we rode the waterbus to the island of Suomenlinna,
an inhabited sea fortress on six islands (we went on 2). There were a number of
museums, and people also live on the island and we saw several signs about
Residential Area, please respect our privacy. First we walked to the start of
the mapped route. The first stop was the church, again it was boring to me.
But it had a pretty cool fence around it.
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| Marcus said they spent all the money on the fence so could only afford white inside. |
Next we went to the small but efficient kirjasto/bibliotek (library), the lady
working circulation didn’t seem like she'd appreciate me taking photos in the
library so I only took this one of the entrance.
After that we ventured to the toy museum, it was kind of hidden.
When we got there we saw it was 7 Euros, so I told Marcus he could just hang
out in the café and I’d go alone. They had so much I wanted to play with! All
of the miniatures and doll houses. I tried to take a photo of every dog and
every airplane. There was a lot if Disney stuff and apparently Snow White was
super popular in Finland.
Then there were some barbies, did you know they bought the torso
of another doll?, I did not.
After looking at a lot of stuff, I think to look at every
individual item it would take like 8 hours, I met Marcus and we went to the
Military museum, it was going to be another 7 Euros, so we peaked in and decided
it wasn’t worth it.
Next we went to the submarine, again, 7 Euros. Marcus went
in and I sat on the rocks. A cool wooden boat went by while I waited.
After he was done in the submarine we went to the dry docks and the statue.
Then
we went to the rocks and fields and just walked. Lots of locals were sunning
and swimming and picnicking. We stopped at a place for a drink with a good
view.
After that we checked a place for food but there wasn’t anything
I could eat. Marcus said a boat was coming at 3:50 so we went in the fortress a
little and it was cool so I wanted to explore some more and he said there was
another at 4:05 so we decided to walk around more.
Then we went to the
dock, and waited, then I looked at the schedule and informed Marcus he cannot
tell time and was an hour off. So we went to the restaurant and got a drink. This
is where I tried the amazing Gin Long Drink for the first time. We hung out
until a boat was actually coming and
took it back to the market square. We ran to a craft shop looking for a
souvenir. We didn’t find one in there, so we ran back to the market and most
sellers were packing up. I saw a place with reindeer antlers for dogs so I had
Marcus wait to get one of those while I checked out some other places, I found
the 12 Euro coffee cups, ran back to Marcus, and then we went back to the coffee
cups and got one in time. We got dinner in the market again, I had more salmon
and veg. Then we went back to the hotel, passing the Ministry of Defense and some flowers.
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| Place to hook your dogs |
We had a rest, then had a house blood
orange and lemon on and tonic on the lobby terrace. Next we went to an Italian
restaurant where we were seated and then waited 15 minutes, it was like we were
invisible. We bailed and went across the street to a Mexican place, after
locating the English menus I discovered a different gluten free beer and also
gluten free corn tortillas, so that was a win. I had pork tacos and they were
super good. It was a silver lining. In the morning we were off to Tallinn.
Ferry from HEL-TLL, Saturday, July 14th
Woke up, had a quick breakfast and then took a cab to the Ferry
terminal. Scanned our e-tickets and went in. Took a few travelators to the
ferry. We were in Comfort Class on deck 7, not with the commoners, but also not
in Business Class. It was an easy 2 hour ride, other than the small child
watching an iPad WITH NO HEADPHONES at the table next to us. I had a yummy
blueberry gin drink en route.
We arrived in Tallinn and had to take the
suitcases on actual escalators as the terminal is under construction currently.
We walked the 10-15 minutes to the hotel. I was able to do it with my purse, and wearing a backpack, and dragging my suitcase.
No rooms were available so we left our bags and went to the mall
to look for that elusive Garmin watch that we’ve been looking for the whole trip. We
didn’t find it but did end up buying a battery pack. We went to lunch at Lyon,
where I had another Gin Long Drink, it is so good.
Then we went back to the
hotel and got our room. Marcus mapped out our plan for the next day and went to
get our Tallinn cards. The Tallinn card cost 45 Euros a person for 3 days, but got us into all of the most popular attractions in the city for free as well as free public transportation. We did the calculations and figured that it saved us about 125 Euros. Then we went to the lobby bar and had our complimentary
welcome drink. Then we walked around Old Town and went to dinner at a place
recommended by our friend and Marcus’s coworker, Ismo. They had a gluten free
IPA that is brewed in Tallinn that was really good.
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| The Pope is going to be there in September. |
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| Very hard to walk on |
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| Russian Orthodox Church |
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| Wonder what this person does who was parked outside the French Embassy Residence |
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| I hear ya, mate |
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| Lady and pet seagull |
Then I found on google maps a DEPECHE MODE BAR while I was looking
for shisha. We (I) had to go! So we walked there and I rocked out for a bit
with a gin long drink, Marcus humored me with his presence.
I did not want to
leave, I would have stayed there for the whole night but we needed to go back
to the mall so I could shop for sundresses as it was much hotter than we
thought it would be. Unfortunately, the mall closed at 9PM. We saw the Mermaid
statue that is dedicated to the XXII regatta team, then went back to the hotel.
Tallinn, July 15th
Woke up about 6AM, but kept hoping I would fall back asleep. I
did not. Got up at 9 and got ready. Had breakfast, it's really nice when a place
has GF stuff marked, but so many things were not marked that I am sure were
gluten free…like fried eggs, hardboiled eggs and plain yogurt, among other
things…oh well. The coffee was okay. We ventured out to start our day. First we
went to the Carved Stone Museum, it was a lot of limestone. Next we walked
through Freedom Square, it was underwhelming. Then Kiek in de Kock Museum,
which, despite the sound of its name, actually means “peek in the kitchen.” We
went through 4 towers of the fortress and the exhibits in it.
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| biggg steps |
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| Kiek in de Kock Tower |
Then has a tour of the tunnels at 12PM. It went from present day
to when the homeless overran the tunnels, to when the punks used it as a hideout
in the 80s because the Soviets did not approve, to when it was a WWII shelter,
once it had 1000 people in it in 1944 when Tallinn was bombed. Then to the time
the tunnels were built, so much info! Then back through the Carved Stone
Museum.
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| Crazy tunnel lighting |
Next we sopped in the Dome Church even though it was not on the
agenda and climbed its tower.
After this we went to the Russian Orthodox Church, no pictures
were allowed. There were two people undergoing some kind of Rite or ceremony,
we are not sure if they were being married, or becoming some kind of lay
people, or what.
Next to a viewing platform for a nice picture.
Then to the museum of Estonian drinking culture. We did't understood too much because a lot of it was in Estonian. We tried Lingonberry, Apple, Plum, and
Rhubarb wine. Marcus also tried a red. We met a lady from Chicago who lives in
Zurich. The Rhubarb wine was gross, but the employee said it was very popular.
Then we went
to the Puppet Museum and school. Kind of boring, Marcus thought they were creepy, but a marionette had a
marionette.
Then went to a restaurant, two other tables sat down after us and got
menus however we had not received menus yet, we waited a few more minutes, tried to get someones attention but to no avail. So, we found a different place and I got much needed coffee.
We passed this on our walk.
Then we went to the Marzipan House and then to the KGB prison
cells. They were depressing. Here are self-explaining photos.
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| Cupboard that newly arrested people were thrown in to |
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| Solitary confinement |
Then we went to St. Olaf’s Church, did not take photos in the
church, but climbed the tower and it had great views. It was the tallest building in the world from 1549 to 1625.
Then went back to the
mall to shop. Then we watched the World Cup with a gin long drink in the lobby
of the hotel. Then we went back to the room and then to the sauna. There is a
separate male and female sauna and then a mixed-gender steam room and pool and hot
tub. My sauna was 100 degrees Celsius, I could not even sit down, I did not
take a picture because my phone probably would have melted. I like steam rooms
better anyhow. Then I went in the pool and hot tub. We walked to dinner. We went to a place called Ancho,
one guy was taking care of all of the customers and was working his ass off, it
took forever but I didn’t mind.
Tallinn, July 16th
Woke up, made it all the way to 7AM, but still laid in bed hoping
I’d sleep longer. Then went to breakfast, then took a taxi to the Seaplane Harbour
– Lennusadam, a maritime museum. IT. WAS. AWESOME. First saw some exhibits, the
submarine, buoys, lots of buoys,
A cool fan made to look like a prop.
Ice yachts, which I would not call a yacht…but
then again I don’t call my house a villa.
Then saw a bridge that followed the
curve of the dome, but a guide had to be with you :-(.
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| bridge is in the back of this photo |
Then saw a shooting
game with helicopters and planes, but there was a long line for it, so we went
to some exhibits, saw a lot of guns and cannons and went into the submarine,
then went back to the shooting game. Marcus shot down every enemy aircraft but still
only had 6% accuracy. Then there was an interactive exhibit about a town now
underwater because they stopped pumping water out of a quarry. Then we put on
military uniforms. I was a Navy Captain and he was an Air Force Officer.
Next was a flight simulator, OMG we loved it. I crashed 20s into
the 4 minute flight so I restarted. It had motion but the instruments didn’t
work.
Then there was a paper airplane making and throwing exhibit. There was a speed boat simulator that someone was monopolizing
so we didn’t get to do. Next we went outside and into 2 of the many boats you could tour. A military one built by the US in the 1940's and given to Estonia in the 1990's, and an ice breaker.
Then to the TV tower using an app called taxify to get a taxi. We also used this app in Georgia and is a good way to not get ripped off by taxi drivers when you are somewhere were the taxis don't have meters. Rode the elevator up and walked around, then went up the stairs to the
observation deck.
Then a gin long drink in the café. Then down to the Soviet
Occupation museum on the first floor. Very interesting.
Then walked to the Botanical Gardens. Lots of trees and shrubs,
not as many flowers, but still some.
Then we taxify-ed back to the hotel and hunted for a 4PM “lunch.”
Found a place with a pretty alley.
Then Marcus stopped to buy us some gin long drink for the room
and we had them in our room.
Then we went to Grand Shisha, it was hidden, we
walked around the building looking for it, then discovered that it was through
a sushi restaurant. Blueberry mint for me and grape mint for him. All the
employees and patrons were Russian. Marcus was coughing and the guy came over
twice to ask if it was too harsh and if he wanted a coal off, it was amateur
hour.
Then we went to Vapiano for dinner because it was late and it never disappoints.
Tallinn, Tuesday, 17th
Woke up later, actually slept some, ate breakfast. Taxify to the
Kumu Museum, an art museum, we wandered around it.
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| This is somehow art... |
Then walked through a nice
park to the Kadriorg
Palace. It had an Ivy tunnel and beautiful gardens.
Inside was neat, too.
Then we went to the Mikkel Museum for its
religious icon collection. Here are two of my favorites.
Then we took the tram back towards the hotel and went over to the
Viru hotel to go to their KGB museum. The lady asked if we had a booking, we did
not, but were still able to get in. There were a lot of annoying Americans. The
museum really just had some framed information and then two rooms with
artifacts on the 23rd floor where the KGB operated out
of. The KGB contracted a Finnish firm to build the hotel for them. Once the hotel was done the KGB kicked everyone out, bugged the rooms that they wanted, then allowed the hotel to open.
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| There is a bug in this bread plate. |
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| Bugged cufflinks |
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| Equipment to manage all of the bugs in the hotel rooms |
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| Wallet that you were not supposed to open, and if you did there was a color bomb. This was one of the ways the KGB tested the trustworthiness of there operatives. |
Then we went to a restaurant for burgers, we were getting rained
on by a tree with it’s dead flowers. There were also strawberries growing.
Then we walked to the spa where we had
massages booked. We waited in the relaxation room. I had a honey massage, it
was a little weird. Then we took a taxify back to the hotel for a quick relax
since I fell asleep like 3 or 4 times during my massage. We then went out to find coffee and found an Italian place whose
kitchen was closing but could still get coffee and wine at.
Then we went BACK to the Depeche Mode Baar and I again loved it.
Marcus played pinball.
Then we went to the Church of the Holy Spirit to take a picture
of its clock.
Then we had steak for dinner.
The steak was okay, mine was a undercooked but Marcus's was good. Then we went back to the hotel and went to
sleep. We were leaving the next day at 12:30PM.
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| View from the 7th floor at 11:08PM |
TLL-DXB, Wednesday, July 18th
Woke up, had breakfast, taxify to the airport. This was me drinking coffee contemplating that we were going back to real life in the lounge in TLL.
TL;DR: Overall the vacation was great. I’d live in Helsinki in a second,
and go to Tallinn on the weekends to party.
