Golden autumn in Estonia and Finland
Golden autumn in Estonia and Finland
Golden autumn in Estonia. It was not just a golden autumn, it was a real paradise for the eyes and relaxation for the soul. We took tickets 396 days before the trip. At that time we could not even imagine how sunny and warm the weather would be in more than a year. The Vizeir plane, as if in a hurry to deliver us to this beauty as soon as possible, took off 10 minutes earlier and arrived in Tallinn 40 minutes earlier. We crossed the border very quickly, at the exit a tram was practically waiting for us. We loaded up and within 30 minutes were at the hotel. Yes, we haven't gotten there that fast yet. We took the keys from the hostess and explore the capital ahead.
But first, let's go to our favorite Baltic chain of Caffeines. After all, with a bag of brownies, walking will only be more pleasant. Blue skies, yellow trees and old houses with many roofs.
Unfortunately, our camera missed this trip due to repairs. And in vain, as it turned out. Here you could just create masterpieces at photo shoots for all three days. We started our acquaintance with the culture from the famous local restaurant “Third Dragon”. Here you can plunge into the Middle Ages.
Get a bowl of soup without a spoon, nibble on boar ribs, and chat with the stern hostess. I understand that her severity is such a style. The feature that we liked the most is the unlimited barrel of pickles, which you have to catch yourself. Moreover, the cucumbers here were so tasty that Dasha was then covered with cucumber overeating. But happiness is not only in cucumbers, we have not seen such a beautiful autumn for a long time. We thought that three days for this trip would be a lot, but the weather forecast assured us that we would not be here enough.
A rather interesting show “Legends of Tallinn” awaited us behind the third dragon. The show is held in a circle in different languages, including Russian. Positions itself as a museum. But if all museums were even slightly similar to this one, then I would visit all of them without exception. The essence of this museum is that around you there are constantly actions with live actors. During this show, the viewer gets acquainted with the main legends of the capital. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to take pictures, otherwise we would have had the bulk of photos from the trip from there. By the way, the show is made in the style of horror! It’s probably not worth taking children there) There are so many old streets and back streets in Tallinn that you can happily spend the whole day exploring them. It's a pity the day is not endless. But a beautiful sunset awaited us. We call such trips “Gdansk”.
Once upon a time, it was in Gdansk that we were so lucky with the weather and time.
We also had an evening meal in the Lido establishment, already familiar in Latvia.
Early in the morning we went to the large Kadriorg park on the outskirts of the city. It was about 08:30, the city was still asleep. Almost the entire park was ours alone! The highlight was the Japanese part of the park.
We haven't been to Japan yet, but we liked it)
After the park, we dived deep, deep, to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench in a real submarine.
And then they fired back from enemy aircraft, then they designed their own. Then we went to check all the compartments of the submarine and the equipment of the ships. It was the Maritime Museum of Tallinn.
Unfortunately, there is no such interactivity here as in the Legends of Tallinn, but nevertheless we do not regret that we visited it. True, on the way to the museum, we got stuck in another autumn park for a long time, and it was gorgeous.
It is worth noting that we walked to the museum from the old city, through very nice and well-groomed areas. They look like areas from American films, where everyone has their own home.
The houses here are not as big, but the concept is the same. I remember about ten years ago there were popular jokes about how slow Estonians are. Dasha and I could not understand where we had such stereotypes until we went to McDonald's. It was then that the day almost fell out of the route. Two cheeseburgers and one hamburger were cooked in a record 9 minutes. I even determined exactly where their process was incorrectly built.
But it is not for me, the potential president of Montenegrin tourism, to get involved in the processes of the Estonian McDonald's. But, anyway, now it is clear that all those jokes about slow Estonians came from this McDonald's.
After poppy seeds, we went to a local pancake shop to try their legendary pancakes. But here's an ambush. As it turned out, the fastest workers were selected for work at McDuck. Two pancakes with filling were cooked for about 50 minutes. And we also complained about the speed with hamburgers. Of course, it can be attributed to the number of people who also order pancakes and hamburgers, but, in my opinion, this is a fiasco.
While we were waiting for pancakes, we managed to contact my former employee, meet and chat. We have escaped from the dining chains, and now we are ready to conquer new horizons! Beyond those horizons, it is best to travel by bike, but the local systems for renting bicycles did not want to give us bikes in any way, they say, walk like that. I had to take the tram. Now we are on the outskirts of the city in the Merimets area, walking along the endless sea.
And sometimes the water diverges so much that you can walk not only along, but also along the sea itself, remaining dry. In the park, on a bench, we were accompanied by two squirrels, they sat next to us for about 15 minutes and husked seeds.
Sometimes titmouse flew in, watching the squirrels. A real idyll was going on around us, we are in the forest kingdom. We returned to the center by a long route through real forests and city labyrinths. On the way to the city, an interesting moment happened. A plane flew across the sky, which abruptly disappeared and did not appear again. The sky was blue, no clouds, perhaps it was a matrix failure.
I would like to describe in detail every street where we walked, every observation platform with views, an installation of Ukrainian symbols found in one of the private courtyards, but then the story would not be so interesting and endlessly long.
I believe that everyone who loves to travel or has always wanted to start should just take tickets for the next beginning of October to Tallinn and get to know all the warmth and beauty that we have seen here. Moreover, tickets from Kyiv to Tallinn are available more than a year before departure, the main thing is to wait for the action.
Helsinki
The alarm rang at 5:00. It's time. Outside, the darkness is impenetrable. We wander onto our ferry, which looks more like a cruise ship. Inside the ferry we were struck on the spot by its size. It was like a giant floating casino. Our tickets for two cost 38 euros round trip.
The tickets did not include cabins. But it was possible to do without a cabin. The most experienced tourists took their beds on sofas and in all sorts of nooks and crannies on the floor.
Everyone who didn't sleep mostly played slot machines.
It is worth noting that almost everyone lost. And if they won, then they lost the received money in other machines.
We slept well, just sat at the tables and drank tea and sandwiches and watched the game. Having read about prices in Finland, we stocked up on food in Estonia. On the way we were a little over two hours, met the dawn. It was only 8 am, we decided to start exploring the city from the park. In Finland, the golden autumn was already almost over, but nevertheless, a walk in the park along the sea and falling leaves had its own charm.
Next, we had a mandatory visit to a real Finnish Hesburger. We have repeatedly hung ads in Kyiv demanding to try a real Finnish burger from Hesburger. Since advertising requires, you have to try. I wouldn't say it's anything special.
But in the early morning after the ship and the refreshing park, it was a pleasure to sit there. We warmed up and ate, now we are sailing to the island!
The ticket vending machine thought we shouldn't sail and refused to sell us tickets for the sea tram. The tram manager said that in this case we could sail for free. That's what I understand, I solved the problem. It takes just over 10 minutes to sail to the island.
The island turned out to be really cool and quite deserted. There were quite a few people, but given the territory of the island, they were rare. This island looks like it used to be defensive. Many hills and cannons around the perimeter. In the hills there were often doors, like hobbit houses.
We had a super cool walk around the island. We returned back to the capital. Now I needed to do something else.
There are not too many interesting sights in Helsinki. But entertainment found us. We came across a banner that we couldn't get past. In a Chinese restaurant for 9.60 euros per person unlimited buffet. In addition to delicious Chinese dishes, salads, grilled shrimp, and various noodles, the buffet included unlimited sushi.
And they said that Finland is expensive in relation to other European countries. For less than 20 euros, Dasha and I ate so much that we almost burst at the seams. Also canned fruits with coffee and tea were included. So, still half a day ahead, what's next. We went to a big lake, and the bikes were like, “Pss, pss guys, would you like to disperse the fat, we have an easy payment system here. ” There was great wifi near the bike parking and it took just a couple of minutes to rent two bikes. It is worth renting 5 euros per day for a bike.
But be sure to check in at any of the parking lots every half an hour. Fortunately, there are hundreds of parking lots on the map. Also Maps me, fortunately, knows the location of all parking lots offline. We went to bed early yesterday, and we did the right thing. We did not know that 12 hours after the rise we would sit on bicycles and for almost 4 hours without stopping we would travel around all the surroundings of Helsinki.
First, we made a circle around the lake, then went to the park to look at the monument, consisting of hanging pipes. But they made a mistake in the park and drove into a real dense forest. Then the map showed that the parking lots go far beyond the city and you can ride on the country islands. By the way, there is a bike path everywhere and it was cool.
We even saw a wild rabbit on one of the lawns. On one of the islands we saw off the giant red sun.
We crossed interesting bridges.
When we returned to the city for a long time, we just rode around the city and in those places where we walked in the morning. We had a very cool ride, our route took 3:40, we drove about 25 kilometers. When we had to return to the ferry, we just took the bikes from the next parking lot and drove to the port, there was also a parking lot nearby.
There were few people on the return ferry, almost any place was available. From such an intense three-day hiking route, which ended with such epic bike rides, it felt like every muscle in my legs hurt. For almost two hours I just lay there, trying not to move. Probably, I even slept, it seemed to me that the return trip was somehow short.
When we returned to the hotel it was the same darkness as it was 19 hours ago when we woke up and started our route to Finland.
Our return plane was at about noon. From the very morning we still wandered the streets of the old city, took the tram and went home. We did not agree with the hostess how and when to hand over the keys to the apartment to her, but we had a good idea to throw them in the mailbox on the first floor. This will be a note for future trips. In total, this three-day trip exceeded all expectations.
For all the time that we had the tickets in our hands, we almost canceled it in favor of another trip, all the more so the viseur offered us compensation if we refuse the tickets, since they were with a shifted schedule. But now we are very, very glad that we decided to leave the tickets and still fly on this warm journey in every sense.
Trip Information
Date of travel: 13.10. 2018 – 16.10. 2018
Duration: 3 full days
Flights: Wizz in 396 days
Hotels: Airbnb
Ferry to Helsinki: Eckerö Line. Swim for about 2 hours one way
Excursions: All by yourself
Trip difficulty: 2/10 (Easy)
