Hei (hello in Finnish)

Knit n Tag, Helsinki

The winding cobble-stoned streets, the endless steps climbing up medieval towers, the hospitality of the people, great weather for most of the time  and one of my favourite foods-salmon, it's been a wonderful, exciting week with many unexpected surprises!
Finland and Estonia - I'm so lucky to have experienced them both. We had a very early start to this trip and were amazed at the number of people drinking Guiness at 6 am at Dublin airport. The early start meant that we had more time in Helsinki before a flight to Turku the following day. Upon our arrival, and after we'd had a late lunch, we came across a park not far from our hotel where there were numerous groups sitting knitting. Apparently it was a "Knit n'Tag" event.  All the trees were covered with knitting from pom-poms to traditional designs to characters. I'm not sure the reason for this but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. 
 
From here we walked towards the ferry terminal and market area. The market stalls were beginning to pack up, however we saw stalls selling reindeer sausage which did not look at all appertising. The hotel had sold us a 2 day travel pass so we took advantage of this and set off on the ferry, which leaves from near the markets to Suomenlinna Fortress. This was an intriguing place as whilst it was a fortress in the middle of the harbour, it had more a village-type atmosphere with dirt paths covering a series of islands, which were linked by bridges. It mainly seems to have museums and restaurants on it now.

Turku Cathedral and Aura River

Day 2 saw us head off to Turku, a 30 minute flight from Helsinki, where David was to spend the next two days at Åbo University. Turku has nothing much of note except a lovely river front, although it used to be the capital of Finland. We found that arriving on a Sunday meant it was a challenge to find places to eat for dinner.  Surprisingly, we had dinner at a lovely rustic cafe beside the river with loads of atmosphere.  Monday is also a day where most things were closed,  so it was another walk along the river and a browse through the shops to keep myself occupied.

Naantalli waterfront

Once David's work commitments were completed, we took a bus to Naantalli. Normally it's a busy seaside town that thrives during the summer months but on a bleak day it was almost deserted.  
Back in Helsinki on day 4 after another early morning start, we took in the sights of Senate Square, Helsinki cathedral, Uspenski Cathedral, the market square, the old market building and the church in the rock. The architecture was varied and the cathedrals stood out on the Helsinki skyline when viewed from the harbour. We were blessed with beautiful weather and our day ended with a wonderful evening dinner cruise around the many islands in the archipelago out from Helsinki. The golds and oranges of the sunset were amazing. The boat took us past holiday homes scattered around the many waterfronts. Each of these had what looked like small boat sheds on the edge of the water but these were in fact saunas. Finland has over 3 million saunas throughout the country such that everyone in Finland can have a sauna at the same time!

Harbour view Helsinki Cathedral

Archipelago island sauna

Helsinki dinner cruise

Toompea Hill, Old City, Tallinn

Back to the waterfront on Day 5 for a 1 and 1/2 hour fast ferry across the Baltic Sea to Estonia and the capital Tallinn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  This place was definitely a highlight of the week. We spent 2 days exploring the old medieval walled town, stumbling along the cobblestones streets, walking up numerous wall and tower stairs and eating salmon morning, noon and night! Well at least I did!

Climbing a Tallinn tower

We toured through the Bastion tunnels, underground passageways dating back to the 1600's upon which high walls were constructed. These were used to move soldiers and ammunition throughout the town but during WWII it was used as a bomb shelter and even more recently, homeless people would live in them. We climbed the tower of St Olav's church for a remarkable view of the town, walked along the top of the walls, wandered up the hill to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral and saw Fat Margaret, Tall Hermon and Catherine's passage ( the names given to towers and lane ways).

Dinner at Restaurant Kaevukohvik, Tallinn

We ate beautiful meals in restaurants with serene atmospheres  and, in fact, after searching for places to eat and being told we needed to book, we found a perfect restaurant where I ate "fried salmon" and David ate "moose stew". We had a room to ourselves there, with a view over the ancient town well. Perfect food, music and company!
We were truly disappointed when it was time to leave this interesting and beautiful town.

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