It was the first time I was on a ferry. And for me, hating travel on water, it was a bit awkward in the beginning. But the ship is so freakin’ huge, you barely notice being on water (apart from the strong wind gusts in your face). And there we were, killing time for 2 hours. Everybody had his own way of doing that apparently…

Michael sleeping

And then we finally arrived in Tallinn, the small capital of Estonia. And when we disembarked, it suddenly became clear to me. Literally, not a SINGLE FINN wasn’t carrying alcohol. We just couldn’t believe our eyes. Some people even had trolley’s to transport their beer crates. And yes, we were about to do the same thing.

But, off to the hostel. The ferry harbor was at the outskirts of Tallinn, so we had to walk quite a bit to our hostel. Luckily Tallinn isn’t too big, and we found ourselves quite fast in the picturesque, medieval city center of Tallinn. It was nice, something else than I had seen already. But the hostel was nothing like what I had ever seen…apart from Sarajevo. And yet again it became clear that the standard of living of Estonians was waaayy lower than the one of their relatives, the Finns. But heck, it would do for a night, and we had 2 rooms for our group, we would have fun nevertheless.

So, the mandatory sightseeing, including a 63m climb to the roof of a church, resulting in a stunning view of Tallinn. And, some more tourist stuff, grabbing some food in a nice restaurant. Oh, and why can McDonalds be so cheap in Tallinn? 3,40€ vs 6,00€ in Tampere for exactly the same -_-. And then, the night arrived. We went out to some small clubs, and had a great time.

So, the next day, after the daily routine, we had to catch our boat back to Helsinki. But before we embarked, we made a stop at a local hypermarket. Get some of those notorious supplies, right ? Next to the booze, I bought some soap, shaving gel and stuff like that. It was way cheaper than in Tampere, so might as well grab some while being at the place. And, there we were, in the embarking lock, carrying booze. Talk about integration aight? While embarking, Brian and I got shaken up quite harsh. We were on the ramp connecting the lock with the ferry while that ramp shifted into place. So there we were, on a carbon ramp, the only thing between us and the water 15m beneath us. Apparently it didn’t slide in place initially, and it did while we were on it. No big consequences, we were only scared as hell. But safe and sound. And we were off, back to Finland, loaded with alcohol and other insignificant stuff.

So, off we were, almost 2 hours of train with the Pendolino (that’s the commuter train, the fastest connection between Tampere and Helsinki). With our guides Sohvi and Sinni we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

After checking out the museum, we were allowed to roam in Helsinki, and get back whenever we wanted. So we did some sightseeing, take some tourist pictures, visited an indoor market and get some food, grab a cup at Wayne’s Coffee. Pictures say more than words I guess: