Helsinki and Tallinn
I had been advised of a midnight 10k run in Helsinki. I thought that sounded like a lot of fun - I had some friends living in the city. I'd never been to Finland before so it was a good opportunity. The race itself sounded like it would have a lot of atmosphere, so I was really keen. On further inspection, the race started at 9pm, so the chances of me still running by the time midnight came around were slim for a 10 kilometre run, but I decided to sign up anyway. I persuaded some friends to join me; they were incorporating a few days in Helsinki as part of a longer trip around the Baltic states. After Helsinki they were planning a few days in Tallinn, which sounded good to me. I therefore booked a two city break for the end of August / start of September.
The trip did not have a particularly auspicious start. My flight was due to leave in the early evening from London and with the flight taking a few hours and a two-hour time difference, I should arrive in Helsinki around midnight. A taxi to my friends' place and I would get there at a slightly rude time of night. Early in the day of my departure I received a text telling me that my flight would not be taking off at the advertised time - it would be leaving three hours late. That was a very good service from Norwegian Air - to keep me informed about the delays. So I stayed at home all day, waiting for the latest possible time I could leave. I had a leisurely journey to the airport, checked in my bag, received a voucher for a free meal because I had been delayed, wandered through security, ate my free meal, wandered to the flight, and then the flight left - three and a half hours late. What's more, Norwegian has free WiFi on board, after the seatbelt signs have been turned off, so I played on my laptop for the few hours of the flight. It did mean though that I eventually arrived at my friends' place at a quite indecent 4am.
I spent the next couple of days wandering around the centre of the city. It was generally a nice city. There were a couple of impressive looking churches - one orthodox church and one cathedral. The waterfront area was impressive, with the market there. There was an interesting shopping centre. The botanic gardens were pretty. Generally though the city centre was not notable for these kind of sights.
My friends lived outside the centre, in a suburb called Espoo. It was in these areas that the true reality of Finnish life was found - namely that Finland is a safe, friendly, quiet, clean, efficient, organised, slightly boring place to live. Helsinki regularly appears on the annual lists of the best places in the world to live. You couldn't walk more than a few hundred yards without seeing a large government subsidised playground for kids to play in. There was a massive sports complex in Espoo for all the locals to play in, to try their hand at all sorts of sports or pastimes. I could see why my friends enjoyed it there so much. Especially as the weather had been fairly warm for the two days I had been there. I wasn't going to endure the freezing cold snow-covered winter during my stay.
On the day of the race, the clement weather changed. The dry warm weather gave way to cold rainy weather. We took a boat trip around the bay area which was very pretty. We got off at Suomenlinna island for a look round. This was a small island which had been fortified. It would have been very pleasant in the sunshine, but in the driving rain and wind it wasn't the nicest day trip ever. We saw the sights by sheltering under trees and fortified walls and nipping out every so often when there was a break in the weather.
I had my running kit in my bag which I was carrying around with me, so this was quite damp before I'd even started the race. I changed into my soggy clothes in a pub toilet and wandered to the start line. I was drenched in seconds, shivering, teeth chattering. The race was scheduled to start at 9pm, so I thought, but the gun actually sounded at ten past. My warm-up exercises got more and more frantic as the minutes ticked by, using any attempt to keep warm. The race itself was quite good fun, after a couple of minutes of running when I felt a bit warmer. There were bands playing and people cheering on all around the course. I saw some pretty areas of the city that I hadn't seen previously. The rain stopped about 15 minutes into the race. The goody bag at the finish was a bit disappointing though, I ate and drank everything it contained immediately. I finished the race, jogged back to the pub and changed out of my soaking wet running kit back into the wet clothes I'd worn earlier in the day on Suomenlinna. We stayed in the pub for a good few hours, testing out Finnish beers and strange Fisherman's Friend flavoured schnapps.
I woke up the following morning feeling a bit tender. So it was time for the traditional Finnish sauna, to sweat the alcohol out of my system! We had been told of the famous Finnish proverb, 'If it cannot be cured by schnapps, tar or saunas, death will surely follow'. I didn't fancy more schnapps or a delicious helping of tar, so thought I'd try out the sauna option. I think it did help, but the two hour ferry ride wasn't a pleasant prospect.
In fact, it was fine. The bracing sea air helped. The view while departing Helsinki and all its islands was beautiful, as was the view when we approached Tallinn when the towers, city walls and churches first appeared over the horizon. Tallinn looked like a wonderful city as I first viewed it, and so it proved.
The city centre has an amazing medieval core, surrounded by the fortified city walls. There was the lower old town just within the walls, and there was the elevated 'Toompea' ('Cathedral hill') in the very centre. The streets were narrow, winding cobbled streets, with different levels as the hill rose and fell. Every building was a beautiful medieval one, with bright pink and yellow colours. What a lovely city! They were a lot of tourists around, but not so many to make it unbearable. The best part was that there were not too many people selling their wares and trying to force touristy items down our throats (one or two of course). Tallinn is somewhere that should be recognised as a huge tourist destination, but I'd never really heard mention of it in the UK
.
However, we decided to spend our first full day in the city exploring the areas outside the walled city centre. The first port of call was Kadriorg Park, where the President's Palace was located. There was another building which was like a country house, a sort of National Trust property, but it was closed for renovation. There were some pretty gardens in the park, and also a tiny cottage. This was notable for being the house where Peter the Great stayed in Tallinn during his summer vacations.
We walked from there to the seafront, past the Russalka monument to a Russian ship which sank on its way to Finland, to the Soviet monument. It was an interesting and imposing structure on a hill looking out to sea. When we got a bit closer, the massive walls were falling into disrepair and it was clearly not being looked after too well.
We carried on to the Estonian Museum - there is a main museum in the centre which we went to on our last day in the city, and there is a separate area near the sea. This museum was another country house-style building. It did not seem to be open, but we wandered around the grounds a bit. I got out the guide book to see what else there was to do in the area. It was then that I came across a single sentence footnote to this part of the museum. It said that if you go round the back of the house, there are all the statues from Soviet-era Estonia dumped in an unceremonious pile in the garden. That sounded worth a look! There were various statues of Lenin and Stalin and various other people I didn't recognise, lying there, some decapitated. A remarkable and interesting sight!
We continued walking along the seafront to the suburb of Pirita, where the sailing events in the 1980 Moscow Olympics had been held. We found an interesting ruined convent to explore and later made our way back to the centre via Estonia's premier open air theatre, the Song Festival Theatre, a shell-like structure.
In the centre, we found a surprising number of microbreweries for such a small area. These were of varying quality, but of course we had to test some of them out. We found an interesting touristy traditional Estonian cafe, which sold elk soup, reindeer pasties and boar jerky. All the staff were dressed in medieval Estonian clothes. The only downside was that if you wanted a spoon or a fork, you had to perform a forfeit. I was requested to make a noise like a pig while hopping!
The next day was our opportunity to see the old city. We did a lot of walking around, and climbing high buildings. We went up St Olav's church tower and St Mary's Cathedral. We climbed up inside the city walls, in an interesting building that had lots of swords, shields, chainmail and armour to try on and play with! We went into Fat Margaret's Tower, which was a naval museum as well as tower on the city walls which you could climb to the top of. I think the Fat comment related to the tower, which was short, wide and squat, rather than to poor old Margaret herself. We checked out the other site of the Estonian museum, which was a very up-to-date interactive multimedia experience.
We finished our trip off with a trip to a Russian restaurant, where due to a translation error, one of our number ended up ordering a plate of lard for a starter. The Lord's Platter was in fact a Lard Platter.
Two full days were enough to see the sights of Tallinn, but it was a great experience. I would recommend the city for a weekend break. Helsinki seems like a pleasant place to live, but not as interesting or as beautiful as Tallinn.
The trip did not have a particularly auspicious start. My flight was due to leave in the early evening from London and with the flight taking a few hours and a two-hour time difference, I should arrive in Helsinki around midnight. A taxi to my friends' place and I would get there at a slightly rude time of night. Early in the day of my departure I received a text telling me that my flight would not be taking off at the advertised time - it would be leaving three hours late. That was a very good service from Norwegian Air - to keep me informed about the delays. So I stayed at home all day, waiting for the latest possible time I could leave. I had a leisurely journey to the airport, checked in my bag, received a voucher for a free meal because I had been delayed, wandered through security, ate my free meal, wandered to the flight, and then the flight left - three and a half hours late. What's more, Norwegian has free WiFi on board, after the seatbelt signs have been turned off, so I played on my laptop for the few hours of the flight. It did mean though that I eventually arrived at my friends' place at a quite indecent 4am.
I spent the next couple of days wandering around the centre of the city. It was generally a nice city. There were a couple of impressive looking churches - one orthodox church and one cathedral. The waterfront area was impressive, with the market there. There was an interesting shopping centre. The botanic gardens were pretty. Generally though the city centre was not notable for these kind of sights.
My friends lived outside the centre, in a suburb called Espoo. It was in these areas that the true reality of Finnish life was found - namely that Finland is a safe, friendly, quiet, clean, efficient, organised, slightly boring place to live. Helsinki regularly appears on the annual lists of the best places in the world to live. You couldn't walk more than a few hundred yards without seeing a large government subsidised playground for kids to play in. There was a massive sports complex in Espoo for all the locals to play in, to try their hand at all sorts of sports or pastimes. I could see why my friends enjoyed it there so much. Especially as the weather had been fairly warm for the two days I had been there. I wasn't going to endure the freezing cold snow-covered winter during my stay.
On the day of the race, the clement weather changed. The dry warm weather gave way to cold rainy weather. We took a boat trip around the bay area which was very pretty. We got off at Suomenlinna island for a look round. This was a small island which had been fortified. It would have been very pleasant in the sunshine, but in the driving rain and wind it wasn't the nicest day trip ever. We saw the sights by sheltering under trees and fortified walls and nipping out every so often when there was a break in the weather.
I had my running kit in my bag which I was carrying around with me, so this was quite damp before I'd even started the race. I changed into my soggy clothes in a pub toilet and wandered to the start line. I was drenched in seconds, shivering, teeth chattering. The race was scheduled to start at 9pm, so I thought, but the gun actually sounded at ten past. My warm-up exercises got more and more frantic as the minutes ticked by, using any attempt to keep warm. The race itself was quite good fun, after a couple of minutes of running when I felt a bit warmer. There were bands playing and people cheering on all around the course. I saw some pretty areas of the city that I hadn't seen previously. The rain stopped about 15 minutes into the race. The goody bag at the finish was a bit disappointing though, I ate and drank everything it contained immediately. I finished the race, jogged back to the pub and changed out of my soaking wet running kit back into the wet clothes I'd worn earlier in the day on Suomenlinna. We stayed in the pub for a good few hours, testing out Finnish beers and strange Fisherman's Friend flavoured schnapps.
I woke up the following morning feeling a bit tender. So it was time for the traditional Finnish sauna, to sweat the alcohol out of my system! We had been told of the famous Finnish proverb, 'If it cannot be cured by schnapps, tar or saunas, death will surely follow'. I didn't fancy more schnapps or a delicious helping of tar, so thought I'd try out the sauna option. I think it did help, but the two hour ferry ride wasn't a pleasant prospect.
In fact, it was fine. The bracing sea air helped. The view while departing Helsinki and all its islands was beautiful, as was the view when we approached Tallinn when the towers, city walls and churches first appeared over the horizon. Tallinn looked like a wonderful city as I first viewed it, and so it proved.
The city centre has an amazing medieval core, surrounded by the fortified city walls. There was the lower old town just within the walls, and there was the elevated 'Toompea' ('Cathedral hill') in the very centre. The streets were narrow, winding cobbled streets, with different levels as the hill rose and fell. Every building was a beautiful medieval one, with bright pink and yellow colours. What a lovely city! They were a lot of tourists around, but not so many to make it unbearable. The best part was that there were not too many people selling their wares and trying to force touristy items down our throats (one or two of course). Tallinn is somewhere that should be recognised as a huge tourist destination, but I'd never really heard mention of it in the UK
However, we decided to spend our first full day in the city exploring the areas outside the walled city centre. The first port of call was Kadriorg Park, where the President's Palace was located. There was another building which was like a country house, a sort of National Trust property, but it was closed for renovation. There were some pretty gardens in the park, and also a tiny cottage. This was notable for being the house where Peter the Great stayed in Tallinn during his summer vacations.
We walked from there to the seafront, past the Russalka monument to a Russian ship which sank on its way to Finland, to the Soviet monument. It was an interesting and imposing structure on a hill looking out to sea. When we got a bit closer, the massive walls were falling into disrepair and it was clearly not being looked after too well.
We carried on to the Estonian Museum - there is a main museum in the centre which we went to on our last day in the city, and there is a separate area near the sea. This museum was another country house-style building. It did not seem to be open, but we wandered around the grounds a bit. I got out the guide book to see what else there was to do in the area. It was then that I came across a single sentence footnote to this part of the museum. It said that if you go round the back of the house, there are all the statues from Soviet-era Estonia dumped in an unceremonious pile in the garden. That sounded worth a look! There were various statues of Lenin and Stalin and various other people I didn't recognise, lying there, some decapitated. A remarkable and interesting sight!
In the centre, we found a surprising number of microbreweries for such a small area. These were of varying quality, but of course we had to test some of them out. We found an interesting touristy traditional Estonian cafe, which sold elk soup, reindeer pasties and boar jerky. All the staff were dressed in medieval Estonian clothes. The only downside was that if you wanted a spoon or a fork, you had to perform a forfeit. I was requested to make a noise like a pig while hopping!
The next day was our opportunity to see the old city. We did a lot of walking around, and climbing high buildings. We went up St Olav's church tower and St Mary's Cathedral. We climbed up inside the city walls, in an interesting building that had lots of swords, shields, chainmail and armour to try on and play with! We went into Fat Margaret's Tower, which was a naval museum as well as tower on the city walls which you could climb to the top of. I think the Fat comment related to the tower, which was short, wide and squat, rather than to poor old Margaret herself. We checked out the other site of the Estonian museum, which was a very up-to-date interactive multimedia experience.
We finished our trip off with a trip to a Russian restaurant, where due to a translation error, one of our number ended up ordering a plate of lard for a starter. The Lord's Platter was in fact a Lard Platter.
Two full days were enough to see the sights of Tallinn, but it was a great experience. I would recommend the city for a weekend break. Helsinki seems like a pleasant place to live, but not as interesting or as beautiful as Tallinn.
posted by Unknown at 7:50 pm
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