In short, ESTONIA WAS FANTASTIC!!!
Kim and I have made it a goal to travel to a different country every month. So for the month of September we thought it would be a good idea to travel to some of the other Baltic states and visit our friend Kaarel who we met in Vilnius a few weeks ago. So Estonia it was and we booked our bus tickets (only 179 Litas!) for a weekend of adventure! We found some other friends from the Erasmus program who wanted to go with us: Dora from Hungary and Svenja and Franci both from Germany. It worked out that Dora had a friend living in Tallinn as well who we could meet while there, it was perfect!
We started in Siauliai late Thursday afternoon. Had to miss Lithuanian Civilization lectures, oh well, it's a sacrifice that I think we were all willing to make. And when we told our professor (who happens to also be my Multicultural Communication and Russian professor) that we wouldn't be in class because we were traveling she practically chased us out of the room telling us to travel as much as possible! It was awesome. Then we had about a 2 and a half hour bus ride, in the smallest bus ever (sat next to a man reading a Russian book, good chance to practice reading haha!), to Riga the capital of Latvia. There we just happened to run into our Latvian friend Diana who happened to be visiting home for the weekend. It was a huge "small world" moment that blew my mind! Then we had a four hour bus ride to Tallinn on possibly one of the coolest buses ever. If you are in the Baltic states and in need of cheap but good transportation, go LuxExpress. There's free unlimited hot chocolate on some of their buses, and free wifi. We were living the high life!
Here's a map with all the places we stopped basically. Siauliai is more in the middle-northern region of Lithuania, just in case you wanted to know.
And here we are waiting in the bus station at Riga! From left to right, Kim, Svenja, Dora, and Franci. Haha I thought this picture showed their personalities perfectly.
So lots of sleep and conversations later, we made it to Tallinn!! It was 1:30 in the morning and lucky for us, Kaarel and his family are the coolest people ever, and Kaarel's brother Laur picked us up from the bus station. Kaarel couldn't because he had just had Lasik work done to his eyes the day before, driving was probably not the smartest decision for him. We jammed all our luggage into the back of his rather large Volvo, sat on each other's laps and rode to our accommodations, United Methodist Church. Kaarel and his family attend this church and it was actually a huge blessing! Extremely good dorms for only 10 Euros per night per person. So it came to only about $40 for the whole weekend for a place to sleep, and a good place to sleep too!
The next day Kaarel, foggy vision and sensitive eyes and all, gave us a tour of his home city! We walked around old town, saw cobblestone streets older than the U.S., old defense walls of Tallinn, towers, cathedrals, street art, galleries, TONS of museums! We went to the city museum and was totally blown away by how rich the history of one tiny city was. I totally geeked out over the Soviet history and modern political history. I geeked out SO much that I am going to be writing a blog-post just for history soon, I am THAT inspired! But just for a preview (and because I can't contain myself), we learned a lot about Estonia's fight for independence from the Soviet Union. In 1989, the Baltic States created this 600 km (about 370 miles) long chain of people from Tallinn to Vilnius (!!!!) to protest for independence. And we found out our friend Kaarel was apart of that! He was only about 4 years old but he remembers driving a little out of Tallinn with his brother and his dad and standing holding hands with other people wanting independence from the Soviet Union. I love history, I love it so much. Especially when I can see it touching the daily life of people I know and love. See, totally geeking out over here.
Here we all are! Left to right: Svenja, Kaarel, Kim, Dora, and Franci.
And here's just a few pictures from our tour of Old Town Tallinn:
The following pictures are of the Oleviste Cathedral. This Cathedral has rich history of preservation against the Soviet Union, Kaarel told me a lot about it. But, for now, I'll save you from that historical torture.
This is the Alexander Nevski Church, one of the Russian Orthodox churches in the area:
AND THESE:
Chocolate Syrup and Ice-cream pancakes from the Kompressor. TO DIE FOR. I'm not losing weight at all in Europe. Not with this kind of food around.
So all day long we were hearing rumors that you could take a ferry to Helsinki, Finland for super cheap and be there in a matter of a couple hours. Kim and I could not resist. We would NEVER get the chance to go to Finland ever again and the thought of passing up even a few hours in Finland was just too sad. So the next morning, after a little bit of a wild goose-case to find the ticket vendor, we were on a ferry to FINLAND!! I learned that I get sea-sick on ferries, which is good knowledge to know for the future probably. We ended up only having about 4 hours to see the sights, which was not nearly enough time but very appreciated no matter what! Helsinki is breath-taking!
In front of the Helsinki Cathedral:
The Uspenski Cathedral, this was my favorite:
Oh! And surprisingly we discovered that Helsinki is a city FULL of music, not kidding. Every street there was at least ONE person playing some instrument. We met this band, Half Day Nation, as they were handing out free CDs and warming up their fingers (Finland is COLD). One was from Australia and the other was from Finland, super cool guys! They played a special concert just for us!
Here's their myspace, just saying, you should check them out :)
The random Russian guys that pulled Kim into their picture, this happens a lot more than you would believe:
And on our last day we attended church with Kaarel and made time to stop at the Kumu art museum! Which was so fantastic!!! There will be a future post on art as well, and I can't wait! I have so much art to share with you guys!!!
Haha this is Kaarel in front of his home. He didn't want to show us inside, but I'm sure it's lovely:
Fall is on it's way!
These little birds where EVERYWHERE in Tallinn! I thought it was too cute!
So there you have it! Estonia and Finland in a weekend. It was wonderful and I cannot wait to go somewhere else next! Feeling super blessed and loved here, Europe is like a warm jacket you can just wrap around you. Tons more blog posts to come soon! :) Seriously, tons!
As usual a song and a quote!
This band Franci recommended to them, they are called Hundreds and Thousands. Maybe they are German? We aren't sure...
And a quote that has been on my heart lately:
"Dance like no one is watching, sing like no one is listening, love like you've never been hurt, and live like it's heaven on earth." -- Mark Twain
Viso gero for now! <3 Sarah
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