Estonian Escapade!

On Saturday I was going on another adventure with Dian and Lorraine. We had booked the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and were then going to watch the Eurovision song contest in Tallinn and stay the night using "couch surfing" - more about that later!

I got up at 6.15 (aware that Dian and Lorraine were leaving Jyvaskylla at about the same time to meet me at Tampere). We met on the train at Tampere and caught up on our 2 weeks so far in Finland. We arrived in Helsinki and took out luggage to the hotel where we would be staying on Sunday for the mid-evaluation meeting with the other Finland participants.Then we caught the tram down to the harbour and boarded the boat for Tallinn. Dian then told us that many Finns use this journey to travel to Estonia to buy alcohol. Alcohol is very expensive in Finland - the government have set a minimum tariff to try to reduce the incidence of heavy drinking. However, there will always be those who find ways around. This was born out by the fact that there were many people with very light suitcases which were then full on the way home the next day with their purchases! They also started buying alcoholic drinks the moment they had boarded the boat. When I went to the toilet the person in front of me emerged from the cubicle with her glass of wine!

Trying to take with all of us (me far left!)

leaving Helsinki

Arriving in Tallinn

It was very sunny and warm and was a very relaxing journey. There was a free bus up to the old city. The old city is definitely "old" and dates back to the Hansa times.Most of the streets were cobbled and the buildings very old and traditional.

one of the old gates

part of the old city wall

There was an event going on in the Old Market Square - "old city days" so there was a stage and various groups of children and choirs were performing.

We enjoyed browsing all the many tourist souvenir shops - very different to Tampere and even to Helsinki. We adopted a policy of looking today and coming back to buy tomorrow if we still wanted it to avoid those impulse buys!

Dian spotted a pair of glitter-covered brogues in a very exclusive shoe shop. We went in and she ttied them on and it was love at first sight:

Dian in love!

However, they were quite expensive and she apparently has a lot of shoes so she felt she needed to ask her husband, Pascale's permission. Unfortunately she could not get a wi-fi connection. We then went to have a late lunch in the square.

Throughout the food Dian was mulling over the shoes. Between our dinner and dessert she went to find McDonald's so that she could access the wi-fi. She sent him a message and we waited with bated breath for the reply. Our lunch was quite traditional Estonian food - I had salmon which was really nice and then we had a blue cheese cheesecake which was "interesting"! We went back to McDonald's to get the reply and finally it came back - Yes! We walked back up to the shoe shop only to find that it was closed and would not be open on the Sunday. Poor Dian! They were in the window but despite hammering on the door, no one was there. We managed to drag her away and walked up to the top of the town.

one of the many churches

We carried on round and found an amazing viewpoint over the whole city:

We were all flagging a bit so we sat in the warm, sunny evening and enjoyed the view. We then walked back down toward the square, passing another of the old gates:

In the square we were meeting our "Couch-surfing" hosts. This is a network whereby people can offer their couch for others to stay. It is an amazing idea and is obviously great for anyone travelling on a tight budget.
Dian had suggested this and we had gone along with the idea but by now were all feeling a bit apprehensive. We decided that we did not have to go through with it and could always go and find a hotel room. However, as soon as we met our hosts we felt very comfortable with them. Aron, was an Estonian software designer and is wife, Nisa, was from Turkey. They had met in England and were very well travelled. It was really interesting chatting to them as we walked to the bar, hearing about life in Estonia and some of their travels. Aron had lived briefly in Mapperley in Nottingham and Nisa had been an au pair in King's Langley near Watford. We were meeting with other couch surfers at the bar to watch the Eurovision Song Contest! One of the surfers had posted a notice on the website to meet there if anyone wanted to join us. During the evening about 15 young people, mainly from Estonia arrived. I did feel quite old and was also feeling very tired - it had already been a long day. We decided to eat at the bar and I thought some food might help my flagging energy levels. It was quite a traditional Estonian bar with traditional food too, away from the tourist track. I had the Russian meat soup and some Estonian cheese and biscuits. Due to the time difference the contest did not even start until 10pm! We were on a raised area by a television but it was almost completely obscured by a shell chandelier!

Left to right - Nisa, Aron, Stuart, Dian and Lorraine (many more came later)  complete with chandeliers!

There was a very large screen in the centre part of the bar and unfortunately the sound was coming from that but it was out of synch with our picture - all added to the fun! I survived the 26 songs but thankfully we decided to go to the apartment to hear the votes! The apartment belonged to Aron's mother and was quite traditional. At first I was a bit taken aback and unsure. However, I was overwhelmed by Aron and Nisa's hospitality. They lived a very simple life and what they had they shared with us.

Couch on the right, floor on the left!

Dian ready for her couch surfing experience

Lorraine on my bed!

Dian and Lorraine were also very generous and took the floor and let me have the couch.  I did hear the final result of the Eurovision that Sweden had won but soon fell asleep. Poor Lorraine has had a chest infection and at one point in the night was coughing vehemently. She had a good swig from her cough mixture and then slept well! I woke up about the same time needing to go to the loo - Russian Revenge from my Russian soup!!! We all settled back down. I woke up first and hand wrote my blog in my journal so that I would remember our experiences!