June 10th - June 16th

So I think the blog gods are getting back at me for not actually writing on my blog. They've given me quite the unpleasant cold, so I don't feel like doing anything else besides sitting and drinking copious amounts of tea.

So as an attempt to please, I will sum up the past week or so I've been here. When Tom and I first got to Helsinki we were too jet lagged to really do much.... but once we recovered we went to Tallinn, the Capitol of Estonia. We took a two hour boat ride over. The weather was really bad and the boat was rocking a bit much for Tom's liking. Tallin was awesome though. It is a super old city, 14th-15th century. Our hostel was right in the middle of Old Town, which is beautiful and quaint, and everything you could want from an old European city. Tallinn is also significantly cheaper than Helsinki, which was a nice surprise.The first full day I walked around to a bunch of churches. The Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was my favorite. Of course you can't take pictures inside, but it was very classy and everything was in Russian, so I was doubly excited!

We took it pretty easy in Tallinn. I mostly walked around by myself all the day, seeing pretty buildings, stopping in at cafes for cappuccinos, really doing the tourist thing pretty hard. Old Town is surrounded by the original fortress, and I got to climb up one of the towers, which was cool. I also saw the park grounds where the Singing Revolution started in 1988, when about 300,000 people started signing national Estonian songs as part of a mass demonstration against the Soviet Union. Of course, it took a few more years for Estonia to gain its independence, a journey which also included a 600km human chain that stretched from Tallinn to Riga to Villinus (all three Baltic states). You have to give them credit for creativity in the fight for freedom, no?


We are back in Helsinki now. Thankfully the weather is considerably nicer. I went to the Finnish Design Museum today and saw some work by Oiva Toikka. I had no idea who that was before I went, but he does some cool blown glass stuff (and seems to do a little more work himself than the guy we saw in Nashville.

I also spotted this lovely planter, which I took a picture of for Cassie... (you're welcome)
Ok. Now I'm mostly caught up, give or take a church or museum. Two days until Russia - still haven't heard from the school at all, so who knows! I'm going to try to sleep. Although its 11 here it looks like maybe 7:30 outside... really messes with you.