Estonian walks and resulting activities....

Walking through Tallinn's old town is like going back to the Middle Ages, the stone streets, buildings, short towers (which were probably more than sufficient for a lookout back then) and city wall that you could walk along. The latter and seeing a crow fly from Hermann's Tower gave me Game of Thrones flashbacks.

Unfortunately I was there on a holiday so all the museums I wanted to visit, as well as the palace were closed. It gave me more time to wander, but even then I couldn't quite get enough of the medieval atmosphere and never left old town to see the more modern parts of the city.

Tallinn is a very affordable city to visit, I took advantage of this and ate fancier meals (soups, starters and the works!), bought street snacks (roasted seasoned almonds that were incredibly addictive, that cone of nuts ran out days ago and I'm still thinking about them). I went to Pôgu, one of those restaurants where there's just a door on the side of an arched passageway and you have to go down some pretty uneven stairs before you find a full sized hoppin' joint in the basement. Russian food is pretty abundant in Tallinn as well, which is more than ok to me. One of my favourite things about being in Russia last year was the food (kinda weird right? But it's true). Another discovery I made was Fizz cider, I highly recommend the blueberry.

While souvenir shopping I wandered into a store (one of many!!) featuring handmade wool/felt goods, the hats were quite beautiful (and yes, somewhat 20's-esque) so I tried some on (still sad I had no practical way of transporting them home). The shopkeeper puts this one hat on me, tells me it's a traditional style in Estonia, a looooong knit toque that you put on like a normal hat then wrap the tail around you like a scarf. I laughed and laughed but you know what? It was actually very practical and made me wonder why us Canadians have never thought of such a thing! So I bought it lol. Watch for me to rock the cold weather Estonian-style next winter!

It'd been my original plan to buy a Tallinn card which included admission into all the museums and transit, but that idea went out the window when I found out everything was closed (thanks to the girl at Go Hotel's front desk). As a result I had to buy separate transit fare to get the tram to the bus terminal the day I left for Riga, pretty easy and I was across the street from Balti Jaam, the train station, so transit service was frequent. Riding the tram to the bus station was the only glimpse I had of regular life in Tallinn, but I'd argue there's probably no better sampling of everyday life you can get than by taking public transit.

So many felt crafts in Tallinn...love these dolls...

Next up....Riga, Latvia!

Slight chance it's the complimentary champagne talking....

It's been a pleasant if sightly slow start to the trip, somewhere in the back of my head it occurs to me that this is probably how normal people travel...

Icelandic air is generous on the leg room if not so much on the seat padding (even with my usual dose of Robax Planimtum, I was squirming in hour 3 of 5+ hours from Toronto to Reykjavik), but do note: a beverage aside, all food is for purchase, and this is an 8+ hour (total) fight. Our one hour layaway in Reykjavik melted away quickly with the additional scan we had to pass through, and from there it was just 3.5 hrs to Helsinki.

The Finnair bus for €6.50 was a fast and comfortable way to get from the airport to the city centre. I blame it on the jet lag, but when I got there I was more interested in getting some breakfast than finding any ferry, though it was 2pm there, it felt like 7am to me after all. Promising myself I wouldn't eaten an abundance of McDonald's breakfasts this trip, I wandered into a supermarket's bakery section where all goods were seemingly left untouched except for some €0.50 croissants. Well, do as the locals do...and what you know, these just might be the best croissants I've ever tasted (and I frequent a lot of gourmet bakeries) in terms of buttery-ness, flakiness....

Right, right, so after that diversion (and I promised myself I'll go back for a few more just as soon as I get back to Helsinki), I used a little GPS assistance and started making my way to the Linda Line dock, which is the fastest boat to Tallinn, Estonia. It cost me €42, which sounded reasonable enough to me, to get a 1.5hr ferry to Tallinn. I had grand plans of taking photographs the entire way, of the Helsinki ferry dock, the open waters, and approach to Tallinn...instead jet lag got the better of me and I slept the while way.

Unfortunately I woke up to torrential rains, and me with my rain gear (compact umbrella and dollar store poncho) in my suit case and cloth shoes on my feet. I struggled to get as much waterproof gear on as I could before they kicked me off the boat and ran for the terminal. To my dismay the directions I'd printed out to get to the hotel were walking directions (D'oh!)

Anyway, got to the hotel relatively dry, all things considered... The Economy Hotel (I know...with a name like that...but it got good ratings on Tripadvisor) is everything its name implies, small room, two little single beds, bathroom with a shower, soap, towels, tv (that I never watch anyway), and table & chair. My room was on the 3rd floor, with no lift it was just troublesome enough to make me wish I'd packed a little lighter. The WiFi only really worked in the lobby and 2nd floor foyer, once in a while I would get a signal if I had my phone practically pressed to the room door. No complaints in terms of noise or lack of hot water though, granted I'm used to streetcars (trams) running past my window, you may not be. At least there were no drunken idiots shouting outside my window and the other guests kept to themselves.

Tales of Tallinn's old town and where I got this free champagne from...coming up next!

The very early stages of planning

So rare for me to blog twice within a 2 week period right?  Hell, it's rare for me to blog twice within a month...

Since I booked my flights I've discovered one thing of note:  ABBA The Museum is opening on May 7th in Stocklhom and advanced tickets are now available.  I'd made that quip about ABBA in my last blog and I guess it turns out I wasn't so far off after all ;)

Had some spare time last week (not so much this week) so I started my online reading, discovering the wonders of Tallinn, the frequency that the ferries from Helsinki ran, some tourist highlights and the bus schedule to Riga.  There appears to be a €6 ticket available (€3 if you're cool with arriving at 3am... which I'm not) that I'd like to take advantage of.  Hopefully still available by the time I book (if you should find yourself in a similar situation, you may choose to book the ticket now and simply eat the cost if it turns out you can't use it later... Riga is near the start of my trip so I think I'll be able to firm up plans soon, therefore I will wait another week or so)

It could be a fluke, or maybe my dates aren't exact (always plan for the worst, or worse at least...) but I saw some recommended hotels on TripAdvisor for about $80-$90/night in Riga.  Pretty affordable for a hotel in my books, and they're described as central.  I will consult a map before I book.  Again, hopefully that's soon before prices go up (May is the start of high season).

Though I don't believe everything I read, I like to get a feel for how many days people like to spend in each city.  TripAdvisor has a great search tool, typing in something like "how many days in Tallinn?" will get you what you're looking for.  Read people's comments carefully, everyone sight-sees at a different pace so just because they suggest 5 or 6 days doesn't mean you need that much time if you're willing to get up early, walk 12 hours, and pack a lunch to eat in a park.  Side tip:  If you're in a city on Monday/Tuesday with plans to go to museums, check their hours as some are closed at the beginning of the week, which may require you to stay an extra day or alter your itinerary.

Take this preliminary approach for every city, you'll inevitably discover more about some cities than others.  That's ok, a little reading will quickly give you a feel for how much time you want to spend in one place.  After reading about Tallinn, I was ready to spend 3 days there, but when I took all the cities into consideration and how much time in total I had, I quickly realized that was unrealistic and that I could easily see the city in a much shorter period of time.

Also when time (or in some cases, money) runs a little short, you can start to make the decision whether you want to do some overnight travel to save time/cash.  For some routes, overnight is the only viable option.  For example, ferries from Tallinn/Riga to Stockholm only sail at night as it's a 15 hour trip.  Even if they were to sail in the mornings it would be a waste to be stuck on a boat all day losing precious sightseeing time.  (The ferry sails around 5:30pm so there's many hours of daylight where you can enjoy the view before it gets dark, and you can get up again at dawn to watch the sunrise over the water if you wish).

I find midday travel a bit of a pain, it cuts your day in half, you can't do too much in the morning because you need to catch your train/plane/bus, and when you arrive it'll take time to get oriented, settled in your hotel etc. and by then it's getting dark so not much is accomplished in your day.  If I have to travel in the day, I try to do it in the early morning (I'm not a morning person so I'm cool with dozing until we arrive).  Evening is also an option, but as a single woman I don't like arriving in new places in the dark trying to find my way to my hotel.  It's ok if I'm already familiar with my destination.

After a while you start to feel ready to draft an itinerary, it's not carved in stone but gives you a feel of how your trip may go....  Here's my preliminary draft:

(A little small but click on it for full sized image)

I've included what I consider to be my essential details in a way that's easy for me to read.  You may choose to organize differently.  I like to look at the date, see my start city and end city (aka do I have to travel on that particular date?), how I'm traveling, and where I'm sleeping that night (if it's on a train, I'll dress in wrinkle-free clothes and make sure I have an extra layer to stay warm.  Secondly if there's something special I've got planned (a show, a concert...), so I can plan that day accordingly.  Then there's the stuff that's good to know, ie. any major costs and other info.

That's about it for now.  Next steps would probably be to keep reading and start booking something.  For those of who do a lot of traveling, this is likely pretty dry for you, but others have expressed an interest in how I plan my vacations.  So I thought I'd detail a little bit of my process.

Cheers.