Tallinn and Helsinki trip (12.-16.05.)

And here comes, more than a month late, the article about my trip during exam time!

Selfie at the well-preserved town walls of medieval Tallinn

Just in case you're still wondering why it's so super-late: exam time, travelling, social life, people coming to visit... well, and then, I literally just needed a break with a bit of time for myself, reading a book that I actually want to read, not course literature, you know...

But don't worry, I took notes during the Free Walking Tours in both Tallinn and Helsinki, so I might still be able to tell you what you can see on some of the photos! Plus, this article might tell you more about Estonian and Finnish history than any history lesson you ever attended in school - unless you happen to be from one of these countries, that is. :P

Tallinn

I'm just gonna tell you what I learnt on the Free Walking Tour first. And I'll keep it mostly in the order of the tour, because I don't feel like bringing stuff into chronological order. :P

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and has some 450.000 inhabitants. Which is quite a lot given that the whole country of Estonia only has 1.3 million people. People have in living in Estonia for 11 thousand years, 10 thousand of which they were pageants - and then, the Germans came with their crusades. That were the northern crusades in 1227, when Estonia was Christianised - as the last country in Europe. From then, the dominant culture was German, although Estonia was conquered by four other countries before the 20th century: Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and Poland. Probably Estonia was just too far off, so they just let the Germans deal with it...

Speaking of: "And then the Germans came" was also an issue when Estonia wanted to become independent in 1918. Due to a power vacuum, they declared independence and managed to be independent for literally a day - because the Germans were already on their way. This was followed by two years of war of independence, and in 1920, Estonia became independent again - for two weeks... In 1991, they finally declared re-independence.

In between, there was a fight over the country between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union sent troops to the Baltic countries in 1939, before WW2 started. So Estonia was liberated multiple times, first from the Soviet Union (by Nazi Germany), then from Nazi Germany (by the Soviet Union). In the course of that, Tallinn was bombed in 1944, and one third of the city was destroyed. However, this bombing was not in the first place against the Nazis, but against the local resistance, so that people would accept this liberation. The reason why "only" 1/3 of Tallinn was destroyed is Finland by the way - and according to our tour guide, Finland doesn't know! Finland carried out a sneak attack against the Soviet airbase at the time of the bombing. For the Finns, this was about revenge, they didn't intend to help Estonia!

Anyway, until 1991, Estonia was under Soviet rule. When they became independent again, they got themselves a freedom monument at the Freedom Square. This War of Independence Victory Column is a bit funny. It was manufactured by a Czech glass company - because they made the cheapest offer. The monument came with 3 years warranty. Shouldn't that make you suspicious? Out tour guide said it already changed colours a bit, and sometimes, at nights, it does not light up the way it's supposed to do... Also, the looks of this monument!

If you're wondering what it even resembles: that's a medal, not a cross. In the middle, there's an E for Estonia, and the other thing is an arm with a sword. However, people have already mistaken it for a hockey stick, a shrimp, or a crack pipe. :P

Behind the freedom monument, you can walk up an Estonian "mountain". In most other countries, that would be a small hill, but as Estonia's highest mountain is only 318m high, oh well... Under the city, there are "secret" tunnels that were built by the Swedes in the 16th century. "Secret" as in: everybody knows they're there. You can actually do tours of them...

Up the hill, there's the tower Kiek in de kök. That's German (Plattdeutsch)/ Dutch for "peek in the kitchen", which is what medieval soldiers did when they were bored during their watch. Medieval reality TV show for the win!

Kiek in de kök

Next to it: the Maiden Tower (I think)

Next to it, there's the Danish King's Garden, where Denmark got its flag in 1219, which makes it the longest existing flag. According to a legend, king Valdemar II (not Voldemort!) gathered three priests and asked for a sign during the Danish invasion. The flag came down from the sky, and the king had to told it up for the entire time of the battle in order to win. He had three guys helping him though - kinda lazy. The alternative story of the Danish flag is that there was just a bloody cloth falling off that was kinda resembling a cross in the blood.

The Danish King's Garden with some priest statues

St. Nicholas' Church

St. Nicholas' Church, the medieval church built by German merchants that can be seen from the Garden, is not actually 700 years old, by the way. It belonged to the 1/3 of Tallinn that was destroyed in 1944. Rebuilding it was a bit of an issue during Soviet rule after WW2, as the Soviet Union did not really like religion and therefore wouldn't give Estonia the money needed. Estonians knew that and therefore explained they wanted to rebuild St. Nicholas for its architectural value and make a library out of it. The Soviet Union still said no. Somebody joked they would have to make a museum of atheism out of the church in order for the Soviet Union to fund the reconstruction. Guess with which order the responsible people came back from the Soviets... :P However, in 1982, the church caught fire and was halt-burnt. Nowadays, it's a museum of medieval art.

When we wanted to approach the orthodox cathedral, Aleksander Nevski Cathedral, with the tour, we were blocked by police etc. because of a bomb threat.

Couldn't get closer than that. 

We returned later that day though and also went in (photographing was prohibited inside). Survived.

So we continued with the most haunted place in the old town instead. That's for sure much safer! :D

The Short Leg Gate

This place is the only pedestrian gate between the medieval upper and lower town. In the upper town lived the noblemen, in the lower town the merchants. Since they couldn't stand each other, they built a wall with only one gate, the place of the executioner. Executioners in medieval times were shun from society and could not marry, except for women from an executioner's family. As there was mostly just one executioner, that came down to their own sister or cousin... Sometimes, executioners took advantage of the situation of women sentenced to death and asked them: "Rather than die, would you marry me?" Fun fact: most chose death.

The gate was also a spy place during the Cold War. They were seriously hiding messages in a super obvious place. However, the hiding place was only made known casually in 1991, when it was all over.

Long Leg Street down from upper to lower town.

Stories from medieval Tallinn: since the noblemen lived in the upper town, they let horse shit flow down the street to the merchants. Oh, and something on how to get rich in medieval times: apparently, it was quite common to send false signals to ships arriving at the port so that they would crash. Then you could come to rescue them and claim up to 50% of their cargo. It's called entrepreneurship! :P (Or legal piracy.)

"Baltic" amber, oh yeah...

Nowadays, it's common to make money with tourists buying amber. Especially the cruise tours that take tourists to the shops and get 20% of the profits in exchange. There's like a million amber shops in Estonia; however, there's no amber in Estonia - it's all imported! If you ask the sellers in the shops, they will probably evade the question of Estonian amber and tell you something about Baltic amber.

Short excursion on onomatology: the name of Tallinn is derived from Taani-linn, meaning "Danish city". However, the city has had many names. Before, it was called Reval. The story of the origin of this name is as follows: King Valdemar went on a deer hunt with some people. There, they saw a deer jump to death, which led a German (Germans are everywhere!) among them to exclaim "Rehfall!" (deer fall). Valdemar found it majestic that the deer would rather jump to death than get shot and decided to call the new conquered city after the falling of the deer. Alternative explanation: Reval is just a mispronunciation of Revala.

Anyway, referring to the deer fall story, there is a small statue of a deer in Tallinn. However, it's not always the same statue, as it keeps getting stolen (nice souvenir, I guess?). In peak times, it got stolen every 2-3 months! Therefore, there's the rumour of the Estonian government having a warehouse full of deer statues. xD

Current state of the deer statue - maybe it'll get stolen less often like this?

And if you ever feel like the city centre of Tallinn makes no sense: yup, that's because even if the buildings are not original, the city structure, the street plan, is still from the fourteen hundreds. However, there are still some medieval house examples to be found, e.g. in the street where our hostel was:

Side remark: the rope was not for hanging people but for getting furniture up. The medieval staircases inside are a bit too narrow.

The highest building in the old town: St Olav's church. (Yeah, Olav is not only a thing in Norway!) The viewing platform can be accessed by climbing 258 stairs. :P

(By the way, we returned later to actually climb the stairs and take photos of the view.)

Back to the time of Soviet-ruled Estonia. Let's talk about the KGB! The Committee for State Security, the Soviet secret service/ police, actually used the tower of the church to block signals. On the other side, the CIA tried to get signals through. This was relevant for spy information, but even more for watching TV - like Dallas! By watching western TV, Estonians were able to see everything that Finland had, only 82 km away! This led people to wonder about questions like: why does Finland have bananas and not us? Bananas actually served as a status symbol back in the day: if you got one in Estonia, you could walk around with it for a day to show off. Fun fact: an exhibition about everyday life in Soviet Estonia is literally called "There are no bananas." However, western media, showing all the little things people didn't have, speed boosted the collapse of the Soviet Union!

We also went to the ex KGB headquarters, the building with the supposedly best view in Tallinn: you can see Siberia from there! (Soviet-times joke.)

The quite fancy-looking ex-KGB headquarters...

It only has a small sign stating that this building used to house the KGB headquarters. Nowadays, it has luxury apartments.

Bottom right: that's all! Even the "for rent" sign is bigger!

On the website for the apartment rental, it just says that the house was "used as an administrative building" and has a "rich history". Understatement of the century. xD They just didn't mention the murder basement, said our tour guide. Although, officially, nobody was murdered there, but, you know, accidents happened...

Side note on the preferred torture method, ahem, method of obtaining information, in the KGB headquarters in Tallinn: they would tie you to a chair under a lamp and wait for a long time, so it would get hot - and then they would hit you with a phone book! That's why the KGB headquarters had extraordinarily high orders of phone books - even when accounting for the fact that they needed phone books to stalk people anyway.

Important side info: Estonia identifies as nordic, not eastern Europe! Latvia and Lithuania might be eastern, but Estonia is nordic - said our tour guide; Latvian and Lithuanian people might disagree. Anyway, the insider tip if you want to get on the good side of Estonians: tell them how nordic they are! Due to their history, Estonians will distrust you by the way if they haven't had like 4 beers, according to our tour guide.

Speaking of alcohol: this is an Estonian fraternity house!

Let me tell you about fraternity party conventions: at a party, one person stays sober and writes down all the misdeeds of the others. Whoever has the highest count at the end has to pay for the next frat party and be the sober one.

A Guild House

And here we have Tallinn's oldest café, which is from 1864, I think. It's called Sweet Tooth. :D

(Nope, we didn't go in with the tour - we came back another day.)

Inside, there's also a marzipan museum. However, do not let yourself deceived by that: marzipan was not invented in Tallinn, just stolen from Lübeck in Germany. :P

The oldest still working clock in Estonia, at the Church of the Holy Spirit:

The town hall square:

The Gothic town hall building is the only remaining in Europe. But what people find more interesting about it are the dragons on it! The two dragon heads are supposed to keep politicians wise.

At the town hall square, there's also the oldest still working pharmacy in the world. Next to an actual pharmacy, it is a museum - and it definitely has some Harry Potter vibes!

We couldn't go in with the tour (it's closed on Sundays - and on other days, it's crowded enough without whole tours coming in), but we came back for it, of course!

The old pharmacy

By the way, in Estonian, it's called "Raeaptek", which literally just means "Town Hall Pharmacy".

Town Hall Tower

Yup, we went up there for the view. I think it costs 3€ or so.

And then you get to climb some nice medieval stairs!

St Olavs viewing platform

Yup, we also went up these stairs for the view. :D 3 or 4€ again.

Random photos in and around old town

Just because it's nice. :) Photos are in no particular order...

Stones telling cars not to drive there. In random dove-shape.

The bar at the town hall square where we watched Eurovision. xD

Randomly found a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Linnahall

Just outside the old town, you'll find this "multi-purpose venue" (thanks, Wikipedia) that was built for the 1980 Summer Olympics. Which were in Moscow - but they outsourced sailing to Tallinn.

Yeah, not the most impressive architectural work - but you mostly go there for the view, as it (obviously) is right by the harbour and a lot of water. You probably know my obsession with water by now, so prepare for a bunch of photos...

Modern art?

Especially with the combination of water and sunset, which seriously never fails to get me excited. Plus, these were two of the nicest sunsets I had ever seen (yup, we went there for both our sunsets in Tallinn).

Vegan food

Tallinn itself was already great because of the beautiful medieval town, but next to that, it was also super affordable AND they had good vegan restaurants (all the medieval food stuff did not seem to be extremely vegan-friendly).

Vegan Restoran V

Thank you for choosing vegan! ^_^

Vegan Inspiratsioon

Veganised version of the "spotted dog", a traditional Estonian cake.

Veganised Estonian potato salad.

How to spot a somewhat activist café: stickers in the bathroom!

Both highly recommended! No. 1 is a bit more fancy and luxurious, but I liked the atmosphere in no. 2 more (you can see from the photos that I went there multiple times :D).

Ferry trip

Getting from Tallinn to Helsinki is quite easy, as they are literally just separated by a bit of water. :D So you only have to get on a ferry, and less than three hours later, you're there. If I speak of ferry, I do not refer to one of the rather small commuter ferries, but one of these massive things:

There's so much stuff on these ferries: bars, restaurants, gaming machines - even a duty-free shop! (As you can see, it was my first time on one of these monster ships.)

Fun fact: I didn't have to show my ID for the flight from Oslo to Tallinn or the flight from Helsinki to Oslo, but for the ferry!

Bye, Tallinn, it was great with you! :)

Approaching Helsinki...

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital of Finland - stating the obvious, you think? Nope, people have actually confused it with Stockholm, because, for some reason, it's all the same in northern Europe for some people. xD Speaking of: with its around 630.000 citizens, Finland is the third biggest city in the nordic countries - after Stockholm and Oslo! In total, Finland has around 5.5 million inhabitants, so the capital/country population ratio is not as extreme as in Estonia, but still: more than 10% of the population live directly in the capital! (That would never happen in Germany; Berlin is not even close to 8 million...)

Anyway, let me share the knowledge I acquired during the Helsinki Free Walking Tour with you!

In the 1200s, there were only tribes with natural religions in Finland - and then, the Swedes brought Christianity to Finland. Finland was not an independent country back then, but first belonged to Sweden and then to Russia. It was Russia that made Helsinki the capital of Finland. (Wikipedia bonus fact: before that, Turku was the capital.)

In 1917, Finland pleaded to become independent from Russia - and independence was given without a war! (There was a civil war, the Finnish Civil War, during the transition in 1918 though.)

Let's come to the starting point of the tour: the Senate Square.

It is considered the meeting point of political power, education, and religion, because it's surrounded by the Government Palace, the main building of the University of Helsinki, and Helsinki Cathedral. On the square, there's a statue of the Russian czar Alexander II. Why Helsinki has a Russian czar on its main square, you're wondering? Because he was the one who allowed Finland to keep its religion and languages when it belonged to Russia.

The stairs leading up to the cathedral are a local meeting place by the way. The cathedral itself is a Lutheran Protestant church, but with statues and in neoclassical style inside. The bells of the cathedral were too heavy, so they are located in an extra building:

Fun fact: they are in one extra building, but there's two, one on each side of the church - for symmetry!

One of the statues inside Helsinki Cathedral depicts Mikael Agricola, who translated the New Testament into Finnish and created the written Finnish language in the 16th century. Before, Swedish was the language of power. If you're interested in learning Finnish, have fun: the language has 14 cases, and one word can take on up to 100 forms. On the bright side, however, everything is pronounced the way it's written. :D If you don't understand any Finnish, don't worry: Finland has a second official language: Swedish! I might be biased because I learnt a bit of Norwegian, and Swedish is quite similar to that, but I find Swedish so much easier to understand! Anyway, Finnish people learn both of them, and everybody seems to learn English as well, so they all understand at least three languages.

The National Library:

The university library:

Quite modern-looking!

Looking at the libraries, let's talk a bit more about education! Universities are free in Finland, like in all the nordic countries, I feel. However, you might have heard of Finland in the context of PISA (the test, not the city), where the country scored quite high. That can probably be attributed to the small group sizes in schools (good teacher:pupils ratio). And they actually don't give too much homework. :P However, they place emphasis on the languages (at least 3, you know), enabling people to read and study in multiple languages.

Side remark: ever wondered about Finnish companies? Nokia is one - and Angry Birds is Finnish, too. :D Another Finnish export hit is their concept of children's beds - or their lack thereof. In Finland, children don't sleep in beds, but in cardboard boxes with their toys, making all children equal.

Another fun fact: Finland has a higher coffee consumption per capita than any other nation in the world. According to our tour guide, that's their solution approach to the darkness in winter, when they only have 5.5 hours of daylight...

Finland's central bank, which is the fourth oldest in the world:

+ our tour guide (it's not called Green Cap Tours for not reason!)

(If you're wondering: the oldest is in Sweden)

In front of the bank, there's a monument of Johan Vilhelm Snellman, who established the bank. The statue was damaged during Soviet bombing in WW2, and was intentionally kept like that.

The House of Estates, which was not used anymore after the parliamentary reform in 1906:

Speaking of 1906: the year of women's suffrage in Finland! From 1906 on, women were allowed to vote and become members of parliament. That was actually quite early, as Finland was the second country in the world, just after New Zealand.

Oh, and let's talk about winter again: it's not only dark, but also cold. Due to the low salt content (less than 1%), the sea actually freezes, and you need ice breakers (yellow ships, not sure if you can see them anywhere in the pictures though...)

This is a building designed by Alvar Aalto, a Finnish architect. The architect himself is well-respected and liked, they even named a university in Helsinki after him. (Fun fact: when applying for my master exchange, that was one of my priorities. :D) However, this white building is probably the most hated in Helsinki. The "sugar cube", as it's called, is perceived as too big. Furthermore, it had to be repaired many times, because the marble can't handle the weather.

Nearby: Uspenski Cathedral, the largest Russian orthodox church outside of Russia.

It was actually built later than the Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral, although Finland belonged to Russia in the 19th century. The red bricks are recycling material by the way: they came from collapsed buildings from the most recent war or so...

Finland's Independence Day is on the 6th of December. There's a big celebration in the city centre / government area. And a protest of about 30 anarchists complaining about the waste of government money - the other people are busy watching the event on TV... When Finland became independent, there was the question of whether the country should be a presidency or a monarchy. The designated king from Germany was already learning Finnish, but then, the civil war broke out and Germany was losing WW1, so they opted for presidency instead.

Next to the government building, there's also an area for naked swimming - the Finns apparently have a quite relaxed relationship to nudity. (Not surprisingly, keyword: sauna culture)

Naked swimming area

Esplanade Park:

The park contains a statue of Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the writer of the Finnish national anthem.

Hi bird!

Fun fact: the anthem was originally written in Swedish language. However, nowadays, 90% of the people sing the anthem in Finnish.

The tour ended by the monument, so now for the other things we did/saw:

The academic store, presumably the nicest book store in Helsinki or Finland, or generally a very nice book store. By Aalto, of course. :P

The Moomin store:

You might have seen this hippo-like figures by Tove Jansson before. They are another Finnish export hit.

The market hall:

Suomenlinna

Suomenlinna, or Sveaborg, if you prefer Swedish, is a sea fortress from the 18th century that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site today. Going to the six connected islands on which it is located is part of the public transport ticket for Helsinki. (Got to love the nordic countries for all the public transport ferries! :))

Hi toad! :)

Very nice weather. :)

Sunset on the water

Yup, we took the ferry again later, just for the beautiful sunset. :)

Hi bird! :D

Kamppi Chapel:

Kamppi Chapel is also called "The Chapel of Silence", because it's supposed to be a place to calm down in all the busyness of the city.

Temppeliaukio Church

Temppeliaukio Church is a Lutheran church which I assume most people know as "Rock Church" - because it was built directly into a rock. The design is amazing, making it a big tourist attraction. And unlike the other churches, you actually have to pay an admission fee for it.

Sibelius Monument

Ok, so just to prevent confusion: the Sibelius Monument is located in the Sibelius Park, and both are named after or dedicated to Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer. The creator of the pipe monument, however, was Eila Hiltunen, and she wanted to capture the essence of the music of Sibelius. And more confusion: it just looks like organ pipes, but resembles rather waves or so. Abstract art ftw...

This also belongs to the monument.

Aaand for the sake of size comparison. ;)

Enough art.

Time to go home.

Nice pun. :P

In the clouds...?

(Side remark: Finland is obviously not as affordable as Estonia, but unlike Norway, they at least have Lidl. Who would have thought that I'd ever get experience a sense of home when entering a Lidl... But they actually had some nice vegan products, so I got as much as I could fit into my cabin bag - they only gave me slightly strange looks at the security control at HEL...)

How I was greeted back in my student village on the 16th of May. :)