Well this will be my last update. I'm now sitting at my hostel in Helsinki, having checked out, rather less hungover than I intended, with 5 hours until my flight leaves. Helsinki, as I expected, is less about the touristy things to see/do, and more about the nightlife. Which suited me fine, as I already have two friends who live here - and managed to find an extremely social hostel.
Vaasa was the first of three locations in this update - I arrived there on Thursday afternoon after an extremely scenic flight from Tromso, with a train from Oulu, to meet a guy who'd agreed to let me couchsurf at his (Janne). Being Finnish, of course, he had a sauna in his house, and invited a few friends round to get drunk in the sauna with us. So sitting naked in a random guy's sauna, getting drunk with him and his (very international - Czech, French, Italian and Finnish) friends (male and female) was a pretty cool (/warm) experience! Then, since my coach wasn't until 4pm on Friday, I did what any self-respecting backpacker would do on a nice day in a random place: got some wifi then chilled on the beach for the day.
Arriving from the coach on Friday night (about 11pm), I was tired and disorientated, plunged into the drinking centre of a new city in the dark. So, predictably, got lost pretty quickly. That many drunken Finns are disconcerting at the best of times! But a very helpful local stopped as he was cycling past to help me out, which got me back on the right track and I found the hostel. Saturday, I had arranged to meet up with a girl (Johanna) who I'd met in Cairns a couple of years ago, as she studies in Helsinki. So I wandered round the city and spent a good 45 minutes looking round the lively, buzzing and interesting central market, then had a gander at the two cathedrals (Russian Orthodox and Lutheran) nearby. I then met up with Johanna and we walked over to sit by the beach because, as always, the weather was incredible. In the evening, I headed back to my hostel with some beers, cooked my tea and sat in there with a beer, waiting for people to talk to me. Which happened pretty quickly - a very sociable group, who I promptly went out to a local bar with for a few (more) drinks.
On Sunday, I pulled myself out of bed at the earliest time I could manage (around 10am) and walked off up to the National Museum (I'm not even going to attempt to give you the Finnish names for these places - it's a waste of both of our times!), which was of a similar standard to the Oslo and Copenhagen ones - an interesting way to spend a few hours, but a little disappointing. I was hoping for more on the power struggles between Sweden and Russia, which have undoubtedly shaped the country, but I think - having been independent for less than 100 years - they're keen to focus it more internally. The Helsinki Museum was a similar story - relatively little mentioned about the Swedes or the Russians, but focussed more on the location and inhabitants of the city.
I then had another quick trip to the Central Market to think about getting myself a knife, with a hand-carved reindeer antler handle, but I didn't go for it in the end. Still thinking about it for today though! Saturday evening, I then invited my other friend in Helsinki, Todd (a Welsh guy that I met in South Africa, 8 and a half years ago and haven't seen since!), round to my hostel for a few drinks. So we ended up going out with a pretty big group (around 10 of us) from the hostel again, to another local bar.
Having a ferry to Tallinn (Estonia) booked for 7.30 in the morning on Monday, I clearly wanted to get back early. Which didn't really happen. So, after about 5 hours' sleep, I jogged down to the ferry terminal, thinking that 10 past 7 would be plenty time to catch it. But, it turns out, they close the check-in at 7am, and leave as soon as everyone's on board - so I was 10 minutes late and they wouldn't let me on. Thankfully though, they transferred me to the 10.30 ferry for no extra charge, which gave me a few free hours. I walked up the west coast of the main island, to see the Sibelius Monument, not realising quite how far it was. So, getting paranoid about missing my next ferry, I turned back before I got there and was at the ferry terminal about 40 minutes too early.
Eventually in Tallinn though, after a few obligatory ferry beers, I wandered about the more modern section of town - helping a rather drunk guy climb into a first floor window which he claimed was his. Being British, I kind of didn't want to question it, but he did show me an identity card, with some kind of address on. So hopefully I wasn't accessory to burglary. Supposedly, his girlfriend had gone out and locked him out. I'm trying not to think about it too much! Off to the Old Town (I didn't even see the Estonian name, never mind telling you all), I climbed the Town Hall tower (after a pint - 0.562L - of beer in a traditional style tavern) and had a good wander round the old streets, followed by a meal of game sausages - bear, elk and boar - and some dark beer with herbs, in another medieval-style pub (Olde Hansa - touristy, but very recommended by both myself and Lonely Planet), by which time I had to hot foot it back down to the ferry terminal with 5 minutes to spare.
Catching up on some sleep, with a quick beer to replace what I'd slept off, I passed the 2-hour journey pretty quickly. Having broken my phone screen the night before (the charger fell on it - not a drunken accident!) and with my ipod refusing to charge - with someone monopolising the hostel computer like I am now - meant getting in touch with Johanna again was a bit tricky. But eventually, I managed to meet up with her again and bring her back to the hostel for another drink, before again joining people in the same bar as Saturday night. Annoyingly though, my travel money card decided to stop me from getting any more beers that day and I had no cash, so - by the time we left - I went back to the hostel rather more sober than I'd hoped for my final night.
So now, rather sad to be going home, but happy to have had such a great experience, met many lovely people and seen some pretty incredible places, I'm off to wander about Helsinki again for a few hours. Thanks for reading, and not making me explain individually to you all what I've been doing!
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