Helsinki Finland

 Today we visited Helsinki Finland

Things that I noticed today:

Ludafisk - Fried whole fish you eat bones, tail and all. The street vendor at least cut the heads off. I tried it. It wasn't as bad as I thought but most likely not something I would eat on my own. 

The boat docked at 7:15 in the morning but things didn't open until 9:00 or 10:00. The dock times at some ports have seemed early and short in my mind. 

We visited 3 churches:

The Russian orthodox church was very ornate with a lot of gold and candles. The shapes are boxy and tall and the people in the paintings often look like typical medieval people. 

The other two churches were Lutheran. One church was simple and clean with a really nice organ. The other was the rock church that was literally built into a rock and is called Temppeliaukio Church. It was very unique and peaceful. You can also hike to the top of the hill that the church is built in and get a view of the city. 

Lutheran churches are much more simple with clean lines and do not have all the statues and paintings that we have seen in other churches. 

We went on a boat tour while the Shahs went to go visit their daughter who is serving a mission. We went to the grocery store before they left and got some candy. It's fun to check out the different food options in the grocery stores in different ports. The boat tour was hard to hear so we were basically traveling along the coastline without knowing what we were seeing. It was a beautiful view and reminded me of Big Bear. They mentioned an area where people could stay in luxury of yesteryear which ended up being houses with no electricity or running water. Doesn't sound like luxury to me, ha ha. We ate at the farmers market and other than the churches and boat tour that's all we had time for today. 

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Tallinn, Estonia

When we arrived in Tallinn we met up with Natalie who was a friend that Joel knew who was happy to take us around the city for the day. She was delightful and we were able to see so much more than we probably would have on our own. Natalie was originally from Belarus and moved to Estonia after Russia started invading Ukraine. She was patient with us today as we wandered and explored the city. 

We ended up walking from the ship to the city (We walked a LOT on this trip). The city was charming once we entered the walls. 

As we walked through the city you never knew what you would find. In one of the neighborhoods we found a plaque that showed the area before and after bombs destroyed it during the World War in 1944. It was a bit eerie. 

We entered through the gates of the city. There were indentions in the walls of the city and people used to use them to sell their hand crafted goods. It was shut down during covid but it was interesting to see the the buildings were just built right into the walls. We enjoyed meandering through the older parts of the city and winding through the houses and businesses. 

One of the places we visited was Olde Hansa which had people dressed up in period costume and served food that was authentic to the time that they were recreating. The atmosphere was great and it was one of my favorite meals of our trip. We also bought some spiced nuts that they were making outside in a stall that were really good. 

At one point of the day it started pouring rain. We went inside a church to check it out and get out of the rain for awhile. 

We bought some really good chocolate while we were there. Ritter Sport was a good brand and the peppermint was my favorite. 

One of the things that was interesting in the city was the remnants of past wars as well as protests of the current war of Russia against Ukraine. There were Putin poop bags, bloody bears and a strong voice against Russia's invasion at the Russian embassy. Throughout our trip we saw evidence that other countries are not happy with what Putin is doing in Ukraine either. 

One of the places we visited was a pharmacy that included some old remedies such as parched bees, dried toads, powdered unicorn horn and spices. They had a plague mask on display and they used to fill it with herbs to try and mask the smell of the plague. 

After we finished in the city we went to a ship museum and saw preserved ship wrecks as well as learned about the history of shipping. Part of the experience allowed us to walk through a ship that broke up ice and see how the crew worked and lived. 

Another great day. We enjoyed the sunsets very late at night most days as it was so far north.