We arrived in Helsinki, Finland at 11pm. IT IS COLD HERE
A bit of reindeer games to get the holiday started.
I'm in Finland!
The next morning, we set off on a walking tour of Helsinki. It's a pretty small Old Town, but has two cathedrals. This is one of them- Uspenski Cathedral.
Helsinki's Cathedral on the Town Hall square.
My official Finland photo!
We window-shopped on their pedestrian street, and found this AMAZING chocolate snow globe display in a chocolatier's window.
Matt found the Christmas Lego display in a toy shop's window.
Helsinki's outdoor Christmas ice rink!
A lovely shot of Helsinki.
We caught the 3:30pm ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. Whee! We're on a ferry for two hours!!
We arrived around 6pm, and checked into our very cute hotel in the center of Old Town.
The hotel was literally built into the Old Town walls.
En route to Reception, we discovered the most awesome bathroom ever: The Dungeon Bathroom.
Medieval door, huge cavernous dungeon-space...
And a massive hole in the center. The hole is glassed-over, and inside are pieces of the ancient medieval wall,
Once we settled into our hotel, we made a beeline for Tallinn's Christmas market in the town square.
Cold as hell, but beautiful and CHRISTMAS!!
We stumbled upon a fantastic restaurant. Tallinn is known for amazing Nordic-Russian food, reasonably priced given the quality. The Farm is a new restaurant, though I can't explain the weird taxidermy in the window (foxes and bears having tea).
Mmmm a bottle of Estonian cider and housemade Nordic brown bread. Amazing.
Helsinki and Tallinn