Voyage to Tallinn

It feels like I haven't stopped traveling since I left Minnesota more than 3 weeks ago...first to Porvoo, then Kokkola, then Savonlinna, then Tampere, then back to Porvoo, and finally to Estonia! It's been so much fun, though, and completely worth the hours spent in transit. Tallinn (the capital of Estonia), which Kaati, Ari, Konsta, and I visited on Thursday, far exceeded my expectations...I had barely even heard of (and certainly had never contemplated visiting) the city before Kaati told me of her plans to go there by boat, and when I tried to imagine what it would be like, all I could picture was a dark, dead, industrial town. To my surprise, however, Tallinn (particularly the older part) was vibrant and busy with tourists and merchants. Everything about it was charming and interesting to look at, from the brightly painted historic guilds and houses, to the cobblestone streets, to the impressive stone walls and towers that surrounded it (there were even remnants of a moat!). Here are some pictures (and a map) so that you can get an idea of what I saw (the last photo, by the way, is of Kaati being put into some kind of medieval torture device that was on the outside of the old city hall).





These past couple of days have been fairly relaxing compared to the last week...yesterday we stayed mostly in the apartment and recovered from the Tallinn adventure (which ended up being a 17-hour day), and today we drove to a local island to visit the market and the sea. I don't know what the plans are for the rest of this week, but I guess I will just try to update along the way...so until my next post, näkemiin!