Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland

 I feel comfortable, conceivably for the first time during Semester at Sea, saying we saw a lot in this port.  Perhaps it is my own insecure and frustrated projections, but it sure seems like people expect very little in us when asking the status quo question when back at sea, “What did you all do in this port?”  In fact, this may be extreme paranoia, however, it sure feels like we are the askers way more than being asked, as if people have just decided to stop asking us.  Maybe they don’t want a detailed account of the playground or spot of grass we visited.  Strange!  Seriously, we do more.  Anyway, I was sitting at breakfast with a group of students, who were discussing the details of their travel to the nearby country of Estonia.  I finally inserted that we, too, had been to Estonia and the response was a big-eyed, “Really?  Oh, how was it?”

The capital city of Estonia, Tallinn, is just a two-hour ferry ride across the bay.  Two days prior to arriving in Finland, Chris and I agreed to spend the money and treat ourselves to a night off the ship in order to visit yet another new country and a “manageable” city.  We appreciate manageable because it often means the city is smaller, which again, is more my style.  Tallinn, Estonia, was indeed a really quaint city with an adorable old town consisting of the typical watchtower, churches, and square with restaurants and shops.  We had pizza and cider in the picturesque square, and even agreed on a painting of the city from an Estonian artist to purchase.  In every port, Chris invariably states, “I wish we could find some art.”  Check.  At least it happened in one of 10 countries we are visiting.  

 In addition to our stroll around old town, we visited a great beach and highly enjoyed our stay at the Radisson Blu Hotel Olumpia, including its gourmet buffet breakfast!  What was unexpected in this adventure was the ferry.  The ferry was incredible with restaurants galore, a casino, karaoke nightclub, and…a playroom for children!  I was anxiously imagining trying to entertain Quinn in her seat for two plus hours, but instead she was playing in tunnels, ball pits, hugging some furry entertainer, and more.  Hmmm, maybe people have a legitimate reason for not wanting to hear about our experience of these countries.  The other random item of interest (to us) was the bazillion cases of alcohol everyone was bringing back to Finland.  Apparently, the Finish locals go over to Estonia to save half the price on beer and liquor, and have a system for hauling it back with dollie.

This still left us with two days in Finland, which is often compared to my home state, Minnesota.  While Minnesota has 10,000 lakes, Finland has 189,000.  Finland also has pine and spruce trees galore.  It is said there is a large Finnish population in MN and WI because Finnish immigrants felt a sense of home there.  I had thoughts of visiting a lake, perhaps even going on a canoe, but reasoned we can do this in MN.  So instead, we went on an excursion to a small medieval town outside of Helsinki, Porvoo (see below), and walked around to see…you guessed it…the old town and famous church (which recovered from a fire in 2006, caused by a drunken youth).  That same day, we toured around Helsinki and visited two more churches and the famous esplanade.  My father would be proud of all our church viewings! 

Our last day at port felt more like a weekend day at home, only with the beautiful landscape of water and sailboats amidst us.  We went to a playground (surprise!), ate lunch at a café with a view, picked up groceries, exercised, and then picnicked with friends from the ship.  Mary took Quinn for the night, which gave us a night out.  It was the perfect last day and I was a bit sad to leave Helsinki, Finland, though probably not because of Helsinki, Finland, itself.

Now, we have just two days back at sea until we reach Gdansk, Poland.  This is our last port, and we have a total of 10 days left on Semester at Sea.  Tonight, we had another lovely dinner with our extended family, a program on SAS where we act as “parents” to four students on the ship, to provide a sense of family on the ship.  We always seem to have lots of laughs despite the obvious fact that these students are different from each other and not close friends outside of our family. Chris’ work has now officially slowed down (his last lecture was today!), though he continues to grade and more.  In addition, he needs to shift gears to anticipate his faculty position at Clarkson since he only has two days in Potsdam before school starts. It really never seems to end for him, and yet, he seems to be performing well under pressure.  The students rave about him and his goofy humor (even the students in his 8:00 am class).  Anyway, I am hoping Chris can now take a break, breathe a little, and enjoy this last port to the fullest.