I was pretty tired when I dragged myself from my bed. Idiot roommate decided to start a full blown conversation with another roommate when the latter returned from clubbing in the wee small hours. I don't really think she wanted to know the comings and goings of the people in the dorm during the night, but this bloke was intent on telling her. I filled myself up with coffee while eating my breakfast and then headed out to take another look around the city centre, this time in daylight. I made my way to Senate Square, which I had been to on my first night in Helsinki. I really wanted to go into the Helsinki Cathedral, but there was a funeral going on, so had to give it a miss. I noticed that the funeral car ... read more

My final day in Tallinn had arrived. I had been undecided about going to the KGB museum as it was rather expensive and the reviews online weren't too good. However, since it was winter and a lot of the tours that I had wanted to do out of the city weren't running, I felt that I could now justify the cost. The tour has to be booked and paid for in advance online. There are only two daily option in English and I went for the morning one at 11 am. Since I had some time before the tour, I went for a walk up Toompea as we had been there on the walking tour and I wanted to go back by myself. I took the direct route from my hostel and on the way I ... read more

I can't decide whether I like that nothing seems to open until 10 am here. It does mean that I can get some extra sleep and take my time getting ready, but I also feel like if things were open earlier, I could see and do more each day. After a leisurely breakfast, I headed to the Old Town. I wanted to go to the Tallinn City Museum, but since it didn't open until 10 am I had to take my time on the walk. I had a bit of a walk around taking some pictures. Everything was covered with a light dusting of snow making it look really pretty. I wandered down a few backstreets, too, and found a really cute little alleyway. It was also home to 14-15th century tombstones from St. Catherine's Dominican ... read more

Lunar/Chinese New Year means the opportunity to get out of China for a bit. I wouldn't have minded travelling in China, but probably left it too late to any train tickets and decent accommodation. Flights within Asia were almost as expensive as those to Europe and there wasn't really anywhere in Asia that I really had my heart set on visiting. Europe on the other hand, there were quite a few places I fancied. Finnair had a direct flight to Helsinki that left and arrived at a decent time, so I bit the bullet and got the credit card out. The flight was fine and only took about 8 hours. The food was a bit hit and miss, but the cabin crew were lovely. Walking through the airport was like a ghost town, I was unsure ... read more

Another day, another breakfast. My friend had wanted to take me for a soupy noodle dish that is popular here, but I nixed the idea as I am not a fan of soup noodles and had just eaten it the day before. Instead we returned to the hot dry noodles place and had another very filling and tasty bowl of those. We also got some shuijianbao, which are another type of dumpling and are a style that I really like. They are similar to xiaolongbao in that they have soup inside as well as meat, but the wrapper is thicker and breadier, more like a baozi. The way they are cooked is a combination of steaming and frying, which makes the tops fluffy and the bottoms crispy. Total yum! I think I have been spoilt with ... read more