The Forbidden City

Tallinn was seemingly unreachable for me. Something always prevented me from getting there. Eventually I reached it, albeit 4th time lucky. In the past 2 weeks I have tried 3 times to get to Tallinn and have failed for each of those 3 times. The first time was the clostest of the 3 as I and 2 friends actually went to Helsinki in order to get the ferry to Tallinn. However, when we got there we heard of another ferry that was cheaper and travelled there faster so we went around the ports of Helsinki looking for that. Eventually we found out that that ferry line was not operating yet as the ocean was still covered with ice and only the bigger ships were operating. We quickly hurried back to the Viking Line terminal to find out that we had missed the ferry by 10min. We were quite disappointed. We ended up just walking around Helsinki for about 2hours after having lunch. The walk was quite boring for me as I had already seen Helsinki and so there was nothing too new for me to see this time round. The second attempt was the most pathetic for me. That first attempt occured on Thursday, and so I planned to go again on Wednesday, this time by myself as no one else wanted to go. However, on Monday I remembered that I had a seminar on Wednesday afternoon, so Attempt 2 was foiled. The third attempt was lame as well, but this time it was not my fault. I had then decided to go the next Monday. I then told a friend who was also planning to go to Tallinn the Saturday after that with some friends that were visiting her from France. She was suprised to hear that I was going on Monday, as the Viking Line officers had told her that for that week all Viking Line ferries were being repaired and wouldn't be operating until Thursday. So obviously I couldn't go, but at least this time it was out of my hands. So eventually I planned to go on Tuesday week and after all this trouble just to get there Tallinn had better be the best damn place I'd ever been too...

But it wasn't. No, but Tallinn was a nice, quite city but not really the most exciting tourist destination. But I didn't want excitement, I just wanted a quiet getaway from the crazy life of being a resident on the 3A 3rd floor Turun Ylioppilaskylä, Turku, Finland. To give you an idea, as I am writing this entry now my fellow neighbours are singing and screaming drunkenly in my kitchen. I can hear them from here. My friend Grzegorz and the ice hockey team he joined while here (the Turku Chiefs) just won Bronze at a countrywide competetion for amateur teams, and they are celebrating wildly now. Of course I celebrated with them, but I limited mine to one beer while they undoubtly have exceeded 10. My kitchen really is totally out of control, but I'll talk about the peculiarities of our experiences at the end of the semester. Anyway, Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and is famous for its Old Town as it is one of the very few remaining Old Towns whose buildings etc are still in tact (they were not destroyed during the World Wars). This gives Tallinn a very Medieval vibe which is quite nice.

The ferry ride across the Baltic was quite uneventful. On the ferry everyone just kept to themselves, so for a long time I didn't meet anyone on the ferry, which was quite disappointing. Towards the end an old couple came and sat on the same table as me and eventually we got a conversation going. They were very friendly and it was interesting to just talk to them. They were Swedish-speaking Finns who were just going on a cruise to Tallinn and then back (without getting off). The lady spoke 5 languages and her husband 6! It was great to hear their stories and their experiences.

Once in Tallinn I went to my hostel which was very nice indeed. I met a few people there but they were just about to leave for the airport so I couldn't really hang out with them. One was a fellow Aussie from Adelaide who was working in Copenhagen. After that I just walked around the Old Town for a couple of hours; it was quite nice to see all the medieval buildings and churches. Later I stopped at a small resteraunt to have dinner. The dinner was different, quite tasty and quite affordable. It was a good choice. After this I went back to my hostel where I met a Finnish guy and another Australian from Sydney named Antony who was studying in London. He was a champion and like Joel and I he will be at the World Cup, so hopefully we could meet up somewhere there. Both of us ended up going for a beer with another Englishman, Alistair, at a local pub to watch the AC Milan-Barcelona game. It was a quiet and enjoyable night out.

The next morning I checked out of my hostel and walked around for a bit longer. I got lost for about an hour in Toompea, the part of the Old Town located on a hill. After I found my way back into the centre I visited quite a few museums which were very interesting. The most interesting thing I learnt is the origin of the Danish flag (a red flag with a white cross). The Danes had occupied Tallinn but had lost it to someone (I can't remember). Anyway they went back and fought for it, and during this battle legend has it that God sent a red flag with a white cross down as a symbol that He will win the battle for the Danes...and so the Danes won. They then adopted this flag as their national flag, and there you go! I just thought it was interesting to find out that the Danish flag which I know quite well from all the publicity surrounding Princess Mary was the result of a little battle in unknown Tallinn.

Anyway, after the museums I went to a spa hotel and got a massage! That was top quality stuff. Tallinn is becoming a bit of a hot spot for spa hotels and their prices are very affordable, especially compared to the $100 you're looking at for a massage in Perth. My masseur was a guy and at first I was a bit skeptical but I went through with it anyway. It was so relaxing. He couldn't speak a lot of English, but at the end he told me that he liked my hair. It was then that I became extremely uncomfortable as I possibly had a gay guy massaging me for the past 30min. But later it became evident that he just liked my hair because of its absurdity, rather than it being a means for him to hit on me. He also told me that my shoulders were the most tense he'd ever seen and I told him it's because I was a student that had to study lots. He told me I should go at least 3 times a weak. Again I told him that I was a student who also didn't have so much money for that. He started to laugh quite uncontrollably which again made me quite uncomfortable, so I left hastily to get to my ferry.

The ferry ride back was really cool. I met up with 2 Finnish guys (Ante and Matti) whom I met at the hostel who ended up catching the same ferry as me. We had a beer and played cards for a bit. Then I noticed a little girl sitting all by herself and looking almost suicidal with boredom, so I asked her to play cards with us. Jane turned out to be only 12 and she travels every month to Tallinn all by herself to see her Grandmother. You can think what you want, but it was really great to talk to her as well. After we had played games for a while she showed us some card tricks as she was quite into them. They weren't very good but I pretended to be astounded, which seemed to please her a bit. In respone, I ripped out my repertoire and blew her mind with a few of my tricks and we had a great time. I was a bit rusty but luckily she was none the wiser. Jane spoke truly astounding English, especially for a 12-yr old non-native speaker who is half-Finnish and half-Estonian. She even speaks a bit of Russian, not to mention a little bit of Swedish and of course Finnish and Estonian (which are incredibly similar...but still...). It really amazed me. These Scandinavians certainly have a knack for languages. It really makes me a bit disappointed when I realise that I only speak one language.

After that memorable ferry ride I then caught the train back to Turku and arrived back home at midnight, concluding my nice little getaway to Tallinn.

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