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Published: December 16th 2014
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After arriving by minbus in Riga, we decided to go for dinner only, and leave the sightseeing for the next day as we had more than a full day in the city. After having a busy few days we also decided that we would have a lie in and take our time - however the next morning, my sister, for the first time in her life, voluntarily got up at 8:30am rather than the 11am we had agreed and we were already in the city when our alarms we had set went off!
We started the day by walking along the edge of the old city walls, from where we were staying, in the market area, towards the Freedom monument and Laima clock tower. Afterwards we went towards the river, visiting the castle area, before coming back across the centre of the city. However by this time it was only 2pm, and so perhaps we should have stayed in bed! We therefore decided to go back to our hostel and rest before going for dinner and another early night before our coach to Estonia the next day.
The next morning we woke and boarded our
four hour coach that would take us to Tallinn by early afternoon. Once we arrived at our hostel, we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening walking around the centre of Tallinn seeing the sights like the Town Hall and the city walls. The centre itself is very small, which was great as we had a very short amount of time in the city. After seeing buildings many centuries old, our last sight was the "Linnahall", a Soviet built concert hall on the edge of the sea. Once you climb up the steps on top of the building, you get a great view of the Gulf of Tallinn and can see all the ships leaving the country.
The next day, our final full day, we awoke to realise that as my sister is just 14, she actually needed a letter from our mum stating it was ok to travel by ferry with the company we bought our tickets, as well as not actually being able to travel with a brother or sister below age 15. However as we had bought our tickets in advance and had the day planned, we decided to act as if
we didn't know and try our luck. Once we arrived at the Port the lady did ask us for the letter, but I pretended I didn't realise (which an hour before was true) and when I explained she was my sister and if she really wanted she could phone my mum, she said that it was fine. Luckily we were making our way to our final destination - Helsinki in Finland.
The ferry took two hours and we had six hours to see the city before our return to Tallinn. As our levels of exhaustion were getting higher and higher, we decided to try and make it as stress free as possible - and with the weather also pretty gloomy, we decided to cut out our visit to the fortress island, and just walk around the centre of Helsinki itself.
The city itself was the largest since Vilnius, and we saw many churches as well as the old market place before heading back to the ferry port and eventually bed. The last day of our trip was a simple journey to Tallinn Airport and eventually home.
And that completes the Baltic Tour...in just over 2 weeks time I go to Istanbul, so it won't be long before your next installment!
Kevin.
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