May 2009

Over the past week I've been watching the Rick Steves episodes that correspond to the various places that Laura and I will be visiting. A few days ago we watched the Stockholm episode in which he devoted a sizable chunk of time to the joys of cruising from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland (I seem to recall water-slides and duty-free liquor sales... among other things). Mr. Steves kept mentioning the affordability of the cruises so we pulled up the website for the cruise line - Silja-Tallink.

As it turns out they offer cruises to a few destinations. It's not that we wouldn't be interested in visiting Helsinki, I'd love to, but after weighing the options we settled on Tallinn, Estonia. The ticket price (about 40% less) and the novelty of visiting not only a former communist state (Laura's first) but a former state of the Soviet Union (my first as well!) proved to be too much to turn down.

The cruise is ~16 hours each way and leaves at 5:45pm - getting in around 10am, from both directions. According to Rick Steves the "Smorgasbord" on the cruise is among the best that can be found in Scandinavian Europe which, in turn, is a cultural experience that shouldn't be missed. I should also mention that this one is both all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink. It wasn't cheap but for a nice 2-day side trip it couldn't be passed up ($140) - especially considering the fact that we're saving so much by staying with our generous friends and family on much of the rest of the trip.

Estonia, among the other Baltic states (Latvia and Lithuania + St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad) has been one of my top travel destinations. I'm really excited to be going even if it's only for about 8 hours.