Estonia

Tricked by the fairly inexpensive cost of booking passage on board the Tallink/Silja line between Stockholm and Tallinn, Laura and I jumped at the possibility of venturing into the territory of the former Soviet Union. This is in marked contrast to my trips to places such as Hungary or Bulgaria because Estonia was actually a constituent republic of the Soviet Union and not simply in their sphere of influence. Despite the cheap ticket price the cost of transporting oneself in reasonable comfort was relatively astronomical.

Acting on the advice of Rick Steves, Laura and I decided to spring for the Smorgasbord - an all you can eat buffet. The quality has apparently slipped since Rick Steves took the Silja ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland as the food was fairly bland. At ~$35 it was nothing short of a disappointment. Drinks also ran in the vicinity of $8 each. While traveling you have to let go of some of your frugality but it was very difficult to feel good about spending that kind of cash.

In the morning we awoke and disembarked the ship into the capital of Estonia. Tallinn was very pretty and incredibly easy to traverse by foot. The entire old town was only about 1 kilometer in length. Another unfortunate fact was that we arrived during the Midsummer holiday. It's Estonia's biggest celebration!... but it's celebrated by closing up shops, museums and government offices and heading out into the country for a 48-hour party. At least some of the sights were still open. Among the sights that we got to was the huge Russian Orthodox cathedral strategically built by Czar Alexander during the period of Russification of Estonia. Of note: Orthodox churches tend to be fairly plain in their interior architectural detail (at least in contrast to the detail of a Rococo Catholic cathedral). Instead, Orthodox churches invest their money in "icons" which consist of highly decorative "paintings" of saints and Jesus covered in gold, silver and jewels. They're truly spectacular to behold but due to the draconian photography rules in so many sights here in Europe I can't produce photographic examples. If you do a search for "Orthodox icons" I'm sure you can find some brilliant examples.

We ate lunch at a great Russian restaurant in the central square of Tallinn, Raekoja Plats. We were going to eat at an Estonian restaurant but the fact that it was another buffet turned us off and the Russian restaurant was highly recommended by our guidebook. The review was completely apt as the food was pure class - maybe even being the best meal we've had on our trip thus far. The rest of our time in Tallinn was spent tramping around doing some souvenir shopping and eventually we made our way back to the cruise-liner.

Back on board Laura and I decided to make the most of our cruise. We bought tax-free cans of beer and cider from the super market and drank them up on the deck while the sun set (which, due to our location up north didn't happen until well after 11pm and even after it set the sky never lost it's pink/purple hue). Then we caught the midnight show in the lounge at the back of the ship -- an unintentionally funny act called "Viva Las Vegas" which consisted of some impressive dance routines and some hilariously bad covers of American dance songs from the 70s. What made them bad wasn't the musical acumen that accompanied them but rather the Estonian or Russian accents of the people singing.

In the end we had a great time on the cruise and Tallinn made the trip totally worth it.

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.