Estonia, and Finland, and Trains! Oh my!

27 January- 2 February, 2009

After the adventures in the Arctic Tim and I headed south and west. We thought ourselves very clever by choosing 3rd class on the train to St. Petersburg, we certainly wouldn’t be shut in with a dragon lady again, oh no. When we got to our bunks, we were alarmed to find a corpulent, jovial, Ukrainian, former sailor in the bottom bunk. He was a champion snorer as well. As is often true in such cases, he got the best sleep of anyone in the whole cabin, and bright and early at 10am the next morning he cordially offered us some vodka to jumpstart the day. Needless to say, we declined. He sighed, and remarked that he couldn’t understand Americans and Englishmen- they never wanted to start drinking until the afternoon. He clearly saw this as a waste of precious resources and daylight. Still, an interesting conversation companion.

After much misdirection, 1 McDonalds, much tromping around St. Petersburg, ridiculous customs procedures, and one long bus ride later, we arrived in Tallinn, Estonia. This is the coolest city I have ever seen, and totally worth what all we had to go through to get there. (I felt a bit as if we were on the Amazing Race – looking for clues and trying to decode directions) Anyway, Tallinn is a city that time seems to have forgotten. The old center (built in the 13th century I believe) has been preserved to an incredible degree, and walking around it feels a bit like stepping into an olde ballad of knights and fair maidens. This is enhanced since there are lots of people in costume, serving ale and mead and such things. I fell madly in love with the city, and the people living there. They were all so friendly and pleasant! Plus, their language is so funny! Seriously, all of you that thought Russian is silly, it pales in comparison to Estonian. There seem to be far too many vowels, and odd combinations of the remaining letters. We passed a couple fast food joints called “Soogiplatz” at one point. No joke; that is a real place.

Estonian is related to only two other languages, Hungarian and Finnish. Since we had been exposed to one ridiculous language, we decided to try another; so we hopped on a boat to Helsinki, Finland. The names of streets there are so long and complicated we sometimes had trouble understanding directions when we got them. Still, it was kind of fun wandering around. That is to say, we did a lot of walking around Helsinki, but not much else. Why? You ask. Well to be perfectly honest there just isn’t a lot to do there; just lots of expensive restaurants. At one point I spent 23.30 Euros on two pieces of cake and hot chocolate. That is almost 30$! Ouch! We also visited their ancient fortress, but that was sort of lame. The whole thing was a bit of a letdown after Tallinn. Still, not complaining; I can say that I have been there now. Also, I was very impressed with their transportation system. For 6 Euros, we were able to use every form of public transportation for a whole 24 hour period. That is really very reasonable, and the transports themselves were efficient and well placed.

On the way back to Moscow two Finnish girls rode in our compartment. They were on their way to study in Russia as well! We had an uproarious time with them, trading silly stories about our mutual adventures and receiving insights into Finnish. (I was right, another silly language. There are about 10 different words for snow. Each one is very specific.) We got a huge kick from making fun of the customs formalities when crossing the border. (Ridiculous doesn’t cover ½ of it.) I think the only time we weren’t laughing our heads off was the few hours all four of us were asleep. In other words, we had a grand time.

And now I am back in Yaroslavl, at least until the 4th of February, when I plan on visiting my friend in Kazan. (Capital of the Tatar republic, central Russia.)

Don’t worry; I will actually be doing some studying this semester. Classes start up the 10th.

Much love to you all!
(Especially Allison Schmill! Yay!)