One of the things I was most looking forward to doing during my exchange was exploring the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Since the countries are so small, it’s pretty easy to travel between the capital cities. This (long) weekend, I had the chance to explore Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, and Helsinki with the other two students from my class in Waterloo.
After a week full of anticipation and classes, we took off Thursday evening by catching a bus to Helsinki from Oulu’s city centre. Nine hours later we arrived at Helsinki. For once I was just really thankful for my ability to fall asleep pretty much anywhere - the bus ride would have been a lot more painful if I was awake.
Baltics Part I: Tallinn, Estonia
After getting off the bus at Helsinki we walked over to the nearby tram stop to catch a tram to the harbour. We arrived at the dock about an hour and a half early and as luck would have it it had already begun to rain. Thankfully we were able to seek shelter in a hotel lobby until 7am when we could go to the ferry building for check in. We caught our ferry to Tallinn at 8am and all ended up passing out again during the slightly bumpy ride. Luckily by the time we got to Tallinn the rain had died down and we were left with only clouds. The Old Town of Tallinn isn’t far from the harbour so we only had to walk about 10 minutes before we stared seeing the picturesque architecture we were expecting from the city.
We walked around and saw a couple of famous sights such as St. Olaf’s Church, St. Catherine’s Passage, St. Mary’s Cathedral and Town Hall Square, and also checked out the local souvenir shops. After a quick lunch at McDonald’s (sadly not at all Estonian) we walked over to United Backpacker’s Hostel just outside the Old Town. We were able to check in at 2pm and drop off our bags which made the rest of the day a lot easier.
We continued to walk around Old Town and saw Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, St. Nicholas’ Church, Town Hall Pharmacy (one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe), and the Patkuli and Kohtuotsa viewing platforms. My favourite part of exploring the town was the Kohtuotsa viewing point. It gave us an incredible view of the Old Town of Tallinn as you can see below. I was amazed by the beauty and number of churches and cathedrals we saw during the day given the small size and population of Tallinn or even Estonia.
In the evening we got dinner at an Indian/Chinese fusion restaurant just a little away from the main square. It was run by a man who was originally from India but immigrated to Estonia to stay with his Estonian wife. He talked to us about the cultural difference and how in Estonia people don’t make very much money but they live really happy and relaxed lives. It’s quite a change from Canada or America and you can definitely sense that people are much more relaxed there. After that we went to Olde Hansa restaurant for our 8pm reservation. Many of my friends had told me it was a fantastic restaurant that I had to try. It offers not only medieval food, but a complete medieval style dining experience such as candle only lighting and traditional live music. Here we tried the famous honey beer and took in the authentic medieval look of the restaurant. After that, we walked back to our hostel in Tallinn and went straight to bed so that we could wake up early for our 6am bus to Riga, Latvia.
Baltics Part II: Riga, Latvia
Saturday morning we woke up at 4:45am to get ready and catch our early morning bus to Riga. This time it was a Lux Express bus, which, with it’s unlimited tea/coffee/hot chocolate, individual tv screens with movies, and wifi, unrealistically raised our bus standards for the rest of the trip. The four hour morning ride allowed us to catch the beautiful sunrise and take a nap before arriving to Riga at about 10am.
We got off the bus by Riga Central Market, consisting of a giant indoor meat market and countless stalls in the open area outside selling fruits, vegetables, flowers, and more. The look and feel of the shops reminded me a lot of India.
We walked into the Old Town area and, maybe because it was Saturday, the central square was full of stalls selling various products much like a farmers market back home. There were cookies, honey products, fresh bread, meats, cheeses, sauces, jams, jewelry and more. The square was full of people purchasing items or watching the traditional Latvian dance being performed on a stage in the center of the square. After visiting most of the stalls, in particular those that had samples, we decided to grab lunch in a nearby restaurant that had a patio to enjoy the beautiful weather.
After lunch we walked around the city to see all the major attractions such as Riga Cathedral, The Three Brothers (oldest complex of houses in Riga), St. Peter’s Church, City Hall, Freedom Monument, and Riga Nativity of Christ Cathedral. We had our backpacks on us the entire day so we were definitely moving a little slower than usual.
In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant in the center of the square and waited until it was late enough to walk back out to the bus stop, where we would catch our late night bus to Vilnius, Lithuania. All in all Riga was a beautiful city and had some really nice architecture and culture. Although we were only there about 12 hours, I felt satisfied with what I had seen given the small size of the city.
Baltics Part III: Vinius, Lithuania
We caught our 10pm bus from the station in Riga, Latvia and arrived at Vilnius, Lithuania about four hours later. So there we were, 2:30am, wandering the streets of Vilnius in search of our hostel called B&B&B&B&B. When we finally arrived at the hostel, we were surprised to open the door and find a club. Not an empty club. A club full of teenagers with really loud dance music. It turns out that our hostel was located right above a bar and that they were serious when they bragged about their “free ear plugs available at reception”. In any case, we were all way too tired to do anything besides put away our stuff and go to bed. Given our late bedtime, we started off the next day a little later than usual after checking out at 11am. Luckily we were able to leave our bags with reception even after checking out, so it was another backpack-free, comfortable day.
Following the same routine as the last two days, we spent some time roaming around the city and seeing sights such as Halés Turgus (an indoor market), Holy Trinity Church, Catholic Church of All Saints, and Church of St. Theresa.
We took a break briefly to get lunch in an area with a couple of restaurants near to the Angel of Užupis monument, then continued on. After lunch we walked to Bernardine Park where we were able to see the Three Crosses monument from afar. Since we had enough time, we walked up the hill to the crosses, where we also got to witness an incredible view of the city. From there we also hiked to the top of Gediminas’ Tower, for another spectacular view. After taking a short break at the top of the climbs, we continued down to finish seeing the rest of the highlights of Vilnius.
We continued walking through the city and saw Gates of Dawn, Vilnius University, Town Hall, St. Anne’s Church, and Church of St. Casimir. Again, I was amazed at the sheer number of churches as well as their beauty and magnitude. We ended our day by getting dinner at a place that specialized in crepes, pancakes, and latkes, after which we picked up our bags from the hostel, and went back to the station to catch our next bus back to Tallinn.
Helsinki, Finland
Our 10:30pm bus from Vilnius reached Tallinn at 6:50am, just in time for us to take a tram to the harbour and catch our 8am ferry back to Helsinki. We had planned our trip so that we would have a day to spend in Helsinki before catching an overnight bus back to Oulu, and while we were tired when we disembarked in Helsinki we were still happy to have the chance to explore another city. Although Helsinki turned out to be much smaller than I expected the perfect weather and beauty of the city made it a great experience nonetheless.
After getting off the ferry we visited Uspenski Cathedral then walked over to Market Square where we explored the small shops and enjoyed lunch from food stalls outdoors. Once we were finished we did our usual foot tour of the city by visiting Kaivopuisto, Tähtitoninvuoren Puisto, St. John’s Church, The Museum of Finnish Architecture, and the Design Museum of Helsinki. Unfortunately the museums were closed since it was a Monday but even looking at the buildings from outside was quite a sight. We then saw Esplanadi (an urban park in downtown Helsinki), Tori Quarters, Senate Square, and Helsinki Cathedral. Finally, we saw the Parliament House, Finnish Museum of Natural History, and Temppeliaukion Church (a church excavated completely from rock). Satisfied with having seen most of the major sights in Helsinki, we concluded the day by having dinner and exploring Kamppi Shopping Centre, conveniently located right above the bus station where we were to catch an 8:30pm bus back to Oulu.
Seven bus, two tram, and two ferry rides later we finally made it back home to Oulu at about 6am on Tuesday morning. Somehow, likely due to our ability to sleep on our final bus ride, we all managed to make it to our 10am lecture alive and happy with what we had been able to see in the last couple days. I truly had an incredible time exploring the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and am so thankful for the opportunity to have seen them all on such an exhausting but fun trip.
I apologize for the length of this post but succinctly writing about four cities visited in four days is harder than it seems. I’m writing this from Oulu Airport, as I wait for my flight back to Toronto. Nope, it’s not a mistake. I’m actually coming back to Toronto for a week to attend my brother’s wedding - there may or may not be more on that in the next blog post.
As always thank you for reading or aitäh (Estonian for thank you), paldies (Latvian for thank you), or ačiū (Lithuanian for thank you).
-Pallavi