This trip was a bit outside our normal European comfort zone. Overall we enjoyed all three cities and found most everyone we encountered to be polite and welcoming.
We discovered the occasional Russian practice of charging non-Russian speaking folks different prices--including one egregious food worker with whom we had a strong disagreement on the cost of our order as quoted versus the mathematics of what the menu revealed. We might not have made much of an issue out of the over charging, except that the establishemnt only accepted cash, and we had only enough roubles for what the correct cost should have been.
Tallinn
Old Town
Our hotel was near the Medieval Old Town. This area is well extremely preserved, but more of a tourist trap/Disney version of a mideval town. In the old down we did discover a couple really enjoyable pubs: Hell Hunt and Hopner. Hell Hunt served their own beer, however, at Hopner we found an awesome collection of European craft beers. We were lucky enough to spend several hours with one of the owners (Jaagup) enjoying many, many excellent beers. If you visit Tallinn, we can't reccommend Hopner enough.
Seaplane Harbor
Jen and Tiffany had an event at the Lennusadam Seaplane Harbor. This was the first we heard of this place which was unfortunate, as it was clearly right up my alley (Submarine Lembit...good; abandoned sea fortress-prison...GOOD). While I did get to spend one morning there, I would have traded time in old town for more time at the Harbor.
Other Sites
There were several other sites in Tallinn we were able to pack into our few days there.
- Art Museum of Estonia
- Church of the Holy Ghost
- Kadriorg Palace
- Russalka Memorial
- St Mary's Cathedral
- War of Independence Column
Helsinki
Couple things about Helsinki: it's obvious why so many folks love this city. Being slightly (hundreds of years) younger than many other European capitals it has great design and planning going for it. Also, it's bloody expensive. On the ferry over we wondered why so many people were importing beer from Estonia. Upon seeing our first menu in Helsinki: all became clear.
Fortress of Suomenlinna
Like the Boston Harbor Islands, Helsinki harbor features several islands including one with the ruins of a military fortress. Suomenlinna is a former Swedish fort that was built in response to Peter the Great moving the Russian capital to Saint Petersburg.
In addition to great views of Helsinki and the Black Sea: the island has several museums. This includes a submarine, the Submarine Vesikko. Subs FTW!
Other Sites
There were several other sites in Helsinki we were able to pack into our few days there.
Saint Petersburg
From the first sights offered by the stations of the Metro to those of Saint Isaac's Cathedral near our hotel: Saint Petersburg was extremely impressive and gilded. We were a little dismayed at the amount of American/Global culture (walk through Burger King anyone?), but Saint Petersburg was interesting mix of Romanov, Bolshevik, and Soviet history.
Royal Sites
In our few days in Saint Petersberg, we walked from the Admiralteysky over to Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island. We walked over the canals to Church of the Savior on Blood and marveled and the restored mosaics. We spent several hours wandering through the hallways of the Hermitage and the Winter Palace. From there we took a hydrofoil over to Petergof and met up with Sergy the elder.
Other Sites
There were several other sites and many impressive buildings in St Petersburg we were able to pack into our few days there.
