Estonia

    Last weekend the other YFU kids and I spent the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. I woke up at 5 to take the 6 am bus to Helsinki. When I got off the bus I went to use the restroom (which I had to pay a euro for) and I locked myself in the bathroom. Luckily for me, Krista (another student) was outside the door and we managed to get it open.
    We met our group leaders Anita and Laura at the Ben and Jerry's at the Kampii bus station. We took a tram to the harbor where we met the other kids going with us. The cruise ship would take us 2 hours to get to Tallinn.

Me on the top deck

     Everything is cheaper in Estonia including the alcohol. Even on the 11 am boat people were throwing the liquor back and getting drunk. On the boat home people were bringing 10 cases each of beer back. Party on! 

     Once we got to Estonia we all walked the 15 minutes to our hotel. This was the first time our YFU leaders lead a trip so we got lost. It wouldn't be the last time to get lost. We stayed at the Hotel Tallink which is owned by the same people who own the cruise ships. I shared a room with Krista. The other kids had 3 kids to a room but all of the rooms only had two beds. A third "bed" was brought up for them but it was really only 2 couch cushions. 

     Tallinn is a medevial city that got super bombed during WW2, so everything was rebuilt except for the churches. It was kind of like Disney world in a sense that it was a city for tourists and people were dressed up in costumes. We couldn't walk for more than 15 minutes before someone would come up and try to give us a flyer. 

     

Our tiny room.

    Once we ventured into the city we decided to climb up a giant tower. The Leo,Kevit and I broke off from the group to do some of our own exploring. Here are the pictures.

Kevit and the tiny tower door

Mario star on a random building

View from the top of the tower

This tower was the highest building for over 500 years

Russian orthodox church

City wall watch tower

The tower

 

    That night after dinner, Kevit, Leo and I walked around some more and hung out on a really cool hill for a while. Our guides didn't mention a curfew so we were out just barely past midnight.  The nightlife around Tallinn is very different than during the day. At night all the casinos and strip clubs open (there were so many strip clubs). Drunk Russians were everywhere! We found a really quick way to get from the hill to our hotel that only took about a 10 minute walk. 

   The next morning all of us kids decided to go to a Estonian flee market. We weren't really sure where it was so we got lost for about an hour and a half. I was almost hit by a car on the way there because the drivers in Estonia would rather hit you then slow down. The flee market was held in an abandoned Soviet Union train station. I didn't buy anything but it was cool to look around. The rest of the day was spent walking around with Alex,Kevit and Leo. We went to a delicious place for lunch then boarded the ship home.