Turku and Tallin Estonia

A couple of days ago I took a day trip to Turku from Helsinki Finland. I boarded a train around 1 pm, it took 2 hours to arrive there. Nothing really stood out there. They did have a nice river running around the city, a windmill from the 19th century, and a nice cathedral, nothing exceptional, but I am sure that they have secrets that tourists don't know about. I think it is hard to find those great places in smaller towns because it is hard to find the little secrets of the area. After talking to a friend that visited his friends in Turku he said that he went to traditional Finnish sauna's and saw some other incredible things. My goal after hearing this is to meet more of the locals and try to find the secrets, I think that is where I will have the most fun in Europe.

Since Turku was only a day trip, I spent the night in Helsinki. The next morning I was off to Tallinn. I took the boat SuperSeaCat that was more expensive than I would have liked, but it worked well and Tallinn has proved to be amazing. Tallinn is a city straight out of the middle ages. I am staying in the old town, which has a castle wall around it with guard towers every 100 yards. They have narrow cobblestone streets that are lined with shops of glassblowers, blacksmiths, and handmade sweaters. Yesterday I went up to their Roman Orthodox church and saw its onion dome tops and then their old lookout tower from the 14th century.

Tomorrow morning I am taking the boat back to Helsinki, where I am meeting up a an aussie named Prasmanth. In the evening we are boarding a night train to Ravaniemi, which is in northern Finland. We are planning on having some outdoor adventures, seeing Santa, and hanging out with Finland's native people, the Sami.