In Love With Estonia.

Alexander Nevsky. One of my most favourite cathedrals in all of Europe.

Pink Parliament.

Peach, Brie & Cream Cheese Pancakes.

The Baltic Sea.

Winding Streets.

View atop St. Olav's.

Elk Soup!

They were lovely :) 

Madi, Me, McCall, Rebecca, Katie, Annie & Saffron.

Town Square.

Beautiful paintings near the Cathedral.

All smiles on St. Olav's.

We had a bus to catch at 10:30PM on Friday. Sleeping on the bus is never desirable, but I thought I'd be alright this time because I had my ZzzzQuil. Took two of those babies and knocked right out. I had 2 seats to myself, luckily. I think I slept almost the whole 9 hours there. Maybe I was awake for 1 hour max. It was beautiful. I'm telling you, this never happens to me. So it felt like a small triumph to have achieved that much sleep. We arrived at 7AM to a not so rainy Tallinn (Which was disappointing because I packed for a rainy weekend, due to the weather saying so.) Looks like my rain boots would be staying in the bottom of my backpack, then. We had to walk a little bit to the hostel. Nothing was open at this time, so after we dropped our bags in the luggage room, we had a little trouble finding somewhere to eat for breakfast. We found a Reval Cafe but it wasn't to open for 30 minutes. We decided to wait outside because we were sure any other cafe wouldn't be open yet either. It wasn't as lovely as I remembered it was, but the food was good. I got a Chai Latte and a Ham & Cheese omelette. It literally did nothing for the starvation I was feeling so I ate half of Annie's (poor girl hates eggs but the only other option on the menu was porridge, and we get enough of that on the week days.) I still felt a bottomless pit in my stomach, but figured we would eat again soon. We didn't have anything planned. Tallinn doesn't have big, popular attractions like other European cities. It's just a quaint little place with winding, cobbled roads and beautiful buildings. We spent the day mostly seeking out good food and hanging by the sea. Our group split up and Annie, Madi, McCall & I took off in search of a nice place to view the Baltic Sea. We camped on a wall next to the harbour and honestly, we sat there for maybe 45 minutes, hardly exchanging any words. Just enjoying the sound of waves, the wind and the serenity of life at that very moment. I couldn't help but wish that Tim could have been there with me. As I looked across the sea and knew that in the far distance, Finland was ahead. Even though he isn't there now, it was a funny feeling to think that his homeland was just across the sea. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for our traveling endeavors together! 

We met up with the other girls for lunch at the Kompressor. It is a famous and cheap pancake house in the heart of Old Town Tallinn. Huge, stuffed pancakes for under 5 Euros. I also got some fried garlic bread to go with it and it was all so excruciatingly good. If I had it my way, I would have suggested we eat there for the next 4 meals, but you know....not everyone likes pancakes as much as me. We continued to explore a bit and of course, became hungry again not long after. The thing I love about my group is that they all love food as much as I do! This definitely helps, because when I want to stop for snacks and treats, they are right along with me :) I love it! We sort of made a mistake and ate at a burger restaurant right in Town Hall Square so....yes I may have paid 13 Euros for a basic hamburger (that I only ate half of due to not feeling well) and a baby cappuccino. That didn't feel so good, but we were a little bit smarter with our food after that. 

Annie discovered that Saturday night, there was to be an Ancient Bonfire lighting festival at the harbour. We made our way to Seaplane Harbour and waited for the lighting. According to the tale, years and years ago, when the Sea Men would come home from their long journeys at sea at the end of August, the towns people would light these huge bonfires at the harbours to guide the men back to shore. So it is a tradition all along the Baltic Sea to light these bonfires on the last weekend in August. Unfortunately, the fire was very small (I guess I was expecting a massive massive fire) but it was still nice to look down the coast and see the few little fires that were lit. 

We headed back to the hostel and oh my goodness! When we walked in the door it was like a huge wave of sweat and heat. Our room was literally right next to the common room, so it was so loud in there! I was hoping to come back to the common room and maybe meet some people and play pool or something. But it was so crowded, I couldn't even move around in there. I discovered that we arrived back at the hostel during the pub crawl, so that massive load of people would be gone soon to their next pub. After they left it was 20x better. We met a nice guy named Arthur who ended up being from Vilnius as well and we met a French dude named Simon who was studying in Tallinn. Annie & I spent the evening talking with them, and it was really nice to make some acquaintances. The best part of staying in hostels is always meeting people. 

Like I mentioned earlier, it was supposed to rain all weekend in Tallinn, so I brought warm clothes and rain boots. I only brought one light T-shirt, so I ended up wearing that both days because it was so humid. Like 90% humidity! It was awful. But then a wind would come in and it would be frigid! I think I removed my coat and put it back on 50 times during the day. It was a little bit colder on Sunday, so I was actually able to keep my coat on most of the day and not sweat to death, so that was a positive. We found a nice flower market and Annie bought Madi a giant Sun flower. It was darling :) We had breakfast at a little cafe, but it didn't really tickle my fancy. It was sort of ghetto inside and the food was meh. Oh well. We climbed up the narrow tower to St. Olav's cathedral to the 360 degree platform. The view stole my heart last time and it did not fail, once again. Tallinn is just magical from up high. We met a sweet kiwi couple from New Zealand who were travelling through all of Europe in their van for a whole year! How wonderful is that? We talked to them for a good half hour probably, and it was just the sweetest thing. My heart is always filled with satisfaction during moments like that. Meeting beautiful people in beautiful places. 

We sat down for lunch at III Drakkon, which is a medieval themed shop that specializes in Elk Soup and Ox Meat Pies. I've heard so much about it so I had to try the soup, and I dubbed it the best soup I've ever had. The flavor was insanely good, and I had a spinach pie and then an apple pie to accompany it. All of that for maybe 5 Euros total? And I paid 13 Euros for a hamburger and a coffee the day before? Yeesh! 

We walked around the cathedral again and then found a nice look out view where we stopped for a bit. We went for dinner at a mexican place called Ancho and it was completely empty. Our waitress was so nice, and she even split our checks at the end (which never happens here.) I got a pork burrito with really good chipotle sauce. Delicious. 

We had to catch our bus at 10:30 that evening, so we went back to the hostel to hang around for a while. Simon appeared again so Annie & I chatted with him for a little while. We said our goodbyes to our new friends and to our new love named Tallinn and headed back to Vilnius. Unfortunately we got stuck with a very loud and annoying Finnish man on our way home who didn't understand that literally everyone on the bus except him was trying to actually sleep. Every time Saffron would close her eyes to fall asleep, he would shake her awake. How rude!!! Eventually he shut up, and we all got some sleep. 

It was quite an extraordinary weekend. Cheers to Tallinn!