I actually woke up at around 7 but did not actually get up until about 7:30 this morning. Breakfast in the hotel was actually very nice but initially I did not find the milk or the juice. There were both located in areas that I did not actually note to look at. The juice was in an automatic dispenser. It was somewhat like a fountain drink machine. I had toast with apricot jelly and its on little glass container. I also had Nestle chocolate cereal which was a favorite of mine whenever I was living in Germany. I also had scrambled eggs.
I figured it would be a good time this morning to try to hit up things which I missed yesterday. I went to the Orthodox Church near my hotel but unfortunately they did not open until 10. I had a good hour to kill before they would open. I went down to the market area near the place where I called the ferry to go to the fort. Merchants had set up tent to sell souvenirs and food. I got some souvenirs including a photo a patch and a postcard.
I then went to the commercial area to take some photos in make some GoPro videos. The thing about Helsinki compared to the other cities I’ve been to is that there is really no old town in Helsinki. Its more commercialized and with lot of malls.
I also ran across a southern fried chicken restaurant which I decided to go to the for lunch.
I decided to go to the church near senate square which I had not gone inside. Senate square had many tourist from the tour bus is parked near by. There was also a man dressed as some type of metallic person with a sign that said Leonardo DaVinci. After climbing all the steps the top of the square a Korean lady asked me to take her picture and then I got her to take my picture and then afterwards she got a selfie with me in it. Honestly I did not know what to think of the selfie. I thought she was getting close to me to rob me or pick pocket me. But as it turns out she just wanted to get a selfie with an American. So here I am on some Korean woman’s cell phone photo album. I entered into the church which did not have anything extraordinary decorations. It was actually fairly sparse compared to other churches of in. The church was teaming with tourists with their cell phones out taking photos. There is also a local choir group practicing with their director. The age group of the choir group appeared to be adults. I took some video of the choir group while they rehearsed and then left.
I’ve been went to the Orthodox Church which I had arrived at her earlier in the day. Since I had been there before I knew where the steps were to get to the entrance. However the people who I was walking with followed a well worn path instead of the steps. The only problem is this particular path is very steep abd difficult to walk up. If they had only went just a few feet for the they would have seen the steps. There were already about three tour buses which were unloading at the time I showed up. The church would roped off the Center area. You could tell it it was in Orthodox Church because there’s no pews and the front of the church was decorated and the usual Orthodox fashion of gold icons. I took more pictures and decided to get back to the hotel to check out in time to make it to the ferry terminal.
As I was checking out of my hotel I gave the attendant sone mint chocolate which I did not like but mistakenly purchased yesterday. I hope they will find good use for it as I cannot stand mint chocolate. In fact if feels like you’re brushing your teeth with a chocolate bar.
I rode the number four tram to the center of town and went to the southern fried chicken place. I believe this was not a franchise but locally owned. The lady gave me a glass of Fanta after I ordered it. I had also ordered a 5 piece chicken nugget with fries meal. About 10 minutes later the maeal arrived. She had given me a couple of packs of ketchup and very full container of some type of spicy mayonnaise. In Europe people tend to eat there fries with mayonnaise and this might have been an extension of this idea. The meal itself contained too many fries and not enough nuggets. I my nuggets and left plenty of fries.
I knew my 24 Hour transport pass was going to run out at 12:28 p.m. and decided just to be sure I should probably by a new one ticket pass. I walked around the hill think you train station trying to find a ticket machine but all I could find was ATM’s. Then I went over to the tram stop and was able to find it. I asked some people waiting to buy tickets behind me it which type of ticket I should get and they said that they were not from the city and was not familiar with the routing. I was able to buy my tickets and then I asked someone who was local if this was definitely the tram to take to go to the west terminal ferry link. She said it was.
I found my way to the terminal and checked in. I had an hour to kill before we loaded the ferry. I was able to chat with my girlfriend be a the terminals free Wi-Fi service.
Next came time to get in line to load the ferry. Basically you just kind of follow the crowd if you aren’t sure what to do. They opened the ferry gate at 2:50 p.m. again I just followed the crowd in and found a seat. I realize later on that no one was carrying around suitcases our luggage and must have stored them in the lockers beforehand. I feel kind of dumb rolling around my suitcase and backpack. But to each his own. During the ferry ride I discovered the ferry’s free internet and chatted with friends throughout the ride. I managed to go outside and take a few pictures of the ferry. Inside the windows were much too dirty to even try to take any pictures.
We seemingly made it into the port early but had to wait a little while for them to open up the doors. I guess they needed to get the pathway secure.
Using Google Maps that was able to walk to my hotel. My hotel in Tallinn quite unusual. When getting to my hotel room I actually have to walk through the prep area for the restaurant. Also the Wi-Fi doesn’t work in my room which is very aggravating. But the worst part is that the heat is still on and the room making the room unbearable. I had to open up some windows. I asked to change rooms but they said they were all booked up and was unable to give me a new room. If the problem persists so will try to ask for a new room tomorrow night when hopefully many people have left to go back to work.
I will to the old Town and had pizza at Pizza Americana. The service was not exactly cheerful. The lady never greeted me whenever I come in and never offered me a menu. It was up to me to figure out to that I should go up to the counter and kid a min you myself. I ordered a small pizza with four meats. It was fairly large when it came. It was a pan pizza. I believe it was probably twice the size of a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. But I was able to eat it all and drank all of the one bottle of Sprite which they gave to me.
Tomorrow I will explore the old town of Tallinn before packing up and going home on Monday. Its been a long and exhausting trip and I will be glad to get back home and get some sleep.