Estonia

Our 23-hour day!

A Byrd

— 5 min read
Our 23-hour day!
The strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, banana and Nutella waffle B and I shared at the Senate Square markets in Helsinki. 😋

Technically it was a 26-hour day (24 hours plus the two hours we gained by changing timezones), but I'm talking about how long B and I were awake for. We woke up at 3:50am on Thursday in Tallinn and didn't get to bed until almost 1am on Friday on the UK. We had breakfast in Estonia, lunch in Finland and dinner in England!

Catching a Bolt (Estonian Uber) to the ferry terminal in Tallinn at 5am on Thursday.
Rear-view window shot of the Tallinn city wall gate we drove through as we departed.
How we feel about 3:50am wake-ups.
Ferry loading up.
Ships passing in the (not quite) night.
Goodbye Eckerö Line.

After the 2-hour ferry ride back to Helsinki, we had about six hours to fill in before we needed to go to the airport.

Riding the tram in Helsinki again.
😍

First, we visited the National Library of Finland. It was gorgeous!!

National Library of Finland.
Waiting five minutes for the library to open at 10am.
J's new beanie is from Tallinn. He lost his other one. 😄
Inside the library!
In the library's basement cafe, we found a €1 hot chocolate/coffee machine...
... and B and I had €3.60 ($5.90 AUD) sandwiches, which was the cheapest food we saw in Helsinki!
We also read some books they had in the cafe. 🙂

When we left the library, we explored an international market at Senate Square nearby. They had stalls selling food from a variety of countries (including Australia!). I was incredulous at how much stock some of the vendors had brought along for the day!

Nougat!
Zebra crossings made from different coloured stone (outside the markets, though these are common throughout Helsinki).
Yum!
Macarons!
An acre of Italian desserts!
The boys had lunch from The Australian Barbecue Co.
(Though I did doubt their Aussie credentials when I saw this in their stall...)
F had a kangaroo burger and enjoyed it. This cost about $26 AUD!
J had a beef burger ($20 AUD).
Since B and I had already had sandwiches from the library, we shared this spectacular creation!

Then we went back to Helsinki Central Library Oodi for the THIRD time (didn't take any pics this time) and hung out there until it was time to take the train to the airport for our 5:45pm flight to London Stansted.

Goodbye Finland...
... and hello England!

I am SO excited to be back in England for the first time in 16 years! (B was here briefly about 9 years ago on a work trip.) And to have more than four days in the one country for a change! 😄

After a 2-hour late-night drive through London in our rental EV and a stop for Macca's with sleepy boys, followed by an 11pm cuppa with the friends we're staying with and finally a long-awaited night's rest, we are now settled in in Worthing, on the south coast of England.

During the next couple of weeks, we'll be catching up with various friends from our year living in West Sussex in 2007-2008 before having a few days in London by ourselves. I'm so happy to be back here!! ❤️

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