Our final post...

Home sweet home....bittersweet however!  We had a long day of traveling on Wednesday.  By the time we got home, we had been up close to 24 hours.  The flights went really well but we were sad to fly away from Finland.

We'd like to thank The Rural School and Community Trust for this beyond amazing experience.  We've talked a lot about how this experience has transformed many of our views of education.  It has truly expanded our cultural horizons.  It's not everyday that a person gets the chance to visit a different country and learn as much as we did.  =)

Day 11: Goodbye Helsinki!

Before getting to today's happenings, we'll give more details about our trip to Tallinn.  Too worn out yesterday to elaborate on our great day.  As we mentioned, the ferry ride was more like a ship ride.  Very smooth sailing with beautiful, clear skies.  We stayed out on the deck for as long as we could handle the wind!  Chilly....even though the rest of the day was very warm with all the walking and sightseeing.

The Old Town of Tallinn is nestled right in the middle of the modern, larger Tallinn.  The tall skyscrapers and hotels mingle with the church towers and old city walls in the skyline.  It's quite unique.  We walked around the wall until we got to the main gate.  The narrow cobble streets and clay rooftops instantly bring you back to when this town was the heart of Estonia.

We visited a bakery for lunch and began to explore.  The first church we visited allowed people to go up to the top of the tower for a small fee.  We both thought that the views from up there would be worth it!  The winding stairs were very old and there was only space for one person so meeting someone coming the other way was tricky!  Kristi made it about 1/2 way before saying "no way!" and headed back down.  (I don't really do heights and those little windows didn't help!)  Lynn made it to the top but only peeked her head out.  The edge was only protected with a few thin wires.  For someone not weary of the height and edge, the views of the town are probably priceless.  Not for these 2!!!!

Throughout the day, we visited several other churches (no tower climbing however!).  We also visited the City Museum and tried to visit the oldest pharmacy and it's museum but they are closed on Mondays. The antique shops were neat because of the old Soviet and war memorabilia.

The ride back was nice.  We caught a taxi back to our hotel.  Our feet were not in the mood to walk the almost 2 km. back to our hotel!!

Today:
After a good night's rest, we got up this morning for one last walk around Helsinki.  We headed over to a market with vendors selling handmade items.  Then, we made our way down to the harbor and around Senate Square.

We packed up, said goodbye to Raddison Blue, and headed over to the hotel by the airport.  The check-in desk gave us the same room we stayed in when we first arrived.  It's a nice room with a great view of the runway.  It's fun to see the planes landing and taking off.

Our flight to Frankfurt leaves pretty early tomorrow.  We have about a 3 hour layover in Germany before we head home to NC.  We commented about how it seems like we've been here so long yet doesn't seem like we should be leaving just yet.

Old KGB tower the used to block outside radio and TV airwaves

Coming into Tallinn

Gate into the Old Town

Beautiful church

Narrow, cobblestone street

St. Catherine's Passage

Another beautiful church

Another beautiful church

Wall surrounding the Old Town

View of Tallinn

View of Tallinn

Lynn

Narrow street nestled between the old buildings

Day 10: Estonia!!!!!

Whew!!!  What a day!!!  We had a blast visiting Tallinn, Estonia.  Our feet are nice and tired.  :)

Our "ferry" ride was about two hours.  It was a really neat ship.  It looked like a smaller version of a cruise ship that you might see in the Caribbean.  Passengers can even rent cabins for the two hour ride.  We started out on the top deck, watching the scenery.  Helsinki was beautiful from up there.  But then that breeze off the Baltic got too chilly so we found a nice spot by a window inside.

After we got into port, we made our way to the Old Town.  It's a very interesting skyline.  You have this very modern, large area around the outside of the stone wall.  Inside the stone wall, you can see the old buildings and churches. 

We visited many churches and museums today.  Tallinn was very busy....and hot! 

The ride back into Helsinki was nice.  We chose to sit inside this time  :)

I'll elaborate further on Tallinn tomorrow....and post pictures. 

2 tired teachers tonight   =)

Day 9: Getting everything in!

Today was really the last full day that we had to see everything that we could possibly see in Helsinki.  Tomorrow we have a full day traveling to Estonia.  Tuesday we check out of this hotel and head to the airport hotel for the night since our flight to Germany is super early Wednesday morning.

We got to the Finnish National Gallery just as it opened this morning.  The building itself was stunning.  They have a huge, wide collection of art from all over the world.  We were able to view one of Van Gogh's last paintings, "Street in Auvers."  The colors are so beautiful!!!

Next, we hopped the city tram to go over to the harbor.  While we were over on that side of town, we visited a breathtaking Eastern Orthodox church.  The outside was very pretty but paled in comparison to the inside.  The detail and work that went into designing and building the church is amazing.

After we saw the church, we took a 20 minute ferry ride out to one of the world's oldest zoos.  It's on a small island just off the coast of Helsinki.  We enjoyed going to a zoo without worrying about keeping 60+ kids safe!!  :)  The highlight for us was getting to see the reindeer!  We made sure to make it to their exhibit.  We also got up close and personal to a giant male lion lounging in the sun.  It took most of the day to explore the island and see all of the animals.  Many of them were inside their "houses" because of the exceptionally warm temperatures.

For dinner, we stayed at the hotel and enjoyed their very nice restaurant.  The waiters brought us tablets to view the menu and order on.  Very fancy!!  Lynn decided to try a very Finnish dish....she ordered the reindeer steak!!  It is a staple over here for many people!  She said that it tasted very much like beef.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day!  We are both really looking forward to our day trip across the Baltic to Estonia!   :)

Eastern Orthodox church

Finnish National Gallery

Our ferry to and from the Helsinki zoo

Lazin' in the sun

Cute!

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, - is that you??!!

Look at those antlers!

View of Helsinki from the zoo

Lynn's reindeer dish

Day 8: Some Finnish history...

Absolutely beautiful day today!  We've heard many people comment about how unseasonable warm and nice it has been the last few days.  We're sure that we brought the nice weather to Finland with us  :)  Unlike a previous trip complete with snow and getting stuck in an airport hotel for a week!!!!!!!!!

We started our day walking around the sights of busy Helsinki.  A lot of people seem to come into the city for the weekend.  We stopped at a few shops on our way to the market harbor.  We caught a city ferry to Suomenlinna (or Sveaborg, which is the original Swedish name of the fortress) the once-Russian held fortress, which spans 5 of Finland's 180,000+ islands.  The ride was only 10-15 minutes and the ferries run quite often.  We spent the majority of our day exploring this very neat place.  About 850 people reside on these 5 islands and it is a very, very popular tourist attraction.  We took a guided tour with Susani who was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the fortress.

It was originally built when Finland still belonged to Sweden.  Augustin (who is buried on one of the islands) was the main designer of the fortress and oversaw much of it's development.  It was built because of the belief that the Russians would not be able to overtake the fortress, which would keep them from getting to the mainland.  The Sweds (and Finnish) knew that the Russians could not attack from the East because of the dense forests.  They believed that they would only be able to attack from the Baltic Sea.  It took 40 years to build because of several construction stoppages due to peace talks with Russia.  After it was finally built, another man took over as commander of Suomenlinna (Augustin had died of pneumonia).  When the Russians did attack (in the winter, which was very rare), he surrendered the fortress to the Russian military.  The fortress then came under Russian control.  About 50 years later, the Anglo-Saxon fleet (with its "modern" warfare tactics and weaponry) attacked the aging fortress to show force and power in the Baltic region.  After Finland declared independence in 1917, the Finnish government took control of Sveaborg and rename it Suomenlinna.  In 1991, it was added to the World Heritage list.

We really enjoyed this very unique place.  The landscape and views of the Baltic Sea were just beautiful.  We both went out on the rocks and felt the chilly Baltic Sea water.

When we got back to market square, we tried to visit a few museums and a church but because it was late in the day, almost everything was closed.

Tomorrow, we have plans to hop another ferry to another island to visit the Finnish zoo. :)  We also hope to visit those churches and museums that were closed today.  If we miss them, we always have Tuesday morning.  Monday is a full day.  We are crossing the Baltic Sea to visit Estonia!  We'll be up early and back late so that we can take full advantage of our time there.

Military Museum on Suomenlinna 

Augustin's burial site

Dry dock on Suomenlinna 

The Baltic Sea from Suomenlinna 

Lynn feeling the Baltic Sea

The fortress Suomenlinna 

View of Helsinki from the fortress Suomenlinna 

Suomenlinna