Perfection in a phrase: ankle support

The Easter holidays have been a blur. A wonderful, exciting and exhausting blur. And given my love of travel it only seemed right to finish off the holidays in style. This particular adventure had been in the works for quite a while, and after reading you will understand why plenty of planning was required. Did I mention that it involved four capital cities in three days...

The alarm went off  4:45. Urgh. Just urgh. But somehow I got up and off, even remembering my passport as I set off to the train station again. A while later I arrived in Dortmund (anyone would think I’m obsessed with the place given the number of times I’ve been). I found Katherine and together we found the airport and our flight to Vilnius. As you do. WizzAir (my favourite airline, not just because it amuses me that I have a MyWizz account) safely deposited us in Lithuania, where we successfully organised currency (Litas), procured a map and found a bus to the city. So by found a bus to the city I mean literally walked out of the airport building and onto the nearest bus...  it worked.

Vilnius made a good first impression; sunny and pretty. There are about a million churches and far too many squares but it was a nice city centre. We had a brief wander around before finding food, and then cake because it is always time for cake. Cutting the cake in half with a piece of cardboard was an excellent idea. As the sun began to set it was time to head back to the bus station. Yes that would be the bus station, no hostel for us tonight. Instead a night bus to Estonia. The bus was remarkably comfy and mercifully warm (shoes and socks off for sleeping!) so considering my bed was moving it was a good nights sleep.

In Tallinn we began the standard procedure of working out how to get from the bus station to the city centre. The answer: follow the tramlines. We had a couple of hours to explore downtown Tallinn which was just as pretty as I’d expected. There is something special about a city wander in the early morning, before everyone else is out and about. Anyway, before too long it was time to find the ferry terminal. You know, the place ferries go from. Because the normal response to a flight and night bus is to get a ferry. A mere two hours later we arrived in Helsinki and caught a tram from the ferry terminal to the city centre.

Let the sightseeing commence. First stop Kauppatori (the market square). Directly on the sea front, the square (more like rectangle) is full of stalls selling food, textiles and souvenirs. It seemed like a lovely, albeit windy, place to eat lunch. So after meeting Emma that's exactly what we did: Baltic herring steak and salmon with fried potatoes for three. Then back on a boat from Kauppatori to an island called Suomenlinna (or as we tended to call it semolina). Suomenlinna is a sea fortress off the coast of Helsinki, consisting of multiple tiny islands connected by bridges. It is a very interesting place, having been used by Sweden, Russia and Finland in defence over the years. We walked 'the blue route', taking in the main features from the main quay in the North to King's Gate in the South of the fortress via the Church and Kustaanmiekka earthworks. The terrain was not exactly ideal; probably the worst cobbles I have ever walked on. This was particularly unfortunate considering that we had just over an hour to walk the fortress... with the recommended visit time being 2 to 4 hours! Poor feet.

Back in mainland Helsinki we headed to the Uspensky Cathedral then Senate Square and Cathedral. Now what? Another walk, past Parliament towards the Olympic station. Just because it is a fantastic name I'm going to mention that it was by a lake called Töölönlahti Tölöviken... look at the number of umlauts! Anyway, where was I... the Olympic Stadium. Attached to the stadium is a viewing tower, promising impressive views over the Helsinki. And we all know how much I love climbing towers. The view was pretty good, bringing home how much water there is in and around Helsinki.

We made the most of our travel card, hopping on and off trams as we pootled back towards the very centre, with a final few minutes by the cathedral and in the very chilly and windy Kauppatori before returning to the very terminal. Yep, we did a day trip to Helsinki. We grabbed food from Hesburger on our way, which I certainly do not recommend, and then discovered that the ferry was absolutely heaving. Therefore we ended up sitting on the floor in a corridor, where we were treated to a mini guitar concert... for two hours.

Whilst the ferry might not have been the most enjoyable two hours of my life, it did successfully get us back to Tallinn. We even knew where the hostel was, so wasted no time at all in dumping our rucksacks (amazing feeling) and heading out for a nighttime explore of Tallinn. We'd done well with the hostel selecting so were staying at the edge of the old town so were straight out on to winding old streets and yet more cobbles. The walk in the vague area of the Town Hall Square, then over towards St. Olav's Church which was at one point thought to be the tallest building in the world. Things might have changed but St. Olav's still dominates the Tallinn skyline.

The best thing about a night bus/night train, aside from the obvious travel benefit, is how well you sleep the following night. That morning in Tallinn, we woke up ready to do some serious sightseeing. But first breakfast. During our walk the previous evening we had identified a suitable place to breakfast: an awesome coffee shop right in the centre with a teacup ferris wheel. Yes people, a teacup ferris wheel. Breakfasted, we began with Freedom Square, with the Monument to the War of Independence (1918-1920) and then headed up to Toompea. The Old Town is divided into the Lower Town and Toompea hill, so it was literally heading up. There are various impressive buildings, including Parliament (complete with tower) and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a Russian orthodox church complete with onion domes. Unfortunately we couldn't go into any churches because it was Good Friday. The route back into the Lower Town took is along Lühike Jalg, a steep narrow road lined with galleries.

There was plenty of time to wander around the Lower Town, over towards St. Olav's again and Fat Margaret Tower. After searching for ages, we finally found a tower unaffected by Good Friday opening times. Even better, it happened to be a way onto the city walls.

Food was found in the main square and we sat outside because it was sunny and lovely. I was brave, ordering traditional Estonian sausages with mashed potato and onion marmalade and was pleasantly surprised! And just like that our time in Tallinn was nearly over. We began the walk back to the station, adopting the 'follow the tram lines' method once more, but got distracted by a cake shop (standard). Five minutes later we were sitting in Tammsaare Park consuming cake (mine was of the blackcurrant and chocolate ganache variety). And then it really was time to head back to the station.

Congratulations on reading the first half of the Baltic extravaganza. It's a bit of a mammoth story so I'll be back on Monday with the second instalment!