End of my Trip

After Tallinn, John and I took a ferry up to Helsinki across the Baltic to spend a few days in the Finnish capital. We pretty much walked around and saw the city. The center of the city itself is very managable and easy to get around. They have a nice park that leads down to a marketplace next to the water. There is also Stockmans, the Finnish department store which is the largest in the region and if I recall correctly it was 7 stories tall and took up a couple of giant buildings. I tried to shop there, but was a little overwhelmed myself, so that can tell you how big it is, haha. =)

Our last day in Helsinki, we took a boat out to the island fortess of Suomenlinna, which was run by three countries at different points - Sweden, Russia, and Finland. It was a nice day trip and just something interesting to spend the day walking around on.

Me on Suomenlinna Island

Friday morning, John and I both had flights to catch - he was heading home and I was goign to Stockholm, (for those of you who spend anytime at all with me will know that I LOVE Stockholm). I arrived early morning in Stockholm and found that my hotel was under contrustion so it was not as nice as I thought, but oh well, still a good area. I spend the next couple of days just wandering around - I've been there twice before so there isn't much sightseeing left for me to do, and I didn't take very many pictures, but it is still my favorite place to go. It is located right where the Baltic meets Lake Malaren, and the city is on a bunch of various islands, and then further outside there is the Stockholm archipelago with lots of summer homes and resorts that people take ferries/boats out to each summer. It's also an incredibly clean city, and very big - much bigger than Helsinki - so there are a lot of cool neighborhoods to walk around and explore.

This is a picture of the most upscale street in Stockholm (i.e. where I will be living in a few years =) )

This is a picture taken from Gamla Stan (old town island) towards Sodermalm (the south island, where all the cool young people/working class people live)