Tallinn, Estonia!

I went on a cruise around the Baltics that included stops in Tallinn, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki from May 7th-15th! I went with Signe, Lana, Dieuwertje, and Silke. I suck at blogging. I was doing so well during the first half of the semester. Oh well. Better late than never. But I'm going to split my Balalaika and Vodka tour into three posts, Estonia, Russia, and Finland. So here we go!

So the cruise left Stockholm and our first cruise ship was the best! We went to an African dance workshop. 

Silke, Signe, me, Didge, and Lana

Here is our cabin! Tiny room.

It was a fun night! And when we woke up in the morning, we made it to Tallinn. We spent a couple hours on a walking tour of the city which was actually quite fascinating. I knew nothing about Estonia's history so I learned a lot! Now, if you don't know anything about Estonia, here is a brief synopsis of the country's history. Estonia has been pretty wealthy and has been taken over many times by different countries or regimes over the years. We'll just consider the last hundred years or so because the history is hectic and there are a lot of countries that have controlled Estonia. It was under the control of Russia, occupied by the Soviets twice and by the Nazis during WWII. It was finally restored independence in 1991. 

Tallinn's old town

Tallinn's old town is one of the best preserved in the world. Because of the city's prime trade location, it has always been really wealthy and sought after by many but it remained well preserved.

St. Nicholas' Church

I think this church has the goofiest history. During the Soviet occupation pre WWII, the soviets obviously were not pro-churches because of their whole atheism policy so the plan was to destroy the church. Now the church is pretty old, from medieval times, so citizens were not keen to let that happen. They made a deal with the soviets. The church would not be destroyed if it was turned into an atheist museum. What a strange compromise. Now there is some sort of joke about how Estonians are always behind on the times and just generally slow to change so the museum was never finished because WWII and the soviets became distracted. Today it is not an active church but instead an Art Museum of Estonia.

Estonian Flag on Freedom Square

War of Independence Victory Column 

Now, this monument is a bit controversial among Estonians. It was completed in 2009 to honor those who died in the Estonian war of independence from 1918-1920. It was extremely expensive and has features about it that are questionable. For starters, Estonia is not a religious country so the cross is an issue for most people. In the middle of the cross is an E that has a striking resemblance to the Euro E but actually stands for Estonia. Also note that the monument was completed in 2009. The war of independence was over in 1920.

Kiek in de Kok Artillery Tower which means "Peek into the Kitchen"

Russian Orthodox Church in Tallinn

Estonian Parliament

The flag at the top of the tower shows who is in control of  Estonia. The Estonian flag has been up there since 1991.

Here's Tallinn!

Tallinn Town Hall

The town hall has a tiny man in the top tower, Old Thomas, is a symbol of the city and a guardian of the city. There are also dragons that stick out of windows just below the roof. They protect the city.

Tallinn Town Hall Square

After the tour we were starving so we had to find lunch! 

After some map checking, 

we of course found a British pub with steak,

and some Legos to play with,

and a place for snacks!

Our tour guide for the entire trip, Karin, is Estonian so she knew all the cool bars to go to for our bar crawl that night! And that's all for Tallinn. We got up in the morning to catch another boat to Helsinki where we got on the Russia boat. Tallinn is such a fantastic and overlooked city with an incredible history. And it doesn't hurt that it's ultra cheap. All in all, I love Estonia!

Terviseks! (Cheers in Estonian!)

Gusties venture to the Big City!

So the Big City is Stockholm. And in all honesty, it's not the big. But we've been so busy living sheltered lives in our little Uppsala that we thought it was time to head south and hit the tough city streets of Stockholm. Signe, Darailia, Annalise, and I headed to Stockholm from May 2nd through May 4th.

Thursday, May 2nd

Caught the bus down to Stockholm! Fairly unexciting. I did some crocheting. Darailia's dad had hotel points at Scandic (a Swedish hotel chain) that expire at the end of the year so we had a hotel for free! And the hotel has free breakfast buffets everyday! So we had breakfast and secretly packed a lunch both mornings fo' free! We walked to our hotel and met up with a friend Annalise met when she took her gap year and studied in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her friend brought us to Vapiano for dinner. Holy guacamole, it was delicious. It's an Italian restaurant with pizzas bigger than twice the size of your face. I had the most amazing pizza with roasted tomato, garlic, basil, and mozzarella. I just looked it up and apparently, they exist in the US. I think I'll take a trip to Chicago this summer. That night we took advantage of the sauna in the hotel and watched some Disney Channel in Swedish. Here are some pics of the Royal Palace that day:

Swedish guard change

The Royal Palace

Tiny picture, don't know what happened. But it's a knight fighting a sea serpent.

Friday, May 3rd

Darailia, Annalise, and me

Darailia was headed to an open air museum just outside the city and Annalise met up with another person she knows in Stockholm. She has so many contacts in Sweden, it's absurd. So that left Signe and me to go shopping. Signe and I had some big goals such as finding a specific Orrefors votive, a denim jacket, and souvenirs up the wazoo. It was a great success. I think both of us found nearly everything we were looking for. But we did so much walking. By now, I'm used to walking because I'm too cheap to pay for the bus and don't really like riding my bike but holy cow, did we walk a lot that day. In the afternoon we met up with Signe's parents who had just returned from visiting friends south of Stockholm. We had some lovely fancy cheese and crackers with wine before heading off to our dinner at a restaurant my mom suggested. We ate at Magnus Ladulås in Gamla Stan, which if you remember from a previous post, means "old town" in Swedish and dates back to the 13th century. Here are some food pictures to make your mouth water and other dinner pictures!

Beef sirloin with garlic potatoes, seasoned butter, and salad

Cremé Brulée for dessert!

Here's the whole group! Suzette (Signe's mom), Darailia, Annalise, me, Signe, and Jon (Signe's dad)

It was a delicious dinner so thank you again to the Thorpes! After dinner on our way back to the hotel we decided to walk to the top of a tower and see the view of the city at night. I have no idea what the tower was but it had a phenomenal view of the city that my camera could not do justice so here's a picture of three of us. 

Annalise, me, and Signe

And then there's this. We're a strictly Coke family. 

Saturday, May 4th

Saturday morning I joined Signe and her parents for a Millennium tour of Stockholm. The Millennium trilogy is better known in the US as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books written by Stieg Larsson. Fun fact: His name was not originally spelled with and e. His name was Stig Larsson. In his 20's there was another upcoming author with the same name so they flipped a coin to see who would add the e and the author of the Millennium series lost so he added an e to his name. 

Back to the books. If you haven't read them, I don't blame you. The books took a good two weeks of my life last summer and the subject matter can get really heavy but they're good books. Now that I've been to Sweden, I might reread them because I won't just skim over the locations. Anyway, the tour we went on highlighted different spots mentioned and or used in the books and movies on Södermalm, one of the islands in Stockholm. So here's a quick little bit about the tour! If you haven't read the books or seen the movies, this part won't make sense to you.

Mikael Blomkvist's apartment

The cafe used in the American movie at the beginning right after the trial and was a favorite of Stieg Larsson. He enjoyed the grilled cheese. 

Above the store is where Larsson wrote the office of Millennium is located

The building where Lisbeth bought her absurdly large apartment

The building used in the American film as the Milton Security Office

The building used in the Swedish film as Milton Security and the one described by Stieg in the books.

From the set of the Swedish movie!

So that concludes a few things from the Millennium tour.

Signe and I went off and did more shopping; I found my raspberry Orrefors votive so it was a good day! And then I caught a train back to Uppsala back just before dinner and with time to Skype back to Burnsville for prom!

Such a good trip to the capital with good shopping, good food, and good Gusties!

Valborg!

So this post is long overdue. My apologies! It's been a hectic couple of weeks!

Valborg is a Swedish holiday. Full disclosure, until I got it together to Google it myself, I had no idea about the history of the holiday. I had only heard about traditions and celebrations surrounding the holiday. Here's my best summary of the history:

Valborg is "Walpurgis Eve" which is April 30th every year. It's a time to celebrate spring! That's it. Uppsala students have taken to really celebrating by making it an excuse to drink for five days. There are particular traditions around Uppsala that happen every year. Now my bank account and my liver could not handle five days but there were certain events that I simply could not miss.

Sunday, April 28th
I was studious and stayed in to write a paper while raging Valborg kick off parties where happening around Uppsala.

Monday, April 29th
The week kicked off with Valborg club nights at a few of the nations. I was designated picture person that night but here's a picture of my friends at the club!

Lana, Dieuwertje, Esther, and Silke

Tuesday, April 30th

To my delight, the festivities continued the next morning at 8 in the morning. So early. But I finally dragged by bum out of bed because there was a boat race on the river in town. 

Gusties at the river! Me, Annalise, and Signe

Typically, a ton of people come to the river to see the boat race so you had to get there early to get a good spot. And the university students all have champagne and strawberries. Now, I should explain the boat race. It's not exactly a race. It's just teams of four people that have built boats from the supplies provided. They had to attend informational meetings and hear safety information because I guess something about floating down a river in a boat made of styrofoam is not safe. And the teams float/paddle down the river in their boats one by one. Not overly thrilling but amusing nonetheless. Here are some boats we saw!

Just a car

THE MYSTERY MACHINE, Scooby Doo Gang included!

Up!

Horse

Usain Boat. Clever. 

TMNT

Bar on the River

It's a unicorn!

Excavator. Tonka if I'm not mistaken. MN pride. 

The day continued with lunch and champagne in the park behind on the academic buildings!

Friends in Ekonomikum Parken Lana, Esther, Annalise, Darailia, Signe, Me, and Silke

Such a strange thing. There were porta-potties set up and police were there but not doing anything. Just watching. The park was also blocked off because they didn't want people to be wandering the streets drinking. I suppose they know that students are going to be drinking in public so they contain it as well as they can. 

So crowded. That building in the back is Ekonomikum which is where I used to have class.

The day continued with a champagnegalopp at our nation, Snerikes! This was by far my favorite part of Valborg. You pop champagne and spray it everywhere and all over your friends. CHAMPAGNE SHOWERS. Even though the champagne burned my skin and eyes and made me incredibly sticky, it was SO MUCH FUN. 

Once again, lots of people.

And then you smash the bottle. 

 

Covered in champagnne! Silke, Esther, Dieuwertje, Lana, and me

More champagne covered friends! Lana and me, Elana, Kate, someone?, and Rebecca

And I suppose that was the big party night but all of us were exhausted so we all went home for a nap and ended up sleeping through the night. Oops. 

Tuesday, May 1st

Since we (all my friends and I) went to bed early we were up at at 'em bright and early on what's supposed to be the biggest hangover day of the year. I'm so sad that I missed out on having a tremendous hangover (I hope you read the sarcasm in that). Anyway, Signe and I wanted to get some homework done, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the library. It was closed. Apparently it was a holiday and nothing was open. 

So all and all not the most eventful Valborg but extremely enjoyable! Strange traditions and new friends!

Skål!