Country: Finland, Estonia
Distance travelled:
Weather: Sunny

Although we both were awake by 7am, we stayed lazing in bed until 8am since there was no need to rush into today. Over breakfast a rough plan for the day was formulated as we had a few things to take care of. Our first task was to drive to the closest Lidl supermarket where we returned the last of the plastic bottles we had accumulated. The great recycling system in Finland meant that we got a docket for €4 to spend in the supermarket so we bought some ham and cheese and some more soda water.

We decided spend the four hours until our departure at our parking spot from last night where we had managed to find a high quality wifi connection. With a rough plan sketched out for Estonia, I spent some time investigating Latvia pausing only to post a review on trip advisor for the Hotel Coulomb in St Petersburg. I had really enjoyed our stay there and felt they deserved the good press.

Eventually it was time to drive around to the ferry port where a typo in the vehicle height entry by Mark when he booked yesterday resulted in our needing to pay extra. As we waited in the vehicle queue to board, Mark downloaded the dash cam videos which we hadn’t attended to for a while and just as I went to reinsert the tiny memory card, we were waved forward. I fumbled in panic and the tiny thing slipped from my fingers, tumbling away down the air vents on the dash. I poked around with my fingers and then a skewer but couldn’t locate it. Even a piece of tape rolled sticky side out had no result.

By 3.30pm we were onboard wandering around the quite luxurious ship. There were several restaurants and bars and we settled in the corner of one establishment where we had located a power point to plug in Marks laptop. There was even free wifi albeit not terribly fast. As we sat an Italian gentleman got up on stage and began playing his guitar and singing, very pleasant.

The ferry docked in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, at 6.30pm and soon we were on dry land and heading for a secure spot, Pirita Harbour Camping, listed on Autoroute. It took a little time to locate the place since the GPS coordinates we had weren’t accurate, but we cast about a bit and found the reception not too far away. It was basically another marina where somebody had cleverly put in a few extra power points. It cost us €20 ($29 AUD) for the night but that included EHU and WiFi plus all the usual services we regularly require.

Slotting ourselves into a gap, we found that the motorhome beside us was English and so spent some time chatting, it’s nice to talk to people in one’s own language sometimes. Especially since we can’t speak any other. They had taken roughly the same path through Scandinavia as we had followed except that they had caught the ferry from England directly to Norway.

With the sun still not going down till later in the evening, we decided to eat dinner first and then head into Tallinn to see the city sights. Mark rustled up a pan of oyokadon and then we headed off, leaving the dishes for later. Just out on the main road nearby was a bus stop, the tickets were €1.60 each and the bus headed directly into the city centre.

A short walk from the central bus stop had us in the old town, all narrow, winding cobbled streets with old two and three story buildings to either side. I was surprised at the number of cafés and restaurants spilling their tables onto the streets we walked but in all honesty, probably more disappointed since I feel they don’t always make for the best photos.

Welcome to Tallinn

We wandered about finding some quieter streets and taking lots of photos in the evening light and then at 11pm started heading back to the bus stop since our last bus was at 11.30pm and we didn’t want to miss it. Just as we arrived a bus pulled in, not the last but heading in the same direction, and we gratefully boarded to head back to the camp site.

The trip was no more than twenty minutes but by the time we reached the van, I was exhausted and it was an easy task for Mark to talk me into crashing in bed while he cleaned up the mess from dinner.