Helsinki, Finland.

Yesterday, we got off to an early start - around 5:45 am - to get to our ship on time for Helsinki. The ship was great, it was a small cruise ship that ferries back and forth to the different countries from Tallinn. We ate breakfast on the ship and relaxed for a couple hours before the real fun began.

We reached Helsinki around 10, bought transportation tickets for the entire day, and started off. It was a little chilly but not too bad. We had assumed that we would be riding the tram all day and not walking too much, but of course, we were wrong. We used our all day tram ticket ONCE and walked for the rest of the entire day! It was fun though, and we had a great time.

Highlights of that day trip in Helsinki was seeing the Church in the Rock, a church that was carved entirely out of a huge boulder in the center of the city, going to the mall:), and taking a shorter ferry ride to a nearby island that has a sea fort still in use today. The Island was very interesting due to the fact that we couldnt exactly find the fort, and the island is used as an "open prison" and we walked all the way through it not realizing we were surrounded by inmates. The only reason we realized it was we came to a sign that said "no admittance, worker colony." It was really funny, especially when we saw the coffee shop there selling ball and chain key chains!

Food adventures for the day included a Finnish fast food restaurant called Chili that serves middle eastern food and a dinner buffet on the way home. With that I ate caviar (which i loved!)

salmon, 2 different types of cheese that were wonderful, and I think that's it.

It was a fun day. Here are some pictures of the city.