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| This is how their tram looks like! |
Referring to my previous post, we took a tram from that marketplace and arrived at Helsinki West Harbour. There are several companies offering routes to Estonia from Helsinki. It's kinda like us going Batam from Singapore. Many Helsinkians take the opportunity to head there for a weekend and to buy cheap booze! Things in Estonia is significantly cheaper as compared to Helsinki.
We found out that one can even take a ferry to Stockholm! We're quite determined we're gonna try that out one day! :)
Carrying our heavy backpacks, we thought we arrived at the right place. Alas, the company, Linda Line, that we wanted to take the ferry with did not sail off from that harbour. Hence, we had to leave. Linda Line provides one of the cheapest and fastest routes to and from Estonia. We could have booked online, but we weren't sure whether we could make it in time for the ferry. Booking your tickets online first is definitely cheaper!
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| Reached the Makasiiniterminaali! I know right, what's up with the Finnish spelling. LOL |
Hey, cut us some slack, we were on a shoestring budget la. ;)
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| What we saw at the terminal |
Went straight to the ticket counter and bought our return tickets. Because we bought only on the day itself, it was crazy expensive! Came up to €135 for two persons' return tickets. I read online later that someone caught an offer and got it from €35 per person for return! T.T
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| On board the ferry |
There was a mini bar and we could almost immediately sense our sausage craving coming on. There's just something about Europe, the weather and the sausages. They blend together sooooo nicely. We saw many travellers lugging their golf clubs as well. Guess Estonia is a pretty popular place for golfers.
After about one and a half hours' journey, we reach the Linnahall! It looks nothing like a jetty, seriously.
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| Weird place to dock a ferry. |
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| There. |
Doesn't it just look weird to you. We thought it looked like some abandoned fort and we arrived at the wrong place. Had totally no idea how to get out of that place and the cabs available there seemed ready to leech our money so we refused to get into one. We climbed the fort-looking stairs, hoping we can 登高望遠 and get a sense of directions. While climbing, we noticed a lot of graffiti on the walls and glass shards that seem to litter the entire place. Good thing I was wearing boots, not flats.
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| Very very weird. But I like. |
I ran a Wikipedia search on Linnahall and turns out that it is a concert and sports venue, and a heliport! How cool is that!
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| Looking over the other side after we climbed to the top, away from the sea |
Seriously looking like a fortress.
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| If you no say, I thought it's Roman grounds. Hahaha! |
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| Civilisation on the left. Quite a vast difference. |
So we walked down the stairs on the other side and foolishly made a long detour with our heavy bags, trying to locate our hostel for the night. After what seemed like half an hour's walk with our (okay, MY) crazy heavy bag, we finally found Old Town!
Not the kopitiam hor.
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| Cobbled streets. |
The entire Old Town looks like this. Our hostel is the building on the left in green. Thank goodness Tex had the awesome foresight to suggest that I bring a backpack for this trip. If I had brought a trolley luggage and having to lug it around on this kind of road conditions, the wheels would have given way long ago. I would have been stuck with a luggage that I cannot wheel. ZZZZZ.
Very famished so we asked the receptionist to recommend where we could go for lunch! She suggested an African restaurant down the street so there we went!
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| So African. |
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| Hot food; Alfresco dining in cool weather is loveeeeeee. |
May I add that the wedges were really delicious? So delicious to the extent that I doggy-bagged them when we couldn't finish!
*Smiles coyly to myself*
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| Hot bread rolls that we koped. |
After a really full lunch, we started our day proper! Note: we still didn't shower because our beds were not ready when we checked in but we didn't want to waste time! Only scheduled an overnight stay in Tallinn.
Read up that our highlight visit of the trip - Patarei Prison, was within walking distance from our hotel. Just nice to walk away our full lunch!
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| Lovely views everywhere we went. |
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| So pretty hor. |
Found an apple tree! Saw some Finnish girls picking up some of the apples and they very kindly gave us some! They left with their biycles later on. Why ang moh so eng one? No need to work one meh?
Reached our destination! *Excited*
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| Patarei Prison |
Patarei Prison used to house inmates from the Soviet Union era and was abandoned in 2002, due to unhygienic conditions for the inmates. Talking about welfare, huh? Everything there was left untouched and it is now an open museum for the public. Visitors are free to roam the entire compound (if you dare to). Most rooms are opened and lit, including the Blood Room (where they executed criminals) and the Hanging Room (where they hung criminals). We could still see the hooks, shackles and recess in the ground in the Hanging Room. Very haunting. I didn't even dare to step into the room by myself. Had to wait for another group of visitors to enter together. :O
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| Apparently the inmates really very eng sia, can draw on the walls! |
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| Surgery Room |
I had a very creepy feeling when I entered the Surgery Room. Just imagine how many people died there. There were many things left behind, it's almost like they abandoned the prison in a hurry. I don't think you're supposed to touch the things but I've seen other photos of Patarei online and this surgery chair appears in many photos in different positions. Oh well.
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| Calender from 2002 |
Bottles were left opened and stethoscopes lying around.
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| "Chicken or fish, Sir?" |
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| Such a dreary place. |
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| A nice red chair to brighten things up. |
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| Old typewriters and phones left in a room. |
We left the place feeling a little sombre and haunted. We never found the Blood Room. I secretly think it's tucked in that dark little corner where Tex wanted to walk in but I refused because it just felt wrong. It was extremely dark and the next light bulb was like 50 metres away. I stayed in the light and encouraged Tex to go ahead if he really wanted to explore. He gave me a kiss on the forehead and walked in while my eyes were glued on to him. I mean, if he gets any paranormal activity at least I saw it with my own eyes right?! But he walked for no more than 20 metres, he came back. Too creepy for him as well and he isn't even a scaredy cat. T.T
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| Us walking down the street out of Patarei Prison to lighten our mood. |
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| Streets of Tallinn |
Got tired so we walked back to our hostel. It has been truly a long day for us. We reached the hostel at about 5pm Estonian time, that would have been around 11pm Singapore time. Which meant we haven't showered for more than 24 hours! Gosh.
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| Where we stayed! |
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| Common dining room. |
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| Common corridor where we had to walk through to get to our room. |
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| Another kitchen! |
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| Hmm, why take a photo of this oven? |
We were both very intrigued by the oven because on the flat surface, it's actually an induction stove! Cool right? What a save of space!
Next post will be about our day in the Old Town of Tallinn! Stay tuned! :)
Thanks for reading this super longgggg post. :D
True Singaporean adventurers spotted. I felt like a hermit in comparison. I think I will love a trip like that.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nix. It was an awesome trip, no doubt. Trips like that are very humbling. Haha, you've explored so much more places in Perth than I did! Would love to do that too.
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