Helsinki (Finland) - 21st to 22nd of November 2009

Arriving back in Helsinki at 3pm, we had one objective, to drop our bags at the hostel and find our way to a pub to watch the All Blacks play England at 4. Still had time for a sunset shot though (at about 3.30!). Managed to make it to an Aussie pub that was playing the game at about 4.25 - turns out the game started at 4.30 - score!
After a round of drinks at the pub cost €16, we headed back to the hostel for a quiet one. Sunday, our last day on tour was another early one to make sure we made the most of the daylight. We tripped over to the sea fort Suomenlinna, only 15minutes away by ferry. Originally built by the Swedes in 1748 to protect against Russian expansionism, but the pesky Russians still managed to take over the fortress in 1808, marking the end of the Finnish war. It was used during WW1 as part of the naval fortification to protect St Petersburg, and was given back to independent Finland as a result of the Russian Revolution in 1917. In case you cant tell, we were both intrigued by Suomenlinna, and was definitely the highlight of our Finnish holiday.
We even stumbled across a small old submarine from WWII, the only Finnish submarine that remains after Finland was required to decommission its fleet at the end of the war.

Back into central Helsinki and through one of its many parks.

After a quick stroll past the site of the 1952 olympics, we ended up at the winter gardens, basically a large glasshouse containing a bunch of exotic plants, excluding some massive cacti.

Helsinki has a prety extensive tram network, even including a tram version of the cirlce line. Its basically a cheap tour of Helsinki, so we did the loop, taking about an hour. Unfortunately it was all too much for Ange who was asleep for most of it!

Obvioulsy right on the coast, Helsinki has plenty of coastline, and we managed to squeeze in a quick walk while the light was fading.
Free ice-skating rink in the main square, if you have your own skates that is, which clearly all Finns do, and we didn't.
Being smart, we had saved the only indoor thing we wanted to do until the sun had set at 4pm, the City of Helsinki Museum.

And that was that. Back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the airport after two amazing weeks of beers, language difficulties, amazing scenery and COLD!

Tampere, Finland - 20th to 21st of November 2009

Finland is only an hour and a quarter by ferry from Talinn, so Friday morning we jumped on the 8am boat north across to Helsinki. But Helsinki was scheduled for Saturday night, so we walked through town to the train station and jumped on a train north to Tampere. Only an hour and a half away, Tampere is situated on a river that runs between two large lakes. The weather on Friday unfortunately meant we couldn't do too much, and we only managed a quick walk around town.

Trying to minimise costs in mega-expensive Finland, we went back to the hostel via a supermarket and ate in, with a few beers of course. Again we tried to find some nightlife, lets just say the beers and wine in Finland are a fraction more expensive than Estonia!!

Between the two lakes is apparently the highest gravel ridge in the Northern Hemisphere. It didn't look very high to us, but still to high to walk on Saturday morning after a pretty big night - go the taxi's! Well worth the trip up though to see the views over the lakes.

Feeling slightly better after a scone at the visitor centre, we walked back down through the trees into town for a mid-afternoon train back to Helsinki.