Posts Tagged ‘St Petersburg’

Travel: Northern Europe Summer – Finland, Russia and Estonia

Monday, July 1st, 2013

White nights, midnight sun and paying a social visit to Santa Claus at his hometown at the Arctic Circle.

Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki. The clear blue skies was a relief from the haze back in South East Asia. Taken with Nikon D600 with 24-120mm lens.

Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki. The clear blue skies was a relief from the haze back in South East Asia. Taken with Nikon D600 with 24-120mm lens.

It all started back in 1991 with the liberation of the Baltic States from the Soviet Union which was subsequently followed by the collapse and breakup of the Soviet bloc.

The old town square in Tallinn teems with tourists and artisans celebrating the city's history and traditional crafts. Photo taken with Nikon D600 with 24-120mm lens.

The old town square in Tallinn teems with tourists and artisans celebrating the city’s history and traditional crafts. Photo taken with Nikon D600 with 24-120mm lens.

Since then, my wife and I have always wondered about what these three brave Baltic States were like – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

As students then, we’d heard so little about these three newly-minted (then) countries.

So it was that – two decades after those tumultuous times – we decided to visit Estonia’s capital Tallinn during the children’s school holidays this year.

The easiest approach was via Helsinki.

We flew direct to the capital of Finland via Finnair and then made a day trip via a 2-hour ferry across the Gulf of Finland.

(more…)