national theater of Finland

There is absolutely no doubt that Tallinn is a very appealing city. It's small size makes it easy to get around on foot, it's lovely medieval buildings are enchanting and the clean air makes it easy to breathe. In fact, if it weren't for the ferocious winters and the daily invasion of thousands of cruise ship passengers, it would probably be a great place to live.

While we never had to experience the harshness of the winter months, we certainly witnessed the daily ritual of the giant cruise ship invasions. Every morning these behemoths of the ocean dock at Tallinn port, disgorge their thousands of selfie snapping passengers to crowd the centre of the old town, then by mid afternoon they are off to repeat the same procedure at the next Baltic port. I fail to see how this can in any way be enjoyable for the passengers who are herded from place to place, just like sheep. It is little wonder that many towns in Europe are now actively complaining about how this modern phenomenon is ruining their cities.

This was our last morning in Tallinn, and it also marked the official end of the first part of our trip. Our group is now breaking up to head in their different directions. It also marked the end of UTRACKS involvement with our arrangements. Up to now everything had gone exactly according to plan, but now I would be putting ourselves in the hands of another (and completely untried tourism operator). Time would tell how it all panned out.

When putting together the Russian part of our trip I went through three different travel agencies in Melbourne. None of them had the experience and competence to undertake our trip. That is when I decided to try out a local agent, based in the Baltics. Putting so much responsibility in the hands of someone you will never meet is very scary. It's even more scary when you you to transfer large sums of money to their bank account. Somewhere in the back of my mind there was a fearful little voice telling me that it was probably just a front for the Russian mafia.

After a final short walk around the town, we returned to the hotel to wait for our transfer to the port. It arrived right on time and we were soon at the very impressive Tallinn passenger terminal. This was my first chance to test the arrangements that had been made by Baltic Events and Travel. I walked to the check in desk and presented my voucher. The lady looked at it and went off to collect the tickets. So far so good.

I was handed a pile of ten tickets. That much was correct. It was only when I checked the names that I discovered that several were jumbled up. Christian names were swapped at random. I hoped that it would not matter too much. Fortunately no one checked passports and we were all able to board without incident. Our ship was the very impressive Megastar. Hundreds of noisy foreign passengers were jostling to get on board first. I was really glad that we were only doing this once, for many others this is a daily ritual.

Our group of ten managed to secure a small block of seats and then block it off with a barricade of our luggage. All around the cacophony continued unabated. I don't understand why so many people feel the need to carry on every conversation at the same volume as a bellowing elephant. I plugged in my headphones and listened to Australia playing England the World Cup Cricket.

Fortunately the crossing to Helsinki only takes around two hours and we were soon shuffling our way off the Megastar onto the pier at Helsinki. A glance around revealed a large assemblage of massive cruise ships already docked. Some of these were like floating versions of Fountain Gate Shopping Centre. We just wanted to get away from the crowd.

I had been promised that someone would be waiting for on arrival, and there was. He had my name spelt wrong, but what the heck, at least he was there. We were led to a waiting luxury Mercedes Benz bus and driven to our hotel in the prestigious Kluuvi district of the city.

The GLO Kluuvi is a lovely hotel - easily the most luxurious of our trip so far. It was a little disconcerting when they had been given the wrong names for some of the rooms, but this seems to be a recurring theme here. (Dana at UTRACKS would NEVER make such mistakes). At least the number of rooms was correct.

After checking in, I spent some time hobbling around the local district. My left knee is still very stiff and painful, meaning that I was not able to travel far. I did however see some familiar sights that I remembered from my previous time here in 2014. After dinner at a nearby cafe, I went back to the hotel for an early night. It was only about 10 pm, so the sun was still high in the sky.

Over the past couple of days the local news has been full of alarming reports about the European heat wave. In many parts of central Europe the temperatures have been souring to near 40C. Although we are now too far north to be affected by the heat, the weather has continued to be exceptional. Virtually every day has been fine and sunny, ever since we arrived in Warsaw. It now looks like this will follow us all the way to St Petersburg. That wet weather gear looks like staying at the bottom of the case after all.Read more