Near the waterfront was the Old Market Hall. It has a small set of shops and cafes, but it seems to be mainly aimed at tourists.

I was recommended to go to the Soup Kitchen for some Finnish seafood soup. It has a tomato base, with some cut up veggies. The protein were chunks of salmon and shrimp. It had a savoury flavour that was somehow perfectly balanced by the acidity. I could taste the intensity of the flavour without it being overpowering – this is something I’d like to know how to replicate in my own home cooking!!

Another popular location in Helsinki is the Esplanadi. It’s essentially a urban park in downtown Helsinki with restaurants and cafes on the side for people to chill at.

On the nearby island of Suomenlinna is the site of an old Finnish sea fortress from the 18th century. It’s a pretty nice place to walk around with views of the water.

There’s also a museum for an old retired Finnish submarine too.

For dinner, I had the chance to try bear meat for the first time! It’s from a Russian-style restaurant called Ravintola Saslik.

The bear itself was grilled and wrapped in bacon. The bear tasted like a rougher red meat. It wasn’t that chewy and fell apart easily. It’s true when people say apex predators don’t taste as good. Unfortunately, I felt super lethargic that day from the hectic days of travelling, so I didn’t have the appetite to really enjoy this meal as much as I wanted to.

At night, the Christmas market at Senate Square is still bustling.

On my last night in Helsinki, I went out with some of the folks I met at the hostel I stayed at. We went out for dinner and drinks and I finished the trip with one last hurrah. I also learned that Finns really like to karaoke! It is said that Kimi Räikkönen really likes karaoke, despite his stone cold responses in his press conferences.

Here’s a bonus picture of a dog that I met while browsing a bookstore! Her name is Lola and she is the bookstore dog. She likes to lie there and take pets from passers-by!

Photos here

The Christmas market going on at the time sold a lot of knick knacks aimed at tourists.

This old town reminded me a lot of the old towns in other cities in Europe. It’s one of the things that a lot of European cities have in common.

Nearby the town square, was a picturesque alley known as St. Catherine’s Passage. It looks like it come straight out of a movie.

The whole town is quite picturesque.

Following the stereotypes of a typical European old town, there’s also a grand cathedral, but since this is eastern Europe, this cathedral belongs to the Orthodox church.

Across from it is the parliament of Estonia. It almost looks like something from a Wes Anderson movie.

There are some nice lookout points too.

Aside from the old town historical sites, Estonia has also had to deal with its Soviet past. Tallinn, at least, decided to remove the old Soviet monuments, but understood their historical significance. So they put some of these statues in a sort of statue graveyard. Perhaps the United States can adopt this strategy as a compromise in their debate on whether or not to remove the old Confederate statues. A big difference is that it seems Estonia seems quite unified in their rejection of the Soviet ideology. They even have a museum about their occupation by the Soviet Union.

Tallinn also has some hipster areas too. They’ve sprung up all over the place! It’s not *all* historical sites.

Photos here