We drove almost six hours north from Helsinki to Varpaisjärvi. It was a beautiful drive including rainbows and moose! 

At about midnight, we couldn’t wait anymore. We had to eat. Only one restaurant was open… Hesburger! Admittedly, we kind of wanted to try it. It’s prevalent here in Finland. We’ve seen them everywhere, so we pulled off the highway to give it a try. 

Adam had the “bacon meal” and I had the “chicken meal”. Boy do they like mayo. Lots and lots of mayo. Don’t get me wrong, I like mayo, but wow! I had to scrape 3-4 tablespoons off my “chicken meal”. Other than the monstermayo the meal was good enough to be called fast food.   

  

  
   
 

After landing in Helsinki, we made it to the airport to pick up our car… A Yaris!! 😍 

We stopped at a gas station for some road food. Whoa… Things are very different in Finland. We got two drinks, a bag of chips, and a “French Dog” for €18!!!! We could eat a beautifully presented, quality meal and have two glasses of wine for that much in Tallinn. 😒 I think we will be eating most meals at home. 😏  

   
  

 

   
 

Never thought we’d be on a boat… To Helsinki😉 The food on the boat was terrible! We had a plate of mashed potatoes, beef stew, and meetball slosh. All dishes were served perfectly tepid, of course. Bleh! 

Luckily the Karhu was cold and the entertainment on board was exceptional. We enjoyed hours of Finnish karaoke and dancing. Awesome. Just awesome. I think we had too much fun😊 

    

 

We’re headed back to Finland! We have to catch an early ferry back to Helsinki. I had a peach yogurt. Adam had a vanilla. Fast and easy. Let’s go!!! 

 

After Kumu we walked through beautiful Kadriorg Park. We enjoyed the formal gardens and the pretty palace.      

  

  We took a bus back to Old Town and stopped for some refreshments. Adam had a beer he’s always wanted to try, but has never been able to find- Gruit, an Estonian traditional brew with juniper and wild Rosemary. He really enjoyed it. I also found an elusive drink- Lindemans Cassis, a black current lambic. It was very good but Lindemans framboise is still my all-time fave lambic. 

   We came upon a concert in the middle of the main square in Old Town. Ok. Why not?  (Insert cool video that won’t load here)

 When the show ended, we went to dinner at Clayhill’s. Jill and Cody went there and highly recommended the mussels. Sorry the pictures are terrible, low temps tonight so they had their heat lamps on. Everything glowed red… Even our Caesar salad and creamy mussels. The food was good; however, it was so chilly out, our mussels arrived warm and were cold by the time we really dug in… A real shame😒    

We ventured further into Tallinn. It was so fun seeing real Tallinn not just the super touristy Old Town. We went to Kumu, Estonia’s national gallery. We enjoyed learning about Estonian art. 

We had lunch at the museum cafe. Great, fresh, healthy food at a museum!?!?! Again, wow!

I had the butternut squash soup with toasted seeds. Adam had the duck borscht. Both were served super hot and with style😃 We shared the roasted cauliflower with truffle cream sauce. Everything was well made, fresh, and beautiful!  

    
    
   

Yum!!!! We had an amazing, amazingly cheap breakfast! 15 handmade mutton and onion dumplings in a spectacular mushroom cream sauce…. (Drumroll)…. €2.80!!! Mind blown. We also had the potato and cheese dumplings-€3.20. Two glasses of spectacular Italian prosecco- €6.10. One glass of fresh, Estonian craft beer-€3.00. Unbelievable. A meal this good and this fresh, with so much handmade care and quality would cost so much in the U.S. AND you would have to go to a major city to get anything close to this good. Should we move here?  

    
    
    
   Plus a few pics from the walk to F-hoone. We loved the authentic market with the babushkas and bras😊 
    
    

 

We couldn’t resist some greasy, cheesy Americana, more cheap Saku,land a decent pizza. Although, we really miss Nice Guys😔 We made the weirdest pie we could come up with: jalapeño, sausage, onion, garlic, and sweet peppers. The crust was good, similar to a “pizza smut” pan crust, but not so fake.  

   
 

We wondered around Tallinn and worked up a bit of an appetite. We stopped in to Von Kahl, a pretty little cafe. 

We shared the “landscape on a plate”- rabbit pâté, fermented veggies, filet of beef carpaccio, garlic air with whitefish gravlax, micro greens, and apple wine gelle. 

Adam had a local craft beer and I had locally made black currant wine. Both were excellent. Unfortunately the food looked prettier than it tasted. The dark rye bread was good, but the worst we’ve had so far, and served with olive oil instead of the clearly superior, typical butter.