I felt really violated when my alarm went off at 5:30am this morning, this tour is really making me soft. I got up and dressed in a hurry, putting on three layers today to cope with the cold and even going so far as to take a beanie, I am going to Scandinavia today after all.

I went downstairs to meet Andy who was already waiting for me, we ordered a cab and made out way down to terminal D to get the Tallink ferry to Helsinki, Finland. We bought our tickets and managed to score a thirty percent discount for a late booking, so the trip was now only costing us thirty five euros each. We hung around for a bit waiting to board. The ferry was almost identical to the ferry I got over to Calais with Expat from London.

We headed straight for one of the restaurants for an all you can eat breakfast. The highlight of which was smoked salmon which I had on toast with eggs, ahh the little luxuries never cease to please.

We went out up onto the sundeck, which was really windy, so windy that we were physically getting blown around and so cold that I actually had to put my beanie on. The wind was so strong that it could actually support our weight when we leant over, if we weren't on the open sea, and the threat of getting blown over board wasn't there I would have had so much more fun with this fact. As it was though, Andy and I were having a good laugh, we were the only people on the deck and I even did my Titanic pose on the front.

We went up and sat in the bar and I think we both fell asleep for a bit, we finally arrived in Helsinki at 9:30am. Another country, both Andy and I said excitedly. We got off the ferry and bought an all-day tram pass and then hopped on the tram into central Helsinki. Our first stop was to find the tourist information to see what we could actually do here, that took us about half an hour of wandering. I didn't actually realize that's what Andy was looking for and kept wandering off and looking at random things, as I tend to do when I'm in a new place. No map, no info, no idea….just charge!

We eventually found the tourist information and picked up a few walking tour guides and Andy proceeded to give his Dear Leader a walking tour of the Old Town. We first stopped at the main church, which was huge, but there was a service going on so we couldn't go in. We walked up all the steps, just in time to see a Contiki bus pull up, the passengers pile out, take a few photos and then pile back on. I had bus envy, Andy meanwhile was just saying how glad he was not to be on a tour like that.

We left the Cathedral and walked past a Russian Orthodox church called Uspenski Cathedral, which was built on a rocky outcrop near to the port. I actually found this church more attractive than the main Cathedral, with its gorgeous onion domes, the design of the building was also unlike any Russian Orthodox church I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of those now. It was almost like a fat St Basil's without all the colours. We thought about going it, but it was up a huge hill, laziness prevailed.

We walked around the back streets for a while looking at the architecture of the apartments people were living in. Great stone buildings of opulent design, almost like castles with small turrets on the higher floors. Why can't architects in Australia have some imagination and make our cities more interesting and no one can say because Australia is so young! The city of Helsinki is only celebrating its 200th Birthday this year, so it's even younger than Australia.

Our next stop was a walk down by another port (not the one the ferry had brought us in at) and then a walk along the water looking at all the pretty coloured buildings. We stopped for a coffee on a red ship that was moored in the harbor which had been converted into a coffee shop. I had a really nice hot chocolate and a raspberry short bread.

After our walking tour, Andy stopped for lunch in the markets and I had a look around, I was still pretty full from breakfast and didn't really feel like eating. I didn't really want to walk too much more so I suggested we do a tour on the trams as we had paid for an all-day ticket. We got on tram 7T and rode three stops to the small church of St John, there was a service on inside so we couldn't go in. We got back on the tram and ended up at the Lutheran church, a rather stocky building with a needle like bronze green spire. We went inside and strangely they had a model ship hanging from the ceiling. We also found a lift that I thought might take us up to the tower, but it only took us to level two, which kind of looked like a broom closet, which was a little funny.

We decided to walk the next few stops, rather than waiting for the tram, so we followed the tram lines through the swanky shopping district to the oldest café in Finland. Where we sat outside and had coffee and cake.

There was one more major sight to visit, St John's church, it wasn't very far according to the map, so we decided to walk it. It was well worth it, the red gothic masterpiece sat atop a small rocky outcrop, its spires glistened in the sun which had just started to set and its many gargoyles watched for threats from above. Andy thought it looked depressing, I thought it was beautiful. We went for a wander inside and it was the best church we had been in all day, amazing paintings and colourful stained glass windows, including a huge rose window behind the huge pipe organ at the back of the church.

St. Johns was our last sight for the day and we walked back to the central railway station, at which Andy indulged my now obsessive recon need and we went in and had a brief look at where you could get a train to from here, looked like it was all domestic. We headed back out to catch the train back down to the port. We were a bit early so Andy sat and had a Finnish beer, which he thought was a bit average.

We boarded the same ferry as we had arrived on the M/S Superstar and I immediately went to the restaurant, I had pork schnitzel and gravy which tasted like it had vinegar in it. I wasn't going to pay for the dinner buffet which was twenty two euros!

We spent a bit of time looking around the shops and before we knew it we were back in Tallinn at around 6:30pm. We paid another visit to the shopping centre to get food for tomorrow's rather lengthy bus journey to St Petersburg, and the whole time I was in the store all I could think about was how tired and irritable I was. I really wasn't in the mood to try and food shop and do battle with all the labels in Estonia. I nearly had a toys out pram moment at one stage. After our quick food shop, I went off to buy tram ticket and we got the tram back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on paper work before having an early night after my adventures in Scandinavia.