Maiden Voyage of the Baltic Queen

PART 1: I'm On Another Boat

Last weekend, onboard the Baltic Queen, we took a voyage to the far and distant land of Tallin, Estonia. Random I know, but it is usually these more unknown places that give you a real unique experience, I believe. I had no real idea of where Estonia was, having hardly ever heard of the country before but I was eager to go and check it out. It would be my first ever cruise as well, and as we found out on the day, this boat's first cruise too.

Exciting? Or scary? I chose to say, both - thrilling, to say the least. As we walked along the runway to board the ship, people around me were telling me awful stories of ships which had problems out on the sea and sunk and about how you cannot survive even if you manage to get on a lifeboat because you will surely freeze to death. The sea is a scary place when you think about it. Especially when you are sailing during the icy winter. I won't lie, I was really quite terrified. When booking the cruise in the first place, it somehow never really occurred to me that we would actually be ON A BOAT in the ICE WATER suscept to the forces of nature with no control sailing across the Baltic Sea to another country for like, 18 hours. I could die.

Still, there was nothing else I could do. I was here, I had to get on the boat. Stepping into the ship, we were greeted with a most amazing site. What was this place we had walked into? It was damn fancy and shiny and definitely not what I expected for having paid about 20bucks in total for the cruise. Exploring the ship, we came to the conclusion that yep, if we had to die. This wouldn't be such a bad place to do so. There were 10 levels to the ship, and multiple places to go. There was a supermarket, multiple restaurants, bars, karaoke, a disco/dance floor, a cigar room, a piano room, an arcade,a children's playground, and a giant showroom with a stage to watch live entertainment. Yeah! It was one of them fancy boats. We felt like we were on the Titanic and desperately hoped that this would be the Titanic gone right. I snapped a few shots of the places around the cruise while exploring and they all are empty because everyone was sorta still getting on the boat and checking into their rooms.

The disco was a pretty crazy place - right at the top of the boat too!

Back in our cabin, I opened the letter Dylan wrote me for "anytime I happen to be on a boat" and was greeted with the words to I'm on a Boat and a boat hat! Perfect Fit.

The stores were not open until the cruise had left the harbour and there was a pretty long line outside the supermarket...time for some Duty Free Shopping! Yew. It was a pretty crazy shambles in there. Very good deals on booze also.

This is a 1.8L bottle of Jagermeister wow. Also I would like to draw attention to the Frisky Zebras

In our cabin : D

We had a Class B cabin, which didn't have a window, but heck, they gave us a "pretend" window which was actually a mirror and you could even draw the curtains...hilarious! I loved it

This is the old people's area haha....where you listen to the pianist, and right next to it is the cigar room where you can freely smoke on the boat indoors away from the cold.

 Also this is seriously what it looked like outside the window! Titanic much?

We also watched a few shows, and listened to some live music - even getting up for a dance!

After a crazy and certainly fun but late night running aray on the boat, I awoke from my rather restless (panic-y oh my gosh we will drown while I'm sleeping) sleep to find that we had arrived in Tallin alive and well! The day was spent exploring the "Old Town" of Tallin. A truly amazing, beautiful, medieval, and charming little town. I fell in love with the old buildings, the textures of the walls, the typography, the people, the colours, but was not so much a fan of the slushy, slippery cobblestone "paths" as the snow was melting and freezing and causing all kinds of hazards!

PART 2: MEDIEVAL TALLIN

The entrance to the old town

On arriving in the Old Town, a romantic Estonian man gave my friend a rose! Random but sweet!

There were lots of these wheelbarrow stalls mainly selling some special roasted nuts

You can buy some great outfits here!

Hungry and a little cold, we found ourselves in one of the most amazing places I have ever been for a feed. Still quite tired from the boat ride, we were pretty much awe-struck and confused....constantly asking, wait, where are we? What IS this place? Why? ... It felt like we had somehow got on a boat and come out like centuries back to the Medieval Period.

We were in this dark kitchen, where there was no electricity... only candles. There was a lady dressed in olden day wear, making pies in a big coal oven, and serving drink from large barrels. It was truly extraordinary.

The entrance to the most amazing place ever

This medieval lady was cooking pies

So cheap! I cannot believe it!

Other tourists being as confused as we are

My Elk Soup - That's right, I drank Elk Soup!

So I had Elk Soup, as well as a cabbage pie. It was so tasty and so cheap I went back for more - this time, a forest meat pie and a farm meat pie! Yummy! We also drank some old style tea declining her offer for beer or wine and then stabbed us some pickles which were pickling in a barrel.

You stab the water over and over until you get a pickle

After that, there was just more exploring of the city. I took so many photos! Shame I can't put them all up, when I get back - who wants to go through all the photos with me? hahahaha

Horse!

They let us pat the horsey

Wow colours and just wow

Love the signs and the lights

Crazy man busking....he was singing really hilariously a song: "Unchain My Heart" Odd guy

Photo at the top of Tallin

Group Shot

An alleyway in Tallin....so colourful!

These dolls were standing at the front of lots of the stores

Owls! I love Owls!

Cute little door

Some graffiti I thought was fair wicked

Panoramic Shot

Well pretty much that's it. The boat ride home was really quite awful. There was a storm and heavy rain and the boat rocked constantly causing a lot of the people to get very seasick, including me. I didn't puke or anything but was not feeling too crash hot. We also bought an incredible amount from the duty free store which I had to lug home in a suitcase...but that is a whole different story!

I loved Tallin very much! I think we plan to go back again once it is warmer. Also - it is getting warmer! Here in Uppsala, the paths have become so slippery it is a miracle if you don't fall! No joke... it is like iceskating everyday. Everyone is walking with the utmost concentration and it is a normal thing to see people stacking all over the place. This is because the snow is melting and then freezing. Outside my window right now, I can see the grass again! The snow is starting to melt and the sun is out!