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lupestripeIn an attempt to make the most of the bank holiday weekends, which Wolfie is always given off, we decided to embark on another Brewdog Bar/European trip, this time to Finland and Estonia. The trip had been in doubt for much of last week, however, on account of Wolfie's knee, which he had mysteriously fucked up on the preceding Friday. Indeed, things had gotten so bad over the weekend that he ended up working from home last week and at one point it looked like he couldn't come on holiday at all. Indeed, on Monday he could barely walk but having been given some very strong Neproxen, things started to improve as the week wore on, although running around after him was causing me a great deal of stress due to the pressure of having so much to do ahead of going away. By the time we had gotten to Wednesday evening, Wolfie felt well enough to drive and even though his knee caused some issue while we were away - not aided by the significant amount of walking we were doing - we did manage to see and do a lot more than we had initially anticipated.
Not having a guidebook helped, with the company through which I had bought a Helsinki and Tallinn guy failing to deliver my book on time. Indeed, it was sat waiting for me on the mat as we returneed home, rendering it next to useless. The advantage of this though was that we weren't ticking off sites and aside from a little Google help pointing us the way, we largely just ambled around to see what we could see. I had bought Wolfie an old man cane from Argos on Fast Delivery, which proved invaluable. We also got to meet locals in Tallinn on the Friday and Helsinki on the Sunday, so they managed to give us pointers too, as well as take us to interesting restaurants and bars. All in all then it was a very good trip indeed and one in which we managed to do the vast majority of things we wanted, despite Wolfie's circumstances.
Wolfie had little trouble driving to Manchester Airport last Thursday, but we did give ourselves a little more time so he could amble from the car park to the terminal. We needn't have worried though as our flight was half an hour delayed, which gave me cause for some concern as we were due on the 7:30am ferry to Tallinn the next morning. By my calculation, this would give us less than six hours sleep and so it was then that we decided to get a taxi from Helsinki Airport directly to our hotel. The flight itself was largely uneventful, suffice to say it was a different type of aeroplane to the usual ones you get with the budget carriers, with two seats either side rather than three. We were sat on the exit row so had to get additional briefings, but the additional legroom probably helped Wolfie. We also had a delightful Karhu beer, which for me brought back happy memories of my two previous times in Finland, in 2009 and 2011. The rest of the flight passed swiftly and after what seemed to be the longest walk imaginable at Helsinki Airport, we soon made our way to the taxi rank and chose the cheapest service we could (it was odd here as three separate companies offered three different prices to the same place, so I don't know why you wouldn't just go with the cheapest). Our taxi driver was quite convivial and chatty, talking about how the weather had turned shit after a really warm spell, something we were to discover over the weekend as it was around 3C with bitingly cold winds. Anyway, he soon whisked us towards our hotel, the Scandic in Hakaneimi, where we checked in and pretty much went straight to bed, pausing only to remove the cables for a battery charger they had in the room which was making an annoying high-pitched whining sound.
We were up just before 6am on Friday, with a need to head to the ferry for boarding before 7pm. We had toyed with the idea of getting a tram as it was a direct route, but with Wolfie's knee still causing him trouble, we decided to hop in an Uber instead. This was going to be a theme for the day, as we got around the Estonian capital quite a lot by taxi on account of them being so cheap (plus this did enable us to get to places in the city that were further from the centre). As is typical for us, though, is that we left way too much time and so were at the ferry terminal in Helsinki long before it was time to board the boat. This meant we sat in the cafe there having an overpriced cup of tea, which enabled me at least to do my Duolingo, which I hadn't yet had chance to do. This also meant that we were prompt for boarding, which we did pretty swiftly, heading straight to the Buffet Bar as I had pre-ordered breakfast. After a little bit of confusion between the pre-paid and already paid lines, we were ushered to our table, only to find that a couple of Finnish guys had stolen our seats. Not to worry, as there was plenty of room on the table for all of us, and soon we were tucking in to a sumptuous breakfast, even if the scrambled egg tasted somewhat funny. We had eaten most of our food before we had set off, but having a seat meant we just sat here for the two hour journey, admiring the islands off the coast of Finland followed by the expanse of brown sea before the tall spires of Tallinn appeared on the horizon. Seeing them reminded me of my trip there in September 2003, my first ever trip without my parents, and this just stoked my desire to go exploring here once again. I had left the city by boat, so arriving there this time completed a circle and it was great to be back on the ocean again, with it feeling like something of an adventure. Indeed the only thing that marred the morning was the discovery that Pudsey ward had gone entirely Tory in the local elections, bucking the trend of what were to be excellent results for the two main Remain parties. We followed the result throughout the day and enjoyed the votes coming in.
We arrived in Tallinn shortly before 9:30am, disembarking from the ship and going down the longest passageway imaginable before being dumped in a car park. Here there were a bunch of taxis and we decided for convenience to get one, even if it ended up being about double the price of an Uber. What didn't help was sitting in traffic for the best part of ten mintues, with the meter racking up as we did, resulting in a bill of €6 to go about 100m. The driver turned around pretty soon afterwards though, dropping us off outside the McDonald's that was very close to the Viru Gate. This wasn't the 'Old Town' I had invisiged when I told him where to go but it was pretty close and the double turreted gate was at least one vestige of the old city walls that Wolfie would get to see. There were a number of flower markets in the square in front of the towers, adding a pleasant colour and vibrancy to what was a pretty cold and grey day, and we spent a few minutes just marvelling at the scene before heading towards the main square. We made something of a mistake, walking up Muurivahe rather than going straight down Viru, forcing us into a dogleg to get to Town Hall Square. We should have just followed the huge spire in front of us as walking was the last thing Wolfie's dodgy knee needed, but at least we got the opportunity to see some of Tallinn's charming old backstreets along with the imposing Dome Church which sat to the west of our ultimate destination.
Town Hall Square, as you would expect, is dominated by the Town Hall. Opened in 1404, this imposing building forms one flank of the square. There is a plaque on the ground demarking the zero point in Estonia, from which many roads eminate, and it was here that I got my first virtual cache in Estonia as I had to take a picture of one of the burgermeister buildings in the background with the crests of a number of guilds on them. The caching continued with a second one close by, although I did start by looking at the wrong side of the building where I was sure it was contained. Still, I did get it and sign it eventually, meaning I got my Estonian souvenir, which was one of the main things on our to do list while here. We then spent a short while wandering around the square, marvelling at some of the old merchants buildings nearby and contemplating how little must have changed here over the years. We decided then to forgoe the touristy restaurants and walk back down Viru towards Viru Gate, calling an Uber once we were there as our next destination was somewhat out of town.
Tallinn Song Festival Grounds are about three miles out of the centre of Tallinn right next to the Gulf of Finland, where the bitterly cold wind whips across the complex. The Estonian Song Festival was established in 1869 here and the 1988 event was a key point in Estonia's battle for freedom from the Soviet Union. Today, it functions as a major music venue but we weren't here for that - we were here for the Estonian Food Fair, which fortuitously was happening during our one day in the city. We had been alerted to this by Renno, an Estonian fur with whom we had been put in touch by London-based Estonian Ryena. Renno had arranged to meet us at the event at 11am, but he was running a little late on account of having just done an overnight shift at work. We did manage to hook up in the main stadium complex which also functions as an automotive museum, with a few interesting cars on display. Indeed, the event itself had an automotive theme as on the grass around the paved areas upon which the food stalls stood, there were a range of different cars from across the world. This was something that piqued Wolfie's interest whereas my own interest was drawn to the range of alcoholic beverages on offer. We decided to skip the fizzy Estonian beer instead opting for a couple of local craft varieties which we noticed as we walked around. I had failed to dress appropriately for the weather though, with my thin spring/autumn jumper being wholly inappropriate for the biting wind. This meant we had to dip into the automotive museum quite often, where at one stage we got talking to a man selling a range of small batch vodkas and gins. One of these was cannabis infused, which was certainly an interesting grassy flavour, although it was the cranberry gin that was the winner with me.
We spent quite a while just walking around the food stalls, chatting with Renno all the while. It turned out he was quite the petrolhead, giving Wolfie and him a lot to talk about, so much so that we didn't quite realise just how much walking we had done. Meanwhile, we cast a keen eye on the range of delicious food at many of these stalls, feeling sorry for the ice cream salesmen who were certainly not going to do a brisk trade. Ultimately, we set upon some tender cooked pork and potatoes - with another couple of glasses of local beer - sitting at one of the benches outside despite the cold weather. The wind was indeed playing havoc with some of the awnings covering the seating, while I also felt a little sorry for the Prime Minister of Estonia, who conducted the opening speech to a crowd of about four people. I was told that the weather was particularly inclement for the time of year and that 3C is not the standard temperature in early May, which must have come as little consolation to the organisers of this event. Still, it was a fun three hours or so, and as the clock approached 2pm, we decided to head off on account of Renno's other friend arriving coupled with the fact we wanted to see some more of the city.
I had arranged to meet one of my work colleagues in Brewdog at 3pm, so we had about an hour to kill before going to the bar. Having already had close to two pints of craft beer already, I didn't fancy any more at this stage, so we decided to get another Uber to Kadriorg Palace, which was equidistant between the Song Gardens and the centre of town. The taxi driver dropped us off at the residence of the President of Estonia, a beautiful pastel pink building with white trim. This is just up from the Palace and we were delighted to see the bee hives in the garden, a point I made to Aremay on Twitter as I knew this combined two of this favourite things. There were a couple of guards on the steps of the building but we were allowed to take pictures before heading down to the Palace - in my case via a fountain and in Wolfie's case directly as he was already starting to feel his dodgy knee - which was built in the Baroque style for Catherine the Great of Russia. Now housing an art museum, this striking red and gold building was breathtaking, as was the neatly manicured garden, which we enjoyed walking around, watching the groundskeepers rake the stones neatly back into the place. There was an interesting statue of Neptune alongside the garden boundary wall too, which a particular kid took great delight in for some reason.
I would have loved to have walked around this park complex some more, but Wolfie was struggling with his knee by this point, and we did need to head to Brewdog. We therefore grabbed another Uber there, being dropped off outside a small complex of quaint little independent stores within spitting distance of the harbour, where we had been earlier. Going down a small passageway and turning left, we found Brewdog pretty easily and picked up our stamp, which was what we came here for. We also noticed upon entry that it was Tallinn Craft Beer Festival that weekend and we kicked ourselves that we hadn't known before, as I would have definitely planned the trip around this had I known. Indeed, as we drove past the venue later on, we witnessed quite a long queue of people waiting to get in and the bar staff behind the bar at Brewdog did tell me it was quite popular (and indeed they assumed we were in Tallinn for that purpose rather than to get our stamp). We found a seat at the back of the bar, which is one of the more quaint and small Brewdogs I have been to, clearly being some sort of grain store or mill in a past life as there were still concrete silos above our heads. I liked the atmosphere these brought to the place, which was also nicely dark too. My colleague arrived about fifteen minutes after we did and as he kept ordering Punk IPA, we used some of our free ones from the visa, thus saving everyone money. It was great to finally meet up with him, having worked together for the last two years or so, while Renno joined us about an hour later once his other friend had gone home. The four of us then continued drinking until around 5pm, when my colleague needed to leave. We bid farewell and I was in a far more tipsy state than I had anticipated, but Renno had plans to take us to a beer shop and bar on the other side of the city so we all piled into a taxi and off we went.
Our destination was the Olepood Pothouse, a small bar down an alleyway which is fronted by a bottle shop. This is run by an old lady who Renno knows quite well, and the range of beer they served was astonishing. The same can be said of the bar too, which had a lot of top brews from Estonian breweries. I knew the craft brewing scene in the country was fantastic but I didn't realise it was quite this good, and with Renno picking out the beers to try (including some from the Boneyard Brewery in Bend - a place we had visited in 2017 - along with some excellent local stuff), we had a very enjoyable hour here before we needed to book a taxi and head back to get our ferry. It was quite sad leaving Renno as we had really hit it off, with him inviting us to the Estonian Furry Convention he is planning to run later in the year, but as we said goodbye at around 6:30pm, we did promise we would be back and hopefully sooner rather than later. Certainly, I would like to see a lot more of Estonia again.
The ferry ride back was largely uneventful. We hadn't pre-booked food this time, so we just sat in the bar, honouring the promise we had made to ourselves earlier in the day that we would try the craft beer they were serving on the boat on our way back to Finland. This was pricey and the beers not as good as they were in Tallinn, but it passed the time, even if our increasing inebriation wasn't particularly wise. Still, the journey did not feel like two hours and upon disembarking in Finland shortly before 9:30pm, we thought we might as well go to the Helsinki Brewdog bar if only to get the stamp. This is what we did, booking another Uber to take us there as Wolfie's knee was pretty shot by this stage. Fortunately, the ride was pretty swift and soon we were sat in one of the larger Brewdogs I have visited. We acquired our stamp, with me telling the bar staff that this was our fiftieth bar and enquiring rather cheekily whether we got anything special for it. To their credit, we did get a Brewdog Helsinki totebag, which was a nice gesture, and a pleasant way to end the evening. We only had one drink here as we were feeling the effects of a day of predominantly drinking, but as it turned out, we were nowhere near as bad as we thought we were as we were back in the Helsinki bar on the Sunday evening and served by the same barman again. I mentioned we were a bit wrecked on the Friday night but he said we weren't that noticeable so that was something.
Part of the problem was that we hadn't had any food, so we thought we would call off at Hesburger on the way back to the hotel. Fortunately, it was all one tram route, which also ran through the city centre so as soon as we saw a restaurant that was open, we disembarked and went for some noms. Wolfie had never had Hesburger before and I have spent much of the last ten years waxing lyrical about it, so I was excited to see his reaction, let alone to try it again. We were served by a lovely Irish lady, who guided us through the Finnish menu, even giving us its English equivalent which I have never seen in a Hesburger before. We then ordered some cheeseburger meals, which I have to say were something of a disappointment. The famed pink goopy sauce that made up practically half of the burger was no longer there and it was all a little dry, dashing my memories of the place from the late 2000s. Still, it was much needed sustinence and we did try another Hesburger later in the weekend that was significantly better. Perhaps we were just tired and needed sleep. Once we had nommed our meals, we then hopped back on the tram and headed to bed, with another reasonably early start the next morning as we were bound for Tampere, another place that has been in my heart for quite a while.
Not having a guidebook helped, with the company through which I had bought a Helsinki and Tallinn guy failing to deliver my book on time. Indeed, it was sat waiting for me on the mat as we returneed home, rendering it next to useless. The advantage of this though was that we weren't ticking off sites and aside from a little Google help pointing us the way, we largely just ambled around to see what we could see. I had bought Wolfie an old man cane from Argos on Fast Delivery, which proved invaluable. We also got to meet locals in Tallinn on the Friday and Helsinki on the Sunday, so they managed to give us pointers too, as well as take us to interesting restaurants and bars. All in all then it was a very good trip indeed and one in which we managed to do the vast majority of things we wanted, despite Wolfie's circumstances.
Wolfie had little trouble driving to Manchester Airport last Thursday, but we did give ourselves a little more time so he could amble from the car park to the terminal. We needn't have worried though as our flight was half an hour delayed, which gave me cause for some concern as we were due on the 7:30am ferry to Tallinn the next morning. By my calculation, this would give us less than six hours sleep and so it was then that we decided to get a taxi from Helsinki Airport directly to our hotel. The flight itself was largely uneventful, suffice to say it was a different type of aeroplane to the usual ones you get with the budget carriers, with two seats either side rather than three. We were sat on the exit row so had to get additional briefings, but the additional legroom probably helped Wolfie. We also had a delightful Karhu beer, which for me brought back happy memories of my two previous times in Finland, in 2009 and 2011. The rest of the flight passed swiftly and after what seemed to be the longest walk imaginable at Helsinki Airport, we soon made our way to the taxi rank and chose the cheapest service we could (it was odd here as three separate companies offered three different prices to the same place, so I don't know why you wouldn't just go with the cheapest). Our taxi driver was quite convivial and chatty, talking about how the weather had turned shit after a really warm spell, something we were to discover over the weekend as it was around 3C with bitingly cold winds. Anyway, he soon whisked us towards our hotel, the Scandic in Hakaneimi, where we checked in and pretty much went straight to bed, pausing only to remove the cables for a battery charger they had in the room which was making an annoying high-pitched whining sound.
We were up just before 6am on Friday, with a need to head to the ferry for boarding before 7pm. We had toyed with the idea of getting a tram as it was a direct route, but with Wolfie's knee still causing him trouble, we decided to hop in an Uber instead. This was going to be a theme for the day, as we got around the Estonian capital quite a lot by taxi on account of them being so cheap (plus this did enable us to get to places in the city that were further from the centre). As is typical for us, though, is that we left way too much time and so were at the ferry terminal in Helsinki long before it was time to board the boat. This meant we sat in the cafe there having an overpriced cup of tea, which enabled me at least to do my Duolingo, which I hadn't yet had chance to do. This also meant that we were prompt for boarding, which we did pretty swiftly, heading straight to the Buffet Bar as I had pre-ordered breakfast. After a little bit of confusion between the pre-paid and already paid lines, we were ushered to our table, only to find that a couple of Finnish guys had stolen our seats. Not to worry, as there was plenty of room on the table for all of us, and soon we were tucking in to a sumptuous breakfast, even if the scrambled egg tasted somewhat funny. We had eaten most of our food before we had set off, but having a seat meant we just sat here for the two hour journey, admiring the islands off the coast of Finland followed by the expanse of brown sea before the tall spires of Tallinn appeared on the horizon. Seeing them reminded me of my trip there in September 2003, my first ever trip without my parents, and this just stoked my desire to go exploring here once again. I had left the city by boat, so arriving there this time completed a circle and it was great to be back on the ocean again, with it feeling like something of an adventure. Indeed the only thing that marred the morning was the discovery that Pudsey ward had gone entirely Tory in the local elections, bucking the trend of what were to be excellent results for the two main Remain parties. We followed the result throughout the day and enjoyed the votes coming in.
We arrived in Tallinn shortly before 9:30am, disembarking from the ship and going down the longest passageway imaginable before being dumped in a car park. Here there were a bunch of taxis and we decided for convenience to get one, even if it ended up being about double the price of an Uber. What didn't help was sitting in traffic for the best part of ten mintues, with the meter racking up as we did, resulting in a bill of €6 to go about 100m. The driver turned around pretty soon afterwards though, dropping us off outside the McDonald's that was very close to the Viru Gate. This wasn't the 'Old Town' I had invisiged when I told him where to go but it was pretty close and the double turreted gate was at least one vestige of the old city walls that Wolfie would get to see. There were a number of flower markets in the square in front of the towers, adding a pleasant colour and vibrancy to what was a pretty cold and grey day, and we spent a few minutes just marvelling at the scene before heading towards the main square. We made something of a mistake, walking up Muurivahe rather than going straight down Viru, forcing us into a dogleg to get to Town Hall Square. We should have just followed the huge spire in front of us as walking was the last thing Wolfie's dodgy knee needed, but at least we got the opportunity to see some of Tallinn's charming old backstreets along with the imposing Dome Church which sat to the west of our ultimate destination.
Town Hall Square, as you would expect, is dominated by the Town Hall. Opened in 1404, this imposing building forms one flank of the square. There is a plaque on the ground demarking the zero point in Estonia, from which many roads eminate, and it was here that I got my first virtual cache in Estonia as I had to take a picture of one of the burgermeister buildings in the background with the crests of a number of guilds on them. The caching continued with a second one close by, although I did start by looking at the wrong side of the building where I was sure it was contained. Still, I did get it and sign it eventually, meaning I got my Estonian souvenir, which was one of the main things on our to do list while here. We then spent a short while wandering around the square, marvelling at some of the old merchants buildings nearby and contemplating how little must have changed here over the years. We decided then to forgoe the touristy restaurants and walk back down Viru towards Viru Gate, calling an Uber once we were there as our next destination was somewhat out of town.
Tallinn Song Festival Grounds are about three miles out of the centre of Tallinn right next to the Gulf of Finland, where the bitterly cold wind whips across the complex. The Estonian Song Festival was established in 1869 here and the 1988 event was a key point in Estonia's battle for freedom from the Soviet Union. Today, it functions as a major music venue but we weren't here for that - we were here for the Estonian Food Fair, which fortuitously was happening during our one day in the city. We had been alerted to this by Renno, an Estonian fur with whom we had been put in touch by London-based Estonian Ryena. Renno had arranged to meet us at the event at 11am, but he was running a little late on account of having just done an overnight shift at work. We did manage to hook up in the main stadium complex which also functions as an automotive museum, with a few interesting cars on display. Indeed, the event itself had an automotive theme as on the grass around the paved areas upon which the food stalls stood, there were a range of different cars from across the world. This was something that piqued Wolfie's interest whereas my own interest was drawn to the range of alcoholic beverages on offer. We decided to skip the fizzy Estonian beer instead opting for a couple of local craft varieties which we noticed as we walked around. I had failed to dress appropriately for the weather though, with my thin spring/autumn jumper being wholly inappropriate for the biting wind. This meant we had to dip into the automotive museum quite often, where at one stage we got talking to a man selling a range of small batch vodkas and gins. One of these was cannabis infused, which was certainly an interesting grassy flavour, although it was the cranberry gin that was the winner with me.
We spent quite a while just walking around the food stalls, chatting with Renno all the while. It turned out he was quite the petrolhead, giving Wolfie and him a lot to talk about, so much so that we didn't quite realise just how much walking we had done. Meanwhile, we cast a keen eye on the range of delicious food at many of these stalls, feeling sorry for the ice cream salesmen who were certainly not going to do a brisk trade. Ultimately, we set upon some tender cooked pork and potatoes - with another couple of glasses of local beer - sitting at one of the benches outside despite the cold weather. The wind was indeed playing havoc with some of the awnings covering the seating, while I also felt a little sorry for the Prime Minister of Estonia, who conducted the opening speech to a crowd of about four people. I was told that the weather was particularly inclement for the time of year and that 3C is not the standard temperature in early May, which must have come as little consolation to the organisers of this event. Still, it was a fun three hours or so, and as the clock approached 2pm, we decided to head off on account of Renno's other friend arriving coupled with the fact we wanted to see some more of the city.
I had arranged to meet one of my work colleagues in Brewdog at 3pm, so we had about an hour to kill before going to the bar. Having already had close to two pints of craft beer already, I didn't fancy any more at this stage, so we decided to get another Uber to Kadriorg Palace, which was equidistant between the Song Gardens and the centre of town. The taxi driver dropped us off at the residence of the President of Estonia, a beautiful pastel pink building with white trim. This is just up from the Palace and we were delighted to see the bee hives in the garden, a point I made to Aremay on Twitter as I knew this combined two of this favourite things. There were a couple of guards on the steps of the building but we were allowed to take pictures before heading down to the Palace - in my case via a fountain and in Wolfie's case directly as he was already starting to feel his dodgy knee - which was built in the Baroque style for Catherine the Great of Russia. Now housing an art museum, this striking red and gold building was breathtaking, as was the neatly manicured garden, which we enjoyed walking around, watching the groundskeepers rake the stones neatly back into the place. There was an interesting statue of Neptune alongside the garden boundary wall too, which a particular kid took great delight in for some reason.
I would have loved to have walked around this park complex some more, but Wolfie was struggling with his knee by this point, and we did need to head to Brewdog. We therefore grabbed another Uber there, being dropped off outside a small complex of quaint little independent stores within spitting distance of the harbour, where we had been earlier. Going down a small passageway and turning left, we found Brewdog pretty easily and picked up our stamp, which was what we came here for. We also noticed upon entry that it was Tallinn Craft Beer Festival that weekend and we kicked ourselves that we hadn't known before, as I would have definitely planned the trip around this had I known. Indeed, as we drove past the venue later on, we witnessed quite a long queue of people waiting to get in and the bar staff behind the bar at Brewdog did tell me it was quite popular (and indeed they assumed we were in Tallinn for that purpose rather than to get our stamp). We found a seat at the back of the bar, which is one of the more quaint and small Brewdogs I have been to, clearly being some sort of grain store or mill in a past life as there were still concrete silos above our heads. I liked the atmosphere these brought to the place, which was also nicely dark too. My colleague arrived about fifteen minutes after we did and as he kept ordering Punk IPA, we used some of our free ones from the visa, thus saving everyone money. It was great to finally meet up with him, having worked together for the last two years or so, while Renno joined us about an hour later once his other friend had gone home. The four of us then continued drinking until around 5pm, when my colleague needed to leave. We bid farewell and I was in a far more tipsy state than I had anticipated, but Renno had plans to take us to a beer shop and bar on the other side of the city so we all piled into a taxi and off we went.
Our destination was the Olepood Pothouse, a small bar down an alleyway which is fronted by a bottle shop. This is run by an old lady who Renno knows quite well, and the range of beer they served was astonishing. The same can be said of the bar too, which had a lot of top brews from Estonian breweries. I knew the craft brewing scene in the country was fantastic but I didn't realise it was quite this good, and with Renno picking out the beers to try (including some from the Boneyard Brewery in Bend - a place we had visited in 2017 - along with some excellent local stuff), we had a very enjoyable hour here before we needed to book a taxi and head back to get our ferry. It was quite sad leaving Renno as we had really hit it off, with him inviting us to the Estonian Furry Convention he is planning to run later in the year, but as we said goodbye at around 6:30pm, we did promise we would be back and hopefully sooner rather than later. Certainly, I would like to see a lot more of Estonia again.
The ferry ride back was largely uneventful. We hadn't pre-booked food this time, so we just sat in the bar, honouring the promise we had made to ourselves earlier in the day that we would try the craft beer they were serving on the boat on our way back to Finland. This was pricey and the beers not as good as they were in Tallinn, but it passed the time, even if our increasing inebriation wasn't particularly wise. Still, the journey did not feel like two hours and upon disembarking in Finland shortly before 9:30pm, we thought we might as well go to the Helsinki Brewdog bar if only to get the stamp. This is what we did, booking another Uber to take us there as Wolfie's knee was pretty shot by this stage. Fortunately, the ride was pretty swift and soon we were sat in one of the larger Brewdogs I have visited. We acquired our stamp, with me telling the bar staff that this was our fiftieth bar and enquiring rather cheekily whether we got anything special for it. To their credit, we did get a Brewdog Helsinki totebag, which was a nice gesture, and a pleasant way to end the evening. We only had one drink here as we were feeling the effects of a day of predominantly drinking, but as it turned out, we were nowhere near as bad as we thought we were as we were back in the Helsinki bar on the Sunday evening and served by the same barman again. I mentioned we were a bit wrecked on the Friday night but he said we weren't that noticeable so that was something.
Part of the problem was that we hadn't had any food, so we thought we would call off at Hesburger on the way back to the hotel. Fortunately, it was all one tram route, which also ran through the city centre so as soon as we saw a restaurant that was open, we disembarked and went for some noms. Wolfie had never had Hesburger before and I have spent much of the last ten years waxing lyrical about it, so I was excited to see his reaction, let alone to try it again. We were served by a lovely Irish lady, who guided us through the Finnish menu, even giving us its English equivalent which I have never seen in a Hesburger before. We then ordered some cheeseburger meals, which I have to say were something of a disappointment. The famed pink goopy sauce that made up practically half of the burger was no longer there and it was all a little dry, dashing my memories of the place from the late 2000s. Still, it was much needed sustinence and we did try another Hesburger later in the weekend that was significantly better. Perhaps we were just tired and needed sleep. Once we had nommed our meals, we then hopped back on the tram and headed to bed, with another reasonably early start the next morning as we were bound for Tampere, another place that has been in my heart for quite a while.
