I left Rolla at about 7 am Saturday and Polly drove me to St. Louis. I got on the first plane of the trip at 10:20 and flew to Chicago, then to JFK. From JFK I flew over night to Helsinki, arriving at about 8:30 am local time. I also lost 8 hours in the process, so it was actually 12:30 am in Rolla where I started. Bedtime. It's hard to sleep on a plane, and it's even harder when you are trying to go to sleep at 7 pm, so I only managed about 2 hours over the course of the flight. It did not help that Finnair has these nifty screens in the back of the headrest and you GET TO CHOOSE A MOVIE. There were probably 40 movies, as many TV shows, music radio channels, albums by specific artists, games, and, 2 cameras to choose from, one pointing down and one pointing out the front of the plane. The latter was interesting on take off and landing.
Anyway, from the airport I took a bus to the center of Helsinki. I don't speak or read Finnish, but somehow I got to where I wanted to be. Just in time to watch the boat pull away from the harbor. It was OK, I hadn't planned to catch that one anyway. I walked around the harbor area a bit and then caught the noon ferry to Tallinn. It was a bit rough, but I was asleep most of the 1.5 hour trip anyway.
Note to fellow travelers following in my footsteps: If you take the Linda Line, when you get to Tallinn you are not near anything, and they will only change Euros to Estonian kroon. I only had a few Euros, not enough to exchange to get enough kroon for a takso (taxi), so I had to bargain with a taxi driver to accept dollars instead. She wanted $20 but I talked her into $10.
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