How to plan an adventure

[fluffymark]

So, here I am in front of the computer, with my atlas beside me showing me a lovely map of Finland, Estonia and the bit of Russia around St. Petes, and am working out where all these strange places are I may have to go to. Wow. I've spent the past few hours on a major webhunt of useful sites so I'm going to splurge a few here for my own reference so I don't forget them. Just ignore me...

Hostels: http://www.bootsnall.com
Finnish Trains: http://www.vr.fi
Estonian Trains: http://www.evrekspress.ee
Ryanair: http://www.ryanair.com
Tallinn-Helsinki ferry: http://www.tallink.fi

And what have I found? Sadly the Finnish budget airline FlyingFinn I was originally planning on traveling with closed their Stansted-Helsinki route about 3 weeks ago. Grrrr. This was nearly a catastrophic deathblow for the whole adventure. Fortunately Ryanair offer a cheaper if slightly bizarre alternative: Tampere. Seems flights there are £9.99 and it's a 90 minute train ride from there to Helsinki. Yay. Only minus is theres only one flight a day and arrival time into Helsinki is very late evening. But thats the only way there so thats what it'll have to be. Which fails miserably to connect with the night train to St. Petes, although it seems that a bad idea anyway as I'd arrive in St Petes at 1:30AM if the connection was do-able, which would be bad. So It'll be a night in Helsinki, and then the early morning train out to St Petes arriving early afternoon, unless theres a convenient overnight coach I've not yet spotted. Hostels in st Petes are at manageable prices (at least compared to Helsinki). This is good as I may be paying for two. The Estonian leg of the journey seems better timed, theres nice overnight trains to Tallinn, and I can spend a night there, and regular and fast ferries between there and Helsinki. Finding cheap accomodation in Helsinki is not proving to be easy, but I'm sure it exists somewhere. But overall it looks very affordable adventure. Just the hassle of sorting out the Russian visa can stop me now...

Oh look, I'm off to Bruges on Thursday. Yaaaaaaaaaay! :)

Comments

Re:

[fluffymark]

Yay goths! I'd no idea thats where the goths of finland go to mope. I suppose it'll be a bit much to hope for an all-night goth club in Tampere on a friday night? That would save me finding a hostel in Helsinki on my way into Russia.

Please help me! You're a star if you can find me a cheap Helsinki hostel. :)

Re:

[bluesbell.livejournal.com]

It depends; if you're lucky there just might be a club, but they're infrequent. What's the exact date when you'll be in Tampere?

I found one hostel with 22,5 eur for a bed in a dormitory, which sounds quite lame, I'll try to find more options.

Re:

[fluffymark]

Assuming I fly in by Ryanair, I'll be in Tampere on April 30th, and I'll need somewhere to stay either there or in Helsinki. Later I'll be staying in Helsinki about 3 nights from 6-9 May.

That's the cheapest i've seen so far, but you're right thats a lame price for a dorm room. Erk. There must be something cheaper somewhere!

Finnish goths...

[alektoeumenides.livejournal.com]

Goths in general are quite big there...it wouldn't surprise me that they hide somewhere like Tampere.

Get some skull shaped jellies from the shop on the main street in Helsinki. If I remember correctly the name of the sweet shop was verging on the rude (ie it had something like the word "fanny" in it or something...*sigh* I'm so easily amused me.)

There were also some rather nice stuffed bready things I got in the department store (Kalinkas). I forget what they're called...they're made from rye bread and are small and oval shaped and you can get ones with cheese in them. Tasty snacky cheap. Yum.

Anyway, enough. Just get planning.

[fluffymark]

Oh oh oh! It all sounds delightful and yummy. I hope your highlights of Helsinki didn't revolve entirely around food, dearie! :? I can't wait to get there. I must get a little organized now...