Boat Cruise to Tallinn, Estonia!

Hej everyone! Here's the update on the latest travels. Last Tuesday about 150 international students from my school and myself took a bus to Stockholm. Once we got to Stockholm, we got on a HUGE cruise ship headed to Tallinn, Estonia. The whole event is called "SeaBattle." There was international students from about 6 other universities in Sweden, as well as students from Finland and Estonia. We left Stockholm around 5:00 pm on Tuesday and arrived in Estonia at 10 am the next day. Needless to say, the entire boat was full of college kids. I don't think I saw even one person on the boat traveling who wasn't. There were several bars and clubs on the boat, and everyone had a great time. The clubs and bars didn't close until 9 AM! I woke up the next morning and could still hear music and people awake in the halls. It was crazy! There was two people to a room in the cabins and I roomed with a German friend of mine, Anne. The cabins have no windows so it's incredibly dark inside when the lights go out. They had speakers in the rooms with announcements in the morning waking us up to let us know we were in Estonia.
We got off the boat and spent the day in Tallinn. Tallinn was not my favorite city I've visited, but definitely the most interesting. Estonia is considered Eastern Europe with Russia literally right next door and it definitely felt that way. The city had beautiful architecture but was a little more run-down than most western European cities. Walking through the older part of the city, I felt like I was at the Renaissance Festival. Stores and restaurants had big torches lit on the outsides of the doors and vendors with little wooden carts were all over the streets. One distinct feature about Tallinn was the churches. They were BEAUTIFUL. We went into a few different churches, my favorite was a huge orthodox church in the middle of the city. (I posted pics of this) We went inside and they told us absolutely no pictures. People were inside lighting candles and praying. The inside was GOLD and the center dome inside was a light turquoise color with little gold spots that looked like stars on it. You can probably find pictures of the inside online somewhere. We also witnessed some kind of protest in front of the Estonian Parliament building. So a group of us basically spent the day exploring the city. We ate breakfast and lunch at a couple little cafes for really cheap. The Estonian kronor is not strong at all. For 1 Euro, you get 15 EKK. So that was nice. The city had a lot of really strange details. Like random statues of a 17th century-looking man on top of buildings looking through a little eye glass down towards the streets. That was weird. Never in my life did I think I would visit Estonia. But I'm glad that I did. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.
I only have about a month left in Sweden- time flies! This weekend I'm headed back to Copenhagen with Scott. Then the weekend after that I will be in London for four days! I can't wait!
Enjoy the Estonia and SeaBattle pictures!
Hej då!
-Sara

Sensation White Pics!

Copenhagen- Round Två!

Hejhej!
So school has been taking over my life the past few weeks... but I did manage to take a weekend vacation back to Copenhagen for Halloween weekend! After the first time in Copenhagen, I liked the city. But after this trip, I love it! Probably my new favorite city. On Friday afternoon, two American friends, Jen and Allie, and myself took the train to Copenhagen. Jen's dad works for a Marriott hotel, so he managed to get us a really good discount on a hotel room for the weekend. It was reaallllly nice not having to stay in a hostel the whole weekend! On Friday, we checked into our hotel and decided to climb Vor Frelser Kirke, meaning "Our Saviour’s Church." It's an extremely tall and cool looking church with spiral steps along the outside that go all the way to the top. We started climbing it inside at the bottom of the church. We worked our way up what felt like a MILLION steps. The church was built in the 1600's so the staircases we walked up were extremely tight, chilly, dark, and a bit scary. The steps were so incredibly small and the staircases were so steep I had to walk up them sideways- and on the way down I was trying really really really hard not to fall. When we finally got to the top there was a little door that led to the outside spiral steps. The view was INCREDIBLE. I could literally see all the way to Sweden. I could see the Baltic and the Öresund Bridge that connects Denmark with Sweden, the entire city of Copenhagen, the windmills in the sea, and all the way past the city into the Danish countryside. We walked up the spiral stairs on the roof of the church all the way to the very top. The experience was absolutely amazing- it was a little nerve racking though, climbing up 400 year old stairs on the outside of a very tall building with nothing but one little railing for safety. The pictures that I took are great, but they really don't do it justice. I've attached some video I took at the top as well. Climbing back down all those tiny steep stairs is NOT easy after climbing up all of them and then being really nervous outside. My legs were shaking on the way down- mostly because I think I was scared I was going to wipe out down the steps. We all got down safely, thank goodness.
After climbing the church, we walked to a Danish bakery and had ordered a strawberry tart to split between the three of us. Strawberry tart=most amazing desert I've ever tasted. I posted a picture of it on here! I wasn't going to mention it, but it was seriously one of the highlights of that day. After walking around the city all day, we were exhausted and made it back to the hotel for dinner and sleep.
Saturday was Halloween, and Sensation White. Sensation White is a giant music festival that's held in different cities throughout the world, specifically in Europe and Australia. It was at the Copenhagen stadium, which holds 30,000 people. Everyone that attends wears all white. If you don't wear all white, you can't get in. From 7pm until 3am some of the best DJs in the world play their music. There was a giant rotating stage in the middle of the stadium where the DJ stood. The theme for this year's Sensation White was "Wicked Wonderland." There was an Alice in Wonderland theme throughout the whole show. I'm posting separate pictures and video from this because there's way too much to show. It was such an amazing show and made for a really good Halloween.
Sunday we met a friend of ours that goes to school with us in Sweden. He's actually from Denmark and grew up in Copenhagen so he knows all the good places to go. We all had coffee at an awesome little cake house downtown and then got on the train to go back to Sweden. WONDERFUL weekend! To top it all off, when we were checking out of the hotel, the Danish guy at the counter asked where I was from. I said Minneapolis (not thinking he would know where Lakeville was.) Then he says to me, "No way! Are you familiar with Burnsville, Minnesota?" CRAZY. Turns out he has cousins in Burnsville and he spent a year with them- and even played tennis at the Lakeville High School courts! Small small world.
Sorry, I know this was a long one! But hopefully you got a good idea of what the weekend was like. :)
Next weekend I'll be in Göteborg, Sweden, so I'll post again then.
Hope all is well!
Hej då!
-Sara