Estonia During the Holidays

My best friends from my university and I went on a Christmas vacation together, as I mentioned before in the post about Sweden. As I arrived in Sweden in the early hours in the morning, I had to hurry up and pack my carry on for my next destination- Tallinn, Estonia. We used Ryanair during the entire trip because it is so cheap, and took us to all of the destinations we were looking to visit.
The only problem with Ryanair is that there are many hidden fees. For example, you have to pay a booking fee and a fee if you don't have a Ryanair credit card. You can only bring a carry on for free, not check bags. Another issue is that Ryanair doesn't fly into the larger airports, so transportation to and from the city is a bit difficult. It usually will take much more time to use Ryanair or Easyjet, because the airports are quite far from the city center. An example of this is Paris CDG- so easy to get to, but Ryanair and Easyjet do not fly from here. Once you get into Paris, you must then take an hour bus ride to get to Beauvais airport. The other airport in Paris, Orly, is a bit easier to get to, as the trains will take you there. However, it is still out of the way.
During a trip last year, my friend and I wanted to see Milan, Italy. We booked our ticket on a low-budget airline and flew into Bergamo. Bergamo is actually a completely different city. My friend and I arrived late afternoon and found the hotel. We both decided we didn't have enough time to see Milan, as it was near dark when we got to the hotel. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Milan at all! These, along with awkward flight times are the problems with flying low-budget airlines. They are great if you have someone waiting for you at the airport, or you live near it. They definitely are not as convenient as the other airlines, however you do save a lot of money!
After finally making it to Tallinn, Estonia we went out for some sight seeing and lunch. It's such a beautiful place! It really reminds me of a Christmas village you see people set out to decorate at Christmas time. We found the town square the second day we were in Tallinn, and we fell in love with the city. It was decorated for Christmas, and there was a Christmas tree and a market. That  town square was my favorite place in Tallinn. Posted below are photos from Tallinn, Estonia.

This is the local currency of Estonia, called the kroon. I believe they switched to the Euro starting New Year's Day, so we were lucky to be able to use this currency before the switch! Here's something to be careful of: The ATM machines here in Estonia are really different. It's very easy to forget to take out your card, because you have to actually request for it back! When I used the ATM for the first time in Estonia, I ended up finding someones card still in the machine! Unfortunately, this same thing happened to my friend while taking out money. He forgot that the machine made you request for you card back, and left his in the machine. Beware of this!

Snow mountains everywhere! There were piles and piles of snow all over Estonia (and everywhere we went during the holidays)! I couldn't believe how much snow I saw on that vacation. Since I live in the northwest of France by the sea, I never see snow.

During our stay in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, we stayed in "Old Town". Like I mentioned above, it was like an old village. It was really pretty. The other parts of town were actually quite modern and advanced. The transportation was advanced as well, as I saw many trams and buses during my time here. We didn't have much time in Estonia, so we basically spent most of our time in the old part of town near our hostel. This was my first time staying in hostels, and I must say I am impressed! I had this image of a dirty, old, rundown place crammed with people looking to steal your belongings, however it was not like that at all! The hostels we stayed in were really nice, clean, and modern. It was nice that there was a big group of us, so we had our own room in each of the hostels we stayed in.

This is a photo I took while venturing out in the Old Town. This is the street we stayed on, the biggest in the Old Town. We were quite lucky that we were close to everything.

This is the market, which is located along the old city wall. I can't imagine standing outside for hours in that cold weather!

We found a place to eat traditional Estonian food from the past. They had only one vegetarian option. Some of it was alright, however there were some things I had never tried before (and will never again!). One of them being barley and these black balls. I'm not sure what these black balls were, but they had an odor and made the barley taste bad! So unfortunate! I can't say I'm a fan of Estonian food from the past. On a more positive note, the restaurant, Olde Hansa, was really nice and had a fun atmosphere. The servers make it seem as if you're living in the past. Even the bathrooms were oldfashioned! It was entertaining.

A reason I love traveling during Christmas so much is that I really enjoy seeing the Christmas decorations put out in other places. It's nice to see what other cultures do for Christmas. I saw signs saying "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" in Estonian.

 This is the Estonian flag. I really liked it! The colors are really nice together.

The photos from above are from the Town Square, my favorite place in Tallinn! It was so beautiful, and really got me in the Christmas spirit! As I mentioned above, there was a market, a Christmas tree, singing, and all sorts of typical Christmas things! I think this was my favorite Christmas tree I saw during the vacation.

This is the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral! This is an Orthodox cathedral, built to resemble a Russian cathedral. It was really nice, I wish we could have gone inside for a look around. I also wish we could have seen it during the day, however most of the time in Tallinn was spent in the dark. It really took some getting used to to go sight seeing in the dark all the time! When we were there, the sun would rise in the afternoon, and start to set around 3pm. We were all craving daylight after our time in Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia. Luckily we went to Belgium in the middle of the trip and saw lots of daylight!

There were so many colorful buildings in the Old Town. It's so nice to see the architecture in other cities. This architecture is so different from the architecture I had seen in my past travels.

This is the palace in Tallinn. This palace was right by our hostel and the shopping center.

Why More Americans Don't Travel Abroad

http://us.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/02/04/americans.travel.domestically/index.html?hpt=Sbin

This is such an interesting article about why Americans do not travel abroad. I find that most Americans are happier being at home, or just traveling around the US. I think it's important to get out there and experience new things and see how other groups of people live. I am very interested in learning about other cultures, which is one of the reasons I love to travel so much! I think the idea of having a gap year is a great idea! I'm currently in the middle of my second year abroad :)