📍Tromsø, Norway 🇳🇴, Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮, & Tallinn, Estonia 🇪🇪

Day 1: We arrived to the most Northern city we had ever been. We were wayyy up there. It was cold and icy, but the town was cute and cozy. Based on the blogs I had read, we had booked four nights in Tromsø to give ourselves enough time to actually catch the Northern Lights. Seeing as the town wasn’t so big and the rest of our time in Scandinavia was busy, we were using this stop to relax. Not to mentioned the sun is only out for ONE hour of the day, which is insane, but lovely for sleeping.

Anyway when we arrived we were very hungry, unusual, I know. The ground was really icy so we found a cafe close to our hotel called Koseverden & Koselig Café (translated to Cozy World & Cozy Cafe). I had mentioned the other countries were expensive and this one was no different. I had a soup and salad and J had a very reasonable portion (not American size) of risotto and they told us our total was $60. I was sure they had to be bringing out a side of gold for that price—nope, just some soup, salad, and creamy carbs.

We briefly slid around town to check it out and take a few pictures.

These pictures were taken around 2 pm, which may as well be the middle of the night because the sun had set two hours prior. We checked into our hotel, Comfort Hotel Xpress Tromso, and warmed up a bit. We hung out until dinner time and found the closest option with the best reviews. Luckily, there was an Asian restaurant, called Suvi, that looked pretty good on the corner of our block, so we ventured over there. Great news, I only slipped one time getting there. Even better news, it was delicious.

We ended our night on a high and rested up for our Northern Lights Tour, which was the following day.

Day 2: We went back to the cafe we visited the first day despite them robbing us for some soup. We had breakfast and then walked around a bit. Again, the town is pretty small so without a car or spending a lot of money, our options were limited (I was very okay with this).

We rested up and got ready for our Northern Lights Tour. The tour started at 6 pm and stated it could go as late as 4 am. We layered up and walked over to our pickup location ready to chase some auroras. We were on a bus with about 10-12 other people and our guide and driver. We started driving towards Finland because it was a bit overcast near us and apparently that’s where the auroras were hiding.

We made one stop to check, no luck. A few minutes later, we made another stop (our guide was using some tracker) and we were in luck!

We spent a lot of time just starting at the sky until we realized we were really hungry. We had picked this tour specifically because it provided warm clothes (we borrowed some boots) and snacks. The boots were a very nice plus, but they had us at the food. We sat around a fire and ate some cookies and reindeer hot dogs. Life was good.

We made it back around 2 am, which was earlier than expected and we passed out.

Days 3-4: Our Tromsø mission was complete, so we mostly used this time to catch up on real world things (gross), watch some TV, and sleep. We did order Suvi, yet again, and enjoyed some sushi and katsu in the room. Other than that, I don’t have many pictures other than our meals, of course.

Day 5: We arrived in Helsinki around 5 pm and had to take an hour bus ride to get to our hotel, Hilton Helsinki Strand. Once again, we were hungry (a reoccurring theme, yes) and ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant, Viet Balo. The weather wasn’t great so we decided to go to bed so we could wake up early and book a last minute ferry to Estonia.

Day 6: We got to the port and I saw a cruise ship, but no sign of our ferry. From our previous ferry experience on this trip, we had expected a smaller, older boat to take us from one port to another. WRONG. That cruise ship I mentioned, that was our ferry!

We relaxed on the boat for our 2ish hour ride (ok, I relaxed and J explored the boat) and before we knew it, we were in Tallinn, Estonia!

Our first stop was an abandoned Olympic grounds from when Estonia was a Soviet country. The grounds are not in the best shape, and are not used for any sporting events, but apparently there are some concerts held there every so often.

We didn’t exactly have a plan, but we had a few recommendations from one of J’s friends who had actually lived there for a bit. We started making our way toward a market that was recommended. It would be very rude for us to walk through a food market and not try some…you know, to selflessly report on if we recommend it or not. Turns out, we like it and can definitely recommend it if you find yourself hungry in Estonia. P.S. the market is called Balti Jaam Market.

J’s friend told us about these amazing kimchi fries we HAD to try. We obliged, found the shop, The Burger Box, and ordered said fries. While we were waiting, the bartender brought us kimchi shots as well. J’s face says enough about those below. About two bites into the fries, we both looked at each other and agreed neither of us liked kimchi before we even ordered the fries. Apparently, we take friends recommendations very seriously.

We walked around the former industrial part of town, Telliskivi, and explored a bit.

We went to the oldest operating pharmacy in Europe, which has records from as far back as 1422.

We explored downtown, which was very pretty. I didn’t expect much leading into the day, but the city exceeded my expectations, which is always a pleasant surprise.

It was getting dark and cold and it had surprisingly been a while since our last meal. We found a pizza place (Naked Pizza & Wine) close by to have a quick, warm dinner.

We got an uber to the port and we were back on our fancy ferry (or cruise ship). There was a man on our ferry who was fascinated by the fact that we were from America and wanted to talk to us the ENTIRE journey back. This would have worked out better if he had spoken any English at all, but we mostly spent the ride playing one sided charades.

Day 7: We slept in a bit and woke up to explore some of Helsinki. Our first stop was a market close to our hotel. I was an unenjoyable level of hangry at this time so I, unfortunately, didn’t take any pictures. Feeling a bit better, we went to Cafe Regatta, which had some beautiful views. We got lucky and got one of the few tables inside. If you can’t tell from the pictures it was a bit chilly while we were there.

We walked around downtown, went to get chocolate from Fazer, and got our things to head to the airport. Our short time in Helsinki was over and it was time to leave the Scandinavian countries—they were all very beautiful but leaving was great news for my wallet and feeling my face again.