You’ll be shocked to know that I completely and totally didn’t want to leave Korea yesterday. I hate to say that I was thinking about this moment starting at the middle of last week which is so bad because obviously our looming departure prevented me from fully being present and enjoying myself. I mean, our last day was filled with misdirected outbursts and projections because I was so upset about having to leave the next morning. I hate it. I have never felt this strongly about a place before where it completely turns me into a monster when I have to leave, kicking and screaming, lol.
We arranged for a Kakao taxi to pick us at 5:50am to take us to Seoul Station. Here’s one last look at our hotel. I really liked it. We stayed in a different area this time – Seodaemun, and when I say that the subway entrance was right outside of the hotel’s front doors….literally couldn’t have been more convenient. If you’re in Seoul and not utilizing the exceptional subway system, I’m sad to inform you that you’re not doing it right! Cheap, easy, efficient. Plus, it’s part of the process. I am already homesick for the upbeat subway jingles (though I guess I can just reach behind me and push the button on our Seoul subway sign!).
My last banana uyu, at Seoul Station. :( You can get banana uyu in the States but it never tastes the same. I’m not being melodramatic – there is actually something different about it, I swear!
Chooch and his new Kakao Friend. It’s tradition for him to buy a Kakao Friend plushie on every Korea trip now. He moderately deviated from tradition by not selecting an Apeach version though! This was on the airport train to Incheon airport. :( I was numb for this ride. Emotionally dead.
The other two times we went to Korea, we flew Korean Air. This time, it was Delta and both flights were mid. Barely any Koreans on either flight and the flight attendants were meh. On this flight in particular, there was one older white dude FA who was actually such an asshole. He wasn’t rude to us in particular, but I witnessed him being a jerk to some other passengers and saying inappropriate things to his fellow FAs, like, “Can’t wait for this party to be over,” “Can I take my break yet?” “This is disgusting” while acting like pushing a beverage cart was part of a prison sentence.
There was an old Asian lady sitting across from us and one row up – she didn’t speak much English and all she kept requesting was hot water. But I guess at one point, this shit head was walking by and she tapped him to get his attention and he snapped, “DO NOT TOUCH ME. NO, WE’RE NOT GOING TO DO THIS” and I was so fucking tense around this prick like he was Alcoholic Dad just come home from the corner bar. THEN, later in the flight, he said to one of the other FAs, “That’s the hot water freak.”
I am 100% filling out a survey about this flight.
He made me so uncomfy!!!
I have so much to write about and so many pictures to sort through! This is going to take a while and I’m going to be crying a lot, I think. Henry kept calling it a vacation but this was so much more than that to me. Korea is my everything. <3
Anyway, I somehow made it through my first day back at work but now I’m ready to crawl back into bed at….5:30PM.
It’s our last night here in Seoul and I am wrecked. In full disclosure, I was a raging asshole all day, truly. I know I should have been enjoying the last full day here but the reality of leaving was weighing on me and I was sooooo snippy and couldn’t make up my mind with what I wanted to do, eat, drink, buy, etc.
in the end, we were all over the place, roaming aimlessly, but I guess when you think about it, at least we were here.
In Korea.
My favorite place in the whole world. :(
I’m excited to get home to my cats, though. If it wasn’t for the cats, I wouldn’t miss home AT ALL.
Two things that happened today which were kind of cool:
We were in the area of Tongin Market, on some random side street in a quiet area while Chooch was eating his 떡볶이, when a red-haired girl walked past us. I did a double take and said, “OMG it’s CariCakes lol.” She’s an American YouTuber that lives here in Seoul and I have been watching her videos since late 2016/2017. I have learned so much about this country from her channel. It was hilarious though because Chooch kept saying, “look there’s Cari Cakes” and “When I was in Gangnam without you, I saw Cari Cakes” – you know, being his usual pest self. And then we ended up ACTUALLY seeing her. Henry was like “go say hi!” and was being really persistent about it but then she was already pretty far gone so we had to speed walk but since we were behind her at that point, I couldn’t find a good way to approach her without looking like we were following her (I mean, we were). But anyway, she was super pleasant and didn’t seem too alarmed at my trying-to-not-ambush but-still-kind-of-ambushy approach. We chatted about the cherry blossoms and where we’re from and how the blossoms just feel more magical here in Korea. I dunno, it was just really nice and also surreal because her vlogs are always like, “Today I’m taking you guys to—” so it always feels like she’s talking directly to you and then in this brief moment, she actually was. Social media really makes the world such a wild place, you guys.
On the subway, a woman walked past us carrying a bag (like a gift bag?) with the name of the law firm I work at on it so that also was wild. A city with millions of people and today we saw a YouTuber and a bag with the logo of the place I work. Seoul, you are fucking crazy magical.
And now I’m just sitting here listening to Henry and Chooch bitch at each other while Henry furiously tries to pack everything – we had to buy two extra carry-ons while here lol. The one I bought on Wednesday and filled it with stuff IMMEDIATELY. Henry had to buy a second one tonight in 명동 while Chooch and I were doing last minute shopping. ;)
I wish I could put my feelings into words other than “ow my heart.” I am going to be really depressed for quite some time, I think. Henry keeps saying, “we’ll just have to come back” every time I remember yet another thing that we didn’t get to do this time around. I really hope so. I try not to take things like this for granted so any time we do come back, it feels like such a gift.
Chooch, please become a super successful computer guy and buy me an apartment here so I can visit twice, three, four times a year.
Today we explored to a new-to-us neighborhood (문래) and it ended up being pretty excellent honestly. A little out of our comfort zone, but that’s part of traveling, right? Being able to read Hangul really comes in clutch.
Anyway we are about to go back out for dinner but I wanted to post this picture of Chooch because I spent all morning taking “senior portraits” of him with the “good camera” but then this picture I took with my phone in Mullae ended up being better than all of them. Isn’t that always the case!!
I only post when we’re on the train I guess, so here I am with another quick check-in on the KTX from Gyeongju back to Seoul. We did an overnight trip here and it was…chaotic and full of dramatic arguing as is our brand but also really fun and beautiful too. Gyeongju is famous for having Silla Dynasty burial mounds and they were breathtaking in person, I was actually in awe.
I have to talk about The Tree though as the main topic of this post. When we arrived yesterday, it was downpouring. Like, 100% rain all day. Long story short, we ended up switching plans around and instead of Gyeongju World, we headed back to this trendy little tourist area around the burial mounds called Hwangnam Dong. On our walk into it, there was this lone magnolia tree in front of some of the mounds and some people were getting their pictures taken there. I wanted one too so Chooch took one of me and Henry but I didn’t like it so I wanted a do-over but by then, there were more people waiting and I panicked so we left.
Henry and I woke up around 6am this morning because I wanted to go back out and see everything in the not-rain before going to Gyeongju World, and to also have him take my picture by the tree again but it was still just as frustrating!! Some guy came over and started taking pictures at the same time so I felt self-conscious and stepped away from the tree but then a couple with freaking paparazzi lenses showed up and did a full-blown fashion shoot and then another couple came and they started talking pictures FOR each other and I was like FUCK IT!!! so we left.
The terrible picture Henry took of me squinting into the sun.
Anyway, after walking around for a bit, we came back to the tree because we had to pass it to go back to our guest house anyway, and I was like “ok there is only one couple there, let’s wait.”
Yo. They were absolutely fucking ridiculous about this tree. The amount of pictures the boyfriend took of the girlfriend was absurd. With her jacket on. With it off. With it over her shoulder. With her back to the camera. With her side to the camera. Facing the camera. All the while, some man was flying a drone RIGHT OVER THE TREE.
Then the girl swapped places and started taking pictures or the boyfriend!!! THEN THEY STOOD TOGETHER UNDER THE TREE WHILE LOOKING THRU THE PICTURES.
THEN SHE WENT BACK AND STARTED POSING FOR MORE.
THEN ANOTHER COUPLE APPROACHED and I said WE HAVE MAGNOLIA TREES IN AMERICA WHO THE FUCK CARES and stormed off. And that is the end of my story about The Tree.
However, we had time to kill before catching our train so Chooch and I went back and walked around the main burial mound area where we stumbled across an even more popular tree.
I mean, this really is beautiful though. But not standing-in-a-line levels of beauty. Also I would die of anxiety having my picture taken in front of a literal queue.
It gave me chills, for real. But also, when the first mound was created 100s of years ago, I wonder if those people ever would have predicted that it would turn into a historical/tourist destination with a street lined with self-operated photo rooms, cafes, and pancakes in the shape of giant Korean coins and stuffed with melted cheese.
Yo! We’re on a KTX to Gyeongju right now so I have some downtime to check in with you, Blog. First of all, I can’t believe it’s Thursday already. I started getting the WE HAVE TO LEAVE SOON panic basically from the very first day here. This country has me by the heart. I don’t know that I will ever be able to explain it but the ensuing crash of depression once we get home is going to hit me hard so probably just best to avoid me for a while if you know me IRL, ugh.
Anyway, for today’s micro update, I will talk about yesterday morning’s scheduled activity! I thought it would be meaningful to make our own wedding bands while here in Seoul and I found someone offering a ring-making workshop on AirBnB Experiences which I neverlook at but something made me check it this time.
The workshop is held by a jeweler, 충호, in their studio in Hongdae (actually a bit outside of Hongdae I think). We were a half hour early because we just wanted to make sure we knew where the place was and were going to just continue walking around but she ended up showing up just then and unlocked the door for us so we got started right away!
First, she apologized for not speaking much English but she did a great job explaining the process to us and even though we couldn’t really have a conversation, the vibe was still pretty chill and casual. I mean, I was my usual spastic self though because I was worried about fucking up my ring but it was fine!
Then, the three of us (Chooch wanted to make one for himself too) had to choose the style and we all somehow chose the same so it’s like these are our family rings now lol. Except that Henry and I chose to have our engraved. My ring has his initials and our “marriage date” and his has mine. AWWW.
I was actually surprised that Chooch opted to do this with us rather than roam about Pokemon Go’ing.
I wonder if Chungho was happy to get rid of us though lol.
Chooch is currently sitting across from me on the train, spinning his ring on his finger like an old man gangster.
And yeah that’s the story of our wedding bands. Now I just have to get my replacement engagement ring lololol ugh.
I have a lot to say about this because it’s been 23 years in the making, but for now, as a placeholder: IT WORKED. WE DID IT. HENRY AND I GOT MARRIED TODAY (3/26/24) IN SEOUL!
I’m eternally grateful for my dear friend Jiyong and her husband signing as witnesses for us when we visited them in Jeonju on Monday, and for the Jongno District Office not requiring witnesses to be physically present.
I’m appreciative of my friends back home who endured my constant stressing and hand wringing over the logistics. “What if this doesn’t work? What if we go all the way there and they’re like NO and then I look like a dumb dumb, like, ‘ha, u thought.'”
I love that Chooch came along for the ride and I love that he was thoroughly put-out when he had to CROSS THE STREET to come over and take these pictures for us GOD FORBID we interrupted his Pokemon Go’ing that he was doing while waiting for us to complete our bureaucratic gymnastics.
I love that in spite of all the people over the years who hated us, spread rumors about us, stood in front of our house harassing us, cyber bullied us…ok this is really just two people lol…we stuck it out all these years. It was really rough at times but we made it work.
This feels like such a relief and it’s also still kind of surreal but don’t worry, within 30 seconds of the license being stamped, I was already telling him he was annoying me so really not much has changed. Back to the regularly-scheduled Henry beratings :)
Now I’m going to relax and fully enjoy the rest of my time in my favorite place in the world without this hanging over my head!
Good morning from the Yongsan train station! We’re currently sitting on the 505 waiting to depart for Jeonju where we will be spending the day with my friend Jiyong! I haven’t seen her since she moved back to Korea in 2021 and I’m so stoked for this!
I have so much to recap already but for now, here are some pictures from our last destination last night – the DDP. It’s one of my favorite places in Seoul and we will be going back at some point during the day but I wanted to see it at night when it’s at its most majestic.
DDP stands for the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and it has several futuristic, space-shaped buildings that has restaurants and galleries, shops, a museum, a space for exhibitions (there is an NCT127 one happening right now!!!)
Right before we exited the subway station to the DDP, we stopped at an Emart and as Henry paying, Chooch goes, “Look–there’s an NCT Dream T-money card” because my plight on this trip is that I couldn’t find a T-money card (to use for the subway) that spoke to me. They used to have vending machines full of cute options in some of the more popular / college stations but we couldn’t find any and the convenience stores didn’t have any I liked so I ended up going with some non-T-Money option called NAMANE or something, which can also be used as a debit card. I only went with that because they had Wiggle Wiggle designs, one of my favorite Korean brands.
Anyway, I thought Chooch was joking but then I saw it (it was Haechan!!) so Henry was like “Jesus Christ” and went back in and bought it hahaha.
I texted this to Janna because she can never tell which one Haechan is. When I said what I was doing, I heard Chooch whisper to Henry, “Oh that’s who that is?” Wow.
It was so good to be back here. The vibe is impeccable – so chill and cool and fun to run around looking at everything. This is also where Seoul Fashion Week was happening the first time we were here in 2018!! These steps are actually where the celebrities were walking when they were dropped off there!
I love that it’s so futuristic yet it is also the location of the Igansumun Floodgate of Seoul City Wall.
Henry’s gonna Henry.
P.S. this was supposed to have posted yesterday but my blog is a piece of shit.
It’s 6:03pm and we’re at our hotel – Shilla Stay in 서대문! We landed around 3pm and everything went smoothly – got to take the subway for the first time, Henry was only moderately embarrassing, etc etc. Oh it was annoying on our Delta flight here (Korean Air is so much better but the droll flight itself is best reserved for the vacation journal) because before we took off, one of the flight attendants said to Henry, “WOW, excellent job on the overhead bin!!” and you know that fucker is taking that compliment to the grave.
First food of Korea: subway kimbap!
View from our room. You can see the Blue House in the background! (Where the President lives except I believe this current one has opted not to live there.)
Well, we’re all going to freshen up and then go out and explore! We’ve never seen much of this area aside from the major tourist attractions so bye for nowwww!
Every so often*, I go through some boxes of old photos, always on the hunt for ones that I want to frame, post on here, share with family, rub in Chooch’s face (he hate hate hates my storied childhood, lol). I recently found this one of my aunt Sharon, me, and my Pappap posing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa back in 1989 and I knew I had to keep it out of the box because Henry and I were recently watching someone’s travel vlog in Pisa and I was questioning whether or not I ever went INSIDE the tower because when I googled, it appears that it’s been closed to the public for quiet some time.
*(Approx. 3x a week, honestly lol.)
So today I was inspired to dig out the ol’ vacation journal and see what 10-year-old me wrote (IN YELLOW INK, APPARENTLY) about this moment of my life, and it appears that YES, I did go inside the tower, phew, now I have something else to rub in Chooch’s face.
Anyway, here’s a little transcription of the super informative words I wrote on August 30, 1989. :/
TODAY IS GRANDMA’S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and a google more. We went to breakfast and now we’re on the bus going to Pisa. We saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa after lunch. Me and Sharon walked up to the top. Well, not the very top. (Sharon was afraid to.) Then we finally ate lunch! Thank goodness (for Chef Boyardee). We ate at the turnpike. Then we went to the hotel. It’s called the Hotel Cavalieri. Then we ate dinner with the tour. It was like a buffet. It was very good. I didn’t like desert [sic]. Then we went to Pappap’s room & sang happy birthday to grandma and had a mixed fruit strudel (fig newton almost). Then we went to bed.
WOW. I FEEL LIKE I WAS THERE ALL OVER AGAIN, DON’T YOU?? Drowning in detail over here.
Some thoughts:
I prob thought I was tres cool for using the word “google.” I wonder if I had just learned it from Highlights.
All of those exclamations were done in BUBBLE-STYLE, thank you very much.
So…did we eat two lunches?
I think by “turnpike” I meant that we ate at one of the really cool truck stop restaurants but I can’t think of the name now. Sharon used to love those places because if you bought whatever the “special” was, it came with a collectors plate.
According to that post, the highway restaurants were called AUTOGRILL
Can you imagine Little Orphan Chunkie up there in that photo not liking a dessert?? What was it, dirty prunes?
The Chef Boyardee shoutout, I probably was cracking up writing that. OK calm down Erin.
as if I don’t still crack myself up when I’m blogging, once a loser…etc.
August 30th and I wasn’t in school?? This must have been back in the good ol’ days when school didn’t start until after Labor Day.
WHAT ELSE DID WE DO IN PISA, ERIN?? I feel like we were there for a few hours. I have a vague memory of walking down a road full of locals shilling their wares and trying desperately (and succeeding a lot) to swindle tourists. I think I bought a coin purse?! Who the fuck knows, ugh.
All joking aside, revisiting these days of my youth seriously brings me so much joy. I really miss my Pappap, and my grandma and Sharon even though they were often, um, pretty cruel and emotionally damaging to me. Ha ha haaaaaaaa. Ha. :/
I want to try and do this more often: post an old travel picture, find the corresponding vacation journal entry, and then see if I can remember anything else to add. Obsessed with documenting memories? Join my support group. It’s currently just me sitting in pile of journals and photos, wet with tears. If you bring donuts, I’ll brew the coffee.
Well, the creator behind Park Pros on YouTube was also on this trip with us and he posted a video of the process. I lowkey regret not doing this even though it still seems just as terrifying to me but I also feel like I would have been That Person to have found a way to land incorrectly and I’m sorry but my back is already old-lady-ish. The fact that you have to wear a back brace in order to do this scared me, lol.
Remember when I was all, “Yay! I finished recapping our coaster trip before 2024 begins!”? Well, joke’s on me (and you) because I realized I had some photos from The Good Camera that hadn’t been edited yet. These are all from our day in Tallinn. Look or don’t look, I’ll never know!
On the way to tour the tower thing. Is this some gang sign that I don’t know about? A signal for help that Henry and Chooch created for times when my dictatorship becomes too much to bear?
This was taken inside the tower thing. You know, that thing. It’s a tower.
On one of the tower walkway things. My favorite part about the tower portion of our day is that I was using a lens on the camera that was fully-dirty/smudged and had no idea because my eyes are so jacked. So pretty much every picture I took inside that wasn’t taken on my phone is trash. I am so profesh! Hire me.
No Korean. </3
Henry captured my mid-allergy attack inside a cafe, thanks.
Obsessed with the architecture here.
St. Olaf’s Church, center, has a 400 foot high spire, one of the tallest in the world.
Highly recommend this viewing area – Kohtuotsa viewing platform.
“Steven Seagull” apparently has his own Instagram page, but I think this was just a random seagull that happened to be hanging out there.
Danzig.
UGH COME ON THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL.
I think I would like to get some of these printed and framed but you know, I have zero room left on my walls so I guess I will have to figure something out. (Henry, can you build a floating wall or something?!)
Friday, August 17th was another BEEP BEEP WAKE UP MOTHERFUCKER Stupid:Early AM wakeup call. We were taking a 2+ hour bus ride to Tampere, Finland in order to visit our last park of the trip: Sarkanniemi. First, we had to embark on a short trip to the bus station. I would have preferred to take a train, which is faster, but apparently there was some issue / construction going on with the track somewhere, so we would have had to transfer to a bus at some point anyway. (According to google, a bus ride to Tampere is about 2 hours and 45 minutes which seems longer than what our trip was, but OK.
After not getting back from Tallinn until after 1:30AM, we were D R A G G I N G. But that’s the life of a coaster enthusiast, I guess! (I don’t know what I’m talking about it.)
I have to be honest here, this bus ride was the most uncomfortable mode of transportation we experienced the ENTIRE trip. The bus was a double-decker, but it was TIGHT and also? It was completely sold-out. I thought this was kind of curious since it was a Friday morning, why were all these people (ALL COLLEGE STUDENT-AGED, IT APPEARED) going to Tampere?? It was just a shit ton of mostly young girls who had no couth, no spatial- or self-awareness, one was watching cartoons on her laptop with no headphones, one was practically sprawled out in the aisle so people struggled to pass her when they needed to get to the bathroom, and it was HOT AF in there. Just very uncomfortable, honestly, and made me feel like I was in America.
But you know, it was a cheap ticket I imagine (Henry booked it, what do I know) and it got us there in decent time. That’s when we:
had to find a local bus to get us to the park;
learned that the reason hordes of YOUTH were flocking to Tampere was because Blockfest, a big hip hop festival, was happening. Apparently, Ice Spice was there lol.
Sarkanniemi is not a very big park, but it does have some coasters and I liked that it sits along Näsijärvi Lake. Aesthetics matter.
Right away, Chooch and I ran to the line for Tornado, which ended up being a walk-on. Henry was being a bitch because he thought it looked too much like an SLC and opted out:
(NOT MY PICTURE; FROM WEBSITE)
But yoooo, this was excellent! Also, the guy in front of us was wearing a Six Flags eyeglass strap, a Busch Gardens t-shirt, and had a vlogging camera. “Chooch, that guy is definitely American,” I said, nudging him with my elbow. “I’m going to talk to him when we get off!”
“Please don’t,” he mumbled.
BUT I DID, AND YEAH BOY, ANOTHER AMERICAN THOOSIE! We had a nice chat with him – he’s from Atlanta and needed to use up some PTO time at work and was like, “Finland it is!” So that was really cool – we told him all about our trip too and he was just very nice to talk to and didn’t act like he was too cool for us or whatever. (I WISH I COULD REMEMBER HIS YOUTUBE NAME!! I subscribed to it on the spot but can’t find it in my list.)
I mean, come on man. Look at that beautiful water.
Anyway, right after that, we started walking to the next coaster and Henry goes, “OMG look who it is!” AND IT WAS ROBERT, DAWN, AND ARNOLD FROM COASTER CREW!!!!!
OMG I was so happy to see them!!! We spent the next several hours riding everything with them and it was THE BEST WAY TO END THE TRIP. 100%.
We took over the kiddie coaster like old times!
I…don’t know why I took this picture.
This was A NO for me. Totally uncomfortable. One and done. Actually, aside from Tornado and the flat rides, it was a one-and-done themed park for sure.
I miss these people. Also, this was a fun log flume!
At some point, we lost our friends because we needed to eat and I think they left because they had already been there for a bit before we arrived. :( Their plan was to go to Power Park farther up in Finland the next day, and then Robert and Dawn were heading home on Sunday, but Arnold was heading to Tallinn. Chooch gave him the heads up on the +1 credit there “because I’m a nice guy,” he said.
Gorgina!!! (Any Ur Mom stans here?)
I think that this park is really clean and I love the pops of color. I think they also a great and quirky collection of flat rides, but if they could get one outstanding coaster to pair up with Tornado for that one-two punch, I think this park could be taken to the next level. As it stands, unless you have little kids and pay extra for the separate “Doghill Fairytale Farm” petting zoo and aquarium, this is not a full-day park and not worth the visit to Tampere alone (Tampere has plenty of other things going for it though so it is still 100% worth visiting and I’m actually disappointed that we didn’t allow ourselves more time to explore outside of the park before having to rush back to catch our bus back to Helsinki!).
Another Euro-park, another fantastic bathroom!
For a second, I couldn’t remember why we didn’t end up eating here but then I remembered it was because we found out another place had vegan hotdogs!
Chooch just came home and exclaimed, “You’re still talking about this!?” Um, if by talking you mean blogging, then yes. (Although blogging really is like talking to my stuffed animals, all lined up on the couch with cups of tea duct-taped to their hands. HOLD ON, HAROLD, I’LL TAKE YOU TO THE BATHROOM AS SOON AS I FINISH THIS PARAGRAPH, JESUS CHRIST.)
Immediately squirts mustard on himself.
Yeah, this ‘dog was worth the burger swap. Usually if a vegan dog is on the menu, it’s gonna be of the basic nuked store bought variety and those are so unsatisfying. I can make that myself in my own kitchen, bitch please.
I don’t know what this thing was but it was adorable, super antique-feeling, and just good old-fashioned fun.
Chooch probably disagreed.
Oh, I just looked it up and it’s literally called Lake Carousel. It’s spins and tilts but not very aggressively. You can imagine bitches from the past riding this in their floor length gowns and bonnets or whatever. (I don’t know how old this ride itself is but apparently the amusement park has been around since 1975 so it’s only slightly older than me, which ISN’T YOUNG.
LOL according to Wiki, this ride opened in 1996. So yeah, you can imagine bitches from the past riding this in their BUM Equipment sweatshirts and scrunchies or whatever.
FINLAND. <3
Even the car ride was one of the most scenic rides I’ve ever been on.
Henry and underwear friend.
Fun fact: Sarkanniemi means “Cape of Sandbank.”
I thought this was going to be popcorn-flavored ice cream but it was literally ice cream topped with popcorn lol.
Chooch was being a big crybaby over hot chocolate so don’t worry, big baby got his hot chocolate. Also, he was mildly pouting because there was supposed to be some stupid Angry Birds kiddie ride there and he roamed around aimlessly looking for it for the first hour before realizing that it had been rethemed to carrots, LOLOLOL.
I was so excited when I saw this weird game because I thought it was a Finnish thing but then later I found out that we have these here in America too, so.
Literally just did my Carouselfie 2023 post the other day so if you’ve already seen these, YES I KNOW I ALREADY POSTED THEM.
I really did have an enjoyable time here but 1/3 of a day is really all you need. One of the coasters was closed (no tears were shed about this though because it’s a Zamperla Volare coaster, which are AWFUL. Granted, I’ve only been on one in Canada’s Wonderland, but it’s not something I’d ever happily line-up for ever again.
By 3:30pm, we were ready to say goodbye and try to get a bus back to the bus station since our transfer had run out and we didn’t know where to go around there to get a new ticket. My favorite part of traveling! The bus driver was like, “Oh for God’s sake just get in and sit down” in so many Finnish words so yay! Thank you, Tampere public transportation!
The next day, we left our airbnb at….4am I think??? It was ungodly. I don’t even want to think about that travel day, actually. Let’s just end the vacation here! I DID IT, I WRAPPED IT UP BEFORE THE END OF 2023!!! ONE WHOLE DAY TO SPARE!
The last thing on our Tallinn agenda was leaving Old Town and figuring out what bus to get on to take us to some random city park that had some kiddy rides, including a coaster.
Allegedly.
When you’re a coaster thoosie, and you go out of your way to ride some janky one-off coaster, usually located in a family entertainment center or, you know, a zoo, it’s called “getting a plus one.”
Don’t say I never teach you a thing or three!
Anyway, Chooch didn’t find out that Tallinn had this baby coaster until we were already on the trip and he was looking at some coaster directory. I had been hounding Chooch to give me some things that he wanted to do so it wasn’t all me me me me because that’s what I hear about ALL THE TIME post-trips, how we only did what ERIN wanted to do and you know what? Become a fucking Queen like me and then you as well can do everything you want to do! UGH! GOD!!!
I guess figuring out the bus was OK. We bought bus passes from a store, I think? And we JUST made the bus that we needed to catch. Chooch was responsible for figuring out this portion of the day. I was just along for the ride, literally. Sometimes I think about how dependent I am on him and Henry and I realize that holy shit, could I even survive on my own? I would be crying in my hotel room the entire time and that’s assuming I was even able to catch my flight in the first place.
According to the time stamps on photos, we were on the bus at 6:47pm and Chooch’s ass was securely in the seat of this dumb coaster at 7:08pm.
The ride operator was like, “Wow, you sure about this pal?” I mean, not in so many words.
He wanted this to be his senior picture.
But yeah, the rest of the “park” was um, yeah. It just…was. Basically an extremely run-down carnival that you might see in a church parking lot, after it’s been left to rust and rot for a handful of years. But, he got that credit!
The actual city park it was in was very pretty though. Kadrioru Park, in case you want to go there and also scoop up that +1. I mean, this might be a credit that only Chooch (and one other guy, but only because Chooch gave him the heads up the next day) got out of everyone on our trip?? This park was apparently established by Peter the Great!
I thought it was really beautiful, worth going out of our way for that damn credit.
We stopped at a convenience store before embarking on our journey back to the ferry terminal (we opted to walk because it wasn’t too far / we had time to kill / walking is the best way to see a new city) and got some popsicles and candy. I wish I could go back in time and buy more bags of the candy I chose because it was so fucking good. Of course I can’t remember what the fuck it was, either.
These fucking dolls.
I asked Henry what he liked about Tallinn and he said, “I liked the Dave Matthews bar.”
Wow, Dave Matthews, really? Mm.
Then I asked him if he’d go back (after I ridiculed him saying Dave Matthews instead of Depeche Mode) and he said, “Yeah” with no hesitation so that’s cool I guess because I never can tell if he’s actually having fun when we’re on vacation, lol.
The worst part of the day honestly was the ferry ride back. It was SO LATE at that point (I think our ferry left sometime after 10PM and it was well after midnight when we got back to Helsinki, and definitely after 1AM by the time we took a bus and street car back to our room. REALLY wish we had just stayed overnight in Tallinn! But, we had to get an early start the next day, our last full day, because we were doing a day trip to Tampere. But, you know, more on that later.
Well, I’ll end this Estonian
chapter with a video compilation from the day (one of the clips is sideways and I cannot fucking fix it no matter what, even though it’s not saved like that in my phone, and I only recorded that for the guys singing/yelling so I guess it doesn’t even really matter, and also LOL that those guys have gotten off the ferry with cases of alcohol, as I mentioned is a thing in my last post!
One of the non-negotiable items on my vacation itinerary wish list was to dine at Old Hansa, which is a medieval-themed restaurants serving only what would have been found in people’s pantries back in the day. I knew going into this that it is a TOTAL TOURISTY thing to do but I cared not. I wanted to eat here. I mean, when in Tallinn, right?
Oh, and the other deciding factor was that they have a vegetarian and vegan section on the menu! We made reservations a few mths in advance and it turns out, totally not needed. Maybe because it was a Thursday at 4pm, I dunno, but the inside seating of the restaurant was almost completely empty. There were a good bit of people sitting outside, but I wanted the candlelit experience of the indoors!
I wish I had gotten a photo of our waiter but he was wonderful, never strayed from his medieval fief (?) character, and steered me clear of what I was originally going to order because it was “hit or miss” with a “strong taste” that “some diners didn’t care for.”
I appreciated him for this.
Chooch and his non-alcoholic beer which of course didn’t like.
Medieval bathroom selfie.
Oven-baked herb and juniper cheese. Um, just looking at this picture has activated my saliva glands, I am gleeking like no one’s business over here. The taste memory of this appetizer is haunting my tongue like a ghost wearing a flavor sheet. FML, I want to go back to this moment.
I ended up getting the Five Tastes of Vegetarian Origin: Crusader’s Lentils, Ginger Rutabaga, Saffron Spelt,
Forest Mushroom Sauce, Rickard’s Cheese Pasties with Garlic and Herbs. It was DELICIOUS. Like, lick-the-plate-clean levels of delicioso.
Chooch got the Faraway Merchant’s Lentil Dish: Spicy Lentils and Saffron Spelt with plentiful Greens and Crispy Lentil Bread. Which he of course did not like so Henry and I ravaged his refuse.
Henry got salmon or something, he can’t remember.
Yes, this was expensive, definitely the most expensive meal of the whole trip. But to me, it was worth it for the experience and the ambiance, and I’m sorry but everything on my plate was excelsior and unlike anything I have ever eaten before. After all the cinnamon rolls and licorice, my body was praising me for giving it vegetables.
(Fun fact: There are no potatoes to be found on the menu because potatoes weren’t available back then!)
Then we went to the shoppe so I could so a schnapps tasting but Henry the Fucker took the cup and drank half of it!! I was so fucking offended. Literally almost started a fight with him over it but whatever.
I’ll tell you what, even just the half-shot that my Big Strong Keeper Man permitted me to have did wonders for my sinuses! I was like a brand new woman for about 10 minutes but then I got all clogged up again so I think the lesson learned here is that hourly shots of schnapps need to be tossed back.
Anyway, I bought a bottle for Margie, because I knew she would appreciate souvenir liquor. I gave it to her in the office too and she was like, “SHOULD WE DRINK THIS NOW??” Um, yes??
(We didn’t.)
:(
Then we went to Europe’s oldest, continually operating pharmacy which also has a small, free museum area.
This is one of my favorite photos that I took while in Tallinn, in case you cared. (WHY DON’T YOU CARE??)
(WHY DOESN’T CHOOCH CARE??)
Then we had a tony bit of time to kill before the Depeche Mode Bar opened so we just strolled around.
Fuck Putin.
Eat shit, Putin.
Then, Depeche Mode Bar! Next up: Chooch’s stupid Tallinn coaster credit.
I’m telling you – one day in Tallinn just wasn’t enough. It was BARELY even enough to enjoy all that Old Town alone has to offer. I hope we make it back someday because I really loved it there a lot. Great people, great vibes, so much history and beauty.
