7 countries in 9 days! Of course, it felt like we would love to stay in each city we visited, but this is our speedy trip across Northern Europe.

We chose to visit Helsinki as we have a couple of friends living there and we intended to pay them a visit with another friend who also joined the trip.

Day 1: Helsinki

For this first half of the trip, we travelled with a friend who made our stay way more fun and less tourist-oriented than usual. We went to a block party in Kallio, apparently the most “hipster” neighbourhood in Helsinki. Formerly the ugliest part of the city and recently a student-art reference.

From there, we visited the sauna in our friend’s office. Apparently it’s not that weird for companies to have their own entertaining areas in order to keep their employees and saunas are a must in Helsinki. So we did our best standing the heat and chit-chatting with other friends who joined us for the evening.

*Transportation tip: it’s always easier to use the local transportation app in order to buy your tickets. The land is divided by areas, but we moved mostly from areas A to B. Each single ticket is 2’8€ and the daily pass is 8€, which might be useful depending on your kind of day.

Day 2: Helsinki

On the next day we went kayaking around Seurasaari, but first we had a very comforting breakfast at the beautiful Regatta Cafe. You can enjoy the lake views while you enjoy your breakfast and maybe cook some sausages by the fire.

Kayaking around the little island was kind of a hell for me as my companion was a terrible rawer, always complaining and trying to get unnecessary rests. But later we had a picnic at the island and run away before the ducks attacked us.

Later we rode with our bicycles towards the Matinkylä beach, which is the one that belongs to the area where our friends live in. We had dinner at Nokkalan Majakka, where we had very nice burgers and beer for about 13€ each.

Day 3: Tallin

The next day we took the most amazing ferry I’ve ever seen to Tallin. The ferry was huge and had 4 floors entirely for the passengers’ entertainment. They had bars, restaurants, a shopping mall, sleeping areas, terraces and even a gabling area. The way and return ticket was 60€ and we did all the process via their own app.

Tallin is a medieval old town that embraces the whole medieval theme to the fullest. It keeps its own walls, towers and even the cuisine!

As the prices of everything are way cheaper in Tallin, people from Helsinki would take a day trip in order to buy cheaper stuff there, mainly alcohol.

Day 4: Helsinki

There’s nothing such as a “city center” in Helsinki, but you can realise which areas are the most shopping oriented, what’s the CBD and what’s a residential area.

We visited the amazing Helsinki library, which has everything anyone has ever dreamt of: video gaming area, 3D design center, experiencial rooms, meeting rooms, recording studios, a fully equipped kitchen to cook anything you want, a kids reading area, the most amazing cafes inside the library, board games and of course,  the pc’s area, reading spaces and books everywhere.

We had lunch at Fat Ramen, which we really enjoy and the prices are OK.

Later we visited the Helsinki cathedral, the harbour area, where we had fried sardines and something to drink and an old cathedral which name I can’t remember.

We had some drinks at Brew Dog and later we had dinner at Hills Dumplings, quite good!

Day 5: Riga

We took many transports to reach to Riga the next day! For starters, we took the same ferry to cross to Tallin (39€) and from Tallin we took a bus which took us 4:30 hours to arrive to Riga (18€).

Once in Riga we explored the old town quickly, took a look at the amazing  library they had there (I know, it feels like I am obsessed with libraries) and had dinner at an Italian restaurant: La Casa Nostra, which was delicious!

Later we rushed to our hotel as we had a complementary spa and we were dying to use it after so many hours sitting in a bus.

Day 6: Vilnius

Again, we took a 4 hour bus (16€) to reach to Vilnius, which we enjoyed very much!

We took a hike all the way up to the 3 crosses hill, walked around the old town, had a coffee break, visited the Jewish quarter.

Day 7: Warsaw

This surely was the worst bus we took: 8 hour bus!! (18€)

We slept a lot in it, we saw movies, read a lot and finally we reached the beautiful Warsaw. This was one of my favourite cities of the whole trip! We loved how big it is. how well organised is the subway system and the food.

We had dinner at Podwale Kompania Piwna and we really ate so much! Loved the local cuisine and its price.

Be careful because Euro is not valid there and you might need zlotis for some of your purchases.

We slept in the Hampton Hilton hotel and the breakfast was amazing! So many options, a waffle machine and the most delicious croissants… What else can I say?

 

Day 8: Krakow

To reach Krakow we took another bus (15€), this one was 3:30 hours.

As that night we were sleeping in the train to Prague, we decided to leave the suitcases in the luggage storage in the Krakow main station. It was like 1€ each for the whole day and we had to pay in zlotis.

Krakow had that resistance feeling in all its streets. It all feels that it has been there for so long but it still keeps its elegance and it feels like it may last forever.

We visited the Schindler factory, which is an exposition center nowadays. The factory is like an experiencial museum that will take you all the way from the very beginning of the factory, to the nazi repression and the use the factory got back there to how the war affected Poland in general. It’s quite an emotional trip to go in there. Expect to spend 2-3 hours.

We explored the Jewish Quarter, which had so many beautiful cafes, terraces, patios and restaurants. We couldn’t resist and we had a break.

Later we visited the Royal Castle, which used to be something more like a residential area to all the kings, priests and entourages they had at the time (it’s completely free).

We took a night train with a private bed wagon to Prague and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me. As a person who has taken the Transsiberian, I really loved and appreciated this train: our room was the cleanest, we had a sink, new slippers, toothbrush and toothpaste, a shower in the shared toilet (?!!!) and a very cute nice breakfast). The train was about 80€ and it took less than 10 hours to reach the destination.

 

Day 9: Prague

Our train left us at around 7:30 in the morning, so we left our luggage there for 2’5€ each piece and went to explore the city.

We had the nicest breakfast at Bakeshop, highly recommended. Later we walked the city from the Old Town quarter to the Castle. There are 3 kinds of tickets you can purchase in order to have access to different areas of the castle. We bought the B ticket, which allows you to the main attractions as we didn’t have time for more.

We explored the river area and took a look at the city centre to find the best pace to eat.