Tallin

Our first stop on the cruise was Tallin, Estonia. I didn't know much about Tallin before this trip, and I must say, it is a hidden gem! Estonia is the start-up capital of Europe, and it was the founding place of Skype! We spent our day in the Old Town of Tallin, which was beautiful and full of rich history. We had good weather, especially in the morning, and got a great taste of Tallin! 

These three buildings are called "The Three Sisters". Naturally, it was mine and my sister's favorite ;)

St. Olaf's Church. Built in the 12th century. 

Loved Tallin's cobblestone streets!

After walking around in the morning, we did some shopping. My mom got a beautiful wodden bowl that is now in our kitchen! There were a ton of stalls selling fur, cashmere, and other sweater-type items. We ate lunch at a small underground place, and everyone but me had the traditional Estonian sausage. I'm not a sausage fan, but they say it was delicious! 

We climbed some very, very steep steps to the top of this tower. It was eerie... full of old toys and stuff. The tour guide told us that is where they used to send the "bad kids". I'm not sure if I believe him! 

Our next stop was Catherine's Palace, which was built for Catherine I (wife of Peter the Great), in the 1700s. It was a good taste of what was to come in the next day in St. Petersberg. 

Catherine's pink palace AKA Kadriorg. 

Copenhagen

This summer I was lucky enough to go on a Baltic cruise with my family! We started off in Copenhagen, where we spent the most beautiful day before boarding our ship. Honestly, we couldn't have had better weather. Everyone we talked to was so nice and wanted to give us recommendations for things to do!!

Nihaven was definitely worth seeing! The classic Copengahen background was absolutely beautiful. 

Had to pose in front of Charlottenborg ;)

The Church of Our Lady

One of my favorite things we did in Copenhagen was seeing the original Christus statue in The Church of Our Lady. The statues of the Twelve Apostles were amazing as well--I can't wait to see their recreations at the new LDS temple in Rome! 

We started our morning by eating at our hotel and then getting on one of those Hop-on-Hop-Off bus tours. Usually, we shy away from tourist things like that, but in a completely unfamiliar city, where we didn't have a tour guide and didn't speak the language, it was a great way to cover some ground and learn a lot about the city.

One of my favorite stops in the afternoon was the department store Magasin. Why are European department stores so much cooler than American department stores? We ate at a cute restaurant upstairs, shopped the middle levels, and ended up in the food hall downstairs. We ate delicious, authentic Danish licorice and spoke to some really cool locals.

In the late afternoon, we decided to check out Tivoli Gardens. It is the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world! We rode several of the rides. Our favorite was the one in the mountain!! I'm so glad we went. It is so cool how there is just a giant amusement park in the middle of the beautiful city.

Looks better than it tasted. Still good though ;) 

 We had some delicious pizza for dinner and then got some gelato before heading off to bed. We were so excited to board the ship the next day...(especially Amanda).