Little Finnland

Tuja, Latvia – Metsanurme, Estonia

Many, many snows ago Estonia had a great kiing named Taallinn.

Taallinn was the son of King Bod and Queen Uukkess, but King Bod was a cruel man and treated his son poorly, where Queen Uukkess was kind and patient and taught her son how to read and write and spell.

Now, for some reason, as Taallinn grew up he developed some very strong opinions. He enjoyed skiing, but he did not like skis. He was fond of cool weather, but he hated the cold. He loved pizza, but he did not like pasta. He tolerated the Russians, but he did not trust the Lithuanians or the Latvians. No one understood where his likes and dislikes came from.

Yet despite his strong opinions he was a great kiing, and did many great things for his kingdom. Sadly, Taallinn left his home country after he heard about this river in the new world – the Mississippi – in a place called Minnesota. 

“I must go there, for this Mississippi sounds like the greatest place on Earth,” he declared. 

And within a week the good kiing Taallinn was off – sailing to the New World.

Taallinn left behind a great legacy. Of course, the capital city is named after him. But he also had a profound effect on Estonian spelling, because, before he left, he had decreed that henceforth Estonian words must have at least one, and preferably two or three, double-letters. And any person who aspired to a position of note within Estonian society must follow the same rules. 

Thus, there was Haagar, the Horrible! Taatuun, the Terrible. Dennis, the Mennace! 

Well, you get the idea. 

Eventually, the Finns saw this great innovation in spelling and followed suit.

As for Taallinn, he had a rough time of it in the States. When he finally reached Minnesota, he tried to find the headwaters of the great river, but became confused and ended up in Ely, working as a stubborn old miner for the remainder of his days – although he is noted for having named half the roads in Northern Minnesota.

Seriously, it is pretty funny to see how the Estonians and the Finns spell things. Double-a, double-u, double-k – it’s as if they came up with their spellings while playing Scrabble with defective letters.

Speaking of which, Diana and I played a game the other day, when we were in Riga. This coffee shop had a Scrabble set; we love the game so we gave it a try. The only problem? Well, turns out that Latvian Scrabble has a different mix of letters, and the points assigned to each letter are more than a little different. I think the U was worth 8 points. Some of the A – there were a few different types of A – tiles were worth 4 points. There were about a million Ks. Oh, and the Z was only worth 4. How can the A and the Z be worth the same? Just wrong!

It was a completely invalid game. Diana scored 425 points. What a cheater!

I would tell you about Estonia, but so far our impressions are pretty limited. I mean, it is clearly a great country. That became obvious yesterday at about 4:30 p.m. That’s when we saw two people rollerskiing.

The first rollerskiers we’ve seen since last August in Minnesota. Any country where people rollerski is a good country.

That’s a truism that everyone knows – but sometimes you need to just state the obvious for the slow people out there . . .

The problem is that basically ever since we entered Estonia the temperature has been dropping. The way the weather is trending, I fully expect those rollerskiers will be on snow within a week. 

Today was especially bad. High of, I think, 62 degrees – and in Celsius it’s even colder. Something like 17. Worse, we had to deal with a nasty headwind all day. It wasn’t so much that the wind was making it tough going – which it was. No, it was the relentless cold that comes with biking into the wind – even when it’s not really that frigid. We found ourselves retreating into depressing gas stations just to escape the assault of the North Wind. 

In the end, this may have been one of our more difficult days of biking. Yes, it was totally flat. But we ended up biking almost 80 miles into the wind. A few reasons for that . . . There really weren’t many campgrounds or facilities between Parnu, where we were last night, and Tallin. We wanted to try one of these RMK campgrounds anyway – and this was the closest one. Finally, we figured that if we biked further today we would end up closer to Tallin, and we would have more of an opportunity to see that city before taking the ferry to Helsinki tomorrow afternoon. 

But whatever the reason, by the time the day was done we were pretty drained. Sadly, we didn’t quite make it to the campground unscathed. With just four miles to go we had a little spat. Pretty much just venting tired-and-hungry, but ostensibly we were arguing about cell phone batteries or something. It was dumb. I guess collateral damage from biking too far in the wind and cold . . . 

The good news is that the campsite is nice – on a river, with a wood fireplace and a covered table – and as soon as we had dinner, all was forgiven. Maybe the measure of a good marriage is not the number of spats, but how quickly they are forgotten . . .

Anyway, the point is that we haven’t had much opportunity to enjoy Estonia quite yet. 

Well, that’s not entirely true. In addition to the rollerskiers, we have seen many signs for moose.

Like rollerskiers, any country that has moose has got to be good. And, of course, moose and rollerskiers in one country is a sure-fire guaranty. The best yet would be a rollersking moose, but you can’t expect the world . . .

Short ride to Tallin tomorrow. And Diana tells me that the wind will be at our back. 

We’re planning to take a city tour. And Mark R told us that we might want to visit an old Soviet apartment complex – apparently the place does a great job telling the story of what life might have been like under Communism. 

And then tomorrow night we take the ferry to Helsinki. At this point, with this cold, we are really looking forward to the public saunas that Bill M recommended. 

We’ll be there until Saturday night. Then we fly to England on the Escape from Schengen flight. But before we do, we are hoping to meet Hayward, Wisconsin Reader Mike C and his wife Mary – maybe for lunch or dinner. Apparently they are on a Baltic Cruise and will be landing in Helsinki that day. 

Okay, now one last thing that I want to mention here. 

I need to start with a little background . . . 

Round about 25 years ago Diana and I visited Thunder Bay, Ontario for the first time. Can’t remember why. We might have been up there in the summer for a little mountain biking (which was not that good – at least back then). Or it might have been some early-season skiing. Or maybe we were doing the Sibley Ski Tour, now renamed the Sleeping Giant Tour. Doesn’t matter. 

The point is that while we were up there we discovered a little restaurant that was in the basement of a church – The Hoito! 

Boy, was it good. Everything Finnish. Finnish food. Finnish waitresses. Finnish decorations. 

Of course, it was the Finnish pancakes that really stole the show. So good. Kind of gooey/chewy. Buttery. Yummy. Maybe the best pancakes I’ve ever had. Which is saying a lot – considering I’ve had my Grandpa’s pancakes – which, everyone knows were some of the best pancakes ever, my Dad’s pancakes, the Original House of Pancakes pancakes, and countless other lesser pancakes. 

Over the years since, we frequently found excuses to go to Thunder Bay – pretty much just so we could hit The Hoito. 

But then came COVID. One of the most tragic parts of that time in the world was the closing of The Hoito. It didn’t just close temporarily. No, The Hoito closed permanently. I’m not sure what they did with their Finnish pancake recipe, but the sad reality is that we’ve never had them again. 

So you can imagine how long I’ve been thinking about my first morning in Helsinki. We need to find real Finnish pancakes. I mean, if any place in the world might have pancakes that compare with The Hoito you would think it would be in Helsinki. 

The point is this: If you have any specific information about exactly where to go to get Hoito quality Finnish pancakes, now is the time to share that information. My happiness depends on it. 

We are counting on you. 

Don’t let us down . . .