We sought recommendations; we got names of tea houses, indie bookshops and (well, to be fair) mediocre restaurants, though i fear this had more to do with the cuisine and being a budget traveller.
Rosa and I took those recommendations on the run and honed our technique of ten minutes of walking before ducking inside to fill ourselves to the brim with hot liquids before braving the elements yet again.
We started simply enough in the old town and wended around past the Freedom Monument and into the new town part of the city, which felt a lot like the big avenue blocks of Budapest.
in Cafe Amelie 
The House of the Black Cat--according to wikitravel, this building has lore and legend attached: 'The legend has it that a disgruntled tradesman who was not accepted into the Big Guild, built this house and put the cats on it with their tails pointing towards the Big Guild, thus expressing his scorn.'
The Freedom Monument, sectioning the old town from the new and national symbol
The Opera House walking towards new town
We fettered away at least three hours in Aspara Tea House--treehouse style, cushions and beautiful views=a formula for no one ever wanting to leave
We ended our trip by drinking copious amounts of cheap wine in a cave and then acting like 19-year-olds with various 19-year-olds staying in our hostel. There was walking in the cold, followed by dancing followed by more drinking followed by a journey home to the hostel where eleven louder than ridiculous spaniards overtook our hostel room, banging and poking around at 5am. Result: i am too old for hostels.
The next morning we survived a bus ticket inspection and made it to the airport arriving back in London to, for the first time, markedly better weather. Despite this, a return to the Baltic States is immiment. But not Helsinki.
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