Conclusion

Poznan was beautiful and after my Mitfahrgelegenheit to Berlin ditched me, I stayed the night.
In Berlin I stayed with some friends from school.
Just one thing left to say,
'What a great journey'

No thanks, I've seen enough

That's what I thought as I left the Central station after wandering in a circle in the "shopping" passages above the tracks. In front of me the Palace of Culture and Science, a remnant of the comnunist era, - which is worth a visit - behind me the "modern" - I'd rather say ugly - Warzawa Centralna and all around us the mix of old, half-demolished apartment buildings and huge advertisment boards, telling you about the latest offer at the Yellow M-shop.
I immediately made my way back to the station to head for Poznan. However, I wanted to give Warsaw a chance so I sat down in an internet cafe in one of the shopping passages to look for things to see in Warsaw. I previously had no luck with finding a host in Warsaw on couchsurfing, but I then received an answer from a girl I had asked and she offered me a place to stay. So I decided to stay for the night. I first went to see the old city before meeting up with my host. She showed me around a bit before we went to a hostel bar to chill. There we met a nice Swedish guy with whom we strolled around a bit more.
There's not much more to say really: Even though my host showed me some nicer parts of the city I still think it's a shithole...

Vilnius to Warsaw

Not staying in Vilnius for the night I headed straight for Poland. If you look at a train map of the Baltic states you will notice one thing: All trains go to Moscow. Looking on the internet the only official way to get from Tallinn to Warsaw via Riga and Vilnius on land was to use the bus and since the last and longest leg between Vilnius and Warsaw was the most expensive I thought I might as well hitchike from Vilnius. Even though upon arrival in Vilnius I realised there actually is a train connecting the two capitals I decided to stick to my plan. Luckily I met a German who was also hitchiking and who gave me a few tips. After an hour's walk to the border of the city I waited not long before catching a ride to Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. There I was until it got dark; after all it was already quite late. Two friendly but dodgy guys gave me a lift to Augustinov, Poland, from where my interrail ticket was valid again.
The guys dropped me in front of a hotel which was already full. I walked to another one, which was too expensive and a pension, which was already closed. Looking across the canal I had my dinner and afterwards concluded my search for a place to sleep.
Asking two old guys, who had just come from a bridge evening with a couple of others, about a cheap nearby hotel, one of them invited me to sleep at his flat.
Next morning I got up very early when the sun hadn't been shining for more than an hour, because my host had to leave.
It's supposed to be the most beautiful city in the region; yeah right. The shabby houses from the 60s and 70s left me a bit hoping for something better to come as I made my way to the train station. It was a couple of kilometres, which took me around 2 hours, but as I walked the second half of the way next to or through a forest it was quite alright.
Something I stumbled on was really worth the stop alone: A colourful graveyard right inside the forest.
I had just enough time to buy something to eat for lunch before my train to Warsaw arrived.

Vilnius

What I noticed about Vilnius was that it was the least centralised city of the three baltic capitals.
In Tallin you had the old town wall, so the centre was clearly marked. Riga didn't have a town wall, so you didn't know were the excact line was, but you could roughly tell where the centre stopped. In Vilnius you just couldn't tell. If you're in the centre and start walking, at one point you will realise you're no longer in it, but the line is too vague to be able to tell excactly where the centre stops and the rest begins. Vilnius felt more Western than the other two. I can't really explain why.

Riga

Hanseatic town and a very charming one indeed. I only got to see the old city centre though which is a shame, because afterwards I was told there is a big and very interesting Art Nouveau district.
I still liked the old town centre though. There was barely any car and it didn't feel touristy at all. Some restaurants were stretching onto the streets where people sat and ate while listening to a band playing live music. After strolling around for a bit I had my dinner in a traditional latvian restaurant with an almost meadieval feeling. A girl was playing string instrument which was kind of a lute but being played a lap guitar. The cups were made out of stone and I had a traditional black pudding with some jam and bread... Tasty
What was odd, was a statue of a cock on top of a cat, on top of a dog, on top of a donkey. Germans will of course recognise them as being "Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten" (The town musicians of Bremen; famous German children's tale), but what the hell are they doing in Riga???
Reading the plaque, I found out that this was a gift from the city of Bremen made by a German artist. I figured this would be the scene where the four animals scare the heck out of a gang of thieves. However, I think choosing this scene was not very wise. Scince any non-German (i.e. Latvian) will not recognise this as a specific scene from a children's tale, I figure he or she will most likely see a statue of four animals looking really ugly. If you're a non-German who's not familiar with this tale, please comment on what you think of this statue:

Tallinn

Skyscrapers were looming on the horizon beneath a blue sky as the ship approached the shore. Setting foot on the wet streets a chill went through the air as I just wanted to find a hostel.
The hostel was two story wooden building just across the junction from one of those giants made out of steel and glass. That's Tallin: Old and new, cloudy and sunny, light and dark.

(That's not the hostel by the way, but an old brick building)

The city centre still has its wall from at least medieval times and is therfore clearly marked. However, once you step out of the gates you're in a 21st century capital which has had an economic boom during the last two decade.
In the evening I went into the old city centre with two Americans, one from Australia, to go to some bar and maybe get something to eat. I had some garlic bread in Tallinn's oldest pub. Generally, the atmosphere was really nice in the city; lots of locals out to have a nice time and some tourists blending in nicely. However, I decided to go back there the next day it was light. Just a few hours had passed and suddenly all the atmosphere was gone. Bulks of tourists passing and one person holding up an umbrella, shouting, 'Und hier ist die alte Stadtmauer...'
I think the percentage of locals on the street managed to plummet to below 10%.

Although the contrast in this city is fascinating to see, the touristy atmospere destroyed it all for me.
After that I was off to Riga.

Helsinki/Helsingfors

I didn´t bother asking why everything in Finland is written not only in Finnish but also in Swedish. Best example is the cinema: I watched Transformers 2 which had subtitles in both languages. Luckily they don´t dub the English films in Northern and Eastern Europe. I think that´s one of the major reasons Scandinavians speak very good English; everybody watches TV and goes to the cinema and most of it´s in English.
The first day in Helsinki I walked from the central station to the harbor to see some nonexisting icebreaker ships, but at least the yacht harbor was nice. On my way back I stopped by at Finlands biggest cinema. Helsinki is a nice city; not great but not bad either, so I took the opportunity of watching a film in English for once in a while.
I originally had intended just to stay for two nights but my host told me about an event, that was going on two days later so I stayed an extra night. The second day having no plans I again strolled around in Helsinki, but due to heavy rain I spent most of the time beneath a marquee.
The event was on my third and last day and the night before lots of friends from Tampere had come over to join my host for this event. There is a small river, no more than 10m wide at its widest. And at one point of this river lots of people from Helsinki and other cities put their rubber boats in the water and with a packet of beer they floated down the river. My host told me all the rubber boats in the whole of Helsinki were sold out and sometimes you could see proper rafts and bands playing on them. Sadly I didn´t see any of those.
From there I headed straight for the ferry to Tallinn.