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.

Rovaniemi

My host was so kind enough to lend me his bike so I could discover the city and a nearby city where a couple of small people and a fat man with a beard live.
But on my way there, I stopped by on an island on the river that goes through Rovaniemi. There some student wildlife organization or something had layed out a wooden path for tourists to have a look around on the almost swamp like island. It included a tower for bird watching. With the sun shining it was really nice to see.
After that and a stop at a huge supermarket in the middle of nowhere to get some food, I went on to greet Santa, who by the way talks very good German. Sadly I forgot to put on my kilt which would have given it a nice touch, but then again it would have been difficult for cycling. It was also nice to cross the Arctic circle, just for the thought that I have been really high up north. This also meant that the night was extremely short with darkness not even being an hour long.
On my way home I pushed my bike up a hill with a watch tower from where I had a great view across Rovaniemi and the endless coniferous forest. I wanted to go downhill on the other side but the way ended after 20m, so I pushed my bike down a stone slope and through some bushes to reach a small road that led me back to the main road. Luckily in Finland as in other Scandinavian countries there is a public right for roaming around freely.
My host and I had a lot of fun together, because we both love British comedy, and watched the whole Blackadder goes Forth series as well as some parts from his ¨Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl¨ DVD. He also let me use his Finnish sauna, which was great.

Suomi

One small step for me, one giant leap for my ego.
I walked all the way from Sweden to Finland, after a night train ride from Stockholm, sitting next to a Thai, who couldn´t speak any English, and two drunken French blokes... It actually took me 15 minutes and apart from a sign, saying Sverige and Suomi on each side, it was really hard to tell where the border line was because right behind the sign there´s a big shopping mall, which seemed to be half Swedish and half Finnish.
Suomi by the way is the Finnish word for Finland. In Norway and Sweden I had hoped to understand the odd word, but upon reaching Finland I gave up on that. You could just as well be talking Russian or Chinese to me, I wouldn´t get a single word.

Some pictures

Glasgow, very rainy

Prestwick

Bergen

The Fjord in Bergen

Oslo, also very rainy