Tallinn: It's all about the Old Town

Unfortunately, our time in Scandinavia had to come to an end but we would be rewarded by being able to visit the three former Soviet Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. First up was to be Estonia, more specifically it's capital, Tallinn. The only drawback was we had to get back on a ferry to get there. Thankfully this trip was only 3 hours long and a lot less choppy. We arrived in a soaking wet Tallinn quite late in the evening, so just had time to get to the supermarket, cook up some fish fingers and beans and head to bed with the hope that the weather would have cleared up by the morning. We did have to dice with death in the kitchen when a crazy Asian lady thought it would be a good idea to put tin foil in the microwave, with sparks flying we had to intervene, even though she didn't have a clue what we were saying.

Well, the weather hadn't cleared, in fact, it was worse than it was the night before, which gave us a perfect excuse to have a long, hard earned lie in. Fortunately, after tucking into our Chocolate Shells for breakfast, it had stopped raining and we headed out and about to explore the old town. The sun came out as we headed into Town Hall Square, which was crammed with people browsing the market and watching the locals make their crafts and build a boat. We headed on through the cobbled streets, avoiding the crowd outside the rather rough looking Georgian bar and out into Freedom Square where there is a monument dedicated to the Estonians who died during their War of Independence from 1918 to 1920. Heading uphill we came across the rather impressive Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is an onion domed Russian Orthodox cathedral, we debated whether or not to go inside and have a look but decided against the idea, preferring to visit St, Basil's when we get to Moscow. With all the walking making us hungry, we decided to treat ourselves to lunch in a restaurant for once, deciding on the pub that serves pancakes recommended by our map. We headed into the gloomy but busy pub, grabbed a table and ordered our Pancakes, which claimed they were traditional Estonian ones but we weren't too sure about that. Then the wait began. 50 minutes they took!! When they eventually got brought to the table by the 'extremely cheery' waitress we'd both lost our hunger but tucked in anyway. We had one with smoked chicken and feta cheese and one with mushrooms and blue cheese and despite the wait, they were well worth the money, costing only €5 each and being huge portions. With full bellies we did our tour of the souvenir shops looking for the obligatory pin badge, which can be rather stressful when after something specific, we should have just gone for magnets! On our way back to the hostel we picked up some Chicken for dinner that was reduced as it was on its last day of life, how bad could it be? Terrible! After stinking the kitchen out with the rotten chicken, we were just left with a large quantity of rice and some veg, which was actually rather tasty. Our night was spent wrestling with Estonian wifi trying to upload some photos but was a fruitless exercise, we could have had 10 pancakes for the time would have taken them to upload!

With nothing planned for our morning, we had yet another lie in, followed by more unnecessarily sugary children's cereals. We then headed out at Midday in order to catch the free walking tour, which are so handy when on a tight budget like we are. It was very informative and enjoyable also helping to give a background on a country that Charlotte and I didn't really know a great deal about before hand. We spent our afternoon wandering the streets on what our guide joked was the one day of summer Estonia gets a year. We were taken to 2 impressive viewing platforms giving great views across the city and towards the harbour. After grabbing a lunch of what were Estonias take on sausage rolls, with mustard inside, we headed for the flea market behind the train station. There was plenty of interesting characters around as well as some interesting merchandise. It was mostly fruit and veg covered in flies but the stalls were punctuated by tiny shops selling old soviet memorabilia. Clutching on to our belongings for dear life, we headed for the exit. Heading back towards the old town, we strolled through a park giving us views of the old town walls and castle and headed up through a steep, deserted pathway to the top of the hill. Following the cobbled streets down and out again, we headed back to the comfort of our hostel and managed to pick up 2 days worth of dinner and 2 days worth of breakfast and a 4 bottles of Estonian beer for £12.

For our last day in Tallin we fancied a walk along the coast. We headed first for what we thought was the former soviet prison in Tallinn but didn't realise until writing this blog it was actually the Linnahall, which was a sports venue, mainly used for sailing during the 1980 Moscow Olympics but is now disused, overgrown and heavily vandalised. Turns out the prison was slightly further along the coast! We followed round in the opposite direction to the prison, past the harbour and the "floating restaurant" attached to a crane and headed along the prom, resisting the temptation to rent a go kart and go for a spin. Without wanting to venture too far out of the city, we headed up through what seemed to be a large German war cemetery and then somehow stumbled across the American residence of Tallinn. Eventually we found our way back to civilization and were faced with a long walk back into town. After arriving back and enjoying our Tuna and Pasta dinner, we packed our bags ready to leave the next day and headed out to the viewing platforms to get a late night view across the city.

Tallinn was a lovely place visit and very easy to walk with most of the sights situated in the walled Old Town. Another place that may be worth a visit during the winter, when the snows would cover the buildings and make it seem like a fairytale.

We now move on to Baltic State number 2, Latvia and its capital city, Riga.

James and Charlotte