estonia: tallinn

I finally got to visit my third Baltic capital city, yahooooo!

I flew to Tallinn, Estonia on a Friday evening, on Air Baltic. The connections were tight, but lots of people fly from Kiev to Tallinn/Vilnius, so the later flights usually leave a few minutes late as they wait for people from the flights that first land in Riga. My flight landed before midnight, and it was a quick and cheap taxi ride to my hotel in the city. I think this taxi ride was cheaper than I'd had in either Riga or Vilnius.  Score a point for Tallinn already!

My hotel had 24 hour reception, I wasn't waking anyone up to checking, yahoo. The lady gave me all the information I needed about the hotel, and let me know where I could find maps and brochures about the city. I'd already realized Tallinn has done a great job of making things easy for visitors, providing information everywhere. Plus, it seems people speak three languages: Estonian, Russian, and English.

The next morning I woke up earlier than expected, considering I hadn't fallen asleep until after 0100. The only downside to my hotel is that weekend breakfast wasn't served until 0900, which is a bit late if you want to get out of the hotel and spend as much time as possible wandering around the city.

Instead of waiting for breakfast, I went for a walk. One of the brochures/maps listed two things I wanted to see that looked to be nearby: a fish market and a bakery. (I always visit a bakery soon after arriving in a new place. I figure it's important to find out as fast as possible if I'm going to like baked goods in any particular location.) The brochure said the bakery opened early, I wanted to see what they offered. Also, the fish market was only supposed to take place on Saturdays. I read the entire brochure, this two things were the closest, best options, but there were others that sounded interesting.

I was shocked when I walked out of the hotel. It was snowing, and windy. I was NOT mentally prepared for either of those, even though i'm pretty sure the weather app had mentioned snow over the weekend. Wind is the tougher of those two types of weather, my hair flies everywhere, and dries out my skin.

Sadly, I ended up being disappointed in both the bakery and the fish market. It turned out the bakery didn't open until 0900 on weekends, (that is definitely NOT early) and when I found the location of the fish market, there was nothing there. ARGH. 

I probably could've walked back later in the day, but I didn't. Instead of those spots, I continued walking. I walked through a small part of the old city, which is the main tourist area of the city. Those streets are completely deserted at 0730 on a Saturday morning. (not a surprise.) It was fun to walk and see the beauty of the area without heaps of people everywhere. I got to take a few photos, and take my time finding the right angles :)...by this time it had stopped snowing, in fact the skies were totally clear...but it was still cold, so my fingers were having a hard time working the camera...
side note: i'd be the first customer for any company or person who invents a camera that isn't so susceptible to cold...lithium ion batteries are great in that they're easily recharged, but they lose their energy rather quickly when it's cold (even when it's at just 0C/32F) so you have to carry extra batteries, and keep them warm...i do a fair amount of traveling in freezing (or colder) weather, i would be so happy if dying batteries weren't such a concern...wheneva i see national geographic photos of cold places, i always wonder how many extra batteries those photographers carry around, and how they deal with the problem...

I found another bakery on my way back to the hotel. This bakery was open, yippee! I took a while making decisions, there was so much that looked so yummy. Estonia is definitely a country I want to return to, for the bakeries if nothing else!! Even though I knew I was going to be eating breakfast within 15 minutes or so, I bought a few pastries. YUM.

The hotel breakfast was a buffet. I've had better, I've had worse. It's always nice to have the meal included in the price of the room. There were cucumbers and tomatoes, cheese and meat slices, tea/coffee, hard boiled egss, etc...

After breakfast I relaxed in my room for an hour or two, then went out again. I walked around the other side of the old city, around the bottom of Toompea hill. Very pretty. I saw a few statues along the way, I don't know what they were memorializing.

It didn't take me long to get to my first destination: the Museum of the Occupations. It's similar to what I've seen in Riga, and Vilnius. There was a lot of information, about the time from the first Russian/Nazi invasions, through the fall of communism, in 1991. Information about all aspects of life, and those who were affected by everything that happened.

There were a couple cars on display, I think they were made in Estonia. There was information about Germans, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Roma, Latvians, and more. There were displays of the money through all those years. There was a display of doors from various prisons during those years. There was a selection of technology during those years, radios and the like. It's not a big museum, but it's definitely possible to spend a lot of time in there if you read and look at everything. It can also be overwhelming if you read and look at everything.  People during those years lived through a LOT.

Along the way to my next stop, I found Freedom Square. There is a big memorial to the War of Independence, which happened during WW1. I must admit it was a bit strange to see something big that was not related to WW2.

It took me a while to walk to my next stop. A palace/park area a bit out to the east. (It was an easy walk, straight down a street, but it wasn't close.) The park wasn't that great, probably because it is the end of winter, and spring hasn't really shown up yet, so it's just empty. Behind one palace was a landscaped garden, it's probably very pretty when everything is blooming. Not too far behind that is the office of the President of Estonia. (or is it prime minister? I don't remember).

I made sure to follow a different street back into town, just because.

When I got back to the old city area of the city, I simply wandered. My first stop was another bakery/cafe, this one totally different from what I'd visited that morning. I ended up eating a small chocolate, a cakey sort of thing with fruit, and a chocolate cakey sort of thing. YUM. All for less than 5 euro, woo hoo.

I found the town hall, and the open platz right there. It's pretty, and probably packed with chairs and tables for cafes during warmer months. I was surprised to see quite a few chairs and tables outside, all full of people. Even though the sun had come out by this point, it definitely wasn't warm. At all.

I continued wandering, looking at restaurant menus, and stepping into souvenir stores. (Remember my fascination with postcards.) Eventually I found what I wanted for a place to eat dinner, and postcards to buy for a reasonable price.

I walked up the so-called 'short leg', the shorter street leading up to Toompea hill. It's steep, but not bad. Immediately I saw Al

exander Nevsky Cathedral, an Orthodox cathedral. It's pretty, I found the exterior more interesting than the interior. You can tell there are plenty of tourists here, as there were a number of signs telling people to be quiet, not to take photos, and I've forgotten what else. The iconostasis was pretty, but the ceiling wasn't as decorated as I expected.

I looked at my map, and saw that it showed several different lookout points. They were supposed to offer nice views over the city. I found three of them, looking out in three directions over the city. There were pretty clouds, and still some sun, so I think my photos turned out okay. I had a hard time getting a selfie, as the wind was still crazy, so my hair was going all over. Argh.

My iphone shut down because it was so cold, (remember my side note earlier in this post??) and my mapmyrun app had just told me this walk was already 15km long, so I went back to my hotel to warm up and charge the electronics. After an hour or so, I headed out again, and found the restaurant I'd noticed earlier. I was craving steak. It ended up being okay. Not great, not awful. It did take care of my craving, so I was happy.I ordered a non-alcoholic mojito (I'm allergic to alcohol,) but when the waiter brought it to me I could tell there was alcohol in it from the smell. He made the switch, thank goodness. (Alcohol sets off my asthma badly, and I had no desire to speak time in another hospital.)

Instead of going back to the hotel straightaway, I went back up to Toompea hill, I wanted to see the lookouts at night. Pretty, but not stunning. The city isn't lit up as much as I expected. From there I went back to the hotel. On the way back, a guy asked for money, then followed me for several hundred meters, continuing to ask for money. He was drunk. When I said no, for the 5^th time, rather forcefully, he called me a b—ch, then stalked off. Really? Did he think that hassling me would make me give him money? Argh.

The next morning I was up early again, I decided to go for another walk before breakfast. This time, I didn't have any plan as to where i was going.  I walked around the edges of the old city, and found a statue of two frogs, sitting on a fencepost under an umbrella. I'm sure there is a story behind it, which of course I don't know, but I thought it was cute...

Not too far away was the opera house. It was nice looking, and the exterior colours were different from what I'm used to.  Green and yellow. 

From there I cut back into the old city.  I finally got out my map and took a look to see what else I wanted to see. I know it sounds silly, but I was a little excited to be using a real map, not google maps. It doesn't happen so much anymore.  (Partly because I haven't had a guidebook, and therefore no map, for my out of country trips recently.) Then my fingers told me "it's cold!" Another sunny day, but also cold.

I found what I was looking for, a small street called st catherine's passage.  I think back in the day it was a 'regular' street.  There are still small arches made of grey brick over the street, very picturesque. 

There are small workshops of artists, and since I was there early, only one was open.  An older man was working with glass, very very cool to watch for a few minutes.  

This street took me to the walls surrounding the old city.  I found an entrance that allowed me to walk up to a second level, and follow along the walls for a couple hundred meters in each direction.  (After paying a small entrance fee, of course.) I liked looking over the roofs of the city, the views were pretty.  Nothing outstanding, but very nice.

Back down at street level I followed that street, to a few others,
(I was surprised to still be finding new streets to wander in the old city, as the area isn't that big) and eventually walked past another Orthodox church.  This one was smaller than Alexander Nevsky church, but had the same slightly touristy feeling, even though it was an active church.

From there, I weaved through streets again until I got back to the bakery I'd visited the day before.  This time I bought more, I wanted some tasty items to bring back to Kyiv.  YUM.

Breakfast back at the hotel was the same as the day before.  YUM.

Another hour relaxing and packing up after breakfast, then back out to walk for a couple hours.  I don't remember anything specific, I was just happy to be outside, walking around a pretty city.  

When I got back to the hotel, the front desk lady called a taxi for me, it arrived a couple minutes later, and 15 minutes later, I was back at the airport.  This trip was way too short, I definitely want to come back to Estonia!