Tallinn

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Geo: 59.4392, 24.7586

Got the 13:15 Eurolines bus from St Petersburg to Tallinn but it turned out the taxi brought us to the second stop so no bus til 2pm and had been told get there early so we arrived at 11:15am d'oh! Fortunately there was a coffee shop and it was good to have time to write up all the details of the last week. By 16:45 we are at the pre border check point Ivangorod from where it was 212km to Tallinn, we had to get off on the Russian side with the bags, then get back on coach and enter Estonia at 17:00 where they take away your passport for a while. They only checked 2 random bags from the boot and by 18:05 the passports were back and we were welcomed to the EU so to speak. Then 3 mins later there's a stop in Narva and finally at 18:15 we are back on the road and the clocks go back an hour.

Arrive in medevial Tallinn (means Danish Fort) at 20:20 and it's a lovely bright sunny evening and we get taxi which clearly has our rights and fares and euro exchange rate etc. printed up, very impressive. We stayed at the gorgeous Unique Stay Hotel on the edge of Old Town which had free internet access and pc in each room plus a spa bath, very very good. We are on the Toompea side of old town which is a castle and catherdral built by the Danish King Vlad II in 1219 and later it was part of Russian empire in early 19th century when Tallinn was called Reval. Before that the Swedes ruled and there was also a big German influence (was in Hanseatic league in 1285 - german dominated assoc. of baltic trading citires depsite being under Danish rule at the time), so anyway it looks much more Scando than Russian.

The old town is picturesque and its main sq. is called 'Raekoja plats' surrounded by pastel coloured medieval houses and eateries, the town hall is rather gothic with a steeple and the main drag is called Pikk meaning long (think it's like our O'Connell St. as every town seems to have one). It also has what used to be 'house of the blackheads' which sadly has nothing to do with skin problems but was the 1531 merchants great guild aka drinking club, now its a venue for chamber concerts and it has an amazing door way.

Great place to walk around as its a real warren of streets and there's a great 1864 wood panelled cafe on Maiasmokk. Finally we are back in a town with nice vege food, 'Elevanta' with our 1st hit of much needed Indian food. According to the rough guide one of the top 25 things to do here is to go on a pub crawl so we made a damn good attempt at that including texting some of ye about Bonnie Tyler - a lot of 80's of music here. Sadly the brit-stag parties have discovered here too but it's still ok I'd just recommend come soon if you are coming!

One of the nights we had dinner in whats supposed to be the best restaurant in Estonia called 'Pegasus' and it was rather lovely. And my last food tip is 'Controvento' a nice 'real' italian place on a ickle side street for lunch.

So loving Tallinn esp. for eating, drinking and ambling.

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