New years eve in Old Town Tallinn

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Surprisingly, the sub-zero temperatures were not overly difficult for me to adapt to, but I was certainly thankful for my decision not to wax down in Australia as any extra coverage is a bonus, adding to the 5 layers that I already had on most of the time. Of course, no matter how many layers you had on, the beer coat always made the walk home from the pubs bearable.

The ferry ride over to Tallinn was fantastic, a very modern ship with numerous bars, restaurants and entertainment. We went for the 3 hour express ferry on the way over, but on the way back, we went on the ‘party boat’, which was an overnight stay on a much dodgier boat that I’m pretty sure was full of KGB spies the way that people were looking at us. Ironically, the party boat was anything but, with the bars empty and people heading straight to bed in anticipation of the 6:45am wake-up call to get off the boat in Helsinki.

Tallinn is separated into 2 towns, the new town - which is very modern and has been developed since Estonia gained independence just over 10 years ago, and the old town, which is a perfectly preserved 13th century medieval town, complete with town walls, old town square with original town hall and countless authentic medieval restaurants. On NYE, we had a medieval feast of bear, elk and other game as well as lots of other strange food that I didn’t recognise as well as beer out of 1 litre clay pots. It felt like we were medieval warriors, although I did need some help to finish the 1 litre beer! Luckily, the room was nice and dark and I couldn’t see what I was eating, and it was certainly a barrage of flavours.

Spent New Years Eve in the old town square where people were firing off fireworks randomly in the square at midnight. With the locals packed into the square, it was hard to move away when you saw someone lighting up a firework right near you - oh well, I guess OH&S isn't the same in Estonia! Luckily the red bull/vodka combo kept me going all night, but the next day was pretty rough and was walking quite slowly around the walled city to recover, the cold air also helping my head, as well as a nice heavy stew for lunch. Tallinn was quite a sombre place during the day, but at the same it was a perfect way to spend a new year!

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