Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 31

Saelt veri folkid!! Vid erum lentum i Tallinn i gaer eftir eina letta og svefnlausa nott i köben, kiktum med Beysa uta lifid og forum svo til Kaspers og krössudum thar, vöknudum svo 20 minotum adur en taxinn atti ad koma nadum samt badir ad sturta okkur og pakka flestu (gleymdi einum helv... poka) adur en taxinn kom. Eftir thad var brunad uta flugvöll og drifum okkur i röd (bissnes class) sem var baedi stutt og gekk fljott fyrir sig en vorum sidan sendir i eina lengstu röd sem eg hef nokkurntimann stadid i 1 & 1/2 klukkutima seinna vorum vid komnir a barinn og ordnir slakir. Flugid til Tallinn tok 1 & 1/2 tima og vid lentum heilir a hufi tho ridgadir eftir gaerdaginn, skiptum dollurum i kroon og tokum leigubil nidur a gistiheimilid 15 ... read more

I was up bright and early this morning for our expedition around northern Estonia. I was greeted at the front desk with some good news - my bag was in the country and being sent my way! Woo! The Dutch guy who owns the hostel wrote a guide book (THE guidebook in the Dutch speaking world, apparently) to the Baltics and was going to be showing us some cool places around the north in his funky old blue minibus. You always seem to get a good mix from Youth hostels - today was no different. Accompanied by an older Taiwanese lady, a student of Chinese literature (who spelled every other word out to make sure we understood her), and a crew of other backpackers we took to the roads. We drove out of Tallinn past a ... read more

It was! Took it easy the first day. Day two got up early to see the city. Turns out (We weren't paying attention when we arrived) we were situated right in the middle of the old town. The polish weather followed us and it poured rain the whole day. This drove us to a tour of the "Oldest City Hall in Northern Europe" and vast improvement in our knowledge of limestone. Who knew there was so much to know about limestone...... In fairness the interior was beautiful and quite interesting. We found an english bar as the craving for burgers was too strong. Ended up heading back there that evening for a few drinks. Met two guys, one Estonian and one Russian. The Estonian guy convinced us he had contacts in every nightclub in town but ... read more

The day before, we bought our hydrofoil tickets for roundtrip to Tallinn. It's outside the EU, so we had to go through passport control each way (adding new stamps to the passport -- rare since travel in EU doesn't require). Tallinn is an old medevial town. The old town is basically intact, although some parts were bombed in WWII. We always have thought of it as Soviet, but it was free before WWII (and under Swedish, German and Russian influence in the centuries before). The town and is really more Nordic than Russian, and apparently was happy to reopen interaction with Finland and Sweden, just being a short hop across the Baltic Sea or Gulf of Finland. The old buildings, cobbled streets. Old town is basically all pedestrian, and apparently floods with tourists. Again, old churches, ... read more

Geo: 59.4389, 24.7545Today was our free day in Tallinn. First stop for Bridget, Anita and I was the beauty salon. Anita and I had a 30 minute massage and it was great!! Loved it, especially in this cheap country. We then walked into the old town, looked at souvenirs, walked down little lane ways and under arches. Had a long lunch. Then thought we had better do the educational thing- we went to a museum- 'Estonian History Museum'. The building was built 6090 years ago!! We did some browsing of the clothes and shoe stores. Anita and Bridget went back to the hotel, I kept on window shopping and ventured into the new town and found a shopping centre with air conditioning!! Great place when its hot outside and your hotel room doesn't have air conditioning!Had ... read more