Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 9

We stayed at My City Hotel which had good reviews on Tripadvisor. It is just within the Old City walls and turned out to be a good choice as everywhere was within walking distance. Tallinn is nice with certainly enough cafés, restaurants and even cathedrals. There are souvenir shops everywhere and enough Russian dolls to cover every mantelpiece in Europe. Tallinn has moved on very well from the days of the Soviet Union and embraced tourism. Most signs are in English and almost everywhere English is spoken and spoken very well. However as the main number of tourists are from Russia do not expect to see politeness and smiling faces everywhere. Eating out was more expensive than we expected and you will struggle to find any meals below €12. For a nights entertainment we would certainly ... read more

Tere! Welcome to Eesti, that's how you say Estonia in Estonian. Here is where the next stage of my trip continues. The main reason why I chose for Estonia is because a cousin of mine is currently here for a couple of months on an exchange program. Besides, I've never been to the Baltics yet so I took advantage of the opportunity to visit. I left Iceland back to Italy where I spent one night near Milan at a friend of mine, Gabriele, who I haven't seen for 5 years. We went to Como Lake with another friend I haven't seen in 5 years, Matteo. We were all in Darwin, Australia in the same hostel for some time. In the evening we had a bbq with some other people. The next day I flew with Ryanair ... read more

Tallinn, the home to 400,000, is the capital of Estonia and has developed into a hot tourist destination focused mainly on its fully functioning old town. Keith thought the medieval hype, with people dressed in costume, cheesey, and wouldn't take any photos, saying he wasn't inspired, but I found it fun to wander through the courtyards and passages and look inside the more interesting shops. Disappointingly, the magical symbols store was closed when we passed by but the ancient apothecary was interesting and the museum of torture instruments, which mostly featured variations on tearing, puncturing and burning, were enough to make the most rebellious citizens toe the line. Outside the old town one can get a better feel for Tallinn's recent past by the abandoned Soviet buildings, some abandoned, some still in use, and some totally ... read more

The BBA V2 needed to slow down a little and today was to be the day.Not too much, but just enough to restore some energy.And in the process of doing so we could catch up on some administration including clothes washing as we had a washing machine in the apartment to give the clothes a good doing over. We have really been blessed with wonderful weather and we just hope that it continues.Being inside seemed a bit of a waste but administration needs to be done every so often but we do plan a walk out this afternoon to look at some of the sights. Being on the 5th floor of an apartment block there is no outside washing line(not even one like the pulley system we had in Pula,Croatia)but the apartment and we assume all ... read more

Geo: 59.4392, 24.7586Tallinn is acclaimed as one of the oldest cities in Europe. Today, there is an old and newtown district in Tallinn. The new looking like a standard Western city, with highrise glass buildings and malls. The old, and our destination for today, having a real medieval feel to it. Cobblestone streets, several large churches with towering spires, a castle and remains of city walls surrounding old crumbling buildings.We had cancelled our structured tour here, opting to go it alone instead. Again this seemed a good option and money well saved. We set off around 10am and walked around 40 minutes into the city centre. Nats trusty blue hand luggage backpack had finally met its end. A growing tear at the side had reached a telling point. We figured affordable Estonia would be a good ... read more