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Published: July 16th 2018
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Tallinn is such a gem of a city - I loved it the first time I was here, and loved it just as much today. (Weather was a lot nicer this time though..! When I came a few years ago it was 35+ all 4 days lol)
We trekked into the Old Town and basically just spent the day roaming around aimlessly which is true to my brand lol. We ended up at St. Olav first - a pretty tiny and relatively unfancy, yet beautiful church. I always enjoy hunting out the chandeliers and light fixtures - I just find them fascinating, especially when they're lit and you can play with angles.
On our meandering journey towards the main town square/city hall I had fun just taking pictures of the random buildings - everything is so colourful and if you look up, chances are you'll see a few statues or some other surprise! I also took pictures of all the random graffiti and stickers as per usual. I found a neat little incove with a bunch of graffiti and some quotes to do with love. That was my favorite find today.
Near the main square we went into
Church of the Holy Spirit - this one was a little fancier and more ornate inside. I love the ones with wood panels along the pews and/or the balconies - which this one had. The dark wood adds such atmosphere to the place. The sun was also hitting the stain glass in all the right places, causing orange and green fluttering light all over the place.
(Sidenote: Estonia is apparently the least religious country in Europe... beautiful churches still!)
I left Mom to people watch in the shade, in some park/church yard while I ventured up the hill to Toompea. (She had the pleasure of listening to all the tour guides in the area... unfortunately none of them spoke English LOL)
I walked up to Toompea (Uppertown), going to "Kiek in de Kok" tower on the way. I maintain that it is my favourite name of anything I've ever visited because I'm still a child lol. The museum and tower was closed today, but since I'd gone last time I wasn't too worried about that.
I followed the wall and made my way to "Short Leg Gate Tower" which was a fantastic accidental find..! Story is
it's haunted by a monk and his ghost can often be seen. They have 3 super creepy statues around the square as well.
I could see a giant Russian Orthodox church up the road/hill, so I made my way there next. No photography - but absolutely GORGEOUS inside. The amount of detail really is amazing - it was a nice little tease for the next few days in St Petersburg 😊
I wandered around Toompea for a bit after that - I found a nice overlook of the city and then I listened to a few buskers, all of which seem to play violin. I people watched a bit too and watched some seagull steal someone's ice cream lol.
Back on the boat we went to a Russian heritage talk - they explained how they make lacquer boxes (so gorgeous!) They aren't wood... they're made of tons of layers of paper, almost like paper maché which I had no idea! Of course they also talked about matrushka dolls, Grandfather Frost, their New Year trees (same idea as the dolls) and Fabergé.
For the evening show, there was a Hungarian violist who did a mix of classical
and modern music - I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but it was way more engaging and exciting than I thought it would be. The ending was cute too - her bf's birthday is in a few days, so she got us to sing a long while she played "Happy birthday" and her friend was filming. Aw.
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