Tallinn

---

Tallinn, our final stop on our journey through the Baltic States and the final capital in the chain. After this visit we can compare all three and decide which one we prefer.

We arrived at the bus station and started walking to our hotel which we’d pre-booked over the internet the day before. We had a little trouble finding any reasonably priced accommodation in Tallinn, which we assumed was because it was the weekend, it’s actually because Tallinn is an expensive destination. The hotel was the first clue, the second clue came when we withdrew money and the ATM spat out euro notes rather than the Estonian Krooni which we were expecting. It turned out that beginning 1 January 2011, Estonia adopted the euro and became the 17th eurozone member state. This was not good news to us at all and it soon became apparent when we started looking for a cheap restaurant for dinner that the few days we stayed here were going to be the most expensive days spent in the Baltics. Guiltily, our first meal in Estonia was a McDonald’s, but to be fair it was a pretty damn delicious one!

Expense aside it also became apparent just how beautiful Tallinn was, so at least there was a cushion to absorb some of the shock at seeing euro symbols everywhere. On our first full day in the city it was snowing and pretty heavily at that. It wasn’t ideal for taking photos but did add a certain magic to the place. We walked around feeling quite Christmassy with the chill in the air and all the snow covered spires everywhere.

We started off by walking straight to the old town, which as tourists is pretty much where we spent all our time in Tallinn. Simply put, the old town is spectacular, it’s a medieval fairytale riddled with cobbled streets, dotted with churches and surrounded in part by fortress like walls and towers. The old town is world heritage listed and it’s easy to see why, it was hard not to instantly fall in love with place. We would put it on par with Krakow for beauty; it’s just a shame about the cost of things, in that respect Krakow beats it hands down.

That first day we just wandered around without any real destination, just enjoying the atmosphere of the place and playing in the falling snow. We did stop at a beautiful café and have a beer at 11am, something I would never normally do but it was way cheaper than a hot chocolate so was the logical choice. Other than that we made our way up to Toompea, a large flat hill which provides a second tier to the city overlooking the rest of the old town and giving some pretty spectacular views. It also has a couple of interesting churches, one of which is the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which was incredibly photogenic and gave us a taster of what’s to come once we hit Russia.

The second day was a little overcast, with some blue sky and no snow falling so much better for taking photographs. We used this day to retrace some of our footsteps from the previous day, enabling us to take much better pictures of the major sights and also to walk around the majority of the 2.5km defensive wall that’s still intact. We made our way back up to Toompea to get some unobstructed views of the city and made the mistake of splurging on a meal at the Olde Hansa, a medieval themed restaurant which although touristy is a Tallinn institution, something we were led to believe is a must do while in the city.

Now, where do I start with the Olde Hansa? The theme seems pretty authentic with peasant clothed staff, candlelit tables and rooms, and historically accurate dishes on offer. Medieval music playing in the background, honey beer, exotic meats… It sounds like a recipe for success. I opted for the bear (?), wild boar and elk sausages and Faye ordered the wild boar plate, all of which was delicious. Honestly they were amongst the best sausages I’ve had, certainly for a long time. The problem is I’m more of a quantity man, than a quality man. I’d rather have a plateful of filling tasty food, than a few bites of divine food. For the price we paid I expected there to be a mountain of food to work thorugh, there wasn’t. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal but when I left, I probably could’ve walked straight to a McDonald’s and devoured a Big Mac™. We paid £40 for a one course meal for two and I left feeling hungry, because of this I wouldn’t return and this dissatisfaction means it wasn’t a great meal to me, no matter how delicious it was. I certainly wouldn’t go back; I’d rather buy ten Big Macs™.

This didn’t affect how we felt about Tallinn of course, we’d found an amazing restaurant the day before, which for a fraction of the cost left me pleasantly undoing my belt a few notches, so we obviously went back there again.

Out of the three Baltic capitals Tallinn is definitely the one I prefer, followed by Riga then Vilnius. I’d definitely return to Tallinn for a city break in the future, it was interesting, atmospheric, romantic and with the snow covered rooftops seriously fairytale beautiful.

For now though the journey continues… A seven hour bus ride to St. Petersburg, Russia. More high prices await, only this time we’re expecting them.

---

Comments

[heather]

fantastic pictures
Hi Aunty heather here , the pictures are fantastic, first time i have done a blog!! or wrote on one!! they remind me of what you would see in fairy tail books, i love architecture, and these buildings are so beautiful. love to you all take care xx

[Mum W.]

Another great blog M.and another place we would like to visit.Great photos as well

[Keith and Pete]

lovely photos
seems you have captured to beauty of these old cities. Can you tell me what gives the photos that distinctive look?

[liliram]

Can't get over the photos
Whatever and however you do with these snapshots, they are simply stunning. I wish I can take photos like those! And I noticed too how you take photos of beer all over. MJ should be posting your beer shots on her thread! Btw, love ur boys. They are lucky to be having this traveling experience this early.

[MichaelnFaye]

Thanks for all the kind comments about the photos... Makes all that time sitting editing them when the kids have gone to bed more worth it! In answer to what gives them that 'look'? They're mostly HDR photos, normally I use Photomatix to process them, but I've been playing around with Dynamic Photo HDR recently, which is a little ore user friendly and gives a sharper result.

[Chris and Nikki]

Awesome pictures
I love it when a blog adds a place to my 'places to visit list' & this is one of those blogs.

[The girl in seat 62]

Really lovely pictures. Good luck with Russia!

[Lee Kierdorf]

Baltic state of mind
I went through the capitals in the same order as you. It's the best way because each gets better. In Tallinn, I threw away my tourist map and just walked around at night. What fun! A local told about a cheap place to eat. The food was ok. They didn't have a computer at my hostel so I inquired about an internet cafe. "Why not use our computer?" the waitress proudly said. 45 minutes later, I finally got a one-line email sent. The computer was also from the mideval period.