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Published: January 10th 2009
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Tallin 29/08/08
In the beautiful gardens in the palace. Tallin was beautiful. Its a city I would really recommend out of the Baltic States to visit. I've been to Riga, Lativia and I loved that too. Mikk told me Tallin was the probably the better looking of the 3 capitals and I can see why. In fact during the occupation of Tallin when the Russian's were there Tallin was left generally in tact - as the model Soviet City. After checking in on the 28th I briefly showered and check my stuff into a dorm - at a cost of 10$AUD a night. I then followed the map that was from the Euphoria hostel where I was staying that I would really recommend actually - and there is a good map from the same people for Tartu. So I had a look around the city looked a the sights like the catholic churches and the orthodox ones (which is quite famous amongst tourists actually which is interesting as Estonia is a Lutheran country - sorry for the mistake earlier). It was really nice walking around the beautiful cobbled streets and just taking in the sites.
I went and brought a boat ticket to go to Stockholm on the 1st
of September from the ferry port. In the afternoon I made it to the Ukrainian Orthodox church. It was probably one of my most favorite churches I have been to in the world - a definate must see in Tallin. Well for me at least. Its easy to miss and it doesnt look like a church from the outside. You have to ring the bell to get in. Lucky for my Russian. The priest Anatoly meet me downstairs and asked me why I was here. I said I found it by accident on this map and heard there were free tours. So he took me around the place. Showed me on where they made the paper and all the antiques he made. Then he showed me these hand made toys that he had made. He was very much for hand made stuff and getting back to basics. Then he took me downstairs to the church. It was perfect - so cute and small and there were all these icons of endangered animals. The church prays for thier survival.
And there is an amazing retracting cellar floor to all this. Its located on the street Laboratoriumi, a narrow, slightly run-down alley,
Tallin 28/08/08
The Russian Orthodox church hugs a stretch of the Old Town's northwestern wall which is complete with a series of intact towers. There's nothing outside no 22 to suggest there's a Ukrainian Church & Community Centre here until you step inside the courtyard - and even then it's anything but ordinary.
Anatoly was perfect. I loved it so much that I came there before I took my boat to Stockholm and spent some time with him some more. He fed me talked some more about the church and then his friend Nikolai ( and his friend Sergei helped) took me back to my hostel and helped me carry my bags onto the ship later on. HE said im always welcome back to stay there and I would recommend anyone do so if they go to Tallin it really is the best place!
At about 7pm after he finished work, I met Mikk. We went to this really nice pancake place for dinner and then went to some look outs. After dinner and catchin up we met Mikk's younger borther and his friend then I headed home.
The next day the 29th of August, 2008 I got up nice and early and
walked to the palace.The palace was grand it had beautiful potraits and furniture from the Peter the Great era. After spending over 2 hours there in the palace and the beautiful grounds I went to go to the Pirita monastry. It was about 40 minutes walk and I ended up walking past the Rusalka statue.
Pirita nunnery (Estonian: Pirita klooster) was a monastery, for both monks and nuns dedicated to St. Brigitta, near Pirita.
The idea of founding the monastery dates to merchants of Tallinn of around 1400. In 1407, two monks from the Vadstena monastery arrived to Tallinn to counsel the merchants. First permit to break dolomite to gather building material for building the complex was acquired in 1417.
Several of the merchants who had originally proposed the monastery later became its monks.
I thought it was a really nice place to visit. Then I went and had a nice long walk around the park near the monastry and back around Tallin. That evening I met Mikk and we went out clubbing with him and his mates.
First we went to then hell hut for drinks then a mainstreem club called uber blinging - which was
your typical sort of rnb venue. Then we went to a club - palloo? It was sorta more with an underground feel and it was more drum and bass psy trance and gabba music. It was good fun and we ended up getting home around 3 or 4 pm.
The next day rather seedily I got up to go to the occupational museum at 9am. Its really interesting actually - as is the occupation musuem in Riga - Tabout the developments in Estonia from 1940 to 1991, when Estonia was alternately occupied by the Soviet Union, Germany, and by the Soviet Union once more. I found it really interesting and spent about 3 hours there. Then I had some lunch in the par nearby before going back to the hostel where I was met by Mikk to go to Tartu.
I got back to Tallin on the night of the 31st where I checked back into the Euphoria hostel and walked around the city centre which was really nice. The next day the 1st of September 2008, I got ready to leave and visited the St Peter's summer cottage and the Kunst museum which were both closed.
I made it on my boat right on time and had some time to watch the departure it reminded me of a cold version of the P&O cruise. Stockholm and Western Europe here I come!
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