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Published: August 25th 2013
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14/8
I arrived in Tallinn last night after the 6 hour bus ride where and all I ate was a dry packet of noodles that I had in my bag from the train ride. It took me an hour to get the hostel, I got on the wrong tram at the bus station so then got one back to the station only to get back on the same one- I think I needed some sleep. Tallinn is actually a very small city and you could walk from one end of the city to the other in that amount of time.
The old town is fairly touristy (which I didn't expect) because there are quite a few big cruise ships that go around the Baltic Sea and stop in the cities. This meant that people were walking around in fairly large packs and often following someone with a flag- not my favourite crowd, especially when the streets are so small. There are also a number of independent travellers including a fair amount of backpackers. One of my favourite things about the city- and Estonia in general, is that most of the souvenir and gift shops sell locally made
Soviet Cafe
Seriously felt like I had teleported back 20 years products and most of these being hand made. I made a ‘don’t buy anything new’ new year’s resolution this year and it has been going quite well, the only time I have been bending the rules is when my purchases and locally hand made. This is not so easy to do in Australia so I have done a bit of gift shopping while I have been in Tallinn and its quite satisfying that I am able to support the local crafts. There are so many great restaurants here also, each of them quite trendy in order to entice the tourists and so inexpensive! One of my favourite meals was at ‘Kompressor’, an Estonian pancake restaurant that sells both sweet and savoury pancakes for 3.50-4.50 Euro’s. I ordered a savoury one and considered ordering a side in case it wouldn't be enough but luckily I didn't! I had to wait a while for my meal, a reoccurring tendency of restaurants in Estonia have, but when it came- man, easily the best pancake I've ever had and I had to stay a while after my meal to let it settle because I was so full! Another great meal I had was a
tasty salad at a café/shop called NOP (natural, organic, practical) that sells local organic produce.
Despite the crowds of tourists it was really nice wandering around the old towns quaint cobbled streets and also surrounding areas such as the 'Kulture Kilometre' which is a nice walk (or ride as I did it) with some interesting pit stops such as a creepy soviet prison, Street art and cafes all hidden in this old, derelict, industrial area of the city. At one end there is a small contemporary art gallery called 'EKKM', it was mostly photography by young students and rather than paying to get it runs on a tips basis which is cool. Also nearby the gallery there is a shop/gallery called 'Estonian Design House' which had some neat gifts and things. On display they had a world map where you can peel off Countries which you have been to but they apparently didn't have any for sale. I have wanted one for a while but this is the first one I've seen in a shop, mind you I have to be careful no to turn into 'The passport stamp collector' backpacker (Refer to:
http://blog.hostelbookers.com/travel/weird-and-wonderful/backpacker-types/ for a desrciption if you need)
I mostly did a lot of wandering and a lot of socialising Tallinn. The locals here are really friendly and young people speak superb English! I tried to have a conversation with one slightly older lady (~40's) in a soviet style cafe, she was either Russian or Estonian and spoke little English. I think she was trying to invite me somewhere that evening which seemed very friendly, then she gave a me a slightly intense kiss on the cheek which also seemed
very friendly. Another friendly Estonian was Mike the Aquarius who was a very spiritual guy just living and learning about life and himself. Despite him not being very good at reading maps, he went rather out of his way to point me in the direction I was trying to go without me even asking- I must have really looked lost.
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