Tallin in 2/12 Days

Stepping off our pre-dawn flight in the midst of a glorious Baltic winter we milled around on the bus platform outside the airport waiting for one of the other new arrivals to take the initiative so we could follow them.

When we did make it into town we set off on a quest that would have done Frodo proud. The culmination came with Kate standing in the snow while I ran up and down surrounding streets searching for oaur hostel as my fingers turned blue. The street - it was actually the one we didn't check almnost directly opposite us.

With the hostel located, bags stashed and our hands rewarmed we set off towards Toompea which is the old fort over looking the Old Town of Tallinn. Climbing up some cobblestone stairs to stand beside the wall of the oldest building I've ever seen as the empty park was slowly filled with snow was truly special. We spent the rest of the afternoon milling around Toompea, checking out Estonian parliament and then visited a Museum of the Occupation of Estonia which was good but we were way too tired. We were also struggling to adapt to this dark at 4:00 thing.

We cruised through Medieval World/Old Town for a little while checking out the Christmas markets in the square then headed home to be in bed before 9.

The next day we got up and caught a tram down to the thickly wooded Kadriorg Park and took a stroll through this magical park with a thin covering of snow. The ponds had started to freeze over - one was even trapping an errant shopping trolley beneath the surface. There were some museums in the park to check out as well including Peter the Great's Estonian cottage. To finish it off we walked down to the Baltic to see a little, albeit very shitty, beach and feel the icy waters.



The rest of our time we spent wandering through Old Town, climbing its walls, visiting an Estonian Naval Mine museum with two extremely friendly guides, another maritime museum, some ancient churchs and various other buildings most of which dated from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. For dinner we ate in a restaurant that was built into the Old Town wall and we spent the afternoons drinking coffee watching the traffic park of the town square where the Christmas markets were set up.

In summary, Tallinn was a stunning, if overly touristy, medieval town with ancient buildings, archways, winding cobbled streets and secret little laneways. I know this doesn't exactly do it justice but when we find a computer that will let me post pictures I will. Till then... use Google Images.