TALLINN, ESTONIA

Saturday 26 August

We got up early and headed to the ferry terminal a bit earlier than required just so we knew where to go and didn’t miss it.  We took the Viking XPRS and it was so packed.  I reckon they were full as far as vehicles were concerned and there were so many people on board it was bedlam.  One could only have imagined what would happen if we all had to get off in a hurry. We had a coffee and before we knew it we were arriving into Talinn port.  It was quite a windy afternoon and we had watched a couple of yachts struggle to make headway in the choppy waters.

I was a little apprehensive leaving the safety of Scandinavia and heading down through the Baltic countries as I guess it is quite an unknown quantity to us and pretty close to Russia.

We drove off the ferry and through the town to find the camping ground which was a hard stand at a marina a few kilometres away from the city.  There were two to choose from and the other campsite looked like it was in an industrial site so chose the hard stand which traditionally are all very similar and marinas are always nicer and usually safer.  We went for a walk along a nearby beach and watched the kite surfers in the wind.  We could imagine this beach being very popular in the summer as I guess you could most beaches in these countries.  It had a hotel and surf club on the beach front.  We stopped at the yacht club for a drink on the way home and it was so nice we ended up having dinner there as well.  Nice food at a great price.  Hard to think that this was only our 3^rd real meal out in Europe.

We got up earlyish Sunday morning and took the bus into town.  It seems that there are always several cruise ships in port each day therefore many tourists walking around.  The old town is definitely the best part of Tallinn and there is quite a bit to see.  We had a walk around for a bit and had a look at some of the markets.  One thing I was amazed about is that there is so much linen and woollen clothing here for sale at very good prices.  I love linen clothing so think I may need to buy something before we leave.  Of course there are the souvenir shops everywhere.  We decided we would buy something very small from each country if there was something that typically depicted that country.  Like in Holland it was little Dutch clogs.  We haven’t got something from every country as sometimes there isn’t something we have liked.  We passed by an artist and found we loved one of his original water colours, but since we hadn’t seen very much decided to keep looking around.  The old town is partially surrounded by fortress walls and towers that are visible in quite a few of the pictures.  Most of it is still in great condition and they have encompassed some of it into buildings like hotels etc.  You walk along little cobbled streets and alleys with beautiful old medieval walls surrounding you and then find hidden treasures within archways, tunnels  and courtyards, selling everything from little cakes and coffee to wine and beer, clothes etc.  We went into this little courtyard where people had homemade their own food they were selling which was quite cool.

As you are walking around all the shops, markets and restaurants which are modern inside but you are surrounded by over 600 years of history.  It was relaxing meandering in and out, up and down and around all the streets without any real pattern other than to find the next landmark whether it be a church or a statue.  We reached the church where you can climb to the top of the tower via a 270 stair spiral staircase (I counted them).  There were quite a few people doing this so it was difficult to pass on the very narrow staircase.  At the top we talked to a group of 8 girls who were from USA (Utah, Washington State, North Carolina) and were teaching English in Lithuania for 6 months, they were having a weekend away.  We had a great conversation about travelling and experiencing life which they were doing on a different scale to us.  We then got talking to a couple of German girls as we looked out over the city.  One who spoke the most English had spent time in Christchurch fairly recently.  It is quite amazing the amount of people we talk to who have been or are going to NZ or Aus.  We then spoke to an Indian fellow who was starting a new business working with both Governments in Estonia and India.  He was petrified of heights and although he had made the climb he only just came to the door to see out and couldn’t bring himself to step out further.  What a magnificent view and it made us appreciate the beauty of the old city.  Worth the 2euro to go up.  We went inside the church after the climb down and listened to the people singing which was lovely.  They had a guitar and drums and it all seemed quite folk like in style.

We heard one tour guide say to her group that Tallin wasn’t that old since it had burnt down in the 1400’s as all buildings had been built with timber and there was no legislation to stop them building in timber.  But when the city got rebuilt, they built it all in stone, but it was rebuilt from the 1400’s which to me is very old, so don’t quite know where she was coming from saying it wasn’t that old.

There was a lot of restoration work going on around the town which is always great to see (but doesn’t make for good pictures).

We walked around the gardens as they had a flower display and games was the theme.  There were a few different countries who had contributed.  It was quite well done.  We had done enough walking so went to find the bus home – which had been changed and we had to try and find the new one – difficult when you can’t read Estonian.  We will do it all again tomorrow as there is still some to see.

Monday 31^st

We headed back into town in the morning by bus again as it is easy.  We thought about push biking, but not really worth it time wise when the bus is very cheap.  The weather has held up for us as there were some showers expected but we only had a couple yesterday and it looked like it wasn’t happening today either.

We stopped at the markets and bought a linen top that I had spotted the day before and had loved.  Supposedly it was made in Poland – I hope we don’t see them in Poland now for half the price!  We then stopped and had a coffee and chai in a café we had one at yesterday because it was cute and had nice coffee.  We then went to find the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which was in a hidden part of the city that we hadn’t found yesterday.  There seemed to be a large number of tourist groups with guides here that were a pain in the butt because they just stop in the middle of paths and you can’t get past them.  The cathedral is a beautiful  Russian style building from the outside and is in the process of being renovated.  The inside is quite nice and has a lot of gold leaf painted mantel type furniture/fittings.  I felt that we had seen more spectacular interiors than this one, but it was still very nice.  It struck me a bit odd though that there were no seats inside the church and it appeared that they don’t have services inside this church and maybe it is more of a tourist destination now.

We wandered around this part of the city which had awesome views over the city from the Battlements but it was so crowded with bloody tourists (we are adventure travellers and not tourists – tourists come on cruise ships and planes for a week and then go home) that it was difficult to see properly.  We decided to find the café near the church we climbed up, to have lunch at since we didn’t bring food today – Scot was on strike!  We had a lovely lunch and then took off to find the painter as we had decided that was going to be our momento from Estonia.  It took a bit to find our way back to the courtyard we had seen him at yesterday, but got there eventually.  However, the painting we loved yesterday, we felt didn’t depict the typical Tallinn scene and though it was really lovely with bright colours, we ended up changing our mind and chose a scene which I had earlier taken a photo of from the battlements overlooking the city.  Although the paining was an original, they churn them out for the tourists and therefore are priced well.

We wandered for a bit more and also bought a Russian doll (made of wood, hand painted and are one inside the other etc) like I have always wanted since this is the closest I will get to Russia for a while.  These are made right on the border of Estonia and Russia and not in China, so are authentic enough for us.  Having seen everything we wanted to see, we feel there isn’t anything we have missed and head on back to “The Van” (Ruth, we don’t have a name yet, but Scot wanted to call it “Morrison” or “Morry” after Van Morrison).

We got off the bus and headed into a local supermarket to buy a battery for our torch.  The supermarket was amazing – it was so huge and there were more varieties than I have seen of items for a very long time.  It was on 2 levels.  I wanted to just look around it was amazing.  The food here is incredibly cheap as is the alcohol etc.  We read news about a lot of Finns who now come and retire in Estonia because it is much cheaper to buy property and food etc and it is less regimented living than in Finland.

I really feel for the Estonians when you read up on their history.  They have been pushed and pulled between pillar and post and even though they have had independence from approx. 1991 and they joined the EU in 2004, they obviously still feel a threat from Russia.  I read some local news where they are talking of building a long fence on their border between them and Russia.  People we have talked to say they have really come ahead in the past 10 years and it is good to see that people are starting to really come and visit here.  Most of the younger people speak amazing English, actually probably better English than some of the Finnish people of the same age that we came across in our travels.  I am wondering if Finland is slightly isolated in the scheme of things compared with Estonia which may see them get a little left behind.

On our way back to the campsite we bought a  new camera as our one is starting to be a problem.  We can’t zoom more than half or it shuts down and some of the buttons have an issue so we don’t want to not have one.  Tomorrow we take off south.