What am i Tallinn you?

Well, finally left St Petersburg which was a wonderful city and even got to have Chicken Kiev, which I could not get last time even in Kiev.

The bus trip was fine in an ultra modern coach and got us to Tallinn the capital of Estonia in 8 hours. We are staying at the Hotel Old Town Maestro, which is a pure delight after the hostel in St Petersburg. The hotel was built in the 1500’s and thankfully there have been some plumbing upgrades. Our room is so large you need binoculars to see the TV from the bed. 

The town is a fairyland and can trace its existence since 1154.  We are staying within the walled city which has been retained in the original style as much as possible and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Walking around the city you can appreciate how tough it must have been to construct but also how awesome it must have been to those that visited it in the middle ages. Being so close to the Nordic areas with Vikings knocking on your door each year would have encouraged you to build such sound fortifications.

The place has proven to be delightful as the country obtained independence from Russia in 1990 and has gone out of it way to be non-Russian. They are part of the EU and use Euro as the currency, speaking Estonian as the local language. However being 80km south of Helsinki they also speak Finnish and the language of choice is English and all menus appear in four languages including Russian. Whilst most of the population can speak Russian and over 40% of the population have Russian ancestry it is clearly frowned upon.

 

The food has been excellent and there are lots of new restaurants with local and internationals dishes. Michael keeps drooling at the wild boar. Tim H put this on your list of places to visit.

The service has been amazing compared to Russia and Michael feels that they have done advanced smiling courses to prove they are not Russian. 

The place gets that cold even the bikes need bike warmers and we have seen mothers with hand warmers attached to their prams walking around.

Outside the walled city is a very modern city with high rises and new infrastructure. James you can tell Borgy that your name carries weight here as the Hamburger chain is called Hesburger.

 

The only downside I have seen it that it has become the place for the Hooray Henrys from England to have their stag parties so there is an over abundance of night clubs and Irish pubs. This does not worry us even if the bar across from the hotel is called the Mental Hospital with wheel chairs and a mannequin in a straight jacket.  We would have liked to stay one more night to watch the Australian v England rugby, but being Saturday night they are booked out to so off to Riga.

PS Christine I am planning your world trip and this is one city you need to visit.

Anne H the local craft here is amazing and people even knit while waiting to serve customers in the stores.