Feb 20 - Tallinn, Estonia

I awoke to the sound of ice crushing against the hull as our ferry neared the end of it's 15 hour slog across the Baltic, from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia.


Now I should start with the most important stuff - Estonians, as I discovered, cannot make a cup of coffee. They do however, seem to have wicked places to go to in order to drink a coffee. So it's kind of a cancel out effect.. This is the cafe in the middle of the old walled Medieval Tallinn, Check it out:















Tallin (which is here by the way)

View Larger Map is like a timeline that has been compressed into a single point that occupies 159 square kilometres. The old medieval city of cobbled streets, guard towers, and shops selling hand-made slippers sits within a nest of modern skyscrapers, shopping centres, and free wi-fi. There really is virtually nothing in between, with the exception of a chinese buffet restaurant that's reminiscent of some 1970's architectural exhibition. Then there's the ancient wooden houses and churches, which in Europe is about as rare as a swede with baggy jeans, looking both totally out of place and totally home at the same time.


One thing I learnt when traveling in Venice, Italy was that the best way to see a place is to get lost in it - in fact if I was ever to write a guidebook I would ask a 4 year old child to draw the map, so you would intentionally lose your way. For when this happens you let a place unravel before you at its own pace - not yours - as the city becomes the guide for itself. Then you stumble upon the dodgy little alleys and bizarre buildings that most people miss completely. But lets not forget how useful a few facts about the place can be..

St Olaf's church was, back in the day, the tallest building in the world at an epic 159 metres. crikey. But after being hit by lightening a total of 8 times and burning the church down not once, not twice, but thrice, they decided its best to make the thing a tad shorter. So the ex-KGB radio tower/surveillance point now stands proudly at 123 metres, but is still one of the sweetest looking buildings in Taillinn.


The Russian Orthodox cathedral that stands majestically at the top of the hill is a reminder to the Estonians of the extent of Russian empire, and subsequently was voted to be demolished in 1924 but it never happened. The church poses a stark contrast to the Estonian vibe the rest of the town radiates, except that is, for the elderly Estonian women lined up outside with their hands out awaiting a bit of change.


And here's the town square, the place where in 1694 a waitress got axed to death after serving up a priest an omelet he didn't like. Fair enough. The building behind has been a pharmacy since 1442, when it used to sell powdered unicorn horn. apparently it's pretty good stuff too.


The walled medieval city is definitely an amazing place that in the last couple of hundred years had changed very little, except now the guard towers surrounding the town stand strong in protecting the inside from the modernisation that is gradually closing in on it..



More Photos:

Tallinn, Estonia