I've been wanting to go to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, for a while. I certainly couldn't leave Estonia without going, so Laura and I decided to take a quick trip last weekend. It's a short bus ride, about two hours, so we didn't feel as if we needed a long weekend to spend there.
We left around 7am and got to Tallinn around 9:30am. At this point, Laura and I remembered neither of us had a map. Laura has an iPhone but didn't have service, so we just started heading in the general direction of a church steeple I could see and remembered from a documentary about Tallinn. We probably took a little of a long way there, but we got to the Old Town in about half an hour. One of the first things we saw, and I had been looking forward to seeing, was the War of Independence Freedom column in Freedom Square. It is a memorial for the men who died in the War of Independence to gain Estonia it’s freedom from Soviet in the 1918s -1920s. A flower wreath had been left by Prince Harry the day before, who had been in Estonia for the first time the day before.
We then started to explore old town a little. We went into St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which was built when Estonia was still a part of Imperial Russia. It was kind of funny going into the cathedral practically right after getting back from Russia. We also saw the Estonian Parliament building. We also saw a Tex Mex restaurant that had large Texas and American flags in front of it, but for the life of us we could never find that restaurant again. Old Town streets tend to look the same and it’s pretty easy to just end up going in circles. We grabbed some food and then walked around some more, exploring a few of the small markets, which were underwhelming. We sat by the small pond for a while to relax until we decided to go check into the hostel (it was called a hotel but was pretty obviously a hostel).
I booked the hostel, so I feel the need to defend it. I would also like to mention we planned this trip pretty late so there wasn’t really anything else available. First off, it wasn’t really that far away from Old Town, but we took a long way around Old Town and this made it seem farther. The room was comically small, but it was only for one night. At least it was clean and the doors locked, that’s all I really ask for in a hostel I stay in for one night. The area wasn’t the best, I admit. There was this music school next to us that looked like something from the Addams Family.
After watching Captain America on my computer, we decided to walk to a close by Mexican restaurant that had decent reviews and was cheap. The food was pretty good. It certainly wasn’t Mexican food but it was close enough. My margarita was… intersting. I haven’t had tequila very often since I prefer virgin margaritas but I’m still not 100% it was tequila in my margarita. It was also the worlds smallest margarita. It was on the rocks and barely filled up half the glass. That’s what I get for ordering an Estonian margarita.
The next morning, Laura wanted to start off the day by going to the harbor. We walked to the water and took some pictures by the dock. Then we headed to Hotel Viru to go to the KGB museum. I was beyond excited to go, Laura was less so but was willing to go because I wanted to. The museum is guided tour and when we got there at 11 am we found out a tour started in half an hour. After a quick coffee, we started our tour with about fifteen people. Our tour guide was the best. He was very animated and articulate, and he made the tour perfect. He first gave us a history of the hotel and how the floor we were on, the 23, officially didn’t exist during the Soviet Union. He explained the hotel was completely bugged during the Soviet Union, but people came because it was the a good place to exchange money and get some desserts you might not be able to get other places. We also got to see some really cool rooms with memorabilia, such as phones, listening devices and cameras. It was a really incredible tour. Part of the point of coming to Estonia for me was to be able to go to KGB museums like this where I would get an inside look into the Soviet Union. If you are in Tallinn, I would say this is something you have to do. Laura wasn’t really excited to go but she was just as blown away as I was by the end.
We were pretty close to Old Town, so we headed over to one of the well known medieval restaurants to grab a quick beer. We were a little hot after walking, so we decided to sit inside, which is only lit by candles. We split a dark honey beer and relaxed for a little while before we explored again. We went in a few shops, Laura bought a few gifts, and then we went to honestly the worlds worst museum. In the museums defense, a door was apparently locked that meant we couldn’t go into this one tower. However, even if we would have gone into the tower the tour would have still sucked. There was a room with some small bottles. Honestly, that was it. What a waste of a euro.
After walking around a little more and getting lunch, we decided to go back to the bus station early. We had a ticket to leave at 8pm, but we were tired and didn’t feel like walking around to see anything else.
I really enjoyed Tallinn overall. It was fun to see such a beautiful Old Town and just take a break from class work, that has been pretty overwhelming recently. However, I only have two more tests and two more papers to get done! Then New Jersey/New York and back home!
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