In December, we where in Helsinki, just across from Tallinn. It seems Finns like going to Tallinn, so the Estonians encourage them. I got hold of one of these encouragements, filled it in, and a few weeks later, got an email telling me that I had won a trip to Tallinn! By this stage I only vaguely recalled having done it, and I had never won anything on the internet, so I was a bit skeptical. I don’t know anyone else who has won anything on the internet, but hey, what are you gonna do when someone tells you have won hotel for 2 nights, flights and a Tallinn care pack consisting of Tallinn cards and guidebooks. Grab the price!!
Evelin got in touch, we got the date settled, and of we went!
We figured we catch the bus into town, and that was our first impression of Tallinn. Loved it! Tallinn, just like Finland, has a language that makes no sense what so ever, so looking for directions is like playing Picture Match. Talking to the busdriver was even worse. We found our hotel, and we felt we stepped up a notch! Nordic Hotel Forum had booked us in on the top floor, right next to the swimming pool. We had a nice view, and a very fancy see-through showerwall.
We had taken the morning flight into town, so Friday, we were ready to hit town! We had a lot of fun doing the Bicycle tour in Berlin, so we looked for similar things in Tallinn, and found EstAdventures. We had planned to do the View with a Brew tour, but in retrospect we interpreted the “departs every day” bit a tad to literally. Figures it makes sense to call first, but I was to stingy, so we got stood up. I was a bit annoyed about this, as I had hoped to get a nice little overview of the town, so we could explore more on Saturday and Sunday.
In any case, we went exploring around the Old Town.
New and Old Tallinn
We walked and walked, and we finally ended up at Olde Hansa in the middle of the Old Town.
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It was a very interesting dinner…. I got myself the wild boar, but before that, the whole restaurant got to taste pepper spray. Everyone where coughing, and we couldn’t figure out why. Turned out some twat had been playing with pepper spray outside, and the breeze took it inside. It was just bizarre to watch the whole restaurant cough! The boar and the honey beer was good though!
Next day, we headed back to the Soprus building, to try the “Legends of Tallinn” walk this time. One thing we figured out pretty fast, was that Tallinn is also a party town. Both with an upside and a downside. Outside Soprus we first had to step over a sleeping reveler, before joining our guide. Turned out, it was only us who had made the effort to turn up, so we had our guide Maria all to ourselves!
She took us around and explained the sights, where we should come back to, and what was worthwhile and what we should pass up on. We had a great time, and again really enjoyed this more personal approach.
Town wall
All the benefits of development, mobile phone tours and bag snatchers, along with some Norwegian profanity
On our hotel, we had a very nice little pool. Sara loved it! I did too…. It had all these little buttons in the pool, that would start the waterfall, the jetstream or the boubleblower. I liked the jetstream, as well as the spa. I finally got Sara to try the steambath, but that was a failure. She hated it, and went back into the pool instead. At the end of it all, we could just lounge and enjoy the view.
View from the pool
For dinner, Sara had spotted a place earlier on the tour, so we went there. It was the Elevant. We ordered the Vegetarian Thali with Mango Lassi. It was massive! We literally rolled out of the place. Couldn’t eat anything else, not even icecream!
It turned out, that this particular weekend, it was Old Town Days. It was also Pentacost, but in Norway that is on Friday. Since it was Old Town days, it was a ton of stuff happening, with concerts and performances in the square. We ended the day with a quiet beer watching the show. Just to help digest the food of course!
Sunday was going to be our big museum day, but since we had misunderstood this whole Pentacost thing, nothing was open. Instead, we lounged the parks, watched more of the show, and just chilled.
Tiny cake house
Nice parks
We wanted to get some value out of our Tallinn cards, and went on one of those sightseeing buses. I actually fell asleep with the headset. Not too exiting.
We then headed for the airport again, met with the drunk Brits going home from their stag party, and relaxed. Tallinn was great, we had a lot of fun, and loved the hotel! The pool was so nice to dip in both at the end and the start of the day.
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I noticed you mentioned that Tallinn is a party town. You can actually make your own shot glass from ice and then try your drink of choice. A very unique experience in Tallinn if you are a party person. Information can be found here – http://estonianexperience.com/tour/ice-shot-making/