We made it back Tuesday night from Estonia.
It was completely what I expected, but nothing what I expected both at the same time. I am finding that seems to be the way most places present themselves to me during trips these days. Upon arriving we got a (cheap) taxi to our hotel. The drive and the surroundings looked so much like Russia. Big trees on one side, old run down buildings on the other that made the town seem very cold, dark and almost as if the Soviet Government was still there. But it wasn't. As horrible as that description sounds, it made a huge smile grow on my face and somehow I found comfort in the dark Eastern European atmosphere. Though I suppose that won't surprise some people. Along the way I watched Michael look out the window to see what his reactions of this would be as he had never seen anything like that before. Once he heard the words "This reminds me soooo much of Russia" come from my mouth his look of apprehensions of what he had already seen had somehow immediately left.
Our hotel was cute, tiny and quite. It was a pleasant 10 minute stroll from what is known as "old town". Without staying where we did, we would have never seen the "real city" and probably just the small area we spent most of our days in.
Tallin's old town was AMAZING. This area was so well preserved from the Medieval Times complete with a giant wall, towers,really old buildings, and lots of cool churches. We spent our days wondering around all the narrow curvy cobbled stoned streets in Old Town, sittings in cafes and restaurants drinking coffee, tea, wine, beer and eating. There were so many cool restaurants and cafes. Generally we aren't food people, we usually enjoy going to the local grocery stores and getting our own food but we couldn't help but be sucked into the food culture in Tallinn.
Michael Eating
Best Cheese Plate EVER....EVER EVER, and we have had ALOT of good cheese plates!
View from a cafe from the first day
Me in the cafe shown above
Texas Honky Tonk Restaurant. We didn't eat here, but of course needed a picture
Amarillo Restaurant , also didn't eat here, but also needed a picture.
This became our favorite cafe. We went three times for tea. The atmosphere was perfect. Dark, low ceilings, great music, good cake and wonderful tea.
The second night we were there we ate at the coolest restaurant ever. It was like "Medieval Times" but 1000 times less cheesy and actually felt real! The food was typical from the time period and typical to Estonia. We both had fillet mignon. Mine was peppered and Michael's had a nice mushroom sauce. They were both excellent and came with some wonderful sides too. The entire 3 floors of this restaurant were completely lit by candle light. Even the chandeliers. The waiters/waitresses were dressed in Medieval garb and during dinner there were traveling bards. They had a tiny platform at the top of the room and came and played music. It was awesome. The beer there was to die for. Seriously. Best honey beer ever. It had a hint of cinnamon in it. yum.
Michael with Olde Hansa in the Background
Being shown the way to Olde Hansa
Drinking honey beer
Even the bathrooms were cool!
Heres a couple videos too. They are both dark, but you can hear the music and in the second one you can see all the candles in the room.
One of the best things for us about Tallinn was how cheap everything was compared to Denmark. The Danish Crown and Estonian Crown was about 2 to 1. So we were able to just cut everything in half to figure out the cost in Danish Kroner.
Heres some random pictures,
Me and a Russian Orthodox Church
Over a View of Old Town Tallinn
Michael in a Park
Michael in Lower Old Town
Upper Old Tallinn
The City Wall
Train Station
Flower Stands
Michael with the Baltic
Me and the Baltic Sea. It was windy, can you tell??
Main Town Square
So in the end, we had a great time. It was nice and relaxing, we got to see a bunch of really cool things, and get to know a new European town. It was definitely one of the coolest, not very discovered, cheap and stereotypical European town in my eyes. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
