Day 9
 |
| Old town Tallinn |
As lovely as Helsinki has been, I'm off on the day trip Tallinn, Estonia, officially country #5. I think there is a chance of rain, but I'm prepared with my trusty umbrella. It's the last full touring day with the bus tour already. Tomorrow is the big travel day, which means back to Reykjavik for me. This tour included an add on to Russia, which did intrigue me a little. I decided against it as I was a little concerned it would be like the London add on that I did where we were on our own other than a trip to the airport and a city tour. And I felt like maybe Russia wasn't the best place to visit on my own. And it sounds like there are a lot of hurdles to jump to visit. I think about 10 people were continuing on.
Tallinn was a great day trip. It's a beautiful city with much of its old town still preserved. The reality of the ferry schedules did mean that we spent more time on the ferry there and back than in Tallinn, but it was still great.
 |
| parliament building |
We did a tour through the upper and lower parts of the old town. The buildings are all an older stucco style, meaning they are quite colorful. Their parliament building is even pink. There was a big rivalry between the two towns and the upper town is more sedate, with the government buildings and they don't have as much of the fancy cobblestone roads. The lower town is the far more touristy area with all the junk shops and restaurants.
 |
| Russian Orthodox church |
You could really see the Russian influence. They have an impressive Russian orthodox church. Many signs are in Russian, Estonian, and English. They do learn English at a very young age. I was highly amused that in Estonian they roll all their r's. That's awesome.
 |
| Stairs that divide upper and lower old town |
I think that they have a lot of outside influences because due to their location in the Baltic sea they have been invaded over and over again over the centuries. In fact their most recent independence is in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.
 |
| One of the dragons on city hall |
I really enjoyed the town hall square, they have dragons sticking out of the city hall because they are good secret keepers. They still have a few medieval buildings remaining, most are restaurants now. I get the impression that the city sees a lot of tourism seeing as how the newest skyscrapers are all hotels. Radisson Blu is everywhere with prime locations, and a giant tower in Tallinn. But along with all the ferries coming over I noticed several flights from Helsinki while I was in the airport.
 |
| One of the fancy doors |
One big trend in old town Tallinn is the brightly decorated front doors. Some of them were quite bright and unique and really stood out. But most were on the plainer side, but the fun ones really caught your eye.
Before we left I noticed that our meeting place- at McDonald's which is in one of the fairly old buildings, it felt like a weird juxtaposition- I saw that they still had some of the old fortification walls standing and noticed a sign saying that you could climb it. It reminded me of the one that I did in Rothenberg, Germany in the past. I did get some interesting views of the old city.
 |
| The old fortification wall in Tallinn |
The ferries themselves are an experience. Especially the one returning to Helsinki, it had 4000 people. And it's just a free for all to get on and off. It feels like a barely organized chaos. Having that many people trying to get on or off one entrance at once is crazy. Especially with all the kids with their giant sports bags they could barely carry, or the people taking advantage of the cheap duty free with their dolly's filled with cases of beer. What really amused it is that they had distance signs in the walkways to get on and off. 500m to walk to get on, and then off again. The ferry does have a large duty free supermarket as well as 4 or 5 restaurants. And some outside space for both the smokers and those wanting a view.
 |
| View from on top of the viewing platform in upper old town |
Overall it was a good day. A long day as now I'm off to get ready for our goodbye dinner with no more free time tonight. Which is okay because I'm guessing everything would be closed by now. Tomorrow everyone is off for home or wherever their next destination is. I do have a few hours in the morning before I head to the airport. I have an early airport transfer, with nearly 5 hours to wait. But I don't have anything left to do in Helsinki to justify getting my own ride to the airport so I'll hope I have enough books to read and have a nice leisurely lunch while I'm there.
 |
| City Hall square in Tallinn |
Comments
Post a Comment