24 hours in Tallinn - Jul 16, 2005

Our last day in Tallinn was spent catching up with some of the friends we'd met earlier in Tallinn. Steve, my LP colleague and friend, was on his way out to Saaremaa that evening, so he had only time for lunch in Old Town. We chose an excellent new African restaurant there, and talked about all the fantastic places in Estonia, from the charming old towns in the south like Viljandi, to the enchanting islands in the Baltic, and the fascinating Russian regions of the northeast. It was a fine opportunity to relive the last six weeks in Estonia.

Later that evening we met with Tonu, the talented young Estonian entrepreneur; and Anton, a Russian who dabbled in design (fashion design/graphic design) when he wasn't taking classes (in urban planning) and working full time for a shipping company. We had drinks, told them all about our journey around the country (they were quite interested to hear what we thought of Estonia and Estonians), and caught up on their latest plans (Tonu was off to Greece in September; Anton had just published his first article in a newspaper, of which he was quite proud). The four of us went for a stroll about town, ending up on the rooftop of the old City Concert Hall on the edge of the bay. We watched the sunset there, then bid them farewell.

Cassandra and I visited the Viru Hotel, where a representative from Copterline sells helicopter tickets for the flight between Tallinn and Helsinki. They were running specials earlier in the month, and we were hoping the deals were still on. Normally tickets cost a little over 100 Euros, but today, luckily enough, the flight cost half that, only about 20 Euros more than the ferry. So we booked our seats on the early flight for the next day, grabbed dinner at Angel (a stylish, but unpretentious place in Old Town that attracts Tallinn's most diverse crowd), and made one last ramble through town before heading back to the hotel.

The next day we rose early and walked with our by-now quite heavy bags to the heliport near the ferry terminal. The 18-minute flight to Helsinki was excellent. Incredibly smooth flying through clear blue skies, about 400 meters above the water, with fine views of the islands in the bay. We had a few hours in Helsinki, time for lunch and a bit of window-shopping in town, then we caught our bus to the airport for our last leg of the journey. We were heading to Iceland.