Sep 20, 2008 - Estonia

Estonia is beautiful. Amazing. I am staying with Kevin Mason, a missionary here in Tallinn. He has a wonderful family and a great home just out of town. The flight to Estonia was delayed for hours, arrived here in Tallinn well after midnight. I slept until after 10 a.m. this morning . . . a little unusual for me, but my body clock is all messed up. About noon, we headed to town to see the city. Tallinn sits on the Baltic almost directly south of Helsinki, Finland. Estonia was, of course, part of the Soviet Union, a small Baltic State that...

Aug 12, 2008 - TALLINN

DAY 30 - Tallinn, Estonia Arriving at 6:30 local time was sweet. As in St. Petersburg, the place was completely deserted until about 10:00. We greatly enjoyed wandering around the narrow cobblestone streets, scoping out nice looking cafes, and exploring the nooks and crannies of the old Castle Walls. The central square (Raekoja Plats) was empty ... which was nice because at noon it was SWARMING with tourists! So we enjoyed having old town seemingly all to ourselves :) After enjoying being some of the only people in the middle of Raekoja...

Jul 25, 2008 - Tallinn

Our little travel alarm jarred us out of our sleep very early. Thankfully, the sun was already shinning and greeting us, making it much easier to get ready this morning. Having learned our lesson with public transport and catching a ferry (see Bergen entry), we made sure that we allowed plenty of time for any possible obstacles we might encounter. By 6:30 am we were leaving the Olympic Village and stood at the nearest tram stop within minutes. (I, personally, love mornings. They are so quiet and serene.) We were the only ones at the tram...

Dec 27, 2007 - Just a short ferry trip to Estonia

As we had a couple of days spare we decided that it would be good to catch the ferry over to Tallinn in Estonia and check out our first eastern European country. On the map it looked like a very short trip but we soon discovered that it 1hr 45min from the port in Helsinki. As the boat began to pick up speed we noticed things were getting quite rocky and I started to worry that it was going to be a rather unpleasant journey as I have suffered sea sicknesses in the past. Well it was an unpleasant journey but surprisingly the suffering was...

Nov 2, 2007 - Tallinn, Estonia

My first sauna experience in Estonia felt like i was watching a bunch of women go about their daily bathing ritual. This was not a relaxing sauna - it was an intense beauty routine. Women wore face masks, body scrubs, hair masks, scrubbed themselves with loofas and brushes and whipped themselves with birch twigs. I tried the whipping - expecting scratch marks and pain, but it was more like hitting yourself with a bunch of birds feathers. The birch made the sauna smell amazing. It's very very cold here and it's been snowing, which has made...

Oct 16, 2007 - Taking it Easy in Tallinn

This past weekend I traveled to a country and a city that I previously knew hardly anything about, and returned with my mind completely blown and my head spinning from one of the greatest travel highs I've ever had. Tallinn, capital city of small Estonia on the Baltic Sea, would probably not make too many peoples' lists of most desired travel destinations. However, this small yet historic and beautiful city should rightly compete with Paris, Hawaii, Ireland, or Australia, because it packs so much history, culture, art, entertainment, good...

Aug 29, 2007 - Tallinn, Estonia

The photos tell some of the story of Tallinn, capital of Estonia, one of the three Baltic countries that were part of the Soviet Union (the others being Latvia and Lithuania). The pictures illustrate how we approached this beautiful (and, until now, mostly unknown) country. We sailed on a ferry across the Bay of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea. It took 100 minutes to arrive in the port of Tallinn from Helsinki. After centuries of being invaded by other countries (Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Germany), Estonia proclaimed its independence in...

May 4, 2007 - Tallinn, Estonia

I've booked myself in Tallinn Backpackers, an apartment in Tallin which has been converted into a backpackers hostel. Tallinn is a compact city which unfortunately has seen some rioting in the days before my arrival, due to the Estonian government removing a statue placed during the Soviet occupation after WW II. As I understand it, to the majority Estonian-speaking population this statue represents a reminder of Soviet occupation and repression between the end of WW II and Estionia independence in the early 1990's, whilst the 30% minority...

Oct 6, 2006 - last day in Baltics...

Our tour today was very short; only a couple hours. We rode around in our bus sightseeing in Tallinn around the Upper and Lower Medieval town, as well as visiting the surrounding city. We also visited the former Royal house (yet another lover of Catherine the Great!!!) and St. Peter's park. Quite a beautiful area. Apparently a nude beach is there too. Our visit to the Russian Orthodox church, in Upper town, was also an amazing building. I got a picture before I learned that it was forbidden, so I kept that but didn't take any others. The...

Oct 5, 2006 - From Riga to Tallinn

This trip is flying by! We left Riga today on our way to Tallinn, Estonia. Our bus trip to Tallinn was a rather exciting one though. On the way, we stopped at the Ethnographical Open Air Museum in the outskirts of Riga. This is a huge (8 hectacres) place where traditional Latvian buildings, oldest dating from 17th century, were transplanted from places thoughout the country. These woods are very nice and the trails are well groomed and, what we thought, well mapped out. During our little escapade in the woods, we saw these amazing old...

Sep 26, 2006 - Tallin - Well preserved old town

My first "post soviet" country. Actually the Baltic countries hate 'Post Soviet' as far as they are concerned it was an occupation by a foreign power, but more about that later. Tallin Old Town is very beautiful, compact and well preserved. The city walls are mostly intact and in many places from the backdrop to attractive parkland. Although there is a lot of tourism, especially from the UK, it did not seem to overwhelm the city. At least when I was there, an admitedly quiet time. There is little in the old town to remind the traveller of...

Sep 18, 2006 - Tallinn

In many ways Tallinn was the hangover from Riga. I had gone there wanting to chill out and not really drink much, see some sights, save some money and take care of my body a bit. I actually partially succeeded. I was not feeling quite 100% so it was nice to not go completely crazy. Also an Australian girl who I had slept with in Riga happened to be at the same hostel as me in Tallinn and that created some problems. Ever since what had happened in Riga she had been ignoring me and I was not sure as to why until I discussed it with a girl I...