Although Tallinn is in the Eastern European time zone, which is 2 hours ahead of GMT, the clocks still go forward at the same time as they do in the UK. Not knowing if my phone would update automatically or not, I changed my phone manually and then set an alarm for 9am. The phone did change, but I was woken up at 8am, when I went to check the clock in the reception to double check the correct time. Seeing it was actually 8am, but my phone thought it was 9am I set my phone right and then went back to bed for an hour! Thankfully no one else was woken up by my confused phone.
We all went for breakfast in a strange little cafe in the main square. To get into the cafe we had to go down some stairs and then through a hole that had been knocked out of the wall that led to another dimly lit room with lots of strange seats. The whole thing looked a bit like a strange version of the house from the Teletubbies. I got a hot chocolate and some kind of cheese pastry. The hot chocolate had real melted chocolate in it which was very nice!
After that we headed around the old town and up to the Toompea hill area which houses several notable buildings including The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, The Estonian Parliament building, Toompea Castle and the Pikk Herman. The view to the city below was great. We headed to the Museum of Occupations which is located on the outskirts of the old town. The museum documents the history of the many different nations which have occupied Estonia at various points in time although focuses mainly on the most recent occupations of the Nazis and the Soviets. It is full of interesting artefacts and films documenting all aspects of daily life during these times and tells the story right up until independence in 1991.
We had an appointment to keep at the Kiek in de Kök tower museum, so after some lunch we went there. Entry was free with our Tallinn Cards, as it was to the Occupation Museum and for the Bastion tour underneath the old city walls (although the tour must be booked in advance so they can provide a guide in your language). The tower is not very high, but as it is situated on a hill and the rest of the old town is made up of very low buildings of only a few storeys the view was amazing!
We could see all the way to the frozen Baltic Sea and right across the Old Town in all directions, over to the new Town and right across the bay to the Pirita districts and beyond. At the top we had some lunch and then headed back down to the reception area for our tour of the tunnels. We were shown a short film all about the history of Tallinn and told about the an urban legend that exists in the city. Lake Ülemiste lies to the South of Tallinn in which lives the Ülemiste Elder. It is said that on the day Tallinn is finally finished he will flood the lake and ruin the city. This is why Tallinn has always got some kind of building work or expansion going on. Indeed when we were there, several cranes could be seen on the skyline of the new part of the city!
The tour of the bastions under the city wall was very interesting indeed. They had been used for all sorts of things since they were first made. We were taken "back in time" from the present day, through the 90's, 80's, 60's, WW2 and all the way back to the creation of the bastions. They have been used as storage for ammunitions, shelters in times of war and in more recent times after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a shelter for several homeless people who had lost their jobs and houses. The last homeless man wasn't thrown out until 2004 when the tunnels were made into part of the museum. They also included a section about the future and showed us what experts predicted Tallinn may look like in the year 2219 (1000 years after the first Danish settlers built in what is now Tallinn). While it was a very interesting section, the video we had on the small train type machine that took us to the "future" was a bit heavy in religious messages to the point of being propaganda! We all though was both out of place in such a museum and very out of place in an Estonian museum considering less than 40% of the population claims to be part of a religion and even less actively practice any.
That aside the tour was very good and our guide was excellent. Next on our agenda was ice skating. It had been a few years since I'd done this, so was a bit slow at the uptake, but after about half an hour I was back into it. As it was pretty cold we headed off the ice and went for another wander before settling down for dinner in a very posh grill restaurant, which, again, we got a discount with our cards!
After this we visited the Tallink Hotel and Spa for a few hours of rest and relaxation. It was brilliant (we also got half price entry with the cards). There were several different kinds of sauna and steam room, out door pool (it was snowing, we still went out anyway), salt water pools, swim up bar and jacuzzis. I'd never been to such a luxurious swimming experience!
We ended the evening listening to some live music in Molly Malones Irish Pub while the snow started falling heavily outside!
Our last day was spent mainly outside the Old Town and in the suburbs of Tallinn. After grabbing some breakfast and sending our postcards we got the tour bus (again, free) and headed out towards Pirita. We went past several important Estonian landmarks, including a War Memorial, the Olympic Village built for the Moscow Games, The TV tower (which was closed for renovation) and the Botanic Gardens, as well as a drive through the forest outside the city. The tour was quite interesting, but I'm glad we didn't need to pay for it as the bus was a bit run down and the voice was quite irritating.
Once off the bus, we visited the ruins of St Bridgets Convent and saw more of the area built for the Olympics. We visited another spa, but it was terrible so we only stayed 45 minutes and then left (only paid €2 with the cards). Outside the horrible spa was a beach, however as it was frozen solid all we could really do was walk on to the ice, which some of us did. The view of the Old Town across the bay was amazing, especially as there was a short break in the snow and wind. We could see the numerous passenger ships ploughing through the ice sheets making their way to and from Helsinki and beyond!
After our trip to the seaside we went on to visit Kadriorg Palace and also saw the residence of the Estonian President (Toomas Hendrik Ilves) which unlike in most countries had a very low key security presence. At one point not too long ago it was apparently possible to walk up to the main door and ring the bell of his house, although it was unlikely he would answer, of course. The art gallery and the palace itself were closed (as are a lot of places in Estonia on Mondays) so we didn't hang around for too long.
We took a tram back into the city centre and had some lunch. Half of us went for a Kebab (not the same as one at home, this was a sit down affair) and some others went to Hell Hunt again. We took another trip around the old town, this time buying some souveniers. Some of us decided to go back to the proper Spa again for one last time. Although our cards only allowed us half price entry once, the woman at the desk wa very nice and let us in again at the discounted price!
After the spa we headed back to the hostel and got ready to leave for the airport. A quick visit to the Scottish Club to see the bust of Sean Connery was done and pretty soon we were on the bus to the shopping centre which is next door to the airport. The reason we were going there first is because we had been told it was a better place to shop and eat than the airport.
Future Tip: The Ulemiste Shopping Centre is about 10 minutes walk from the airport, so it is worth spending an hour there before a flight as it does offer more than Tallinn Airport. There is no need to take a taxi to the terminal form here as it is 500 meters away.
Tallinn Airport is a very modern terminal. It was upgraded in 2008 and puts some airports in the UK to shame! A very modern building with a wide range of shops, bars and comfortable seats as well!
Our flight was called ridiculously early, so much so that the plane wasn't even on the stand yet, so we had to rush and buy some last minute duty free and distribute it amoung the bags. Once through passport control we were made to wait in a cold, concrete floored corridor. The plane finally arrived and we boarded pretty quickly. There were not many passengers on this flight at all. We managed to get the emergency exit rows which meant a lot more leg room!
The flight back was pretty uneventful and as it was dark outside there was not much to see at all. We landed back into Edinburgh and were through immigration and baggage reclaim in about 20 minutes.
All in all a great little trip to the Estonian capital. I would like to go back, perhaps in the summer so that full advantage of the surrounding area can be taken. With regular ferries to Helsinki, Stockholm and the Åland Islands as well as regular overnight trains to Moscow and short coach journeys to St Petersburg, Tallinn is a very well connected city. I would consider it the prefect start or end point to a trip around the Baltic area, especially as flights to Russia and Helsinki can be very expensive.
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