A short stay in Estonia (2)

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.

A short stay in Estonia (1)

I spent this past weekend in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. This trip marked quite a few milestones for me:

• 30th Country I've set foot in.
• First country I've been to that was occupied by Russia between the end of WW2 and the fall of Communism in Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and East Germany were all Communist but were not directly governed/occupied by Russia).
• First time I've been to a European Capital City of Culture while that city is holding the title

For the past few years I have always travelled on my own or met people while I have been away, however this time I took the whole trip with some friends. The flights cost us £33 each with Ryanair from Edinburgh and as there was 5 of us we managed to book out an entire room in a youth hostel for £15 each for 2 nights. Pretty good deal!

After weeks of deciding what to do the day came and we all headed to the airport. Our flight route took a similar path as my flight to Stockholm, only it was a much nicer day so we got a very good view of the Scottish coast, North Sea oil rigs and some mountain ranges  of Norway. As night time fell we were crossing over Sweden and as we started our descent into Tallinn airport we could make out the lights of Helsinki flickering in the distance. Finland is only 80 km (50 Miles) across from Tallinn and on a good day it is possible to see the Finnish capital from some of the taller buildings.

We landed early (no surprise there as Airlines like to "pad out" timetables to make their statistics better, in this case a 2.5 hour flight was timetabled for 3 hours) and a loud fanfare was played into the cabin to mark this occasion. A lot of people clapped. We were soon off the plane and walking through Tallinn's surprisingly modern and extremely well stocked terminal building towards passport control. A quick glance and I was officially inside my 30th country!

We didn't have any bags so we made our way to the city bus and got on. Something I noticed in Tallinn, the bus drivers only opened half the door and didn't bother checking or issuing tickets, they must have assumed everyone had a travel pass or had some kind of advance purchased ticket. We had neither at the time we arrived, but I guess if we had been caught by the ticket guards then the driver wouldn't have cared as it's obviously not their job to sell tickets. There was also no obvious ticket machine by the bus stops at the airport. A sticker on the window gave the impression that there was a €40 fine for not having a ticket, so we eventually managed to give the driver €1 each, although he didn't issue any tickets to us, we felt we had bought ourselves some kind of protection!

The bus would have taken us all the way to the Port terminal building, but we were unsure where that was exactly so we got off at what seemed to be the busiest part of the city. Some Estonian people gave us some directions. It turned out we were about 10 minutes from our hostel and had we stayed on until the port we would have been right at the end of our street! We walked through the busy old town and eventually got to our hostel and checked in!

The room was very nice and warm and the hostel was furnished in an old country house kind of way. There was a kitchen and a TV room on our floor as well as a few bathrooms. As it was now approaching 10pm we headed out to get some food. Most sit down restaurants were shutting for the night so we opted for a "Hesburger" which is basicly a Finnish version of McDonalds which has spread throughout the Baltics and Scandinavia, Russia and Germany (although I have never seen them in Germany). The food was cheap, but was actually very good, certainly a lot nicer than their American counterpart!

We spent a few hours wandering around the old town city centre and then headed to a bar that our Berlitz guide recommended, which was called Hell Hunt. It was totally packed with young and old. The bar was also very cheap and we got a dessert in the form of some brownies which were very good indeed. After a few hours in here it was after 1am  and some of us were tired so we headed back to the hostel. The bar showed no sign of closing any time soon. The walk back to the hostel took us past a lot of very old buildings and embassy's for a lot of countries which seem to have taken over a lot of buildings in the old town. Our hostel (tOldhouse on Uus Street) was located just outside the old city walls on the very fringe of the old town, a few doors along from the Tallinn Scottish Club! We had to take into account the clocks going forward so we went to bed at about 2am to make sure we'd be up in time for the museums opening.

Part 2 to follow...

 

Stockholm (Part 1)

This time last year I was on the Flygbussarna coach making my way from Stockholm Skavsta Airport to Stockholm City centre. Being over 100km from Stockholm, many might not consider Skavsta as a Stockholm Airport, indeed  the Swedish Capital has 2 airports much closer to the city, Arlanda and Bromma, however Skavsta is the cities second largest and the third largest in Sweden all in terms of passenger numbers. Certainly the "classic" European airlines (KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa etc) do not even serve this tiny terminal, it is purely a low cost and holiday airline airport. Ryanair, however do consider it Stockholm (just as they consider the even further away Västerås as Stockholm as well) and the reason I was sitting on that bus was because they got me to Sweden for £26 return (including all taxes and credit card fees). I had a mandatory week off of work (I was working in Smiths at the time and had not taken any holidays and this was the last week I could do so before the year reset and I'd lose them all) and didn't want to spend it in cold and wet Dundee, so instead I went online and looked for some inspiration.


Word of warning: Skavsta Airport is in Nyköping and not the similar sounding Norrköping, which is even further away from Stockholm and also has an airport!

I hadn't been to Sweden for a very long time and had never been to Stockholm, which I had heard being referred to as "The Capital of Scandinavia". I decided to go on my own, mainly because I no longer wish to travel with my family and everyone else I knew was either working or had no money. I had also been on holiday on my own to the US and Canada before so was perfectly capable of keeping myself amused for 3 days. I had the choice of booking a hotel or the youth hostel, both were the same price for 3 nights. I chose the hotel as I guessed that in Sweden in March the hostel would not be busy and I also got a cooked breakfast included in the hotel price, as well as access to a swimming pool and rooftop sauna. The hotel was also in the suburbs a bit so I got to see a bit more of the city and make proper use of my Stockholm Card on the Metro (Tunnelbana).

Anyway, when I first arrived at the airport and got through Immigration, I went to buy a chocolate bar and bottle of water. It cost me almost £4. I handed over the 50 Swedish Krona note that I'd found at home the night before and was quickly told "NO". I had no idea what the lady was talking about, until her fellow shop worker explained that I was trying to use a note that had been withdrawn over 10 years ago. I really hadn't been to Sweden for a long time it seems! I went to the ATM and withdrew some more money, including an almost identical 50Kr note and was able to leave the airport and get on my way to the city.

There was snow everywhere, in fact on my approach to the airport it was snowing heavily and it snowed pretty much the entire journey to Stockholm. The motorway from Skavsta Airport to Stockholm is not that exciting. There are a few retail parks and housing estates, but on the whole it's probably not one of the highlights of my trip. The arrival into Stockholm was nice though. The sun had come out a bit and although it was getting a bit dark (by this time it was about 5pm Swedish time), the city still looked great. We arrived at the Cityterminalen (massive transport interchange) and I qued to get my Stockholm Card to enable me to use the public transport for 3 days. At £20 it wasn't that cheap, but then Sweden isn't a cheap country...at all!

My metro station was Brommaplan, which was quite about 20 minutes out of town and from there I could get a bus to my hotel or walk it in about 10 minutes. I chose the bus to see the route, and when it turned out to be a straight road I just walked from then on. My hotel was nice, although as I had a cheap room, I had no window, but did have a curtain covering...well, a bit of wall, in order to give the impression of a window. It didn't work, I still knew there was no window and I was in pretty much an en-suite box. A comfortable box though, with a TV that had about 200 channels, although at times I wasn't sure if the TV was speaking Norwegian with Swedish subtitles or vice versa as the receptionist told me the TV was mainly a mix of Swedish and Norwegian cable channels. I didn't care anyway, I headed out into the city to get some food!

By the time I got back into the city centre it was dark, but it was still very lbusy. Being winter, it was about -8c. The water in and around the city was frozen, which meant that there were no boat tours going on, but at the same time I didn't mind cos it looked pretty cool (no pun intended)!After wandering around the waterfront area and some of the islands in the city centre for a few hours, I got some dinner from a kind of hot dog cart. The man was very chatty, he'd been a lot of places in the UK with Ryanair, but had not yet made it to Scotland, so was asking me a bit about Edinburgh. He gave me some extra toppings on the hot dog for free too!

At about 9pm I decided to head back to the hotel. I was cold and tired and had to be up early in the morning anyway. I went to a supermarket and got some Swedish choclolates and sweets, and some Mountain Dew! They have abut 10 varieties of Daim bars in Sweden and I think I tried pretty much all of them! I watched some Swedish TV on my return to the room and went to bed around 11.

That's the end of part 1!