Day 8
We spent two nights in the medieval style Old Town of Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, and after a week on the road it was a return to financial normality after the expense of Iceland. While we didn’t exactly go crazy it was certainly a chance for us to enjoy eating out a couple of times and perhaps even slip into a pub one evening.
Our hostel was one block away from the main square of the Old Town and after walking up from the ports and dropping our bags off we spent the rest of the day exploring the town through its maze of cobbled streets.
We walked along a section of the old defense wall and clambered up three small old towers that have been kept in tact. There were plenty more stairs to climb later when we enjoyed the best views in town from the 13th century Oleviste Kirik (St Olaf’s Church – originally one of the tallest buildings in the world). The stairs were steep, narrow and seemingly never ending. The views from the 124 metre high church were well worth it though.
In the evening we treated ourselves to a meal out at a medieval themed restaurant called Peppersack. I can’t remember what we had but it sure beat everything we’d eaten to date on the trip!
Day 9
Exploring the Old Town of Tallinn is definitely do-able in one full day so we had already decided to make a day trip to Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland.
The journey only takes a couple of hours by boat and after arriving in the Finnish capital we jumped on another boat (a ferry, this trip only took 15 minutes) to take us out to Suomenlinna, one of Helsinki’s main tourist attractions.
We spent two nights in the medieval style Old Town of Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, and after a week on the road it was a return to financial normality after the expense of Iceland. While we didn’t exactly go crazy it was certainly a chance for us to enjoy eating out a couple of times and perhaps even slip into a pub one evening.
Our hostel was one block away from the main square of the Old Town and after walking up from the ports and dropping our bags off we spent the rest of the day exploring the town through its maze of cobbled streets.
We walked along a section of the old defense wall and clambered up three small old towers that have been kept in tact. There were plenty more stairs to climb later when we enjoyed the best views in town from the 13th century Oleviste Kirik (St Olaf’s Church – originally one of the tallest buildings in the world). The stairs were steep, narrow and seemingly never ending. The views from the 124 metre high church were well worth it though.
In the evening we treated ourselves to a meal out at a medieval themed restaurant called Peppersack. I can’t remember what we had but it sure beat everything we’d eaten to date on the trip!
Day 9
Exploring the Old Town of Tallinn is definitely do-able in one full day so we had already decided to make a day trip to Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland.
The journey only takes a couple of hours by boat and after arriving in the Finnish capital we jumped on another boat (a ferry, this trip only took 15 minutes) to take us out to Suomenlinna, one of Helsinki’s main tourist attractions.
Suomenlinna is a World Heritage listed fortress located on a small cluster of islands just out from the main harbour of Helsinki. The fortress was built in 1748 to protect the country (part of Sweden back then) against the Russians.
After returning to the mainland we gave ourselves a couple of hours to do a brief walk around some of Helsinki’s main attractions such as the impressive white Tuomiokirkko cathedral. We also had the chance to put our heads into a couple of those enlarged photo boards with the faces cut out. Always got time for those.
We got back to Tallinn in the evening and headed to a place just around the corner from our hostel called The Pub With No Name. After dinner we tried the popular Estonian spirit called Vana Tallinn which, to our disappointment, basically just tasted like Southern Comfort. It was better mixed with ginger ale but still a little too sweet.
It seemed to be some kind of student night in the pub and they were running a Fear Factor style competition. Everything was being said in Estonian (as you’d expect) so we weren’t too sure of the finer details but, as they say, actions speak louder than words. They definitely did in this case as, one by one, the guys and girls striped down to their undies and sprint out of the pub and down the street. Thirty seconds later they’d return to the bar with a beer in their hand and knock it back in one go on the stage. Bizarre!
Even funnier than watching half naked young Estonian people run down the street was the reactions of passers by.
(We scored a free helium balloon and disposed of it in the appropriate manner!)
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