0348 Helsinki Finland to Tallinn Estonia

5^th Sept 2015

Well here’s another well kept secret !

Had to get up and get going in order to be on time for check-in for our 11.30 am ferry to Estonia.  It tried to rain, which slowed us up a little, and then we had to do some banking and buy some bread – But we arrived bang on time at 10.15 am, and then, as is usual with ferries, spent most of the next 1 ½ hours in a line waiting to board the ferry !  BIG ferry (compared to those we have been on recently) for the 2 hour crossing to Tallinn, across the Baltic Sea.  And it was crowded – Apparently it is like this every day.  Finns regard Tallinn as a suburb of Helsinki, and they cross every day in their hundreds for cheaper shopping (booze especially), as well as enjoying a city that is totally different from Helsinki.

50 years of Soviet rule have left their mark, but it is far from dull and grey.  Tallinn fuses the modern and the medieval to come up with a vibrant mix all of its own. To quote the guidebook “it is an intoxicating mix of church spires, glass skyscrapers, baroque palaces, top-notch eateries, ancient battlements and city walls, run down wooden buildings, and sunny cobbled squares – With a few Soviet throwbacks in the mix. 

The ferry crossing was so busy with virtually every seat taken, and the locals consuming

large amounts of (cheap) food and booze.  We arrived in Tallinn at 2 pm and were almost first off the boat.  It is always a bit stressful arriving in a new country, and trying to suss out the local “habits” on the road.  Do they speed ?  Are they aggressive ?  Do they give way to the right ?  Do bicycles “attack you” ?  Are there many police about ? etc etc.   I didn’t want to drive into the heart of the city straight off the ferry, so we decided to try to see if any of the supposed campsites were still open now it is

September, and set off around the coast to where they were indicated to be on the map.  The first one was pretty bad – Just a concrete car park in the middle of a bunch of warehouses, with kind of “industrial” toilets. And a rock concert due to be held tonight right next door !  No thank you !  A little bit further round the coast we found another site, again a tarmac car park, but this time in a yachting harbour.  And not just any yachting harbour – This is actually where they held the sailing events at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, so was quite well developed.  And a very friendly man on the gate who told us how to get into town and where to go – So we parked the car and set off to catch the bus into town.

Well – We got about 100 metres and the heavens opened !  So we scuttled back to the car and waited it out.  About 30 minutes later it fined up, and we once again set off into Tallinn to explore.  We caught the local bus into town which was really easy (even for a non-public transport using philistine like me !), and then walked into the lower part of the old city.  In Tallinn there was the upper part and the lower part – The Nobles lived in the upper part of town on the hill, and “looked down” over the lower part which housed the merchants !

While wandering around we came across a park with music coming from it, and in closer investigation found that it was a free ballet for the public, being a Saturday.  We watched that for a while, and then wandered up through the old city wall gates into the lower old city – And what a place !!  The old buildings and cobbled streets are mostly pedestrian only, and many of the restaurants are themed like Medieval restaurants, with the staff all dressed accordingly, the food, and even the décor of the restaurants all in period.  It is a really fun and friendly place – You could spend hours wandering around. 

When we reached the Town Hall Square at about 6 pm, the heavens opened and we stood around under our brolly watching some kind of Estonian or Russian dancing outside the Troika Restaurant, and then we slowly made our way back down into town to the bus station, and caught our bus back to the camp site.  Very impressed with Tallinn – Once again we find a delightful surprise in a place that only a few days ago we knew nothing about. 

 Photos here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0348HelsinkiToTallinn?authkey=Gv1sRgCNenvpbzmdeERw