From Helsinki it cost €19 for a return day trip to Tallinn, Estonia on a cruise ship! I left Henna’s place around 7am to arrive at the ship before our 8am departure. It took around 2 hours, heading south, to make our way to mainland Europe. On the boat I had a €13 buffet breakfast. It was fantastic! Hot and cold bain-marie’s full of breakfast foods, coffee, juice, cereal, fruit, sushi, and other amazing foods I can’t remember. As is the case in Australia, I had to fight the “seniors” to fill my plate… it seems that no matter where in the world you are, the mature aged population still think a Buffet will run out if they don’t get in first. Once we arrived in Tallinn, it was a little drizzly. I didn’t have a map, so just sort of followed the crowd towards the old town. After about 10 minutes wandering aimlessly around I found an old looking street with some other tourists taking photos, I was on the right track!
The old town in Tallinn is beautiful with a peaceful & relaxing vibe. It was touristy as always, but there was still the old-school local feel. At one point I walked past a school classroom with the kids learning English, the teacher said “Blue” with the kids repeating it and so on. I felt like walking in and having a chat, but didn’t want to weird them out. I felt tired when I arrived, as the previous evening was a late one, so I headed to a café. I walked into a cosy little café/restaurant, which claimed to have the best coffee in Tallinn. After nearly choking once she told me a cappuccino was going to cost €4.50, I settled into a comfy leather chair by the open fire. The coffee wasn’t nearly as good as a standard cappuccino from Gloria jean’s back home (Gloria Jean’s is a chain coffee store in Australia), so I would hate to taste anything else. The coffee wasn’t terrible, but definitely not worth the money. As I made my way through the alleys I came across a row of tombstones on the wall from the 1300’s, the oldest tombstones I’ve ever seen (see photos).
Tallinn’s quaint architecture is amazing. It’s common to have to duck your head when walking into shop door ways, people must have been really short back in 1050AD, when the first fortress was built! As I’d managed to find my way off the beaten track, just mindlessly wandering around taking photos, I discovered an amazing little restaurant for lunch. The menu looked good & wasn’t expensive so I ducked my head and headed down stairs. It opened up into a gorgeous small dining room, with rifles and a wild bores heads on the walls. Although the service was slow, I had a linen napkin and all the luxuries of a 5 star restaurant. For lunch I ate Wild Bore baked under dough with vegetables, a water and had half a litre of “a le coq”, which is their local beer and it came to a total of €17.90 or about $22 AUD... Bargain!
I would have loved to stay there for around half a week, as there seems to be lots of places to see and experience, I might even go back if it works out. As Estonia joined the Euro currency in 2011, the Estonian Kroon is no longer in circulation. I managed to find a tourist shop selling Kroon notes, I paid €5 for a 5 Krooni note. At today’s rates it would be worth about €0.32. The boat left around 5pm and after 1 beer I slept on the couch most of the way back, which was perfect because at midnight that night we were celebrating my 27th birthday!