Tallinn. Ja Tak



Tallinn is one of my new favorite European cities. Granted, my list of favorites changes every time I travel, but we can overlook that for now. The inner, old section of the city is absolutely beautiful, with twisting cobblestone streets and slouching plaster buildings. And when I say old, I don’t just mean that relatively speaking. It is in fact the oldest preserved medieval city in Europe, surrounded by its original castle walls and defense towers. You can only enter it through arches and openings where gates once were. The beauty of the old city is thrown into even more relief by its surroundings; the city outside the walls is dominated by stark eastern-block architecture- a lot of concrete.

 

The feeling of walking around a medieval city was amplified by our dinner there. We ate at a restaurant called Olde Hansa, which was essentially the Medieval Times of Europe, or at least of Estonia. We were encouraged by costumed servers to eat with our hands, and all the food tasted as if it had really been cooked over an open fire. We also got to sample their old-style beer, flavored with herbs, honey, or cinnamon. It was interesting, but far from my favorite. Far too sweet for my taste, but still a good experience.

I'm a little bummed we only got to spend slightly more than 24 hours in Tallinn, but luckily the old part of the city is small enough to thoroughly explore in that time. And amazingly, I didn't get lost once. No small feat since as soon as I get into a city my directional sense goes out the window. But enough of that; it's picture time.

A door in the side of a watch tower.

The water dispensing mechanism in the bathroom at dinner was a copper kettle. Pretty cool.

City Hall square. The building with the tower is the city hall.

One of the walking streets.

The view from one of the overlooks.

The Alexander Nevsky church. I was very excited to finally see a church with this type of roof.



Old meets new-ish.



Freedom Square.

In case you couldn't tell, this is a tower.

Sunset over the city as we cruised off to Stockholm.

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Word of the Day:

Je kigger bare: I'm just looking. Pronounced 'yai kaygeh bare'. This is particularly useful in stores, at markets, or really anywhere. This is one of our favorite phrases.