Day 3 - A detour to Tallinn

Smee had such a good idea whilst researching for our trip to Helsinki. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia was only a 85km ferry ride away! Yippee! I'm a sucker for turrets and in the photos I saw, Tallinn sure did have turrets. It was a beautiful day and dare I say warm for such a latitude. Nice, nice.

Just tip to all the illegal immigrants in Helsinki. If you commit a crime and need to go on the run - get on the ferry to Tallinn. Vice versa for crims in Tallinn. There are no passport checks! Even if you look terribly foreign like me, you can still waltz through without any hassles.

Our ferry to Tallinn.

The Helsinki Linda Line terminal was a modern affair. The Tallinn terminal was a case of ... 'where the hell is it? Oh is it that grey shed? Nah it can't be...... No, wait, it is the grey shed!'  Once docked, we disembarked onto a port which looked more like an afterthought on a spare bit of land.  Hrrrrrm.

My top tip for being a tourist in an unfamiliar place is 'follow the crowd'.  This tip doesn't really work if the crowd disperses by which you can blame your own stupidity for not having some form of map.  The crowd might take you past......

....a park of concrete piling and ......

... a dodgy building purporting to be the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (it looked more like an ex-KGB building) but the crowd gets you there in the end.  Aaah the relief upon seeing the turrets of the old city walls!

As with most 'Old Towns' in Europe, it's full of charming cobbled streets and the centre is where the main action is.  Before heading there Smee and I tried to find the ex-KGB headquarters (for those interested it's at 61 Pikk and is now the Ministry of the Interior) but we couldn't locate number 61 :-S  Interrogations and torture were said to have been conducted there but we couldn't identify the building which is said to have bricked up windows. 

Smee knocking on the door and at the centre of the Old Town. 

Good weather really shows off a city and Tallinn was on her best behaviour. 

Medieval carts and Estonians in Medieval garb fulfilled our cheesy tourist desires.

Another turretted entrance.  Spot the sign of globalisation! (you might need to click on the pic)

Street vendors (left) selling their wares along the walls, namely the various goods produced by Estonian folk knitting to which my untrained eye looked a lot like Fair Isle knitting.  I thought it was a bit inappropriate to be selling such stuff in this kind of weather but I supposed they have limb-freezing winters here.  Ready for the tourist onslaught were the typical scarves, knitted hats, baby clothes.  What really caught my eye were the beanies with a crown which tapered off after a ridiculous 1.4 metre length.  You had the choice of a 'one legged' hat or a 'two legged' hat.  It was there and then I decided I loved daggy hats with ridiculous crowns.  In the warm Estonian sun, I tried on a blue/grey two legged hat and then asked the vendor 'What do I do with these legs?'.  She then wrapped each leg around my neck and knotted the pom-pom embellished legs together to form a scarf.  Ingenious!  A scarf-hat!  How useful!  Now I wouldn't have to carry a separate hat and scarf!

What stopped us from sealing the deal was that Estonia uses it's own currency and not the Euro.  We were short on the cost of the hat and the vendor wouldn't budge on the price and there was no way Smee and I could be bothered going to ATM to withdraw more local currency as we were leaving in about 2 hours.  We later calculated our shortfall was only 50 Euro cents!  She wouldn't budge on 50 cents dammit!  In that case, I settled on my second choice - a pink/grey single legged hat which I am camwhoring on the right there. 

To tick off the rest of the list we made our way to the the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the salmon coloured entrance to the Toompea Castle.  Then we made our way up Toompea hill to enjoy the views of the city.  I also maximised my opportunity of running through the tiled arches and walking through doors not tall enough even for the likes of me.

Our Estonian day drew to close and we made our way back to the Tallinn shed.

For anyone considering a trip to Helsinki, a day trip to Tallinn should be on your itinerary.  There isn't that much to do Helsinki anyway! I'm so glad to have enjoyed the charm of the Tallinn old town. *thumbs up*