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Dear Visitor! I happened to have a great trip to Tallinn in March 2003. As a result, on this website you can find a horrible lot of Tallinn pictures made by my usual self during my 4-days trip. I also scanned 16 images from the picture book bought in Tallinn, professional ones designed to steal your heart right away. All the pictures open in separate windows, you just have to click on the thumbnails. This site is basically meant for those who are going to Tallinn as tourists (I tried my best to share useful information), but it might also be interesting for those who have nostalgic feelings towards Tallinn and Estonia. Have a good time and feel free to let
me know whether this website was worth all
the time and efforts that I've put into it. Oh, and don't
forget to sign
the guestbook... |
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The daily train leaves from Moscow at 6.15 p.m. arriving to Tallinn at around 9 a.m. of the next day. It’s a good idea to go to bed as soon as possible: the train lady first wakes you up at around 3.30 a.m. to go through the Russian customs at Ivangorod, the train stands for an hour, crosses the border during 5 minutes and waits for the Estonian customs for another hour. The mess ends at 6 a.m. and you have one and a half hour left to finish your night sleep. The Estonian customs officers (often Russians) are polite and quick, while the Ivangorod people seem to come somewhere from the jungles: they ask stupid questions, act very rude and treat everyone as worst criminals, women included. On the way back when the customs procedures lasted from 8 to 10 p.m. (and we finally had a chance to sleep until the very morning!) they even forced someone to leave the train – I don’t know and don’t really care what for, but it scared the hell out of me. No matter how clean and innocent you are, they will always find a way to find fault. Here we are, finally in Tallinn! The railway station is located very close to the Old city walls. Having exchanged some dollars into Estonian kroons on the railway station, we asked the exchange office woman how to call a taxi and to save on it. She was kind enough to call the taxi for us, it took only 10 minutes for it to arrive and 10 more minutes to drive to our hotel. I chose the 2 star hotel Stroomi located on the FinnishGulf shore in the North-West part of the city, in the industrial district Kopli which looks terribly poor and reminds of the Soviet times – grey moody living buildings, hardly any shops and people on the streets. It was relatively cheap (we paid about $100 for a double room for 3 nights), this included a luxurious breakfast and a morning sauna with jaccuzzi. We got a cosy room on the fourth floor in bluish colours. In general I was quite happy with Stroomi – especially with the breakfast and sauna. And I didn’t feel uncomfortable with daily traveling for 20 minutes by bus to get to the center of Tallinn. Speaking of Tallinn hotels, there aren’t hundreds of them like in most big cities. If you search on the net, you will probably be lucky to find 20-30. I found one 5 star hotel (St.Petersburg), 12 hotels of 4 stars (located mostly in the center of the city), 10 hotels of 2-3 stars, and 4-5 hostels and guesthouses. If you want a combination of good service with low prices, you should go for a 2 star hotel or a hostel – almost all of them are located not too far away from the center, within 10-20 minutes of driving, and the price often includes breakfast and morning sauna. I especially enjoyed the fact that even small hotels have their own websites from where you can get all the information and make an online reservation. I would even say that I enjoyed our Stroomi much more than 2 star hotels in France. Here’s the list of Tallinn hotels with the best price-quality combination: Stroomi (5
km from the city center) Dzingel Hermes (4km
from the city center) Hostels and guesthouses Wam Maria
(close to the Kadriorg park, 2 km from the city center) Merevaik
(very cheap, 3 km from the city center) Helke (7
rooms only, very close to the city center) G9 (16
rooms only, very close to the city center) Old House
(6 rooms only, in the city center, price is as in 2 stars hotels) The transport system of Tallinn deserves some special attention. The public transport system includes buses, trolleybuses and trams, there is a timetable on every stop and all the vehicles arrive according to it (I wish we had such a system in Moscow!). One trip costs you 10 kroon ($0.7) if you buy a ticket from a kiosk, and 15 kroon ($1) if you buy it from the driver. There are discounts if you purchase 10 or more tickets, and of course there are travel cards allowing to save on the transport. The fine for not having the ticket is around $40, like in other European countries. Unlike Moscow or Riga where almost in every bus, tram or trolleybus there is a lady asking you to pay for your trip as soon as you get inside, they have checkpeople who sometimes check the transport – and we never saw checkpeople in Tallinn during our 4 days of stay. We paid for our trips from time to time finding the ticket cost too expensive and were seriously scared to get fined, but we must have been lucky. An alternative to the public transport – Tallinn taxi system – also positively surprised me. If in Moscow, St.Petersburg and other Russian cities we hardly ever use official taxi cars preferring to stop private cars and agreeing about the direction and monay tet-a-tet with its owner, in Tallinn this wouldn’t go – no way! There are several taxi companies that hire drivers with their own cars, and these companies have significant different in prices per km – from 4.5 to 7.5 kroon. If you are in the company of several people, it’s much cheaper and more comfortable to travel around Tallinn by taxi. What surprised me most – you don’t just get on the road and attract the taxi driver’s attention, you have to call the taxi company. After you inform them about the place where you are, the maximum time of taxi’s arrival is 15 minutes! To any place of Tallinn! Isn’t that cool? When we were drunk or just located too far away from the hotel to use the public transport, we always used the taxi. Taxi drivers usually give the company’s card when the journey is over, so you know how to call them next time you need their services. Eating out in Tallinn has been a real pleasure for me. Twice I visited the Beer House located on the Apteegi street (very close to the Town Hall square, Raekoja plats), also had a lot of fun in Depeche Mode café (Pikk jalg), Tallinn café (Narva mnt), Galaxy Café (inside the TV tower) and a few other places the names of which I can’t remember now. Most of cafes in Tallinn offer the so-called happy hour that usually lasts until the evening when some or even most of the dishes can be ordered for half price. Eating out in Tallinn is relatively cheap, even in the evenings. If you don’t go for expensive wines or vodka, a lunch with a soup, a salad, some hot meat dish and a 0.5 l beer might cost you around $5 or even less! I should also mention that everything I ate in Tallinn was incredibly delicious, not speaking about the fact that the amount of food in one dish is sometimes enough for 2 people. The waiters are friendly and quick, the atmosphere is nice, and to sum it up I really enjoyed my eating out time in Tallinn. People in Tallinn can be described as something completely different from what I expected – or rather, from what I’ve been told. Not a single trace of hatred towards Russians! When we were stopping somebody on the street to ask how to get to some place, people – even Estonians – have always been happy to help. Sometimes Estonians tried to reply in their language, but quickly changed to Russian seeing that we were tourists. I definitely miss this kind of friendly attitude here in Moscow. Tallinn seems to be designed for tourism! Outside of the famous Old city it’s nothing interesting, just grey boring living buildings that badly need renovation (the spring with its melting ice and dirt everywhere doesn’t help), but the city center is a miracle, a fairy tale! The architecture leaves a deep impression: buildings are tiny, like toys, so bright and different... Even the remains of the city wall and towers that date back to very ancient times are pleasant for eyes – their kind of antiquity takes you back to those times, making you imagine how people lived so many centuries ago, how they walked the same streets… Unlike Riga where I could hardly find any tourists or souvenirs, the city center of Tallinn is overfilled with both: souvenir shops full of all kinds of various crockery, candles, pictures, books, toys and other things, not always related to Tallinn. Prices are high, but they differ from shop to shop, so it would be a good idea to walk around before deciding to buy something. Women who work in such shops are always extremely nice, polite and friendly, they will help you to choose a good gift, and even if you don’t find anything, your mood will improve after visiting such places. The weather is very much the same as in Moscow. To tell the truth, early spring, as well as winter time, isn’t the best period for coming to Tallinn. Bare trees, dirt and water on the streets, occasional precipitation don’t really add to your mood. Especially if you are dressed hoping for a better weather. During these four days that we spent in Tallinn (Friday to Monday) two days were very sunny, while two others cloudy and rainy. The weather could suddenly change during the day, even several times. The cold wind from the Finnish Gulf could start blowing severely – and disappear as unexpectedly as it appeared. The seagulls’ cries kept me remembering about how close we are to the sea – and the Finnish border which unfortunately we had no right to cross without a visa because of our Russian citizenship. I was amazed at the Tallinn harbour which is located close to the railway station, Balti jaam. So modern, so European! I saw huge ships housing thousands of people inside, probably with lots of conveniences, able to travel maybe through the whole ocean. A ship started departing gracefully and slowly – to Finland? – and I stayed on the coast enviously looking at its behind. According to the information received in the meantime it takes about three hours to get to Finland by ship (about 60 km)… and only 18 minutes by helicopter – this way of traveling is also possible in Tallinn. Tallinn must be famous for its alcohol, especially the Vana Tallinn liqueur. Having drunk Estonian alcohol on a daily basis (and sometimes in unreasonable amounts), we didn’t have a hangover in the morning. I tried the other liqueur, the green peppermint Lewii Heliis, which costs $3.5 per 0.5 l, and loved it right away so much that bought 3 bottles of it before departure… I wish some smart ass could organize the supply of Estonian alcohol to Russia! Or… I’d rather not wish such things, it might result in me being an alcohol addict! Now about other places I’ve seen apart from the port and the Old city. The museum of Estonia (Pikk street) is cheap, but nothing really interesting to see. The city museum, or the museum of Tallinn (Vene street) seems to be much worth spending time. The Kadriorg park and palace only look fascinating during the summertime, however I liked being inside the palace museum. The most unusual museum that I happened to stumble upon while walking along the Lai street was the museum of Anatomy and Human Deformities. It belongs to a smart Estonian guy who rents a few exhibits from the St.Petersburg’s Kunstkamera, runs the whole museum, sells tickets and is kind enough to arrange individual excursions for visitors. I saw lots of human organs (mostly deformed by bad habits), the most surprising exhibit was the mummy – a 53 y.o. homeless man Vasya who died in the end of 2001, then his dead body was embalmbed for six months and became a museum exhibit. This excursion made me think about my own bad habits and their consequences (read above how much I liked the Estonian alcohol!). Among non-museum places I’d like to mention the TV tower located on Kloostrimea tee (quite a long way from the city center). We celebrated the 8th of March (Women’s day) in the Galaxy café located on the 21st floor of the tower – a nice and cosy place that looks rather like a restaurant with reasonable prices. This café must be pretty popular among Tallinn citizens, at first we were told that all the seats were occupied, but eventually we found a vacant table and spent about 2 hours there enjoying the amazing sunset over the Finnish gulf. Unfortunately, we were too late to see the botanical garden of Tallinn located just near the TV tower, it closes at 4 p.m. The building of the garden looks very unusual, it’s a pity that we were so close and didn’t have a chance to get inside! On Monday evening we found ourselves on the train again – four days passed like one minute leaving a deep trace in my soul. I don’t think I will come to Tallinn any time soon. It will rather happen in about ten years from now when it becomes unrecognizable and when I’m going to be surprised again. I’m looking forward to the next time!
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Copyright(c) 2003 Lady Bright. All rights reserved.
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