Tallinn - Love at "Second" Sight (16/7/06 - Day 2)

Believe me, whenever you want to go to the Baltics, go in the summer. This is the time when you can embrace 16+ hours of sunlight in a day. The weather is the warmest and the sceneries are the greenest. On the other hand, when you go in the winter, you will only have around 6 hours of sunlight, and the rest of the time you will be around the dark. That is very true. This is exactly how I feel when I arrived in Helsinki and Tallinn. The weather was so good, so bright, so clear, so clean...

The next morning (Day 2), I couldn't wait to get up and run straight into the old city center. You know, among the three capitals of the Baltic states, (Tallinn in Estonia, Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania) Tallinn is the most beautiful, Riga is the most cosmopolitan and Vilnius is the most romantic. As a result, I couldn't wait to see this "most beautiful" city of the Baltic.

Breakfast was at the old market, fearing that everything around the old town would be expensive. Afterwards, I set off my journey and walked to the old town. Walking along the "Nunne" road and soon I arrived at the old city square (Raekoja Plats). My first feeling of Tallinn old town was that it looks very much like a small town in Germany, with the many medieval houses surrounding an old town square. Walking alongside small pebble streets was interesting as I feel like emerging back 500 years ago. In order to know more about this old town, I quickly dashed into the nearby Tourist Information Center and tried to get more information.

"Where are you from?" a blond girl from the tourist information asked me.

"I am from Hong Kong. Would you please tell me how to get to the Toompea area?" Even though I kind of know how to get there, I still asked them just in order to get a conversation. I enjoy meeting people from different nationality and talking to people in the tourist information center is the best way. "Also, are there many Hong Kong people who visit Tallinn?"

"Oh, from Hong Kong." she replied. "Welcome to Estonia! Yes, there are a few, but there seems to be more Japanese though. Ok, to reach Toompea, just walk up this path here up the hill and you will be there, around 10 minutes walk." Yes, sure, I thought. Japan has a population of nearly 100 million and Hong Kong only has around 7 million. By proportion there should be more Japanese tourists than Hong Kong tourists. Anyway, I really enjoyed their good customer service and it once again changed the way how I feel about Estonia after that hostel hunt nightmare.

Tallinn old town can be divided into two parts, the lower town and the upper town on top of a small hill. The lower town is around the Raekoja Plats area and the upper part is called Toompea. However, the most interesting thing that distinct Tallinn from other European capitals is its medieval city walls that goes around the old city area. While at the lower town one can easily glimpse the Gothic old town hall, the upper town locates a very beautiful Russian Orthodox church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

The best place to take a photo of Tallinn is up the Lutheran church (Toomkirik), where one can glimpse the whole overview of Tallinn old town. Indeed it is an interesting place for photo-shooting as one can glimpse the red-roofed medieval houses alongside with the medieval city walls. From the top, Tallinn reminds me of a fairy tale castle out from a cartoon, awaiting for a beautiful princess to come out. "It can't be real," I thought. "But this place is really so beautiful!" I took a few pictures, walked around the top while soaking the atmosphere, and came back down.

Tallinn old town weren't big, and one day is pretty much enough. With the 18+ hours of sunshine, it gives me enough time even to see the area around it. Walking out of the old town, I quickly found myself in the newly developed area, with lots of bright new office buildings and shopping malls. Without many things to do, I walked in and out of shopping malls while enjoying my presence in this city.

Suddenly I remembered one thing I needed to do: plan for my onward journey. My next destination after Tallinn would be Riga, Latvia, and I needed to book my bus journey ahead. Quickly I dashed to the bus station and got my ticket. Funny to say, there aren't many train connections within the Baltics, and most railway networks only run to the east. That is, towards Russia. While there are trains between Tallinn and Riga to Moscow, but there aren't any train services going north or south. You can guess the reason. During the time when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were both under the Soviet Union, every transportation network was built around Moscow. As a result, all the train service from the Baltic states only headed east, but not south. I am sure when Stalin built the railway network, he would has never thought that in the year of 1991, these three "rebellious" Baltic states would break away from their motherland and formed their own republics. While they built strong relationship between each others, they have never had a good relationship with Russia. That might be the underlying reason for these train networks.

Towards the east of Tallinn lies the Pirata beach, a weekend getaway hotspot for the Tallinnians. Not only is it a great way to taste the Baltic waters, but this is also the northernmost beach I have ever been to. Nothing much interesting though, and I headed back into town.

As I headed back to my hostel, I had my dinner at the cafeteria style shop near the train station, in order to save money from the ripped off restaurant at Tallinn old town. As the night comes, I walked back to the old city center and took a few more pictures before I went back to my hostel. Here I called it the night.

The next day I would be taking a 6 hours bus south towards Riga, the capital city of Latvia.

Photos of Tallinn: http://lonelytraveller01.multiply.com/photos/album/4

(Pic Caption: Top - View of Tallinn Old Town. Bottom - Me posting at a view of Tallinn Old Town)