I slept for 11 hours last night and woke up this morning with a heck of a sleep hangover. I suppose I needed the rest. This hostel is a bit weird; it’s very nice, but everyone staying here is quiet as a mouse. Which is great for sleep, though a little less fun for meeting people. Alex was meant to arrive late last night, but some shenanigans with his flights saw him stuck in Brussels for the day. So I was flying solo again today.
Old Town Walking Tour
After breakfast at the hostel, I set out to explore the town. There was a free walking tour run by tourist information, as there so often is in most cities, so I decided to join it. So did everyone else in town, apparently; over 100 people showed up, and even after dividing us into two groups it was still a bit crowded.
It was a pretty interesting tour, though, given by a local university student, as they so often are. We spent a couple of hours seeing the main sights in the Old Town, including some of the main churches (many of which were converted into other uses during the Soviet era), the Parliament House, the city walls, and Freedom Square, which, like in Riga, was also hosting the 3×3 basketball tournament this week. I’m not sure if it’s a travelling event or if it’s being simultaneously hosted in both places. I didn’t ask.
The guide also spent a bit of time discussing Estonia’s recent history, both the German and Soviet occupation years, and the years since. Estonia’s emergence as an independent state post-Soviet Union is definitely an interesting tale; Estonians like to tell of their song festivals and how they would sing patriotic songs in defiance of the Soviet regime, and they like to claim that they’re the only country in the world that sang itself to freedom. Since the early 90s, Estonia has been quite a success story, joining NATO and the EU, attracting plenty of foreign investment, and building itself into a modern westernized country. There’s a 25% ethnic Russian population who lives here in relative peace, though relations between the two groups have not always been smooth as butter. Still, most Estonians seem to feel that what’s happening in the Ukraine couldn’t happen here — the circumstances are just too different.
Hipsters, Prisons and Ships
After the walking tour, I went back to the hostel for an hour or so to sort out a few practicalities over the next few days, including ferry ticket bookings and confirming hostels. Actually, it turns out it’s a good thing I booked ahead on places to stay, ’cause I keep meeting people who can’t find beds here or in Helsinki. I’m staying in all great places so far, and my usual last-minute method probably would’ve backfired.
At that point, I was getting a little tired of the theme park-esque feel of the Old Town, and decided I’d like to see part of Tallinn that’s a bit less zoo-like. So I ventured a 15-minute walk outside the city walls, past the train station to the area known as Kalamaja. Once a working-class section of town where fisherman lived, today, Kalamaja is on its way to being hipster-fied… though most of it is thankfully not quite there yet. One section that is, however, is Telliskivi, an old factory complex amidst crumbling old Soviet ruins, which was converted into a design and shopping area full of restored bicycles, cafes serving up vegan food, and plenty of irony. I had lunch at one such cafe, marvelling at how Estonia seems to have out-hipstered the Plateau by a mile.
Kalamaja is still a residential district, though the old wooden houses have mostly been restored and turned into large (and presumably expensive) Bohemian digs. I did see plenty of regular people out and about, mind you, not tourists. And it was nice to escape the tourist hordes and just allow myself to get lost in the quiet streets, snapping photos and strolling about.
I walked down to the harbour, hopping over a rocky path to dip my toes into the Baltic Sea. So that’s another one crossed off the bucket list. That part of town doesn’t really have a beachfront, though there is one about a 15-minute bike ride away. It does, however, have ferry and cruise ships, a quiet walking path, and old crumbling ruins of the sort that look authentic rather than staged.
Just a short walk away was Paterei Prison, one of the oddest experiences of this trip. This Soviet-era prison right on the waterfront was actually a working prison until 2005, when the place was shut down and sorta-kinda converted into a museum. At least that’s what the guidebook said; I couldn’t find any evidence of a museum (save for one sign that said it opened at 5:30, but that looked like it was maybe written years ago and was sitting by a boarded-up old door). I did find plenty of weird graffiti and sculpture art, some makeshift musical instruments, a weird little cafe, and lots and lots of empty space and discarded old barbed wire and whatnot. Apparently, the prison courtyard has become a popular party spot; the locals were all grumbling because there was meant to be a giant rave there tonight, which got cancelled at the last minute due to some sort of incident that nobody wanted to explain. It’s just the sort of weird, abandoned, creepy venue that I could see making a great spot for that sort of thing.
Next up, I made my way to the Seaplane Museum, where I was able to see some Coast Guard ships and even climb up on them. There was an 100-year-old icebreaker ship in the harbour where there appeared to be some sort of theatrical performance going on, but it was in Estonian so I wasn’t able to follow it. Inside the hangers, there’s a museum with a pre-WWII submarine, an old survived shipwrecked from the 16th century, and even a full replica of a Short 184 seaplane. Unfortunately, I got there just as they’d finished selling tickets for the day. So I didn’t get to see it. (Sorry, Kitty. I might try again before I leave Tallinn.) They did, however, have a display of tanks and armoured vehicles across the way from the museum, from Estonia’s War of Independence. So I popped in to check those out.
The Land of the 10pm Sun
I made my way slowly back to the Old Town, walking through Schnelli Park on the way back, which has great views of Parliament and the Cathedral from outside the city walls. For dinner, I found a little pub just off the main drag where I ate a very nice meal and a beer for less than a third of what last night’s meal had cost me.
By then, I was pretty tired, so I headed back to the hostel, but not before making one last stop; I was told during today’s walking tour about a place that has “the best chocolates in Tallinn”. Apparently I hadn’t tried the best ones yesterday, so I needed to rectify that mistake. I popped into the chocolate shop in question, and bought a couple to sample. Sadly, like everywhere else in the Baltics, they didn’t have AC, so all their chocolates were slightly melted. Still tasted good, though.
I returned to the hostel and spent a bit of time reading, updating blogs, and chatting with a German girl who’s staying here and an English guy who’s been living and working here for a few months. The English guy, Tony, was telling us a bit about life in Estonia. He said in the winter, the snow is so thick in the Old Town that you can’t even tell that there are cobblestones underneath, since they don’t clear the streets. He also talked a bit about how this is one of the most internet-advanced countries in the world; everyone has an ID card with a smart chip in it, which they can link to their phones and use to access everything from banking to university grades to public transit passes. Heck, they can even vote online.
I’m not really surprised; when I got here I picked up a local SIM card for about 3 euros and was able to get 250mb of data for a euro. (1gb would’ve been 2 euros. Rogers, eat your heart out.) I haven’t really needed it, though, since everywhere — and I do mean everywhere — has free WiFi in Tallinn. It’s really rather ridiculous; sit down at any cafe and you’ll be within range of 5 or 6 different free high speed networks. I suppose it makes sense that one of Estonia’s most famous modern-day inventions is Skype. (And I could get into a really long rant about how the Canadian telecoms’ predatory pricing and lack of universal access is hurting our economy and ability to innovate. But I digress.)
It’s past 10pm and it’s still not dark out. And it’s August, not June. I’m getting pretty far north here. There are also drunken people singing outside the window here, which was amusing for the first five minutes or so, but now is just getting annoying. I may head out soon and grab a pint; all the nightlife starts really late here, and people sleep in during the day. My kind of country, Estonia.
ETA
Alex arrived around midnight, dropped his bags at the hostel, and we went out for a beer. Tallinn appears to have a great nightlife, but most of the bars and pubs are indoors in — you guessed it — non-air-conditioned venues. So we wandered around to find a pub with outdoor seating. We eventually found one, and I had some very decent craft beer and a very nice time catching up.