A few days ago I flew into Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, from Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It's the first time I've flown with the Polish national airline LOT, and frankly speaking, after flying with budget airlines a lot in recent years, LOT actually isn't that bad. For an hourish flight I got a free drink and snack, I feel I've been upgraded!
I've been walking a lot around Tallinn since I've arrived, over 44k steps over 2.5 days that is a lot for me. Tallinn has a great mix of old and new, traditional and modern. In the Old Town, many buildings date back to the 13th century, and are lined with cobblestone roads all around. Beyond the Old Town, factories from the Soviet era is repurposed into trendy creative centres. Street art can be found all over the area here.
A bit further out is Kadriorg, one of the wealthiest areas in Estonia. The houses I saw here certainly reflects the wealth. In the 18th century Peter the Great built the Kadriorg Park and the beautiful baroque style park was definitely worth me spending the afternoon here.
From old to new again. Opposite the 18th century Kadriorg park is the Reidi Tee Promenade. The 1.7km promenade faces the Tallinn Bay and has separate walkways for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as many benches in case you get tired. Luckily the weather was still warm enough to have a lovely walk by the sea. I walked along the promenade from the Kadriorg Park passing by the ferry terminal where you can catch a two hour ferry over to Helsinki in Finland. If I was in town for another day, I'd definitely do that.
From the ferry terminal, I continued to walk back to the Old Town. Tallinn has some awesome places to eat, maybe it's influenced by it's neighbour across the bay. And finally, no travel is complete (for me) without a fridge magnet as a souvenir. The little dolls in traditional costume were all so cute, I just couldn't make up my mind which one to get. Any suggestions?
This is just a quick snapshot of my time in Tallinn and some colourful shots of the city. There's a lot more on my itinerary.... to follow.
