As previously mentioned in the Helsinki post, we boarded a huge luxury ferry for the two hour plus trip across the Gulf of Finland which is part of the Baltic Sea. We just sat in the bar, enjoying beer wine and a goofy band meant to appeal to the older tourists in the crowd....and I mean REALLY older, like folks who think Polka rocks.
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| Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones..............NOT! |
We booked a smallish AirBnb just a few blocks from Old Town, the primary destination in Tallinn. Unless you like partying all night, Old Town isn't really the place to stay since it can get quite loud with drunks roaming around at all hours of the night, but our little pad was a quick walk from the ferry and from Old Town and the trams we occasionally used to get about. A brief history of the Baltic States (which also include Latvia and Lithuania) shows a really sad history. Given their strategic locations, all three countries were pretty constantly at war with Russia, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and it really got ugly when Russia and Germany played tug of war with all three just prior to and after WWII. All three countries suffered severe genocide, banishment to Siberia and other Russian gulags, KGB murders and general lacks of prosperity until they finally were freed from Russian domination in 1991. Consequently, the people are quite happy today, but still a bit reserved around strangers as one had to be during Russian domination and its KGB spies. The past 28 years have been the most prosperous and most free times ever in all three countries with much thanks going to the European Union and the funds given to rebuild the infrastructures and build economic prosperity. Nonetheless, none of the countries has yet to achieve the economic superiority of their Western neighbors; as a consequence, prices tend to be quite tame in comparison to other European nations; a real boon to tourists, but as these countries are becoming highly touted places to visit in many travel journals, prices are creeping up and further economic prosperity is coming from the surge of tourism. Win, win.
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| Delightful Old Town Tallinn |
It wasn't at all hard to spend three days roaming around Tallinn, with highlights being trying the excellent dishes of the region (especially the Russian food at Restaurant Moon) and just generally admiring the beautiful reconstruction and rehabilitation of centuries old monuments. On our final day, we took the tram out to a beautiful old restored castle which also serves as the local art museum, so one could admire the castle as well as the hangings on the walls. Located in a large park full of locals and not too many tour buses, so that was a big plus. If Tallinn has a deficiency, it has a lot to do with tourist overcrowding due to how easy it is to do a Helsinki/St Petersburg/Tallinn loop. As a result, we tried to stay on the outer edges of the Old Town and only venture into the center when the tour groups were bused back to their hotels, where they surely followed people with flags from town to dining hall to room. Believe me, I get really good cultural tourism, but it seems that much of what we see is just people leading sheep from monument to monument, giving them 100x more detail than they'll ever remember and somewhat isolating them from the real world going on around them. That's not really traveling IMHO, but to each their own.
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God Help Me, I Actually Own a Selfie Stick Now
On our final day, we left the tourist hordes on a bus to Riga, Latvia. I quite like traveling by bus in Europe. You get free wifi, comfy seats and efficient transport at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, train service from country to country isn't a viable option in the Baltic States; at this time, one could spend hours waiting for trains to link up as apparently no single train runs the length of the region which is less than 350 miles. In fact, the area of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is only about 75% of the state of Oregon. |
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