My next stop in my vacation was Tallinn in Estonia. I first flew from Reykjavik To Helsinki and from there I took the ferry. The ferry ride was only two hours, but the ferry was loaded. It had multiple bars, cafeterias, lounges for first class passengers and even a casino and a duty free store. A ton of people went for the cafeteria as soon as they boarded the ship – it clearly wasn’t their first time. Planning this part of the trip was kind of spontaneous. Initially I planned on being in Helsinki for a couple of days until I realized how easy it was to make a trip to Estonia by ferry. The main touristy area is the old town.
The Christmas market going on at the time sold a lot of knick knacks aimed at tourists.
This old town reminded me a lot of the old towns in other cities in Europe. It’s one of the things that a lot of European cities have in common.
Nearby the town square, was a picturesque alley known as St. Catherine’s Passage. It looks like it come straight out of a movie.
The whole town is quite picturesque.
Following the stereotypes of a typical European old town, there’s also a grand cathedral, but since this is eastern Europe, this cathedral belongs to the Orthodox church.
Across from it is the parliament of Estonia. It almost looks like something from a Wes Anderson movie.
There are some nice lookout points too.
Aside from the old town historical sites, Estonia has also had to deal with its Soviet past. Tallinn, at least, decided to remove the old Soviet monuments, but understood their historical significance. So they put some of these statues in a sort of statue graveyard. Perhaps the United States can adopt this strategy as a compromise in their debate on whether or not to remove the old Confederate statues. A big difference is that it seems Estonia seems quite unified in their rejection of the Soviet ideology. They even have a museum about their occupation by the Soviet Union.
Tallinn also has some hipster areas too. They’ve sprung up all over the place! It’s not *all* historical sites.
Photos here