Tallinn (Estonia)

The first bit is about getting there, and after that it's about Tallin itself, ok?

1st Bit
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We board the Fantaasia ship, after some initial problems finding the terminal, signs would be helpful. Still we make it in time, and find the cabin, thanks to one of the staff who strangely speaks no Swedish. The cabin is small but we hadn't planned spending much time in here anyway except perhaps to sleep occasionally.

We explore the ship, it's not too big, with just 2 bars, restaurants, a small nightclub, blackjack and slot machines, and not much else. The theme of this particular cruise is Caribbean Dream which meant they had hung a few flowers around the place and play latino music on a never ending loop, with some occasional reggae too. No steel bands though, no soca, not even a Bob Marley track the whole time. I wonder if the people behind it had ever been to a Caribbean island, or even done the slightest bit of research. Still we were looking forward to a new country, so it didn't really matter all that much.

The hostess or Cruise manager as she called herself was obviously Estonian, wearing the same dress everywhere she went, did her best to motivate the passengers, but I feel most were simply unwilling to enjoy themselves.

Entertainment includes the first Estonian band we had heard (and possibly the last). To be truthful they were ok. The guitarist was good, the bass player just stood as a bass player does, the keyboard player was ok, the drummer was great, and the singer was just a little bit boring. Thankfully they let the drummer sing on more than one occasion, showing that it is possible to drum and sing without losing the plot. After a few more songs from the singer, Sean couldn't help but shout out "let the drummer sing!". Well it was fun, we clapped if no one else did, and Sean told the drummer how good he was at the end, sure that made him happy.

And if all that entertainment wasn't enough, there was the cocktail game. Seven colourful cocktails were brought out and put on display in the middle of the dance floor, along with a list of names. A cocktail was held up and the first to shout out the correct name won the cocktail. The game was over too quickly, but more entertainment was to come.

Dancers dressed in very little performed a short routine, along with a singer who did some kind of South American type song and also a talented guy who did some juggling, but this is where details start to become hazy, and we eventually head for the cabin and a good nights sleep.

We awaken just shortly before the ship docks in Tallinn, and have time for hot drinks before venturing out. Passports are checked and stamped, and we are away into Estonia.

2nd Bit
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So here we are in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The weather forecast said it would be cloudy, and it is a bit, but blue sky is peeking through the cloud, so we are a little hopeful. We forget the map on the boat. The first things we see are just a few run down bits of land and some old derelict buildings but we follow where it looks like most people are going and get to a clothes market within a few minutes. It's small with loads of nice wolly clothes, and even if we just look at them, we are told all about it, people desperate for a quick sale. We don't buy anything. We pass by the Advent church, which doesn't look too interesting so we don't go inside. We then find ourselves amongst the souvenir shops, alongside part of the old city wall, and stop off to have a browse. Still we don't see anything we fancy yet, so carry on until we find ourselves in Katarina Keik (old way). Now things begin to look more interesting with lots of pretty old buildings and cobbles on the streets.

We find a really old looking church with a sermon going on, although it appears to be in Russian. The church is full of people sitting on wooden benches which rise up to make a triangle shape. It's quite dimly lit, and looks like it needs a bit of repair work doing, but it's nice and unspoilt. We listen for a while, then head further up the old way. It's now about 10am and the sky is beginning to look lovely and blue, ideal for one of our favourite pass-times, taking pics! We are in the town square now, and spot a lady in traditional dress The buildings around are quite colourful and there are places to sit and eat outside the restaurants. We head out of the square and up a steep hill where a few people are selling paintings of the city. We are greeted with a beautiful view of St. Alexanders Nevski's cathedral, with it's domes. This cathedral was completed in the year 1900. We take a few good photos of this, and also Karolina insists on us both having photos with leaves on our heads for some reason. Sean now desperate for a cup of tea, we find a beautifully cosy cafe tucked away next to a pottery shop. The place is almost empty, and we recieve a good service to the table. A few minutes later the place was full of tourists from England!

Refreshed from our drink, we continue and just around the corner we see another beautiful church tower and we take more pics! This is the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin (known commonly as the Dome Church). It dates to just after the Danes invasion of 1219. We go inside and it's beautifully decorated and ornate. We are not allowed to take photos inside, but manage to take one of a Lion statue in the entrance, with the sun shining through the window. A few minutes later we stumble upon a place where we can see a good view of some of the newer parts of Tallinn, but the view is not too interesting. Below we can see a run down football field and decide not to head that way. We're fascinated by the amount of old buildings that had been left to fall into dis-repair, where others were so amazingly well kept. We take pictures of both to show the contrast. Even the old crumbling buildings were amazing to see though.

We find ourselves heading back towards the Cathedral again, and stop to look at the beautiful Katarina II Castle, a dominating pink coloured building, which looks nothing like a traditional English castle. We then head into the Cathedral itself where there are many locals deep in religion, and music can be heard. Again no photos are allowed inside, so we buy a postcard instead. Outside again the sky is a deep blue colour which made for some beautiful pictures again. There are a handful of old ladies begging on the steps and around the cathedral, and in return for a small gift, we photograph one old lady counting her money.

We now notice a church with two towers in the distance, which we decide we'd like to see. First we pass by more of the prominent defence towers, before getting distracted by a gathering of people. On investigation we find a kind of mini market for man selling CD's and DVD's. This looks interesting and we find the prices are unbelievably low, just 60 or 70 EEK per CD. Most look ok, and as soon as we show some interest in Pink Floyd for example, the whole line of sellers know what we like. All these guys are selling straight out of bags, some on the park benches, but all ready to make a run for it should the police show up. We are assuming these were all pirate copies, maybe produced locally, or perhaps from Russia. An interesting experience. After this diversion we continue our search for the twin towered church, which seems to have momentarily disappeared from view.

We eventually find the Kaarli Evangelical Lutheran Church, and on the way meet a passing group of Hare Krishna people jumping around and chanting, this is great, and we'd have liked to have joined in, but just took a picture instead. On the way into the church we see a man start praying and holding his head in his hands, we feel he should have gone into the church first perhaps. After a look around we find a shop selling Estonian wine and spirits, and at these prices we can't resist buying a few, and lots of chocolate too. We notice that the prices of everyday items we just so cheap in comparison to Sweden, a loaf of bread for example would have been a tenth of the price. After this experience, Karolina wants to do nothing but shop for chocolate, so we visit another store and buy more. All this shopping makes us hungry so we look around for somewhere to eat. After a bit of looking we find ourselves back in the old square and head for the Olde Hansa. This is a very authentic medieval feasting place and is a popular restuarant. Service is great. The menus offered a variety of traditional dishes, including wild boar and bear, along with special beers and wines. Luckily they also had menus in English, and the waitresses speak English too (in fact almost everywhere we went). We opt for Cinnamon beers and meat dishes with a huge selection of vegetables and other interesting things. The waitress explains what everything on the plates were before we ate! It was delicious.

Afterwards we write out our postcards and find a big orange coloured post box to put them in. All around were a lot of signs for 'Alkohol' and 24hour drinking dens, Karolina has to take photographs. We then buy some cheap tobacco from one of the kiosks. Smoking must be cheaper than eating in Tallinn, the prices were just ridiculously low compared with the UK. A packet of 20 cost only about 10 EEK (6 SEK), less than 50p in UK money.

Karolina takes control of the camera once more and goes about photographing Trams, Lada's and buildings. We also see what appears to be a sculpture of oil drums in the shape of a chair, which a group of local young boys are playing on. Luckily they make interesting poses, and shout things in Estonian. Then alas, it's almost time to get back onboard the ferry.

We take a final look at the city of Tallinn, and recap on the things we have done, the people we have met, and the hours we have enjoyed. We haven't seen everything, we ignored the maps and the brouchures, but it was a great visit, and surely a place to come back to again.

The journey home again was "most interesting", read on the website... http://angelfire.com/retro/seany