Tallinn (Estonia)

I was a little disappointed not have got to Tallinn before the stag parties but its proximity to Finland where I was holidaying last September coupled with the touristic worth of Estonia's capital city meant I would have been foolish to let a few drunken Brits put me off. As it turned out, the irritations came from another group altogether....

Some geography....

Tallinn is situated on the Baltic Sea a couple of hours across the water from Helsinki. The Russian city of St Petersburg is a couple of hours north east along the coast and Estonia is the most northerly of the three former Soviet Republics referred to as the "Baltic States". (Incidentally, to remember how they lie it's alphabetical from north to south - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, easy).

Its primarily the amazingly beautiful medieval part of Tallinn that attracts visitors though in recent years the liberal prostitution laws and thriving sex industry as well as the cheap beer have seen the city become a popular destination for groups of young men from all over Europe though there will be plenty of British voices to be heard on any weekend.

The Old Town (Vanalinn) forms the heart of the city; Tallinn Bay is just to the north and the newer parts form a shell around the other sides and outside this armour lies a belt of greenery, a series of attractive but quite different parks and open spaces.

Most visitors to Tallinn only see the Old Town which is a shame because as city break destinations go, Tallinn has more to offer than most. The only problem is deciding what you can see in the time you have available; my only regret was not leaving more time to spend there.

To see the Old Town you need either a good guidebook or a good guide; there are plenty of walking tours available as well as a jump on, jump off bus, a cycle tour and even one on skates though I think the cobblestones might make that one more difficult. We opted for the guidebook tour but we found that there were so many guided tours taking place that we could quite easily listen in to what was being said at various points of interest. My preferred way of doing things is to put the book away, wander the streets at will without following any particular route, nosing into little side streets and alleyways that look appealing. Then stop for lunch, and take a look at the guidebook as you eat, picking out those things you'd like to see before going back out into the Old Town. If you spend your time deliberately looking for things in the book first time round, it'll diminish the sheer pleasure from discovering little gems yourself.

The drawback with Tallinn's Old Town is that many of the historic buildings are still in use today, often by the government or private businesses and so are closed to the public. Of the others, many such as churches can be viewed but only by appointment and so doing a guided tour may grant you access to places you could not see independently. Another reason to have a good guidebook or a guided tour is that there are lots of little facts to learn that you would know simply from strolling the streets looking at the buildings.

For example, one of the towers in the city fortifications is called "kiek-in-de-kok" meaning "Peep into the kitchen" (not in Estonian but in Low German, commonly used at the time because of the influence of other members of the Hanseatic League) and is so called because the homesick soldiers could peer into the kitchens of the houses below from their elevated positions in the tower and it made them feel less miserable. All the little snippets of information help to flesh out the bones of this historic city and really bring it alive.

If you are travelling in summer it might be a good idea to make your second trip around the Old Town late in the afternoon by which time it will be much quieter because the cruise passengers will be back on their boats. I must say that I found the excess of portly Americans shrieking and generally impeding everyone else quite annoying. Every quiet spot would be invaded by them and they would spend ten minutes trying to get the perfect photograph while other tourists waited patiently for the circus to leave town.

Vanalinn is conveniently split into two parts, the Lower and the Upper. The upper part is called Toompea and its here that you'll find perhaps the city's most memorable edifice - the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built in the Russian Orthodox style, resplendent with gold domes and colourful friezes although Toompea is actually named for the Lutheran Dome church that dominates the hill and is very much in the old Swedish style.

Tallinn was a major played in the Hanseatic League in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and the restored buildings of Tallinn's Old Town reflect the golden age of this trading port. There are houses that would have belonged to wealthy merchants, ornate churches and colourful guildhalls.

There are a few museums in the Old Town but there was nothing that particularly attracted my interest. As you would expect there's plenty of opportunities for souvenir shopping and the quality of the goods in generally high. There's a plethora of stores selling goods made from amber - mainly jewellery but other decorative items too - but these seemed to me to be over-priced and we found alternative shops in the less touristy areas offering better value. Linen goods are beautiful but quite costly and there are plenty of stalls selling knitted goods too.

On the lower level, the large Town Hall Square (Raekoja Plats) is where you'll find the busiest cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating available so you can watch the world go by. As well as plenty of places to try traditional Estonian food, you can find Indian, Russian, Brazilian and Chinese food on or close to the square. Of course, these establishments are more expensive because of their location and better value can be found further away from the square. Our favourite was a place called "Pelmeni", tucked away in a basement on a narrow alley a minute from the main square. Pelmeni are little Russian dumplings with various fillings served with a light stock and topped with a little soured cream. It's self service and your bowl is weighed at the counter, the price included a side salad and soup to start as well as a soft drink. Alcohol is available but charged separately. It was a nice alternative to the more formal places we'd been dining in for the past week.

As you approach the edges of the Old Town bars become more prevalent and and in the evenings it becomes much noisier. There are lots of English and Irish bars, all boasting of topless waitresses, televised football and cooked breakfasts. For a bit more style and authenticity there are plenty of places if you hit the side streets where you can find not only cosy traditional places but some very funky designer bars with striking décor and creative cocktails. The Depeche Mode bar is a must for fans of eighties music, with music from the Essex lads playing non-stop in this synth shrine.

As well as some cool places to drink alcohol, Tallinn also boasts some lovely cafes, usually small and cosy with soft sofas to snuggle up on while you drink great coffee and eat sinful pastries and cream cakes, many also sell handmade chocolates.

My favourite Tallinn activities were outside the centre. A fifteen minute bus ride brings you to the television tower, a common sight in most Soviet cities. This one measures 314 metres and has a viewing platform and restaurant (with old style Soviet service from the waitresses) at 170metres. You can see some bullet holes in the concrete near the doors of the building that date from 1991 when Estonia attempted to break away from the Soviet Union. Needless to say the views over the city and Tallinn Bay are worth the trip out here. The city's Botanical Gardens are next door to the tower.

Back towards town it's worth stopping off at Kadriorg Park to see the "Song Bowl"; Estonians are crazy about singing and this amphitheatre in the park is the setting for singing competitions. It has an an official capacity of 150,000 but in 1988 twice as many people managed to cram in for a festival during which people started to call for independence. Two years later, at the final festival before independence, over half a million people came to the song bowl to show solidarity. As historic sights go, this is today one of the most important in Estonia.

As a devoted eastern Europhile, I enjoyed seeing the real Tallinn as much as the fairytale city on show for the tourists but it is a stark contrast. During the 1990s money was pumped into the Old Town, without it the neglected medieval buildings could not have been restored to drag in the sightseers that come now. However, it has meant that the suburbs have lagged behind and the reality for most of the city's residents is one of poor housing and poverty with crumbling tenements and shabby stores selling limited goods.

For anoraks like my other half, Tallinn has the full range of public transport with several options usually available to make any journey. We seemed to spend an inordinately excessive amount of time indulging his love of trolley buses and trams and found them easy to use, cheap and frequent. Remember to take some comfortable shoes because the Old Town is quite hilly and there are lots of cobbled streets.

Overall Tallinn is quite a cheap city to visit though you can spend more by choosing to eat and drink in the more centrally located establishments. Beers are a little less than you'd pay in the UK, drinking domestic brands saves you more. There are plenty of accommodation options and even in the centre you can find all price brackets have lots of choice; you won't save much by staying further out. Two people can eat a good meal with drinks for about thirty Pounds though its easy to spend more and possible to spend much less. Travel on public transport is mere Pence.

My gripes about the numbers of tourists might sound churlish but it was the only negative aspect of my experience; I was simply so struck by the Charm and beauty of this graceful city that I didn't want to share it - especially with Norman and Wilma Sue of Iowa.