Easter break in Germany was approaching and I knew I wanted to visit someplace different, someplace new. We had Friday and Monday surrounding the holiday off, so on Friday I flew from Bremen to Tallinn, Estonia.
I arrived that evening and since our flight had just missed the bus into town (it only runs every 30 minutes), I split a cab with some other passengers into the city. It was so cheap! Dropped off near to my hostel, I walked through the beautiful city center and found my hostel just a few minutes away. It was lively and full of people, and I began talking with the group after setting down my things. I met a Swiss girl, a South Korean boy, a Brazilian boy, an Australian boy, and an Indian boy who now lives in Norway. After having some cheap hostel beers, we we to the Hell Hunt for a late dinner at 11 pm. Delicious, and also cheap. This would be the theme for my time in Estonia!
The free walking tour began at noon the next day so the Indian boy, S, and I had a nice, delicious breakfast at a nearby cafe Must Puudel before meeting up with an absolutely massive group of people who were interested in the free walking tour. It was over 100 people but fortunately they had two guides to split the group. We could have used two more guides at least to make it a bit smaller! But it was still manageable and we walked through the city and learned a lot about the history of Tallinn. Lisa, a Norwegian girl, Michael, the Australian guy, S, the Indian boy, and I all decided to visit this hipster warehouse district after the tour. It is known as a “creative city” within Tallinn. It just so happened they were having a market for the first time ever that afternoon, and we sampled some free pancakes and cheese, and wandered through the rows of different goods that were being sold. Eventually we had lunch at Frenchy, a restaurant in the area, that was again delicious and cheap. We walked back a different way and saw a pharmacy that has been running since before the 1400s, where they had a little museum showing the weird remedies that used to be sold there, such as horse hooves and hedgehog. Not really sure what they used to cure, but apparently those were the high-tech medicines of the time.
Unfortunately the KGB hotel tour was all booked up (busy Easter weekend in Tallinn) so we went to the SkyBar at the nearby Radisson hotel for a view of the city and a cocktail. It was sunny but cold in Tallinn. Since we had a sort of late lunch, we also had a late dinner of pancakes at the famous restaurant Kompressor. I ate a delicious and massive savory pancake that was just amazing, I could have eaten there multiple times in one visit to Tallinn!
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any more time, because the next morning I had to catch a bus to Latvia! So the Indian boy and I ate a nice breakfast at Popular before I had to go. My visit to Tallinn was cold, sunny, beautiful, interesting, fun and lovely. A perfect beginning to my Easter break!