Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn is absolutely magical around christmas time (according to BBC commercials viewed in my hotel room while working in Galway:), so we thought we'd give it a shot. The town itself is frozen in the middle ages and dates back to the 15-17th centuries. There are countless churches, fortified walls and towers, and amazing buildings that give the town its character. The two churches, Alexander Nevesky and St. Olaf are completely different, the former an Orthodox cathedral and the later, a Lutheran church which was once the tallest building in the world during the middle ages.

The second you are dropped off at the town gates, you feel like you are in a real life disney world. The old town is one of the best preserved we have seen, complete with perfectly intact cobblestone streets and approximately 20 towers remaining from medieval fortifications that surround the UNESCO designated town that you can walk along most days.

After arriving we caught sunset over the old town, then had a great Italian meal down a narrow alley before hitting up a couple pubs to close the night off. DO NOT go to the touristy brew pub (that happened to be across from our hotel), the beer is the worst I have ever had! But, as an award, the town square is one of the best we've been to. If we had done the European best of the best post, it would have rivaled Sienna as the coolest square and coolest old town.

The Merchants House Hotel, is one of the most charming hotels we have stayed at during our time abroad. It was located 15 paces off the main square in an old merchant's house that has been refurbished to be both modern and charming. It was perfect. We wouldn't stay anywhere else if going to Tallinn. It even has a 24 hour sauna we took advantage of at 3am after the bar! The next day we wandered around the old town and enjoyed a drink on the old town square at a nice little bar as seen below:

The next day we climbed to the top of St. Olaf to see the commanding view of the city. You can see the elevated part of town where the parliament resides with Nevsky cathedral in the background (as well as a couple other churches). It was really beautiful and well worth it!We had dinner at Mekk, a highly-rated modern Estonian restaurant with underwhelming food. However, we appreciated the variety of flavours and understand you can't win all the time. The pubs we did go to were great.

That evening, we departed on a Eurolines bus across the Russian border. Stay tuned for future posts on hellish 3am border crossings and a 6am race across St. Petersburg in search of English speakers and a missing backpack.