Tallinn, Estonia!

I went on a cruise around the Baltics that included stops in Tallinn, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki from May 7th-15th! I went with Signe, Lana, Dieuwertje, and Silke. I suck at blogging. I was doing so well during the first half of the semester. Oh well. Better late than never. But I'm going to split my Balalaika and Vodka tour into three posts, Estonia, Russia, and Finland. So here we go!

So the cruise left Stockholm and our first cruise ship was the best! We went to an African dance workshop. 

Silke, Signe, me, Didge, and Lana

Here is our cabin! Tiny room.

It was a fun night! And when we woke up in the morning, we made it to Tallinn. We spent a couple hours on a walking tour of the city which was actually quite fascinating. I knew nothing about Estonia's history so I learned a lot! Now, if you don't know anything about Estonia, here is a brief synopsis of the country's history. Estonia has been pretty wealthy and has been taken over many times by different countries or regimes over the years. We'll just consider the last hundred years or so because the history is hectic and there are a lot of countries that have controlled Estonia. It was under the control of Russia, occupied by the Soviets twice and by the Nazis during WWII. It was finally restored independence in 1991. 

Tallinn's old town

Tallinn's old town is one of the best preserved in the world. Because of the city's prime trade location, it has always been really wealthy and sought after by many but it remained well preserved.

St. Nicholas' Church

I think this church has the goofiest history. During the Soviet occupation pre WWII, the soviets obviously were not pro-churches because of their whole atheism policy so the plan was to destroy the church. Now the church is pretty old, from medieval times, so citizens were not keen to let that happen. They made a deal with the soviets. The church would not be destroyed if it was turned into an atheist museum. What a strange compromise. Now there is some sort of joke about how Estonians are always behind on the times and just generally slow to change so the museum was never finished because WWII and the soviets became distracted. Today it is not an active church but instead an Art Museum of Estonia.

Estonian Flag on Freedom Square

War of Independence Victory Column 

Now, this monument is a bit controversial among Estonians. It was completed in 2009 to honor those who died in the Estonian war of independence from 1918-1920. It was extremely expensive and has features about it that are questionable. For starters, Estonia is not a religious country so the cross is an issue for most people. In the middle of the cross is an E that has a striking resemblance to the Euro E but actually stands for Estonia. Also note that the monument was completed in 2009. The war of independence was over in 1920.

Kiek in de Kok Artillery Tower which means "Peek into the Kitchen"

Russian Orthodox Church in Tallinn

Estonian Parliament

The flag at the top of the tower shows who is in control of  Estonia. The Estonian flag has been up there since 1991.

Here's Tallinn!

Tallinn Town Hall

The town hall has a tiny man in the top tower, Old Thomas, is a symbol of the city and a guardian of the city. There are also dragons that stick out of windows just below the roof. They protect the city.

Tallinn Town Hall Square

After the tour we were starving so we had to find lunch! 

After some map checking, 

we of course found a British pub with steak,

and some Legos to play with,

and a place for snacks!

Our tour guide for the entire trip, Karin, is Estonian so she knew all the cool bars to go to for our bar crawl that night! And that's all for Tallinn. We got up in the morning to catch another boat to Helsinki where we got on the Russia boat. Tallinn is such a fantastic and overlooked city with an incredible history. And it doesn't hurt that it's ultra cheap. All in all, I love Estonia!

Terviseks! (Cheers in Estonian!)