My Baltic Adventure — Part 1 Tallinn Bound
“Excuse me? Excuse me? Is this the ferry to Tallinn?” I was running late, I often run late. He looked down from his newspaper, took a nice deep breath, and uttered one single word, “no.” He then proceeded to lift his newspaper back up and continue reading. Not exactly the most proactive of security guards.
In desperation, I pointed to another ferry, “This one Tallinn?” I noticed while speaking to people who don’t speak particularly good English, I drop words like, ‘the’ ‘to’ ‘is.’ I am not sure if this actually makes it easier for people to understand me, but I can’t help it. He once again dropped his newspaper down, looked towards the ferry I was pointing at, and shook his head again, “no.”
Once again, he gently raised his newspaper, but I was in a rush. “Which one is Tallinn then?” I showed him my e-ticket, he dropped his glasses, read it and said. “Not here.” Satisfied with his answer he went back to his paper. ‘Not here?’ ‘Then, where?’ I leaned back over to the security guard and with a wide grin and warm smile, that not even the angriest of people couldn’t get cross with asked. “Where?”
He sighed again, obviously, I was interrupting his very important news reading session. “Other terminal,” he grunted and lifted his newspaper back up for the final time. I could tell that if I interrupted him again, he’d probably carter me off to the nearest Finnish prison cell, where he would promptly finish me off. (Hahahaha, Sorry!!)
After briefly getting lost again, I quickly found the other terminal, which once again lived up to its name. I don’t know what its is, but I have this weird accidental habit of booking really weird and downright bizarre public transport.
I quickly hot-footed it inside the other terminal, where I was expecting to find my large ferry waiting to whisk me across the mighty Gulf of Finland. Instead of that, waiting for me was some jumped up little catamaran, with no time to hesitate I quickly boarded and settled in on the top deck for some magnificent views as we pulled away from Helsinki.
Fortunately, it was another warm, calm spring May day, so there were very little waves to trouble my little old catamaran, but judging by the size of it, it must be hellish on a day with rough seas. It would get tossed around like a salad in Andy Murray’s hands. Altogether though it was a rather scenic ride, there’s also a little café on board where you can buy overpriced snacks and some magazines to read, but I just whiled away my time on the deck and soon enough, I could see land ahead. Tallinn was in my sights.
I don’t know whether the harbour in Tallinn is under construction, or if it is just our little catamaran isn’t allowed in it, but we arrived at this strange sort of old abandoned military fort. The captain promptly jumped off the boat and ran over to a little gate, pulled it open and gestured for us to cross into Estonia. There wasn’t a passport official or customs official to be seen. I quickly passed through the little metal gate and I was now officially in Estonia. Schengen seems to make borders simply vanish, either that or they couldn’t be bothered to turn up this day.
I quickly made my way around the city, to my Airbnb on the other side. Settled in, met my lovely host and then went to the nearest shopping center. Not because I wanted to, but because I needed some new shoes. I do a lot, and I mean a lot of walking while I am travelling and don’t really have room in my backpack for more than one pair of shoes at a time. I wear them until my trainers have turned into sandals with my toes peeking out of the sides.
Returning, I quickly settled into my little studio apartment and decided to go for an evening walk around the picturesque town. It was a Saturday evening, so the town was a hive of activity…
To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from Tallinn, was it going to full of hideous old communist architecture? Nope, instead, it was more like a fairy tale like world, with stunning castles overlooking a medieval town…
Like Helsinki, I quickly fell in love with Tallinn, but in a totally different way, I adored its little-cobbled streets and high vantage viewpoints, that gave great views of the surrounding areas. It’s hard to know what to expect when you arrive in a new country, especially smaller ones that don’t feature in the news often. The population of the whole of Estonia is less than the city of Barcelona! The only thing I really knew about Estonia, was that it was the birthplace of Skype, and has a weird E-Residency scheme every digital nomad seems to be raving about.
My plan was to spend three nights in Helsinki, before boarding the morning train down to Tartu, spend the day and night there, exploring the city and its bizarre observatory. I would then once again hop on the morning train down to the border town of Valga, kill some time there, before finally getting the train to Riga. Yes, I know I could have just got the direct bus, but this seemed to be much more interesting, and I wasn’t in a rush.
But for now, I was in Tallinn. Breathing in the sights, wandering along the cobbled streets and enjoying the may sun…
