Our trip to Tallinn involved a flight via Vilnius in the smallest plane we've ever been in. As the bus at Munich airport pulled up next to a plain white unmarked plane at some far flung part of the airport, I got the impression that the Munich-Vilnius route doesn't have a particularly high priority. Our pilot (who looked like a gangly 15 year old in his dad's suit) announced that the load sheet was wrong so there would be a delay while they sorted it out. For the second leg from Vilnius to Tallinn we were upgraded to the pride of the Air Lituanica fleet (which consists of 2 planes) which was somewhat larger but ironically only had about 20 passengers. Anyway the flights went fairly smoothly and we made it to Estonia in one piece.
Near the harbour is a disused theater hall built in the Soviet Union days for the 1980 Olympics as the sailing events were held here. It is made entirely of concrete and doubled as a bomb shelter in case Finland ever launched an attack. It is rapidly deteriorating and will probably need to be fenced off soon.
Back in the centre of town, the medieval quarter is still surrounded by the original stone wall which is one of the best preserved in Europe.
We saw a sign advertising "Elk Soup" and thought we'd better give it a go, so we headed into this dark medieval looking kitchen and ordered the Elk soup, pastie, a jug of beer and fished some pickles out of the pickle barrel. The food was brilliant, the beer ridiculously strong, and the ambiance was perfect including the suitably surly serving wenches.
We went to "Estonia's oldest pub" for dinner and watched the world cup with a bunch of disappointed Italians.
Tallinn has one of the best old town centres we have seen, combined with good food, nice people, and a quick ferry to Helsinki, it's a really nice place for long weekend.
- Joe
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