Tallinn

Day One: Dec 18, 2024

We arrived in Tallinn to find the ground lightly dusted with snow, giving the city a wintry charm. However, the journey had been less than ideal. Our Wizz Air flight was delayed by two hours without explanation. After a similar experience in Lithuania, where we were delayed for seven hours, we decided this would be the last time we would use Wizz Air unless absolutley neccessary.

Tallinn Airport, however, was a pleasant surprise—modern, clean, and efficient. We passed through security relatively quickly after about 20 minutes of queuing. Exhausted and frustrated from the delays, we opted for a cab to our accommodation rather than our usual option of a bus. It was pricey at €16, but it felt worth it to avoid any further hassle so late at night, the taxi driver was also a friendly guy who spoke good Enlgish so despite the rip-off price we were not too frustrated with how things were starting in our first time in Estonia so far.

When we arrived at our apart-hotel, we encountered another hiccup. The reception desk was unattended, and ringing the bell got no response. A quick phone call to the number provided, in Bobby’s best Estonian, prompted a friendly response. The woman on the other end spoke English and came out to greet us from a nearby room.

She was courteous, helpful, and full of information about Tallinn and Estonia. A fan of Japanese culture, she and Bobby even struck up a conversation about it, which made the check-in process feel warm and welcoming despite the late hour.

Our apartment was cozy and well-equipped. Thankfully, we had brought food from the airport, as everything was closed by the time we arrived, just after midnight. We settled in for the night, knowing our first stay in Tallinn would be brief. The next morning, we were headed to Finland via a ferry, with plans to return later to properly explore Tallinn and celebrate Christmas in Pärnu.

Day Two: 21 Dec, 2024

Having been in Helsinki for the past few days we were back in Estonia from the same ferry we had left from. The accomodation we had chosen was a far cry from the apart-hotel we had when we first arrived. You see the apart-hotel was situated about a 10 minute walk from the old town, whereas the AirBnb we had booked for our return was a 1 hour walk to the old town in quite an old school Soviet style area! We were quite pleased about this however as we prefer to be away from the touristy areas anyway.

And so we walked from the ferry to the nearest bus stop around 10 minutes away and started our journey to the residental district called Pelguranna. We arrived and headed to our apartment which was a short walk away from the bus we had arrived on, we were greeted at the apartment by an associate of the apartment owner who spoke no English at all, despite this we communincated with smiles and nods as she explained which key works with which door in the apartment.

After we had unpacked we headed to a nearby supermarket to pick up provisions, we were surpised to see that Estonia was not that much cheaper than Helsinki, the cost have living seems to have hit both countries hard too.

After grabbing what we needed we headed back and put on some TV...an early 60's American war film dubbed into Russian, very strange! We tucked into our dinner which consisted of a chicken shashlik kebab baguette with a mildly spicy sauce, pickles and cheese with fries for Bob, and for Tam a garlic, herb and chicken ciabatta with fries along with a tub of mayo for dipping, very nice!

After settling in we decided to relax with a few animated horror stories on YouTube then finished off by watching the film Speak no Evil which was a great watch!