Estonia - Tallinn and Laheema

My trip to Tallinn was a little more hectic than I had hoped. I managed to miss my train, which already was a dangerously late time and had to get the next one, which meant I had just 20 minutes to make it from the station to the port with my heavy bags. The problem was the port was on the other side of the city and much further than I expected.

Leaving Finland

Thankfully, I made it to the boat with just 1 minute to spare and was the last passenger to board. That's me I guess, always leaving things until as late as possible. The journey itself was very relaxing and gave me time to catch my breath and eat some breakfast before arriving in Estonia.

Arriving in Tallinn

Once in Estonia, it was exactly as I remembered on my two previous trips last year. I headed straight for the hostel, which was one of the highest rated in europe according to the booking website I was using. I dumped my bags and from the outset started meeting lots of different people.

Walking around the edge of the old town

I was quite nervous about my first time alone in a hostel, but I soon learnt to be as open and friendly as possible as everybody else was in the same situation. Most of the others seemed to be from english-speaking countries, namely Australia, Canada and the US, so it was easyt to communicate and get along.

The only reason they put the sign up must be because someone already did it...

I did some quick sightseeing, although having already been to Tallinn (twice!) there was little I had not already seen in the old town so I took a walk further away to the new town with its gleeming skyscrapers.

Old meets new

Later that afternoon I went to an Estonian restaurant with a couple of people from the hostel. It's true what they say about Estonian food, it was full of meat and quite bland but as I hadn't eaten all day I didn't really mind.

Out on the town

That night a big group of us went to a bar called Hell Hunt, which was much nicer than it sounds and even claims to be Tallinn's first pub. After it closed we wandered around until we found the holy grail - a 24 hour bar! The beer was so cheap that I ended up drinking far too much and couldn't get up the next day.

Former KGB headquarters with bricked-up torture basement

The problem was I was supposed to get up early and head for Saarema national park, but I didn't wake until the afternoon and by then it was raining heavily, so I decided to stay in.

Walking from Palme to Vosu

I decided to extend my stay from 2 nights to 3 and got the bus the next day to Viitna. I then stumbled across a local bus which saved a 7km walk to the tourist information office. The driver spoke no english when I asked where it was going, but the passengers seemed to know english and all helped out. In fact, when I nearly got off at the wrong stop seemingly half the bus stood up and told me, which was quite a nice experience.

On the beach at Vosu

I walked about 3 hours to Vosu, getting lost several times on the way along lanes that were unmarked on my map, but eventually I made it and relaxed on the beach for a while.

Still painting the lines...

It was a nice little village but there was little to see so eventually I got the bus straight back to Tallinn and collapsed into bed.

I guess there are ACDC fans even way out in the country

I had a great time in Tallinn and a good experience on my first time in a hostel. I'm currently on the island of Saremaa, which is where I headed next. Hopefully I'll have time to update this again sometime soon!