Tallinn - Old World Meets New
July 9, 2007
To maximize my remaining time a trip to yet another county was in order. Tallinn was the destination of choice, with 2 hours sleep and 2 friends, Sandy and Luca. We headed for Estonia on the ScandiJet super cat boat. This was the future of boat travel. Like a floating lounge and restaurant it offered a beautiful trip. We arrived in a surprising environment. Toted as a struggling eastern European country by numerous missionaries, I had expected a run down dilapidated city, I was entirely misled. The old city of Tallinn was beautiful, parts of the city dated back to the 11th century. There were towers surrounding the old city wall that looked marvelous. Of course this was the tourist Mecca and prices for everything were grossly inflated to the normal Estonian standard. This city had narrow cobble stoned streets, huge cathedrals, theatres churches and amazing castle walls. We tried some authentic Estonian food “Grandma’s Roast” this was a beef dish with some great side dishes including beats, potatoes fresh garden salad and lime and lemon slices. We took a walk into the modern city that rivals Vancouver for its modern glass skyscraper look. It is hard to imagine that this used to be under the thumb of mother Russia, in fact there were more luxury cars in Tallinn then anywhere else I have ever seen, times are looking up for Estonia if this is any indication of how the rest of the country is living, but I know this is not likely. We were recommended to go to this lounge or as the Italians say “disco bar” called the island. We soon became quite lost. Fortunately for us we met one of the nicest people in the world; this woman that was around 35 walked us to where we could see a beautiful park and see a castle in St. Catherine’s Park. We then thought it time for drinks, and the Island turned out to be a great place, kind of post modern beach meets Yaletown. They were playing progressive funky house music that despite its upbeat tempo knocked Luca out. As we paid our bill, they did an amazing thing; they gave every group a CD with the Island Mix Music. This is a brilliant way to advertise for yourself, they had the address and contact info on the cover in a fashionable way. New advertising media, love it.
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Tallinn is really a great city, when I first went there, I expected a kind of Poland, but It was much more scandinavian kind of city ( except for some buildings) nice women also