Tallinn is a quick two hour ferry ride from Helsinki. This makes it a very popular destination for Finnish tourists, or more commonly, a destination for Finns to come, get drunk on cheap alcohol, and return to Finland with the maximum amount of inexpensive Estonian booze they can carry. But there is more to Tallinn than the beer, I just can’t remember any of it… I kid, I kid, although I did drink some beer in Tallinn, only it wasn’t the especially cheap kind.
Tallinn has a large and beautiful old town, which is packed full of tourists. It’s nice, and I like medieval buildings of course, but one wonders how many one can see before they all blur together. However I did go all in on the medieval-ness of everything when I went to the medieval themed restaurant III Draakon. Honestly, it was really good. This wasn’t a gimmicky, over-the-top medieval restaurant, it was hearty, simple food, served in a real medieval building, lit by candlelight, with staff dressed in authentic medieval garb. Yum. Luckily there’s more to Tallinn than just the old town. I didn’t make it too far from the old town, but I could see skyscrapers in the distance (something which Helsinki lacks, either to its credit or detriment depending on your view). What I did see outside of the old town was quite something.
I first went to the Museum of Occupation. This tells the story of Estonia’s difficult past as a country occupied first by the Soviets, then by the Nazis, and then by the Soviets again up until the break up of the USSR. Needless to say, this was not an enjoyable time. During Nazi occupation, Estonia became the only (unless I’m mistaken) country to be deemed Jew-free. Although the Nazis then brought more Jews into Estonia to be held in concentration camps, which is slightly ironic and very sad. When the Soviets returned at the end of WWII things continued to be bad, with huge amounts of people being arrested and deported to Siberia or simply executed. The exhibit ended by looking to the future and moving forward, rather than dwelling in the past, which was nice.
The National Library caught my eye because it is a massive, imposing building. Inside it is equally impressive. I just looked it up, and it seems that it was built right at the end of the 80s, so it is, as it appears, a piece of Soviet architecture. It was also designed by the same guy who designed the next thing I want to talk about.
Linnahall was built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics because Tallinn is so close to Moscow (12 hour drive). I don’t know what they were thinking. What it is is an amphitheatre and hockey arena, neither of which are currently open, sadly, but with an exterior that is a massive, brutalist, concrete thing. I guess most of the interior must be below ground, because you can walk around on the exterior in this strange, abandoned plaza and up sets of stairs like you’re ascending some sort of Communist pyramid. It was very cool.
I set out on a bit of a walk to get to one place in Tallinn that I really wanted to visit, and I’ll tell you about that in a moment, but first let me tell you what I stumbled upon on my way. It was a prison. A prison is what I stumbled upon. Upon an old, disused prison I stumbled. This was very cool because the prison was hosting an exhibit about its use during the Nazi and Soviet times as a horrible place for political prisoners and the like. This was an immensely powerful exhibition. I read the stories of what was done there, and who was kept there while standing in the cells and hallways of the prison itself. This was not a pleasant place at all. By the time I made it through I was drained and ready for something less wretched.
Luckily! I was on my way to a brewery when I upon the prison stumbled. So I continued unto there. A couple years ago I had a beer from Estonia in Victoria, BC, and it was possibly the best beer I had ever experienced. A gose that was crisp and subtle and refreshing. This beer was from the Põhjala brewery, which is conveniently located in Tallinn. And it was very good. They brew beer which is easily on par or better than any craft beer I’ve had in Canada.
Tallinn, and Estonia in general, didn’t get much of my time. I would like to see more, but there are so many places I want to visit that I decided to move on. Where am I now? you ask. Well, let’s just say its probably haunted and leave it at thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
And whither then? 