Terviseks! (That's "Cheers" in Estonian)

As so we have reached the end of our bike tour in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. If we thought before coming to the Baltic States that they were a bit interchangeable, they aren't. Tallinn in particular and Estonia in general has a distinct personality. Since the end of Soviet rule, Old Town has been restored and Tallinn has lured in tourists with cafes, shops and restaurants in between historic buildings and churches. It is a popular stop for cruise ships. We were lucky that there were not many in port when we were there. As part of our tour, the company arranged for a tour guide for us in the old city. Unfortunately, it rained, hard, during our walking tour which may have had a dampening effect on our enthusiasm. We got a bit of history and the layout of the old city but we really enjoyed it more when we wandered around on our own with our guidebook in hand.

Fat Margaret cannon tower attached to the Great Coast Gate

We spent part of our first day on own own exploring the Old Town of Tallinn. There is both an Upper and Lower Town. The upper town was the government seat and the lower town was for the merchants from places like Denmark, Sweden and Germany who hired the Estonians to do the jobs they didn't want to do. This part of the city was basically abandoned during Soviet times when many, Russians came into Estonia to work in the now-defunct Russian factories. After independence, Estonia worked intensely on developing its own economy - much of which is technology-based. Apparently, Skype was invented here. The money from Skype revved the engines of the economy and it took off. This provided the state with enough capital to begin the massive restoration of its old city. 

We had already seen many of the streets and buildings in this part of the city on last night's tour so we headed inside to tour the City Museum (Linnamuuseum). The main site of the museum is housed in an old merchant's house and shows how the city developed from its first days. It ends with an exhibit on the top floor that talks about life under Soviet rule. There was a really interesting video of the actual declaration of independence and the ousting of the Russians. All those Russians who came to work in the factories continue to have strong ethnic ties to Russia and they make up about 25% of the population. There is some concern that Russia under Putin will attempt to do the same thing he did in the Ukraine - come in to "protect" the Russian-speaking population in Estonia. 

View from the Upper Old Town

After the museum, we had made reservations to eat at a recommended restaurant called Rataskaevu 16. It was an early dinner or late lunch and was two hours of delicious-ness. If you find yourself in Tallinn, make sure you make a reservation for this place. You won't be sorry.

We needed to walk off the leisurely lunch so we headed out of the Old City and made our way to the acres and acres of Kadriorg Park. It is huge and green, crisscrossed with walking paths, dotted with trees and formal ponds and gardens. It houses the Presidential Palace where the president of Estonia lives. The Kunstimuuseum or art museum is in the park also. It's a massive seven story modern building of limestone, glass and copper. We didn't have time to check it out except from the outside. This park also has the Tallinn Song Festival Amphitheater where what Estonians call the Singing Revolution took place. Estonia is small but in 1988 one third of the population of Estonia - 300,000 people- gathered at the amphitheater to sing patriotic Estonian songs. This had been forbidden under Soviet rule. But Soviet control was weakening so the Estonians started to push back. Singing has long been a national form of expression and this is the form they chose to protest. There are still people alive who remember coming to the amphitheater dressed in folk costumes and joining together with the masses to sing. In 1990, pro-independence candidates won elections in Estonia. In 1991, the USSR fell apart and Estonia was its own country. 

Presidential Palace in Kadriorg Park

One of many sculptures in one of the ponds scattered throughout Kadriorg Park

The next morning before leaving for St. Petersburg, Russia, we walked through another completely different neighborhood in Tallinn called Kalamaja. Here many of the streets were lined with old wooden houses  We walked past the Seaplane Harbor and the walled area surrounding the abandoned Soviet-era prison Patarei. It has not been restored and but can be explored if you book a tour. We were not interested in seeing yet another prison that was a place of torture and execution. We did walk to and explore Telliskivi Creative City. Here entrepreneurs have taken over ten abandoned factory buildings and begun to fill them with shops and cafes, art and fashion, beer and food trucks, graffiti and bike shops. It felt like we were back in the Bay Area as we ate at one of the cafes.

We headed off to the airport for our last stop on this trip - St. Petersburg, Russia.