I had mixed expectations of Tallinn. On the one hand I imagined a 21st century digitally advanced small city with futuristic technology. On the other hand I imagined the USSR of my parents: Soviet, but not too dirty or poor. The reality was somewhere in between. Despite all the Estonian efforts to eradicate them, Tallinn still has Russian and Soviet influences. Russian is spoken in the farmers market, by taxi drivers and by anyone over the age of 55. At the same time anyone under 40 speaks English better than Russian and is much closer in mindset to Helsinki than Moscow. Back to the Future meets Back in the USSR.
We arrived at a very nice modern airport, the kids immediately ran to the playground and we thoughts that maybe we are still in Scandi.
Our Taxi driver spoke Russian and after a short discussion he politely said (roughly translated from Russian): “I don’t mean to offend you, but I would guess that you are Jewish”. The old Soviet casual anti-Semitism (possibly not even stemming from any hate or negativity) is alive and well.
Our Airbnb apartment was very nice: A very new and modern building right outside the old city. Walking distance to the train station where there was a good farmers’ market, supermarket, even an organic store. It was also a close walk to Kalamaja, a neighborhood our apartment owner tagged as “hipster”, but is a cool residential / café hip neighborhood which blends the old and new. Down our street was a “Juudi” pre school and a European Community School which is a private/public school for the elite.
Tallinn is a very small city – you can walk from end to end in under an hour and drive anywhere in under 20 minutes. The city is very walkable. The old fortress castles sit around the old city which seems frozen in time and surrounded by parks. Outside the walls the city feels like it is growing and expanding in front of your eyes with new glass condos and commercial buildings growing everywhere.
We only spent 4 days in Tallinn and these were the highlights:
Farmers Markets: We found the Balti Jaam market a close walking distance away from our home and V was back in her element with the added bonus of being able to speak Russian with almost all the vendors. The food was good and inexpensive. We had fresh seasonal berries and greens and old school smoked fish delicacies which we ate mostly on our balcony while listening to old Russian music. Nostalgia.
Until V cut her finger:
and our traveling chef had to go on a short medical leave.
Traveling means having to self medicate injuries:
Things got so desperate that Abba even had to pitch in, google “how to cut dill” and ‘cook’:
Caffes: Tallinn has a history of coffee houses and bakeries. They are known for their cinnamon and cardamom buns and we enjoyed them all. Rost Café and Bakery was very good as were some places in Kalamaja and a street in old town that had great coffee shops and yoga studios.
Restaurants: We had a few meals out, but 3 stand out as very good experiences:
Rataskaevu16 restaurant in old town was one that had high quality traditional food with great friendly service. We sat outside and the kids even discovered a play area inside.
NOP was a restaurant V discovered. We went there for lunch, sat outside and had fantastic organic food and biodynamic orange wine. There is an organic store inside and there was a playground in the garden where the kids could play. A local girl threw some sand on Sage and Myla got stung by a bee, but everyone had a great time.
Leib restaurant was the best meal we had in Tallinn and one of the top meals we had on The Big Trip. The outdoor setting in a garden along the city wall. The food is seasonal, organic and super fresh. The wine was natural and unfiltered. It was truly a fantastic experience.
Culture: We took a long walk by the sea to the Estonian outdoor museum. It was a very good and worthwhile outing as the day was beautiful and we all learned a lot about the history of Estonia with hands on experiences. The outdoor museums in Sweden and here are really incredible teaching and historical preservation tools. I wonder why we haven’t encountered any in America.
We also visited the fortress which survived multiple invasions through many centuries. Tallinn was first conquered by the Danes, then the Swedes and the Russians. It gained its independence only after World War I and only had it for a short period until it was gobbled up by the Soviets after WW2 and remained a part of the USSR until its collapse.
Shopping: Since we are traveling on the Big Trip with only 2 suitcases we have really not shopped much at all. Estonia is known for its wool products and as the weather in the Nordics is beginning to turn cooler and in anticipation of our Finland trip to follow we did visit the wool market area and buy Moomin sweaters (yellow for J, pink for M and red for S) and a wool vest for Abba.
Overall Tallinn is a nice emerging city, but it does not feel “Hygge” to us. We are not Estonian and Tallinn is not the most cosmopolitan mixed and accepting location on Earth. Everyone is perfectly nice, but not particularly friendly and it remains stuck between the old and the new, East and West Europe. Great place to visit and experience, but living here for us, would require a real strong economic or other reason.