First weekend in Tallinn, Estonia.

I wake up in the morning to take the bus from Riga to Estonia, boarding at 10h. It’s a four-and-a-half trip and I alternate between napping and staring out the window at the forests we pass along the way.

Arriving at the bus station I take a Bolt to the apartment, circling the area before I find the entrance. I’m slightly early and my host works to set up a new router while I wait. It’s a beautiful place in Rotermann City, a newer shopping complex just outside the Old Town.

I’ve made a dinner reservation at 180° in Port Noblessner 17h30, my first meal in Estonia. I’m not sure what to do with my time. I consider taking a walk through the old town and coming back to shower before dinner but it seems counterintuitive as the resstaurant sits on the far side of the old town. I’d have to backtrack and then maybe take a cab to the restaurant given the amount of time I have. In the end, I shower and decide to walk through the old town to the restaurant.

The old town is pretty and I walk cobblestoned streets from the city gates to Raekoja plats and beyond. The streets of the old town feel wider, the city more open than some other medieval cities I’d visited. With the warmth of the late afternoon light, it’s a lovely place for a stroll.

I wander to the southwest corner of the city to the Kiek in de Kök fortifications and then out through the gates to the other side.

On the other side of the city walls I come across the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, an Eastern Orthodox cathedral built between 1894 and 1900. It’s the city’s largest cupola church, and a source of some controversy as there have been calls to move or demolish the church at various times in history, most recently in response to Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Opposite the church stands the pink Parliament of Estonia. A beautiful garden runs alongside the southern wall of the Parliament and I take a stroll through it before heading back to the church and then down Toom Kooli tn headed north.

I stop in Bishop's Garden for the views before continuing north to the Patkuli viewing platform to admire its views over the northern area of the old town.

A set of stairs leads back down from the hill and I walk through a small park past the train station and into the Kalamaja neighborhood.

Walking down Vana-Kalamaja tn I admire the typography on signs hanging bove storefronts and cafes. It feels like a throwback to another time, and I’m taken with the history of the town, how moving from one block to another feels like walking into another era in the city’s existence.

Approaching the bay, the conflux of times eras represented by the architecture almost gives me whiplash, as modern apartment complexes sit across from old wooden structures, the housepaint sanded by time.

I walk to the Lennusadam, a maritime museum, past an abandonded building and towards a building that houses the future exhibition of a Hanseatic ship currently being restored. Behind the museum I head to Seaplane Harbor to admire some of the ships docked there, including the Suur Tõll, a 1914 icebreaker originally built for the Russian Empire. It’s part of the martime museum. I don’t have time to board her this afternoon, but make a note to come back to the museum and visit it properly before I leave.

A path follows the shoreline towards Noblessner to the site of Lessner's ship propeller. I pass Iglupark and a small food court and imagine how nice it would be to sit in a sauna facing the sea.

Heading back towards the city along Port Noblessner I find myself before 180°. It’s still a little early; the sun is setting but the restaurant isn’t yet oepn and so I find a spot to sit by the port to watch the sunset.

For dinner I am first lead to a lounge area where I am offered a glass of champagne and snacks before being led to a counter overlooking the kitchen. I opt for the wine pairing and chat with the chefs and sommalier as they pass beautifully-plated dishes and pour delicious wines. I also get to watch as they prepare dishes for others seated later than I.

The next day it rains. I’ve bought tickets to The Lizard at the Estonian National Opera, a Lepo Sumera ballet that never saw its premiere due to historical events unfolding in Estonia when it was first written in the late 1980s. I know nothing about the ballet, I am generally interested in seeing a live performance, and the timing works out perfectly.

Inside, the theater is relatively intimate. The ceiling boasts a chandelier supported by a Socialist realist painting by Evald Okas, Richard Sagrits, and Elmar.

As it turns out, the ballet tells parallel stories, one fantastical and one modern. The former turns out to be scenes from a film being shot in the modern day and the ballet jumps between the different frames, one echoing the other as love triangles play out across them. Having read nothing about the ballet I’m pleasantly shocked the first time we’re taken out of the fantastical bits into the modern day, and I’m thrilled to have come into the performance blind.

Afterwards I take a short walk in the rain back to the apartment. I am reminded of the wintery days in Ljubljana, climbing the hill behind my apartment to the castle walls and its views over the city. Today, I’m not doing as much work, but the overall feeling is the same.

I’ve already come to love Tallinn and wish I were spending more time here. When I first looked into Riga and Tallinn it seemed like the consensus was that there was more to do in Riga, but having spent the weekend here, I feel like there’s as much to explore, and wish I had flipped the amount of time I had alotted to each. Absent the time now, I vow to come back. 🇪🇪