Tallinn - icy cold in the digital paradise - Baltic States trip 2022

After a 2-hour flight, we arrived in Estonia, the northernmost country of the Baltic States, although Estonia itself sees itself more as a Scandinavian country.

 Estonia is located between Finland, Russia, and Latvia at a strategically important point on the Baltic Sea. This becomes visible when you look at the layout of the Old Town: Tallinn is built on a hill, surrounded by a defensive wall with watchtowers. Most attractions are located in the Old Town, such as the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the city wall, and the old market.

Since we were here in winter, it was freezing cold, the streets were icy and slippery, with outside temperatures of -10 degrees.

On our first day, we explored the city center on our own and our path first led us to the city wall near the cathedral. The wall dates back to the Middle Ages and served to defend the city. Beneath the surface, there are also old catacombs that were used for various purposes. They served as shelters during World War II, as a refuge for the homeless, and as burial chambers for the medieval kings.

Opposite the city wall is the large Orthodox Cathedral, with its beautiful onion domes. I have a fondness for Orthodox churches! Funny story about the cathedral's domes: In the past, the domes were covered with gold leaf. The people in Tallinn were and still are mostly atheists and don't care much about religion, especially the religion of the former aggressor, Russia. When the golden decorations fell off during a storm, the citizens seized the treasures and the church remained "naked".

In the afternoon, we had booked a free walking tour through the Old Town to see the city through the eyes of a local. Julia led us through the city, telling anecdotes about the language, which is very similar to Finnish, and about the pursuing seagull.

For dinner, we decided to have soup in bread, as we hadn't had the chance to do so in Poland at the time and we wanted to make up for it. The beer was very tasty, the soup too, but a bit more expensive!

In our apartment, we almost felt like we were freezing to death, as our heating failed and we had to sleep in ski underwear and it was still freezing 🥶

The next morning, we had a nice breakfast. For me, classic black bread with salted butter and herring. Classic Baltic breakfast! Today, our path led us to the trendy district of Tallinn, where we had a great coffee, strolled through the neighborhoods with old wooden houses, and experienced a new concept of second-hand at a market.

Here, you list your items through an app, but they are physically stored here. If you like the item, you send the money to the owner via a QR code. Never experienced anything like this before. Estonia is a leader in digitalization anyway. Estonia is the undisputed number 1 in terms of digital landscape in the EU. Quote from Julia: If you don't have a startup, you're not a true Estonian!

The short trip to Tallinn has come to an abrupt end, next stop: Latvia! More specifically, the beautiful coastal city of Riga.