An exchange semester is not only a chance to visit a specific country, but it also offers the unique chance to visit interesting locations nearby.

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia. However from Austria it is only really reachable by plane, since Estonia is the northernmost of the baltic states and there is no direct train connection available. The only train connections available are going through Belarus, which requires a visa to pass through.

Since Estonia is part of the EU and since 2011 part of the euro zone, a trip to Estonia is relatively uncomplicated and can be done spontaneously without much planning ahead of time. Thus I decided to use the time in the intensive period, during which I have not attended any mandatory university courses, to pay a visit to Tallinn.

This article is part of a 3 part series about my visit in Tallinn. There will also be an extra article about public transport in Tallinn which will deal also with the plans of Rail Baltica.

The Trip

Between Helsinki and Tallinn there are ferry connections by at least 3 companies. This means that travel is cheap and many connections are available. I chose Eckerö Lines, because it was the cheapest one at the time of booking.

Since the ship was leaving at about 08:30 (EEST, 5:30 AM UTC) I started early in the morning.

In Helsinki there are 3 ports from which big ferries are leaving. One in the city center near Kauppatori, one is the container harbour in Vuosaari and the last one is the western terminal (Länsiterminaali) which is located southwest of the city center.

Eckerö Line is departing from Länsiterminaali. It is easy to get there by tram from the Central Railway Station. The port itself looks almost like an airport and is very inviting to passengers.

On board of Finlandia there are 3 passenger decks, one sun deck and several car decks. As is usual on ships there is also a lot of gambling, restaurants and bars on board which are happy to take your money by charging questionable prices. Luckily the trip is only 3 hours long and while it started out quite foggy it was a bright sunny day once we crossed the Baltic Sea.

Tallinn

Once the ship docked in Tallinn the passengers were leaving through the Old Town Port of Tallinn.

I directly bought a public transport ticket for 3 days which cost me 7€. 2€ deposit for the card and 5€ for a 72h ticket. That is cheap transport! The card allows you to use any transportation in the city.

However once you left the port you will realize that there is not really much public transport at the port, fortunately the old town is only a 15 minute walk away.

Old Town

The old town of Tallinn is relatively compact an can be explored well by foot. On the search for a good restaurant I found a nice ukrainian restaurant in the old town. During soviet rule in Estonia the Soviet Union tried to settle russians and ukranians in Estonia. The remnants of this policy can be seen today as there is still a significant part of the population which speaks russian and the foreign influence can still be seen in some places, like this ukranian restaurant.

Tallinn also has many churches, some of which are russian orthodox. The biggest church in the city, St. Olafs Church, has a walway around the tower and if you are in Tallinn I can highly recommend visiting it, as it costs only a few euros and will give you an amazing view over the old town and new town.

The old town is wedged between the harbour and a hill on which the most important city buildings were build. I think Tallinn has a very typical medival structure in its old town.

If you stand on the hill you can even see the ships depart again towards Helsinki. The same ships are doing the tour multiple times a day, so it might easily be the case that you take a photo of exactly the ship you arrived with.

The walls around the old town and almost all buildings are in exceptional condition. Here and there you might find a plaque stating that the renovation was funded in part by the European Union.

In my opinion this money is well spent, because today Tallinns infrastructure and tourist attractions are in a very good shape which helps bring tourists to the town and generates revenue for Estonia which then in part flows back to the European Union.

Night Photography

A very different image can be seen once you walk off the beaten path. For example to the piers north of the old town.

The piers and parks along the coast are in a state of disrepair. A huge building made of concrete sits near the water. At first I thought it was a U-boat bunker, but a look to Wikipedia later revealed that it was indeed a evant hall, which sits in a state of disrepair since many years.

The foggy weather and the sunset created a strange atmosphere. It was not just getting darker, but suddenly the fog lifted a bit and for a moment it actually got brighter again.