My Year in Lyon: Estonia: Tallinn

The bus ride from Riga to Tallin, the capital of Estonia and home to 400,000 people, took about 4.5 hours. The nice thing about all of these bus rides is I'm never short on sleep! The territory we drove through was fairly flat farmland, with coniferous forests every once and a while. Tallin has a different feel than the other Baltic cities I'd visited, as much of its architecture dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. Tallinn, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, was a leading port of the powerful Hanseatic League during this time, before successive occupations by the Swedes, Russians, and Germans.

Although people have lived here for 11,000 years, there are only records of Estonia since the Teutonic Crusades in the 13th century. Before then, the Estonians were pagans, and still retain many of their ancient festivals and traditions. Linguistically, they are very similar to Finnish and Hungarian, which means I didn't understand anything! Thankfully there is plenty of English around, as this is a popular port-of-call for Baltic cruises, and there are more tourists here than in Riga or Vilnius.

Part of the old city wall. These walls are 4m (13-ft) thick!

Port-side gate to the old city. The tower on the left is known as "Fat Margaret Tower" (because it was the largest one in the city).

More fortifications!

This tower has a cool name: Kiek in da Kook!

Estonia was probably the best-prepared ex-Soviet Republic for the transition to capitalism. They are now part of NATO, the EU, and was the first Baltic State to adopt the euro, earlier this year. A down side to this, however, is that prices have doubled since changing currencies. Still, it is much cheaper than Scandinavia - my friend studying in Helsinki told me some students will take the ferry to Tallinn to buy beer once a month - even with the transportation costs it's much cheaper!

Scandinavian-influenced architecture. Tallinn is only about 2 hours from Helsinki, and was once part of both the Swedish and Danish empires.

Lots of churches here! Some, like the Holy Spirit Church (interior shown below) date back to the Middle Ages, when Christianity was first brought to the area.

Interior of the Holy Sprit Church.

The medieval Niguliste Church, originally built in the 13th century (although most of what we see today is 15th century). Most of the medieval artworks in Tallinn were destroyed in riots during the Reformation, but the Niguliste Church was saved by the church warden, who poured molten lead over the door to keep it shut!

Niguliste Church in the background.

More of Niguliste Church... this is a very interesting building to walk around! It also now houses a museum.

I really liked this street: very narrow and lots of little archways! This is part of the Dominican Monastery.

Town Hall Square has served as a marketplace for hundreds of years, and is surrounded by a beautiful collection of medieval buildings. Like most town squares, in the summer it is lined with outdoor cafes and restaurants.

Aerial view of Town Hall Square from the Town Hall tower.

On the left is the Town Hall, northern Europe's only surviving late-Gothic town hall, according to my book!

Dragons!

Beautiful interior of the Town Hall.

A curious-looking building just off of Town Hall Square. I wonder what the middle window on the top story was for? Lots of buildings had ironwork decorations on the walls like this one.

On the edge of the old city is Toompea, which used to be it's own town (even though they're so close together!). Toompea Castle now houses the Riigikugo (Estonian Parliament). Directly across the street is the monumental Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. This Russian Orthodox Church, whose construction was ordered by Tsar Alexander III when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, was slated to be demolished in 1924 as it is a symbol to many Estonians of the forced Russification of their country. However, this plan obviously never came through, but it is still kind of strange having the Russian cathedral right across from the Estonian Parliament.