I remember complaining that Finland is so far away from all the countries in Europe that it's so hard to travell anywhere. Well, there are a few exceptions... One of them is Estonia. It takes only about an hour and a half to go to Tallinn by boat. So on last Friday (July 28th) we took a boat to Tallinn just for a day trip to explore the city. :) I've been there several time before but my boyfriend Jari had never been there.
Tallinn is a different kind of city than Helsinki and Stockholm. In my opinnio the architechture is more Central European. Maybe it's because of the German influence when it was founded. It has changed a lot during the last years. I was there around ten years ago for the first time. There wasn't a lot of tourists back then, or well, only Finns. Now there were a lot of Americans, French and German. And we saw tourists group walking around the Old Town with a guide which I hadn't seen before. Also there are a lot of new buildings everywhere and more are being built.
The Finns usually go to Tallinn to buy cheaper alcohol and clothes. That's why there are a sort of a shopping centres near the harbour where pirate clothes, movies and cds as well as cheap alcohol are sold. So, walking in the Old Town was nice, just to see the sights and enjoy being in Estonia. But when we got back to the harbour, there it was again: Finns sitting with a lot of beer boxes and vodka bottles ready to go back home. Okay, I'm a Finn myself and I did buy some alcohol from there but so I did when I came back from Iceland. I didn't have 8 boxes of beer and 10 bottles of vodka. I have to agree on one French guy: Finns have spoilled the reputation of tourists in Estonia. :(
Despite of this, we enjoyed our day in Tallinn. We walked a lot around the Old Town taking some photos and looking at the sights. We took a look at the shops in the centre and found something for both of us. It was a nice day but too bad a bit too short. We still would have had a lot of things to see but maybe next time :)
