Tall tales in Tallinn

Tallinn Old Town is the smallest of the three Baltic old towns and the most geared for tour groups with big wallets. It came across as a Disneyland like interruption of how life was like in medieval times. Staff in all the restaurants were dressed up in Ye Olde Worlde clothing, maidens sold sugared nuts from carts and the buildings had a designer old look to them. In short a great place for tourists wanting to step back in time but you didn't really get the feeling that real people lived in the town. On saying that, Tallinn is extremely beautiful and they have done an impressive job restoring and repairing the town. Not wanting to disrupt the diet too much we managed to find some pig's trotters to eat in the oldest pub in town.

We took some time to check out what was going on outside the old town coming across an old market with plenty of curios to make Marcus wish that he had a spare rucksack and more storage space at home :-) The food market didn't quite measure up to the quality and range of Riga, in fact the meat section was not the best place to frequent before one's evening meal. Guess sometimes ignorance is best when it comes to food. We climbed the hill beside the old town to visit two beautiful cathedrals and take a look over Tallinn Old Town and port.

After our short time in Tallinn it was time to get out the Russian phrase book, start learning Cyrillic and practising not smiling as we jumped on the night bus across the Russian border to St. Petersburg.