The Old Town
I woke up relatively early today especially after how long it took me to fall asleep last night. I was able to eat a good, big breakfast at Go Hotel Shnelli before setting out for the day in Tallinn, Estonia. I started the day by walking straight uphill to the Toompea area of Tallinn. Toompea is elevated over the rest of the Old Town and is home to some beautiful churches and views. I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral first. It was unique because the inside was covered with different coats of arms. The climb to the top was closed due to the rain, but that was okay with me because it helped me to decide which church to climb up (you can also climb up St. Olaf’s church which is what I did).
I then made my way to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which is more of a traditional Russian style church, and afterwards, I made my way to the two viewing platforms on Toompea, Patkuli and Kohtuotsa. By the time I got to Kohtuotsa I was pretty freezing as the viewpoint attracted a lot of wind.
I then my way down into the heart of the Old Town. The entire Old Town, including Toompea, is stunning and it is amazing that it survived WWII so well. I walked first to Town Hall Square which includes, obviously, Town Hall. The Town Hall is a castle-like structure and the rest of the buildings on the square are unique and colorful. From there I made my way to St. Olaf’s Church where I had a workout climbing to the top of the tower. It was really steep and once on top it was now really windy and pouring rain. However, the climb was totally worth it for the views out of Tallinn!
After arriving back on the ground (completely out of breath) and visiting the actual St. Olaf’s Church I made my way to Viru Square and Gate via St. Catherine’s passage. St. Catherine’s passage is a cute, but tiny, street that runs through a few of the Old Town streets. My walk led me past a really cool design store where I somehow only managed to make one purchase (Scandinavian branded design stores are a weakness). New luggage tag in tow (yes I know I’m lame but it is a really cool tag) I walked past the Viru Gate and into Viru Square. I had planned on taking the tram to the Kumu Art Museum but there were no ticket machines in sight. Instead, I called an Uber because they are so cheap here. Like ten minutes is under $5 it’s so nice. Also weirdly enough my driver was American which was pretty bizarre.
I arrived at Kumu and was immediately impressed with the modern building’s design. The first floor of Kumu featured the Estonian national collection, the second floor features works since WWI, and the final floor was an exhibit on travel which I, of course, found cool. It took me about two hours to do the entire museum but I really enjoyed my time there and definitely recommend it. By the time that I left it was raining even harder and the sun had started to go down. I took a quick walk through Kadroig Park right outside and then called an Uber to take me to
Balti Jaama Turg, a new market that my hotel had recommended. By the time I got there, though, nothing was open so I walked around the Telliskivi area my driver had recommended to a cute area where the restaurants were formed completely of boxcars and other train cars. It was really unique and I ended up finding a crepe and waffles place called Margot. I had a Cadbury Creme Egg hot chocolate, a yummy pizza crepe, and a half order of a caramel butterscotch waffle served with ice cream that was so good.
After dinner, I called my mom on the short walk back to Go Hotel Shnelli. I am so tired after a full day on little sleep and I’m going to try and get to sleep early before an early morning so I can make the most out of my day in Vilnius, Lithuania!
51 countries down, 145 to go.
To learn more about Go Hotel Shnelli click here.
