A Postcard From Tallinn, Estonia
A Postcard From Tallinn, Estonia
This is a feature from Issue 10 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.
Split Personality
If you’ve been seduced by Prague or Budapest, you’ll love the terracotta turrets, medieval apothecaries and candlelit taverns of Tallinn. But Estonia has its own personality. The singsong lilt of its language, the black bread and herring sandwiches and the clapboard houses appear Scandinavian. But peel back the layers, like a babushka doll, and you’ll discover the Russian influence.
The pretty pink baroque façade of Kadriog Palace, built by Tsar Peter I, is at stark odds with the austere Patareil Prison that squats beside the chilled steel-grey Baltic harbour, a reminder of Estonia’s not-so-distant Soviet past. The KGB Museum gives a chilling sense of life under occupation and is located in Hotel Viru, which housed both foreigners and spies in a time of paranoia.
Estonia has been occupied by Danes, Swedes and Russians, but independence followed the Singing Revolution. Two months before the Berlin Wall came crashing down, thousands of citizens staged a peaceful protest, singing forbidden folk songs and joining hands to form a 400 mile human chain, linking Tallinn to Vilnius in Lithuania.
For great views of Tallinn's terracotta turrets, walk along its ancient walls
Digital NAtion
Estonia is a forward-thinking country where digital rules (even voting is online) but art flourishes. Tallinn still has its Russian-influenced orthodox churches with their onion domes and glittering relics, but most people prefer to worship the Estonian way, via nature. I hopped on a bike to explore. Starting on the bone-shaking cobbles of the old town, I pedalled to the old fishing community of Kalamaja where the Telliskivi Creative City’s old factories now house over 200 hip
indie businesses selling everything from truffles to hand made ceramics.
Hungry, I headed back to Old Town for dinner. It’s so far north that summer nights stay light but at Olde Hansa they batten down
the hatches for a medieval feast of wild boar and rabbit stew, washed down with fiery black pepper schnapps. When I left at midnight the sky was still violet.
Former submarine shipyard, the Port Noblessner, is home to the lively Pohjala craft brewery
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This is a feature from Issue 10 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.
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