Minu viimase hetke otsus Tallinna minna

After I enjoyed my lie in I went and showered and then headed out to the meeting point for the walking tour. I went a different way than I had yesterday as I wanted to see what else was around. As I was walking it started to lightly snow but not enough for it to settle. The ground was wet and the flakes were tiny.

I went and had a croissant in a cafe to get warm as it was around -2C at this point and was snowing some more.

I met the tour guide and the huge group and was greeted with questions on whether or not I was cold. I was in shorts. The only cold part of me (aside from my stone cold heart) were my hands and they were in my pockets. I told them I was fine and used to this kind of climate. I am from Gateshead and we have a bitterly North Sea wind in the winter.

The walking helped keep me warm and the guide had us go to places where we could get warm.

We climbed the steps up to the Danish cross. Denmark invaded Estonia back in the day and they were rulers for a long time. There is a cross in the ground where the king said the Danish flag had fallen and this was a sign to rally his troops to battle against the Estonian troops.

After here, we went to the old castle (only a tower is left) and then to the cathedral where we went in and had a look around and got some warmth. She also told us that the Swedes had invaded and provided an education system for the country.

After the Swedes, the Soviets invaded during the first and second wars and she mentioned that Estonia had its first independence after the first world war and then its second independence in 1991 after the fall of communism.

As she was telling us this, I was looking around the group and I bet barely 10% of us were alive to remember the fall of communism and the wave of independence that followed.

We then headed to a viewing platform overlooking the north of the city and to the port (it also gave us a chance to get warm in the souvenir shop). I put the viewing platform on my list of places to come tomorrow for pictures. We then went to a second viewing platform and that went on the list too.

We were heading towards the main square and we made a stop where the guide was telling us about the language. She said it isn’t like other Slavic languages and was more aligned with Finnish (this was my though after looking at the alphabets). She said that Estonians could understand about 60% of what the Finnish said.

She then showed us how weird the language was. She used ‘Moon Explorer’ as an example of how the language is. In Estonian, it is kuu uurija (the space between each of the two u’s is very subtle and it sounds like all the u’s are together).

Our final stop was at the main square and she told us the story of the lookout boy who would look out for approaching fires to warn the city. When he died, they didn’t know how to tell the children so the said he went upstairs. The figuriune of the kid is atop the tower.

Once the walking tour was done, I went out on the tram to scout our places I could go tomorrow so I wasn’t just sat at the hostel.

I walked to Freedom Square first of all so I could get some pictures of St John’s Church and the Freedom Monument before getting on the tram.

As I was walking to the tram, my teeth started chattering it was so cold. My hands felt like they were going to fall off. I was glad of the warmth of the tram and also glad I could scout out places to go.

I went and had a kebab and then back to the hostel to sleep as I was cold and shattered.

Total steps: 13,907

Total miles: 6.2

Below are some pics from today

I had a list of places that I was going to go to today and I tried to do it in some kind of order and I think I managed to succeed.

I went to the area where the concert hall was to get some pictures and as I was wandering around, I saw the barriers were all musically related. One set were a conductors hands with a baton and the other was a violin bow. I thought it was pretty cool.

I then wandered towards the tram stop to get a picture of a typical Estonian house (yep, I went that way just for that picture) and then walked around that area for a little bit.

I went towards the tram depot to get a picture of a monument I had seen and then walked to the garage to get some food. The staff in there were really rude too which pissed me off. I then jumped on the tram to the end of the line and sat at the train station and had my food. I found a spot that wasn’t windy and in turn wasn’t cold. I also wanted to get a picture and video of the train.

Once I was done here, I got back on the tram and went to the end of the line and sat there and had some more food. Tram surfing was back on the agenda as I was cold again and my hands couldn’t handle it. At the end of the line as I was walking, I slipped on some ice and managed to catch myself. I got back on the tram and headed towards the viewing platforms to get some panoramic pictures and then continued to walk around the old town before getting back on the tram one more time.

The climb from Nun’s gate to the Patkuli viewing platform is a nice shallow and easy 158 steps. Well worth it though.

I got the last few pics I wanted to get and then headed to the hostel to go to sleep as I was leaving in the morning to come back home.

Total steps: 13,916

Total miles: 6.3

Below are some pics from today