This old building across the road from the hotel had been adapted from it's original factory use to a recreational complex. Bowling and drinking mostly, and there was a strip bar around here too.
Nice that they didn't rip the original building down.
We were living in a nice part of town where sprinting hunchbacks would rob you.
One of the main clubs in the city, we never went to it.
This is the Viru Gate, one of two remaining original entrances into the old city.
One of the main streets leading up the main square. There are plenty of cafes, restaurants and bars here.
This is the Old Town Hall, sitting quite rightly at the heart of the old town (durr). Around the main square are more cafes, restaurants and bars.
St Olaf's church, built around the 12th Century and at one time the tallest building in the world, supposedly so the city could be seen from the sea.
This is part of the old town referred, which when translated read as "Peek into the Kitchen" but goes by the much more amusing "Kiek in de Kok" in Estonian.
Multi-coloured stencil graffiti, not put on any of the old walls I might add.
A rather amusing "Walking Tour" that requires a coach. Well it made me laugh.
The cobbled back street that leads from the top of the hill where St Olaf's is back down into the main part of the old town.
St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, at the highest point of the city in the Toompea part of the city. Built a the turn of the 19th Century its the city's take on the Russian Orthodox cathedrals I'd seen earlier in the trip.
Whilst the rain was on and off, when the sun did come out it was very pleasant.
St Olav's again.
Stealing the skyline. Rather surprisingly outside the old town Tallinn does have some very tall buildings. I will admit to it all being like the old town but its not. For a start Tallinn is one of the most wi-fi enabled cities in the world and it has a very strong IT industry here.
A HDR shot of St Olav's
and a normal shot!
and a HDR shot of the square. The square was perfectly located in the centre of town and the number of times you found yourself back here, even if you hadn't intedended to showed that they'd picked it correctly. At least you'd never get lost here!
Some old wooden cabin that looked very out of place.
Over to the North of the old town is the other remaining gate (called The Great Coastal Gate) and this piece of art that serves only to have foolish people try to walk along its length without falling off onto the grass bank, quite a drop below. With it being wet and slippy I only made it 3/4 of the way out. I was making it wobble, so didn't want to go any further. The last thing I'd want to have to do is come home early and explain I'd fallen off a piece of art and injured myself.
A better view of the gate and some of the cannons used to defend it in times gone by. As well as these skinny ones, there's a bigger cannon called Fat Margaret after a rather obese woman from Liverpool who climbed in it and got stuck in one for a bet. She's still there to this day and does palm reading every Saturday!
An out of place car that looks more like a promotion for the new Stuntman game. I wonder what Westwood/Xzibit (delete as appropriate) would make of this set of wheels. "Man that ride is proper dope dog" etc etc. Actually one of my inane discussions on this trip was what would you put forward if there was a TV show called "Pimp My Dark Ride".
"Man that Spiderman ride at IOA is proper hot, but the cars are lacking man. You need some proper upholstery in those wheels dawg, what're you gonna do for us Jose"
"Well bro, I'm got this fine Korean Silk cloth that I'm gonna wrap around these body moulded kevlar covered seats made in Dubai"
"That'd be dope dawg"
etc...
Hell Hunt is an original themed Estonian pub, which would have been great had we not been in Estonia, where there were countless real Estonian pubs.
Ummm, just some interesting sculptures atop some building.
This is the rather tiny Tallinn museum, which gives some background to the history, but to be honest we only went in here to get out of the rain.
A stoopid religious fanatic, who clearly cheats judging by the wheel at the bottom of the cross.
This is the torture museum, which was a lot more interesting than the previous one, if only because it was very grim. Some of the torture devices were sick, the worst in my opinion being one where a person is hung by the ankles upside down and sawn in two as lumberjacks would do to a large log.
This was lunch, a Finnish style platter of potatoes, bacon and egg with salad. Was very nice too!
Another out of place car, this one being back near the hotel. It looked a bit like a kit car though, not a real Dodge Viper.
In the evening we had a quick game of bowling across from the hotel. Here Jeppe demonstrates the "how not to bowl" technique that both he and myself used.
This is Keith doing it properly. Needless to say two of us ended up with very sore thighs for the next few days. We rested as anyone in Tallinn would, by drinking strange drinks in a cheap bar.
For dinner we went to an African themed restaurant close to the Northern gate. The food here was amazing and some of the best on the trip. The ambience of the place was also really nice and relaxed helped in part by having some very hot girls dressed in nothing but light brown dresses. We also had a run in with some Finnish girls out on their hen night, who were up for a laugh, and the three of us got a souvenir of the night to remember it.
Ribbit!
Throughout the trip I'd been trying random food and on this occasion it was antelope and some very hot peppers. The meal was really nice and I recommend this place a lot if you're ever there.
After food we headed back into the old town when Keith suddenly ran on ahead his ears detecting the faint tones of a salsa bar in the distance. For someone that had been quite tired he'd suddenly perked up and it seemed only right that myself and Jeppe let him enjoy the night with some hip shaking that made the two of us just sit back and go "not a chance in hell are you going to see us up there".
One of the walls to the old town, passed on the way back to the hotel. Moody, huh?
Today's route.
1 comment:
Hi! Those are some nice photos of the Old Town! But I feel a need correct some factual errors in the comments.
The church that you refer to as "St Olaf's" is actually St. Nicholas' church. St. Olaf's was the one with tall, spear like steeple. In 15th Century it indeed was world's tallest building with estimated height of 159m/521ft.
One of the photos shows Dome Church (a.k.a. St. Mary's church) but the caption says 'St. Olav's again'.
The "slippery piece of art" by the North Gate is a memorial for the victims of "Estonia" catastrophe in September 28, 1994, when cruiseferry "Estonia" sunk, taking with it 852 passengers. The monument symbolizes an interrupted voyage or smthg.
I hope you find this info useful.
Cheers!
Post a Comment