Tallinn, Estonia

Friday to Tuesday, 15 - 19 September 2006

On Friday we flew from Warsaw to Helsinki and then took a catamaran to Tallinn. This sounds like a poor imitation of John Candy/Steve Martin film "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" but, as the alternative was a 30-hour bus journey, we thought the extra bit of cash was well spent.

Tallinn is nice and had enough cobbled-stoned streets, pretty churches, buildings and parks to keep us occupied for about two days but we had decided to stay a bit longer to get a few things done (e.g. try to write-up this blog and take on the humming laundry bags) before the big push to Russia.

The city caters for stag nights in a big way and, at night, the town square is taken over by droves of beer-swilling foreigners dressed up in cartoon-character outfits. We met one local odd-ball in a bar - "The Pub With No Name" - who claimed to be Estonian mafia. This was credible enough as he was accompanied by two silent types with leather jackets and no necks. As the mafiosa began to forcefully slap his own forehead (as if struck by a lightening bolt) and say to Leahanne 'you are beauoootifulll!' we decided to make a quick exit!

Batteries re-charged, we took an overnight bus on Tuesday to St. Petersburg.

To see more photos, click here.