Estonia: Hello Tallin!
Estonia has been on our “to travel to” list for a while, and with it being only a 2 hour ferry ride across the Baltic Sea, through the Gulf of Finland, we knew it was what we wanted to do for the second leg of this European trip. So, from Finland to Tallin we went!
We booked tickets online through Tallink, and away we went! We book general boarding tickets, and the accommodations were lovely (super comfy seats immediately in front of huge windows, free WiFi, and lots of charging ports, but feel free to upgrade though we don’t think it is necessary. After short tram ride from our hotel to the port, we enjoyed both the gorgeous views and Longdrink from the Helsinki Ferry Terminal.
Upon landing in Tallin, we enjoyed a 15 minute walk from the Harbor to our hotel in Old Town.
I cannot recommend more HIGHLY that you stay in Old Town, we opted for My City Hotel. It was conveniently located and fairly nice, meeting all the basics. After getting checked in and set up, we immediately set out to start exploring the area. We happened across a gate that allowed us to explore the historic Wall from the top for just 4 euro each, so up we went!
A MUST-Try restaurant that we ventured to our first night, wanting to focus on local Estonian cuisine, was awesome: Farm Restaurant in Old Town. It was SO good! We had the lamb stew, beef tartar, and the charcuterie board, and these appetizers were so filling that we were not able to make it to mains. We also enjoyed sharing glasses of the 3 local type of berry wines.
To wrap up the evening, we ventured to Mikkeller, because they had Cantillon (one of our most favorite Belgian beers) ON TAP!!!! It is a great little tap room and we really enjoyed our bartender, just from sitting at the bar.
For our time in Tallin, we really had no plans/goals, other than to walk and explore all of Old Town, which we did for hours upon hours each day. I am not going to bother to explain each of the sites/sights, just go out an explore for yourself, it is gorgous!
On one of our walks, we caught the scent of cinnamon wonderfulness and followed our noses down a little street and found Pulla Bakery. YOU MUST GO TO PULLA BAKERY! It is a small little one-woman shop, that is classic and incredible. We were not hungry the first time around, so we shared a cinnamon roll and coffee, but knew we would be back. The do classic cinnamon rolls, almond rolls, chocolate chip rolls, and a variety of foccacia…and it is all baking in the ovens right there in the sitting area, so you are salivating for what is coming out while you are eating what you currently have. Adam stuck with the cinnamon roll on our next visit, while I went with the almond roll…it was DELICIOUS, but the cinnamon was best. God, I am salivating now just thinking about it again.
We continued our ventures meals to enjoy the local Estonian cuisine at Restaurant Rataskaevu 16 and really recommend stopping in here (with reservations, as they are always busy!). We enjoyed our very cute waitress who was experiencing her very first day on the job. After teaching her how to use a bottle opener for my local honey beer, and helping her clean up all of her tip money that spilled out of her apron when she pulled out the notepad to take our order, we were on our way! The food was great, and the honey beer is a MUST-try, as Adam pratically took my drink from me!
We also JUST HAD TO go to Beer and Barrel to indulge Adam’s dumpling fanaticism, and they did not disappoint! We shared all 4 types!
We really enjoyed our time in Estonia, thought we did not venture outside of Tallin. I do think we would enjoy going back and exploring outside of the region!
