Tallinn

The Valtenbergs are never ones to miss a wedding, especially one in somewhere as fun as eastern Czechia! When we received the invitation to Oliver and Veronika’s wedding back in March it was right around the time we usually start thinking what to do for the kids’ summer break, so was great timing to try to weave in a few of the countries we missed during our tour of Europe back in 2021. First stop: Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

Looking at a flat map of the globe one would think a route across the continental US to get to Istanbul would be the direction our plane would take, but from San Francisco we actually started heading north into Canada and flying over Greenland and into the arctic, ultimately crossing Scandinavia and Denmark on our way to Turkey. Similar to stopping in Doha or Qatar, Istanbul airport was such a fun place to sit and people watch: we saw Africans in tribal garb, Middle Eastern women dressed in the most concealing of burqas, international soccer teams, Arabs walking through in thobes, you name it. We played a fun game of looking at the screens of departing flights and seeing if we could name the countries for each destination city: Afghanistan, Algeria, Germany, Canada, Kuwait, Russia, Finland, Iran, Lebanon… I’m pretty sure every continent except Antartica was represented. The kids and I were pretty smoked after the flight from San Fran, we landed in Istanbul at 2AM California time so were feeling a little wobbly after sporadic and minimal shuteye on the flight over. We all managed to sleep for most of the flight back north to Tallinn, I did note on the map the plane took a marked westward deviation around Ukranian airspace on the way across Eastern Europe!

Our eclectic little apartment on the edge of Tallinn’s historic old town was an ideal spot from which to explore the city on foot. We ventured into the hip Põhja-Tallinn district surrounding one of Tallinn’s central markets on our first night in town, enjoying a scrumptious meal (and local brews for me) at Humalakoda Pub overlooking the train station. Tallinn was an incredibly easy city to walk, with lots of pedestrian-only and one way streets as well as endless dedicated cycling paths crisscrossing the metropolis. It’s also a city with urban families high on its priority list: I think pretty much every city block boasted some kind of playground or activity park for youngens, my two were in heaven on all the teeter totters (Australian: seesaws), swings, slacklines and ziplines (Australian: flying foxes) dotted about the place. Given Tallinn’s location close to the 60th parallel – the city is actually further north than Stockholm and almost as far north as Oslo – sunset during our time in Estonia was almost as late as 11PM. We had to will ourselves into bed each night and the stint of a few hours of semi-darkness did make it tricky to adjust our circadian clocks to Eastern European Time.

We spent a day exploring both the new and old parts of central Tallinn, starting the day (following a well-deserved sleep in!) at Keskturg (central market) to the southeast of the old town. It was the peak of strawberry season in Europe’s north when we visited and we could quite literally smell the berries before we even entered the open air market. Such an aroma! There were a handful of different varieties we all enjoyed trying before deciding on a huge punnet of red deliciousness that we devoured on a park bench. I think they tasted even sweeter because they only set us back about US$1.80. The kids also very much enjoyed downing a couple of pirozhki fresh from the fryer for late breakfast: Max’s savory and stuffed with meat, Lilia’s sweet and filled with apples. I will admit, they were exceptionally good! A lot of the market’s smells made memories of visiting my grandparents’ house as a kid flood back, especially when I walked into the meat portion of the market. Always amazing how smells can pull fragments out of the grey matter from decades ago…

Constructed in the 13th century, Tallinn’s old town is one of the most intact examples of Middle Ages city plans left in Europe. The entire expanse of the old town’s 113 hectares (280 acres) is – unsurprisingly – on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The classic medieval architecture and cobblestone streets encircled by the fortress-like city walls were incredibly quaint, with central Raekoja Plats showcasing the crown jewels of Estonia’s Middle Ages buildings. It honestly felt like we could have been in Austria or Bavaria. The weather was quite cool and we battled some showers here and there throughout the day, but we all enjoyed exploring the hidden alleyways, seemingly endless souvenir stores and a handful of art galleries as we strolled through the mostly car-free streets. Quite interesting to see a 24/7 police presence around the Russian embassy in the center of the old town, the barricades erected to prevent protesting covered in paraphernalia in support of the Ukrainian cause. The extravagant interior of Café Maiasmokk – the oldest continuously operating café in Tallinn, dating back to 1864 – was also a memorable stop. The kids enjoyed trying marzipan and watching demonstrations of the artists in the cafe hand paint the molded slabs with food-safe paint.

After some detours to a handful of trend-setting European clothing stores in the newer section of Tallinn (a request of the 14 year old…), we gave our feet a rest back on Tööstuse Tänav before heading back to the neighborhood around the central train station for dinner. So many food options near the station and in the multi-story repurposed Balti Jaama Turg, which was opened in 1993 and is home to more than 30 international food stalls. Max had a hankering for a kebab – even though I told him he can eat kebab for three meals a day when we’re in Turkey in a couple of weeks – so that was on deck for our last dinner in Estonia.

In spite of it being very tough to get a smile out of any native Estonian over the age of about 40 (for which I’ll give them a lot of slack given the 50+ years of oppressive Russian occupation anyone that age would have endured!), we all very much enjoyed our short stay in Estonia’s capital. Great food, beautiful architecture, exceedingly clean, very easy to navigate and so many hip young people everywhere. A fun start to this summer’s tour of Eastern Europe tour!