Estonia was not a place that appeared on Nonie and my radar for places to visit. I found it when I was investigating various options to depart Russia. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is becoming the hot new place where tourists from all over the EU flock for some history and cheap, well at least cheaper than the rest of Europe prices. Estonia is a small country with a little more than 3,000,000 people, a third of who live in Tallinn.
Tallinn is compact little city with a stunning well maintained, 400+ year "Old Town" that still has many sections of the original wall that once circled the town providing protection from the invading Swedes. Yeah, Sweden actually invaded countries back a few hundred
years. Now they leave the job of invading countries up to IKEA. I actually found the "Old Town" a little too perfect. They keep all the buildings in pristine condition and there is no seedy under belly left. I am sure that it was not this well kept 400 years ago. Did I mention there were too many tourists and too many options for dining. Nonie and I have difficulty making up our minds where and what to eat when there are too many choices. When this happens, we usually opt for fast food at a McDonalds or similar. Sad but true.We spent most of our time in Tallinn wandering back and forth to "Old Town from lovely room at our hotel and casino. The hotel had a wonderful, free breakfast buffet and gave us some free loot to blow in the casino. We did take a short trip on the trolley cars. I was not sure how to purchase a ticket so we just sat down and looked for a free ride. Two stops later, the trolley police got on and we were busted. Thankfully, I played the "stupid tourist" card and they let us go with stern warning in Estonian as well as a demonstration on how to pay for our tickets. We did meet a lovely Estonia student who worked as a guide during the summer. She filled us in on all the great places to go and what places to avoid.
We leave by ferry for Stockholm and our final few days in Europe.
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