Day 27 - 17/8/11 -Wednesday

The bus ride was as we predicted, not much fun and hard to sleep. Perhaps an hour of sleep each, rendering us tired upon Tallin arrival. We hadn't done our research as to where the hotel was relative to the Bus station, however Estonia is pretty internet friendly, and hence we were able to use Google maps to see that the hotel was about a 10 minutre drive, so too far to walk. Walking through the bus depot to the front entrance allowed us to find the only taxi available, whilst other tired travellers hunched over their bags hoping for a taxi to arrive at the back of the bus station.

The taxi driver was very friendly, providing his best tourist guide information about his country in a rather patriotic manner, whilst apologizing for his English (which was actually very good). Perhaps the two interesting complaints he had were how during the era of communism the Soviets ran Estonia like a police state, requiring to know where everyone worked, lived, etc. His second major complaint was that since the introduction of the Euro, the prices had gone up significantly.

Sometimes you win a break and the hotel tells you that there is a room available immediately, however today that dream scenario was not to be. Tired, shelterless and craving for a shower, we were cast out into the city to fend for ourselves. 6 AM Estonian time....."Sorry, come back at 2pm and we will have a room ready" was all reception could advise us.

In hindsight it could not have worked out better, even if we both felt like curling up in a hotel room and sleeping on arrival. Finding a nice park area in the 'Old Town' precinct of Tallin we took turns having a 30 minute sleep in the sun, like park derelicts. This was sufficient to get us both through until 2pm, and felt wonderful dozing under the sun's warming rays. After waking we proceeded to start our own tour of the old city area Tallin is famous for.

The reason that it worked so well was that 6AM- 9AM was when the coblestoned streets were empty, and hence the photos we took were not filled with other tourists. It felt lovely having the city almost to ourselves, with the exception of several early morning residents who ventured out early to do their duty as street sweepers.

A caffeine hit did the trick for the last few hours, and we continued admiring the buildings for a few more hours by which time it was lunchtime. In terms of effective marketing for a restaurant, the sign "Pepper steak and a Pint" is pretty effective deal in my mind, and Cinthia and I were unable to walk past the entrance without consuming these calories. Not quite "Scoopon" prices, however for 15 Euros it was a bargain.
A sleep from 2-7pm back at the hotel allowed recovery to kick in, and relaunch back out to Old Town.

During our hibernation Old Town had transformed itself, the quaint buildings witnessed during the morning had been lit up by old fashioned streetlamps, and made the surrounds even more charming.

We enjoyed a nice dinner in the main square alfresco style, and people watched whilst dining. Particularly amusing was a group of drunken drinken dudes, who were on a 15 person pedal powered moving bar. They would drink and yell and generally act drunk, then all pedal for about 30 seconds, then stop and rest in another section of the square. Quite amusing.