Tag: Tallinn Trip

The people of Tallinn remember Russian rule in their nation and although I’m sure there are some who have fond memories of it, it’s been firmly rejected now. In the 1991 referendum, over 78% voted to be independent and free from Russian control and in 2003, 67% voted to join the European Union.

The staff of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn look out on this series of posters and banners, in what is seemingly a permanent installation. Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption leader, is mentioned frequently.

A memorial to the children who have died in Ukraine.

The Second Winter of the War, hoping once again for peace in Ukraine.

And a poster to sign. There is currently no Russian Ambassador in post in Tallinn and I’m not sure that there will be for some time.

I’ve decided to post entirely out of order of how events actually unfolded during Tallinn, but as no-one will know other than the people there, I feel that it’s unlikely to concern my two loyal blog readers. I thought that doing an AI tour would be a marvellous idea, as the cost was included in the Tallinn Card that we had all purchased. I looked vaguely brave here, although I probably wouldn’t go much further than that.

It’s fair to say that none of us were really quite aware what the tour would entail and I know a few of us thought that it would take place in a closed environment. However, we were walked to the main square and positioned in one place to be given a brief introduction. Three of our party were doing the 1944 tour, the other two as well as someone we didn’t know, were doing the 1939 tour. I privately hoped that no-one would notice us, but I suspect that we were hard to avoid noticing.

Bev and Susanna were having a lovely time. There were four AI parts to each tour and we moved position each time to a new location. Sometimes this made more sense than others, but they had to tie two different tours together.

I was impressed that Steve had managed to video them both, simultaneously watching the fourth part of the 1944 tour and videoing them. The tour Bev and Susanna went on involved more interaction and looking odd, so I was glad that I picked the tour that I did.

As it was included in the Tallinn Card, I’d say that this was an interesting experience as I’ve never done anything with AI before. It was an intriguing use of the technology, although there was perhaps a limited need to actually be outside in the actual location at times. On the AI itself, it was all rather exciting as I hadn’t done it before and it is an all encompassing visual and audio experience, there’s no way of knowing what is happening around without taking the headset off.

I thought that one of the four sequences we saw was less exciting than others, but the first one which showed the Nazi guards walking about before the 1944 bombing was particularly sobering as to a great degree, it did feel like being there. There have been attempts made to ensure accuracy and seeing the bombed street at the end was also something that I’ll remember. It’s possible to get one of the tours free with the Tallinn card, and you can pick which one, then pay to try the other one. I can imagine just how much this will all be developed in future years and suspect that it will become more common in museums and tourist attractions to try and engage visitors.

The first evening’s meal was at Vana Villem. We had the usual system that I chose three places that seemed excellent (and that I wanted to go to) and everyone then chooses between them. It’s a win-win, I get what I want and everyone gets a classy dining experience. This is really my benevolent dictator style of leadership, like a king giving his subjects some appearance of choice. This option was only a ten minute walk from the hotel and had a traditional feel to it, so proved the most popular.

It was certainly atmospheric. It wasn’t clear whether this was a modern recreation or an old building, we suspected the former.

There were some Oktoberfest options and I went for two of the German food choices. I didn’t feel that I needed a litre of German beer.

The beer selection was more substantial that I had expected. This is the Abstraction from Tanker Brewery, a fruity, juicy and hoppy beer. I couldn’t identify what sort of fruit it was, my palate isn’t that advanced.

I went for two starters from the German menu, sausage soup with sour cream and bread. It had some depth to it, it was hot and the flavours were pleasant.

And the second starter, potato salad with a sausage, which was rather less meaty than perhaps would have been ideal, but the salad was creamy.

Some of the decorative features.

The dessert of chocolate fondant worked nicely, it was runny inside and the pomegranate seeds added texture. The drink is Sauna Session from Tanker Brewery, apparently it was birchy (auto-correct is trying desperately to change that to bitchy) but I don’t know birch tastes or smells like. It had a slight herbal and medicinal edge to the beer.

The payment process was smooth and the waitress was able to remember what we’d all had to put together five different receipts, quite a forensic achievement. I hadn’t expected this, but it transpired to be something that was commonplace in Tallinn, I was suitably impressed as I can imagine I would have wilted at such a request at the end of a meal. Bev only had a few minor complaints and Susanna sent her main course back so it didn’t get cold whilst she had her starters, but Ross, Steve and I experienced no issues. To be honest, we are the three unsung heroes when ordering food, like culinary commandos trying to deliver a smooth and timely dining experience for all.

Beautiful. The Ukrainian and Estonian flags. I’m not really too misty-eyed about flags, but these have such a deeper meaning that they seemed quite dramatic despite being still.

We decided to walk to the centre of Tallinn, which I thought was by far the most sensible thing to do and it only took around 35 minutes. Those with excessive amounts of luggage dropped it off at the hotel, but Susanna needed food urgently. There were limited options very near to the hotel, but Ragu Cafe was one of them, even though its Google Review score was lower than I would usually risk.

The excitement builds, Bev is positively bouncing up and down as the photo shows.

Generic lager and generic biscuits, this wasn’t really fine dining. On Saku, this historic brewery met its end as an independent operation when Carlsberg bought it in 2008. As a beer it’s inoffensive, but I was hoping for more craft beer delights during the week. The others had a variety of dishes, I think that the consensus was that the basic requirements were met, but there wasn’t much going above and beyond. However, the service was friendly, engaging and efficient, so it met the demands Susanna had made that she needed to be fed. We then shuffled off to the Old Town to experience some culture, whilst I was pleased that I had had my first beer in Estonia.