Latitude: 59.4° north
Weather: -8, windy, wind chill -18 Sunrise: 09:10 Sunset: 15:45
We waved Helsinki goodbye on a perfect, clear, crisp morning. Sky a deep pre-dawn blue, cathedral all crisp white edges. I know we’ll be in Helsinki again one day.
By the time we were on the ferry, a sea mist was rolling in with the gentle waves in the bay. It took 15 minutes maybe for us to sail through thickening mist, before light began to appear and we emerged into a clear, calm Baltic Sea. We sat at a quiet table right at the front of the ship, unimpeded views ahead. I loaded up a playlist of Estonian music and settled down to enjoy a cuppa and sea views with the beautiful sounds of Heino Eller’s string music in my ears.
I last came to Tallinn in 1995. I was living in Moscow for a year and needed to leave town to allow my visa to switch from one sponsor (the uni I had been teaching at) to another (the TV station I was now working at). Tallinn was the nearest and cheapest option, reached by sleeper train from Moscow, so my friend Eric and I made a weekend of it. My memories are sketchy: the sleeper train with its samovar at the end of the corridor for hot tea. The joy of a city with actual shops after months in Moscow (home only to partly-functional government-run shops and street-corner alcohol kiosks). A vague impression of a pretty, quiet city on a hill. I dug out a photo from 31 years ago to see if I could find the spot while we were here.
Back to the present. First impressions: fairytale spires and white roofs. A town square straight from a story book, complete with Christmas trees and lanterns. Pastel coloured buildings and cobbled streets. So pretty. Utterly lethal in the slush – like trying to walk across cobbles on skates. Dimly lit cafes with candles, fairy lights, lanterns in windows and on steps. Churches everywhere – so many spires.
Tallinn is built on a hill – the old town at the top, government and presidential buildings up high. Spilling down the sides are cobbled streets, alleys and squares, leading down to the turrets and towers remaining of the old town walls. The old town is mostly circled by parks, white with snow at this time of year. The city is like something from a winter dream and has the most glorious skyline seen from the top.
Our Airbnb was right in the centre of the old town and utterly stunning (a piano! A sauna!). With views of snowy rooftops, I could happily have sat in the window here for two days.
Instead, we walked up to the Alexander Nevsky cathedral, an absolutely stunning Russian Orthodox Church at the very top of the old town hill. We headed up in the late afternoon gloom with a heavy, overcast sky. While we were exploring, the sky darkened into a wonderful metallic blue-grey as evening started to draw in, and as the lights came on across the city the views became more and more beautiful. Perfect snowy roofs, pastel government buildings with perfect apex roofs, Estonian (and Ukrainian) flags flying. Distant turrets and towers of the city walls, and the golden domes on the cathedral. Warm lighting on the streets below. Tallinn in the early evening is like something from a fairytale storybook, and it was hushed and empty at this time of day to allow us to enjoy it.
We were out relatively early the next morning to fit as much into our day as possible. While storm Goretti was battering the UK, the weather here was wild too. Objectively warmer than Finland – but a damp, windy cold. Not the dry cold that builds from the inside, but one that whips loose snow from the trees and pavements, swirls it wildly in the air and then flings it hard into the small piece of face you’ve left showing. Wild.
Tallinn by day showed me how much has changed in the last 31 years. The Old Town is now clearly a place for tourists – souvenir shops, cafes with signs in English and Russian, stalls selling Glogg and hot chocolate. Medieval theme restaurants and gift shops. Tour groups and karaoke bars. So much Russian being spoken – I tried out a word or two, and mostly realised that I’ve forgotten more than I ever realised I knew.
We escaped to walk through quiet, snowy parks, local children sledging and a few dog walkers braving the wind chill. We scouted around and managed to track down the spot of my photo from 1995. Eric Cooper – if you’re reading this, thanks for coming here with me 31 years ago! Very happy memories of a long-ago adventure. I’m sure neither of us has changed as much as Tallinn has …
From the park we explored another side to Tallinn. Telliviski – a modern, funky area of converted warehouses and factories. Street art, small studios, galleries, restaurants in train carriages and shipping containers. Modern, artsy and low key.
One lovely thing – birds. The first bird song of the trip, and the sight of bluetits in the park. I hadn’t realised birds had been missing until they reappeared.
We popped into a couple of museums for a bit of extra context to the city. Walking the walls of the Nun’s Tower was fun, all arrow slits and metre-thick walls. The Museum of Estonian History was a little too ‘artefacts in glass cases’ for us – but it was good to pick up some history along the way. The country has been ruled by so many nations over the centuries (Danes, Swedes, Germans, Russians – to name just a few). In the current geopolitical situation, and against this backdrop, it’s not hard to imagine how fragile things might feel right now.
We ended our time in Tallinn with a genuinely fantastic Georgian meal in Rotermanni – a hyper-modern district between the port and the city. Smart restaurants and bars, funky public art, glass and steel and hard edges – softened with winter lights and Christmas trees. Such a contrast to the medieval old town. I’ve loved Georgian food since my Moscow days, and it brought back happy memories of queuing in the snow for rich, warm comforting food in one of the few restaurants in the city.
My mind has wandered back to my Moscow days a lot while we’ve been here. There’s a taste in the air of a snowy city that takes me back in a very visceral way to how it felt to be a 21 year old living through a Moscow winter, excited and always a little scared on my first big adventure. I hope 21-year-old Nicola would be happy with what’s happened since.
I leave Tallinn with such mixed feelings. At the quiet times of day, in the early morning and the early evening – it is genuinely beautiful. I could gaze at the snowy skyline all day. Improbably tall spires, red roofs covered in snow, pastel buildings and medieval courtyards. More ancient cosy than scandi sparkle – candles and low lighting, cellars and wooden ceilinged bars.
But. It’s also got a hint of a theme park about it. The medieval heart feels to me like it’s lost a little of its soul in the process of welcoming the world in – and I fully appreciate that I’m one of those people. January is a quiet time of year, and we were able to find gentle times of day to feel the hush of the city and enjoy its beauty in peace. I can’t imagine how it would be to come in the height of summer. While I’m so happy to have seen it and spent time here, and to have relived a small part of my younger years, I’m not sure that the city will draw me back again. We head next to Tartu, Estonia’s second city, and I’m really interested to see the contrast in atmosphere there.
