Back in November, Shanna and I were looking at somewhere to go for Thanksgiving, and thought we'd check out Estonia. Their Christmas market started earlier than most of the ones around Europe, and the capitol city of Tallinn was one we'd wanted to visit. I found a hotel right off the main market square that was built in the 1300s. It was beautiful, but had one major drawback...no elevator. With a stroller and a baby, it was no fun going up and down 5 stories to our room. But, the room was nice, so I can't really complain.
That first night we fed Ben his Thanksgiving dinner, which consisted of Turkey, mashed potatoes, and corn, plus apple yogurt for dessert. All baby food versions, of course.
Next, Shanna and I found a restaurant that was common in Estonia. It was Medieval themed, but not like the gimmicky Medieval Times in the US. They had no electricity in the areas where customers were, everything was candle lit. They served ales brewed from recipes around the 1400s, and if a type of food hadn't been discovered in Estonia by the 1400s, it wasn't on the menu. Shanna asked if she could have potatoes with her Elk Steak, but was told they hadn't made it to Estonia yet. I had a delicious plate of Bear meat with their spiced ale.
Ben was getting tired after dinner, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. One thing to note about that evening was it snowed. So Ben saw his first snowfall in Estonia.
The next morning we had arranged for a tour guide to meet us. She had just graduated college and was back in Tallinn giving tours while she was job hunting. She walked us through the city, and had an amazing breadth of knowledge about it. One of the most amazing things about the country is how digitally connected it is. They are the first country in the world to have a card people carry around that they use for everything. It has their medical records stored on it, they use it to authenticate to a website to vote online, it's their passport, drivers license...it even lets them store credit on it for using city provided services, such as public transportation. 97 percent of the country has a broadband connection to their house and/or phone. I had noticed how much free wifi was available through out the city, as well as how fast it was. Estonia is also spear heading an effort to allow people to become digital citizens of the country in the hopes of encouraging new business to come. You wouldn't have to pay the taxes a normal citizen does, only business related ones, and you wouldn't have to reside in the country. It's an interesting concept.
She also talked about how the recent annexation of Crimea by Russia had the older generation extremely scared that Russia was coming after them next. Until the early 90s, Estonia, along with it's neighbor countries of Latvia and Lithuania, were part of the Soviet Union. The younger generation isn't worried about a return to those days (our tour guide was born the year Estonia regained it's independence), but the older generation is wary.
Over all, it was a fascinating tour, not just because of the history of the city, but because of all the things we learned about the country from our guide. One of the things she took us by that was neat was a Russian Orthodox church. It looked a lot like the ones we saw through out Moscow and St. Petersburg when we were there a few years ago.
Once the tour was over, we headed over to the Christmas market. It was pretty small, no where near the size of the ones in Germany. But it was quaint, and they had some delicious food and drink to enjoy. They also had different things than you usually see at a market. They had ladies there selling hand woven hats, scarves, etc...
Because of Ben's bed time, our days ended pretty early, and this one was no different.
The next day we had planned on taking a ferry to Helsinki, the capitol of Finland. After talking with the tourism office, though, we just couldn't make it work. We would have had to be at the dock by 7am, and it takes a few hours to cross the Gulf of Finland. I don't remember all the details of why we didn't go, but the main reason was it required us to leave Estonia at 7am and we wouldn't get back until 10pm. That was just too much with Ben.
Instead we spent the day walking around the city and visiting areas we missed on day 1. One of the neat museums we visited was centered around the Nazi and Soviet occupations.
That evening the Christmas market had dancers on stage, and Ben was mesmerized. To this day, he still loves music and watching people dance. He'll sit there and wiggle himself to the music.
The next morning we packed up, and caught a taxi to the airport. We really enjoyed Estonia. Some of our favorite trips have been to the smaller Eastern European countries that we didn't know much about, but found people who were friendly and loved telling us all about their country and their history. And, across the board, their English was perfect.
Estonia might not be at the top of your list of places to visit, but if you ever have a chance, do it. It's a beautiful country with a fascinating history.
To see the pictures, click any picture above or here.
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