Visiting Tallinn on a budget

Getting to Tallinn
I know a lot of you followers behind the screens are Finns, so you've probably been to Tallinn already and know how all the ferries. I noticed that Lindaline is currently the cheapest ferry if you're looking for a transport to the other side of the gulf, not a party yacht. They've also got the shortest travel time by sea! Lindaline is the most reasonable option from Helsinki to Tallinn, if there are no discounts within other companies.

The cheapest flights to Tallinn (within Europe) are operated by Ryanair. They fly from Oslo, Dublin, Manchester, London, Bremen, Dusseldorf and Milan.

If you're coming from Russia, you'll might want to choose the train. At least Moscow and St. Petersburg have fairly quick connections to Tallinn.

Secret underground tunnels in Tallinn

Before we left for Tallinn I decided that I definitely want to see Patarei prison, which is full of information about the horrible conditions prisoners were kept in and the executions and the secret tunnels of Kiek in de Kök. Because both attractions needed groups consisting of at least 5 people, we couldn't go to the prison. But I was fine with it, because it meant we would have plenty of time to see these supercool tunnels instead.

Trip to Tallinn Day 3

We still had time to do lots on the last day after checking out of our hostel at noon. Our plan was to roam markets and then visit either Patarei prison or the Bastion tunnels near Kiek in de Kök which we had visited the day before. But first, on our way to a Russian market, we came across this offbeat shop which had the most peculiar old items from the Second World War. Because photographing inside the shop was only allowed after paying one euro, I just settled for a photo taken from outside. And I think this was just foretaste of what we were going to see at the Russian market.

Trip to Tallinn Day 2

Our first destination on the second day was Pirita. It's a neighbourhood 10 kilometres away from the centre of Tallinn so we had to take a bus to get to Pirita beach. The heat was unbearable, once again, so we bought some nice icecream, which, of course, started to melt straight away. It was awesome to walk around in the shallow sea since even after walking metres away from the shore, it was only up to my knees.

After that we walked through a nice little forest well, an area full of trees towards the toilets and shower. We then had to go to the TV tower, which is pretty near to the beach, but it said on our map that it's closed on Tuesdays. I still don't know whether that was true or not, but we decided to go back to the centre.When I rummaged in my wallet for bus money, I realized these 20 cent coins from six different countries. So cool, I just had to capture them! By the way, one student ticket cost 80 cents in Tallinn, which is one quarter of the ticket price in Kuopio. Wow. My Estonian friend told me that the bus is even free for the residents of Tallinn. How awesome is that?

Next we did a bit of shopping at the Rotermann, which has a nice mixture of modern and old buildings. It has to be my favourite shopping area in Tallinn! This time I left empty-handed but at least my wallet wasn't complaining. Haha. We had to check out this renowned pancake house called Kompressor in the Old Town. And I have to admit, those pancakes were delicious! I myself had the feta pancake with smoked chicken and it was such massive a portion I couldn't even finish it! I would've wanted to try the sweet pancakes, but they had to wait as my - just like no one else's - stomach is unbounded. It would be so cool if that weren't the case. I mean, at least when abroad it would be great to taste as many dishes as possible! Did I mention these babies only cost about four euros? Almost too good to be true.

After eating our pancakes, we headed full and satisfied to a tower museum Kiek in de Kök. It basically tells about the Second World War including bombing, plague, weapons and digging the secret tunnels under Tallinn, which still partly remain a mystery. We visited the tunnels on day three, so more of them in the next post.

This five-storey tower didn't have the easiest stairs to climb up.

Museums like this make you think of life today and how much of an impact history has on it. It's weird to think that only thirty years ago Estonia was part of Soviet Union with all the strict regulations... But never mind the past, after the museum it was time to eat (again) so we dined in a pizzeria called Pizza Grande situated in Old Town.

The pizza was the usual, but it was weird how this restaurant had run out of salads and pastas. They had absolutely none of the salads or pasta dishes, even though they had them written on the menu. Doesn't sound very professional... But the pizza was alright. Mine had ham, blue cheese, peach and pineapple in it. Anything with blue cheese is just a 'yes, please' for me! And this last photo is a weird car we came across walking around Old Town. This day was full of seeing new places, walking, eating and just a bit more walking. I had just realised my comfortable flats had officially turned into the shoes from hell. Oh wow. And still one more day to go...

Trip to Tallinn Day 1

The hostel was sweet and its staff was really helpful and friendly; they seemed to be enjoying themselves rather than just working. The rooms were decorated in different colours, house rules were something you shouldn't be taking too seriously and our room's number - I mean name - was Porn. Yep, Porn. Perhaps that tells something about the hostel's atmosphere... Relaxed and full of young people, just how it should be.

After having a small bite at the hostel, I quickly met one of my old friends from Lady Gaga's concert, which was two years ago in Tallinn. Yet again, it was fun to realize how similar languages Estonian and Finnish are. I would really love to learn Estonian, because it's like Finnish with a cute touch. This time I only sticked to occasional Estonian words like 'Tere' and 'Aitäh' (=hello, thank you)

Then it was time to wake up my sleepy friends and see the Old Town's cute streets and viewing platforms. On our way to the platforms, we found a lane telling about Estonia's history and future on a time line. There was also a big rotating globe with all of Estonia's cities. I'm not sure what this place was, but it looked cool. Definitely hadn't seen it before.

Walking, walking, stairs, walking... finally there! We visited two of the three viewing platforms and the view was amazing. I'm happy we had a good map so we could navigate easily without bigger problems.

Walking around and heat aren't that much of a great combination, so we decided to sit down and find a place to have some icecream. The first place we came across was a café called Koogel Moogel, which turned out to be a cosy café&theatre. It was okay, at least it made a nice difference to the usual restaurants and cafés. Oh, and a little note to self: if the waitress asks you two or three times 'Is everything alright?,' you might want to get up and pay. I thought we were to pay from our table as the waitress had brought our receipts there, but apparently we had to pay near the entrance. It was funny, since we we're just sitting there waiting for her to come and take our money.

After seeing Old Town, it was time for some shopping in a mall further away from the centre: Kristiine. Despite our aching legs, we walked  there. We did come back to the centre by bus, whose bus stop was nowhere near the mall, which I think was pretty weird. Anyway, we were happy to get back to the hostel and then go out eating to St. Patrick's after this long day. The food there was ordinary, but its low price and huge portion size compensated it. Below are some portions: salmon pasta and cheese balls. Having been awake for over nearly two days, sleeping felt just priceless. We would still have two days to go, so catching some z's was very important!

Lady Gaga in Tallinn 2012

I think this food will be enough for 10 hours of queuing...I don't know? Just kidding! We had so much food that we invited some people to join our little picnic. Yet, we didn't finish it all. Luckily food wasn't very expensive in Estonia. And since we had a lot of spare time, I did my make-up while queuing. All that glittery stuff sure is gagalicious!

We spotted some really cool costumes and hats! I actually made that net thing stuffed with toys because I wanted to wear something crazy, for once. We got into the Monster Pit, which is the closest area to the stage. We sat down to wait for the two opening acts to start: Lady Starlight and The Darkness.
Now some of you might be thinking, wouldn't it have been easier to see Gaga in Finland. Well, the tickets for Finland's concert were sold out, so we had to travel to the other side of the Gulf of Finland. Doing that had it's silver lining. We met some nice Estonian people and in that way got to know lots about their life!

...and the concert!

The last songs Gaga sang surrounded by meat, as you do! She received a fan-made shirt, by the way, and wore it during the concert, which was quite cute. Must have felt awesome to see her wearing the shirt you had made just for her! I think I'll do a video about the concert later on, as well.

If you have something on your mind like post ideas or any questions, just leave them in the comment box below! Have you seen any nice live performances lately? this was in 2012...so not very recent aha