If you’ve been following my adventures from the last couple days then you know that I’ve just travelled the entire length of the country and back in two days. Saturday morning, Veljo and I left Tallinn and reached a small town near the Latvian border 300 km away (200 miles) by the end of the day. We hit up the border (or rather, I did, for the sake of a border stamp) this morning and were back in Tallinn by 7 pm. It’s not that it actually takes that long — non-stop we probably could have made the whole trip in about 3 hrs — but we stopped in various little towns to see stuff, to check out the local WiFi situation, to get some food and what not. Now that I’ve done this little trip and made it all the way to the Latvian border, I really want to try to spend a day (perhaps Weds. or Thurs. ?) in St. Petersburg. We’re going to call the Russian Embassy and see about 24 hr. visas. I’ve checked online and it seems you have to get them from an authorized Russian travel agent, but it’s for a longer period of time. I’m thinking I’ll catch an overnight bus and then come back late in the afternoon that same day. On Eurolines it’s under $50 round-trip. I’d like to take the train but I think it’s more expensive and takes longer. It seems like Russian visas are something of a pain to get, so it may not happen. Anyway, back to Estonia.
Friday was a pretty relaxed day. We started our day as usual at the CafŽ Mademoiselle. I finished up the latest draft of my thesis and Veljo did some work. By the early afternoon, we walked over the hill past the Parliament building and through Old Town Tallinn to meet Mait Heidelberg from the Ministry of Economic Development and Communication. We talked about Internet services in Estonia and what’s been happening over the last couple of years. Some pretty neat stuff happening here.
After the meeting, which was right across the street from a block of buildings that the Soviets bombed in 1944. Nothing stands anymore except some snow-covered stone walls. The city has rebuilt around it, leaving this one section as a painful reminder of Soviet brutality. We then walked further into the Chocolaterie CafŽ (People squeeze into this quaint, frilly, 19th-century style cafŽ for two reasons: One is that it has its own master chocolatier who cooks up truffles from scratch, and the other is the unbeatably cosy atmosphere. Be warned that seats fill up fast. — Tallinn City Guide – In Your Pocket), a gem of a cafŽ in the old town. It’s tucked away next to an old monestary. Their truffles and chocolates are amazing. It’s a cozy little place, warmed by a fire, velvet seat cushions, small dimly-lit table lamps and art sketches on the wall that are for sale.
After meandering through Old Town Tallinn a little bit more, we popped into a bookstore just so I could have a look. I ended up buying a small map of Estonia for 15 krooni ($1.50). Then we walked some more and ended up back at the mall that Veljo took me to my first full day here. There is a large bookstore on the top floor that he wanted to show me. They had a large Russian section and a small section of English books, with a shelf of Estonian books in English, French and German translation. I also noticed that in this bookstore and the previous one, most of their travel section was comprised of English-language Lonely Planet books. I guess there isn’t a market yet for Estonian-language travel books.
Then we headed to Pegasus, a swanky (possibly the most upscale in all of Tallinn?) restaurant near the Ministry of Communication. Veljo said it was his favorite restaurant in town. Had some great butterfish and white wine to go with it. It was even better because we didn’t have to pay for it — was on the house because the owner is one of Veljo’s business partners for WiFi stuff. We walked our way home through some of the older, narrower streets of the city and decided to go to bed early as we’d have to be up and on the road by about 9 am to head south.
