On to Estonia

 Friday

30 August

Day 61

35 to go

4am and our alarm was blaring. Knowing we were on a deadline, there was no extra sleep in 😔We were both up and ready to get on with the travels. With our things packed yesterday, it was a very quick process and we were in the hotel lobby by 4.15am, collecting our breakfast bags and returning the key. 

The street was still dark, with few people about. Another Aussie couple appeared at the bus stop and at 4.28am, the airport bus arrived. We climbed aboard, attempted to pay, but couldn’t, as the machine was malfunctioning and then made the 20 minute journey to the Bergamo airport. 

Once in the terminal, we located the bag drop, printed our bag tags, weighed our bags, 19kg, 16.7kg and 6.7kg. Perfect. We then went through the security checkpoint and we were done. 

We wandered the terminal, locating a screen indicating departure gates. We were grateful that this time around we had a gate listed, unlike coming in to Rome. 

We stopped for Paul, so he could eat part of the breakfast and then we walked to gate 11 and waited in the lounge. I was surprised how easy it had all been. 

At 6.20am, boarding began. We had to catch a bus along the tarmac to our awaiting Malta Air plane. Not what we were expecting, but it was a code share with Ryan Air. We found our seats in row 11 and then settled in for the 2 hour 45 minute flight to Tallinn.

The plane began its take off at 7.20am, climbing away from the mountains, before doubling back with enough altitude to clear them. It was a spectacular view. The alps remained in view for 45min, with little towns dotting valleys along large lakes. There was a little snow on a few of the peaks, but most were just rock. The landscape flattened out considerably, by just after 8am. 

I passed the time taking in the view, eating breakfast and reading. At 9.50am, we were told to prepare for landing. The girl beside me pointed out her home as we passed over the red buildings and shortly after we were hitting the tarmac. 

We off the plane pretty quick and into the small and far less crowded airport. We followed the baggage claim signs, finding our belt. I went to the loo and in the short time I was gone, all 3 bags had appeared. Talk about efficient. We had crossed a time zone, so our clocks went forward an hour as well.

We then followed the signs for public transport, bought a ticket and boarded the bus that arrived at 11.30am. We had to transfer to a tram and then we were alighting again, this time to walk 500m to our accommodation. Most of it was pretty navigable, but there were still some large cobbles to negotiate. 

After a couple of wrong ways and turn arounds, we found the street, but were unsure of where we were to go, so I ducked into a hotel to ask for directions. We just hadn’t walked up the street far enough. We entered, used the elevator to get to reception and the signed in. Our room wasn’t ready, so we left our bags and went in search of a drink. It didn’t take long, find a craft bar to sit in, use the Internet and just take stock. We ended up having lunch and staying until 2pm. It gave me a chance to call home, speaking to mum and dad and then calling my girlfriends, who were having a catch up for Rebecca’s 50th. It was great to see them all. 

We left the bar, knowing our roo was ready. We walked towards the old walls, finding the entrance gates. Outside the gates are flowers sellers, their beautiful blooms in full display. We wandered briefly, finding a supermarket for supplies and then returning to our room, excited to see more of Tallinn. 

We collected our bags from reception and with key card and instructions, we went in search of our room. We crossed over a large courtyard and were then confronted with stairs. We were on the third floor, so it was a bit of a challenge for Paul to get the larger bags up to the room, but he did it!

Once in the room, we cranked the air con and began unpacking a few of the main bits. We checked out the small room, happy with what we had booked, despite the climb. 

After having a rest, we went back out 4pm, happy to wander the streets with no real purpose. Being in the old town, there were interesting buildings everywhere. We walked into a large square. There were plenty of restaurants and bars and plenty of people to enjoy the delights. There was also the Tallinn town hall to view. We ducked down old cobbled streets, found a pharmacy for cold and flu tablets. It was also a museum, showing off old pharmacological jars and preserved animals. 

We were really enjoying our aimless wander. Tallinn is so much cleaner than Italy, there is no rubbish on the street, the graffiti is limited and the smoking in the streets is minimal. Finally some clean air. 

Tallinn has a real cultural feel to it. There are plenty of interesting bars and sneaky hideouts. It has a relaxed, yet cool kind of vibe. The buildings are also different to what we have experienced, the history eeks out of the stones. It even had the first Christmas tree. 

We continued to wander, stopping at another bar for our afternoon drink and relax. We could just watch the other tourists pass by us. A shop across the street was selling items to support Ukraine and further up the road, there was a significant display of protest images and slogans. Given the proximity to Russia, you could feel the need to protect their sovereignty, having been oppressed by Russia in their recent past. I am sure they feel some camaraderie with Ukraine. 

After our drink, we walked to a supermarket, bought some salad things for dinner and then made our way back to our room for 6.30pm. We ate our meal and the settled in for the evening, our early morning catching up with us.