It's almost time for the Baltics to be behind us... We've just spend 5 days in Tallinn, Estonia. Face it, before this trip we'd have been lucky to have found any of the Baltic states on a map, let alone known anything about them. It's been a huge learning curve. We arrived last Friday (31 March) on our new favourite form of transport - the whiz bang Lux Express coach. We knew the international coach station was about 5 km outside of the Old Town (so definitely weren't planning to walk that one). We had a pre-paid taxi booked and weren't sure if we just gave any old cabbie the voucher - but no! Our very own cab was waiting to meet the coach and whizzed us into town super quickly. Despite very foggy and snowy conditions for most of the drive between Latvia and Estonia, the town itself was relatively clear of snow - just a few remnants lying about. Our first order of business after checking in at 2.30 pm was of course, a nap/shower/change before heading out to the finale of cultural tour of Eastern Europe - Swan Lake at the Estonian National Opera House. When we booked this a few weeks ago, there were only 10 or so seats left - up in the second balcony and to the side - so not the best (and it was a full house). Therefore we were very lucky indeed to spot two no-show seats in the centre of the balcony right on the aisle just 2 rows forward from us. The second the doors were closed and the lights went down we broke the land speed record nipping over to them - utterly perfect view for both of us! (And the people in the row behind our original seats were more than happy to move into our seats.) Tchaikovsky is officially one of favourite composers along with Beethoven but is the most amazing ballet composer. Our late night walk home was a joy and we marvelled at the beauty of Tallinn. Essentially untouched by war (as the Germans were here during WWII), it is like Disney designed the most perfect Eastern European old town... except better because it's original. Speaking of screeds of history, our hotel (St Olav's) is steeped in the stuff. It was originally built in 1437 and obviously it's been reconstructed here and there over the centuries since - the history page is very quick to point out it's always been occupied by the most upper echelons of society! We're tucked into the 15th century walls and it's a very quick 3 minute nip through to the main/Town Hall Square of Tallinn. We think of it as our accidental hotel actually - when we booked it on there were no free-cancellation type rooms available and we were holding bookings at 2 other places (with a view to rebooking if the prices came down). Anyway - got an excellent rate here of €37/night including breakfast, hit the 'book' button... then realised it couldn't be cancelled... lucky it was such a good rate. It's been an excellent stay all round - but due to the walls and floors literally screaming with age (and the weekend tourist hordes clomping about), it is, shall we say, an 'ear plug' hotel. After a jolly good sleep (as it turns out, Estonians do very comfy beds), Saturday and the ravening tourist hordes were upon us. If we didn't know better we'd think it was peak season. Either that or a return of the Northern Crusaders who arrived in the 1400s determined to convert the heathen masses to the one true god. Saturday was standard weather for a Free Walking Tour (freezing cold, around 2 degrees, drizzling and gray). And even so the guide had 50 people turn up, raring to go. And go we did - from 12 noon til 2.30 pm. We weren't even hungry at the end... due to early-onset hypothermia. We saw so many sights and heard hilarious stories about the communist era in Tallinn. Like Finland building their radio masts extra high in the '70s and '80s so that people who could 'adjust' their radios correctly could hear the forbidden, decadent music of the west. The more entrepreneurial, which was mainly the punks, would record music then meet on Harju Hill in the old town to swap and sell their boot legged, black market cassette tapes. This was of course highly illegal and a look out was always posted. If police turned up (to see what the large group of punk rockers were doing congregating on a hill), they'd send a runner to the catacombs beneath the hill to hide the music. Then all whip out their stamp collections for a swap meet. Stamps with pictures of Stalin etc were particularly approved of by the authorities. Our guide said the sale of music wasn't really a road to getting rich in that era... more a very slow path to being less and less poor. Another of his stories was about his mum's plastic bag collection (still gathering dust in their attic in 2017). Back in the day, any small thing from beyond the iron curtain was valued. Magical. An indicator of worldliness and wealth. His mum and her girlfriends would collect from wherever they could bags from Western stores... IKEA, Harrods, Macy's, Levis etc... Then when they would visit each other they would bring out the plastic bags and dream of things that might never be. We ended up dining 'al-Rimi' which is the local supermarket - lovely hot mash, mushroom sauce, schnitzel and a fruity Spanish red wine in our room - restaurants in Tallinn seem to plan on making 90% of their weekly take on the weekends when tourists (though not us) are happy to pay. After dinner (post-schnitzel) we ventured out again with our warmer coats on and visited St Catherine's Passage (Katerina Kaik - a wonderful medieval passage lined with tombstones and shadows), walked a section of the old town walls, came upon the Varu gate - possibly the most well-known of Tallinn's landmarks then finished breathing the heady rose-scented air at the flower market outside the gates. Hard to believe it's only our second night in town. Sunday (not being Walking Tour Day), dawned warm and sunny with bright blue skies. James became our tour guide today and showed us around Tallinn's defensive towers, old walls and great courtyard full of craft studios and we even found a rather unique art gallery in a basement. It's called Ichthus and since 2001 it has been run from the oldest stone building in Tallinn - the building was started in 1245 and was eventually the basement of a Dominican Friary. Interesting story about the Dominicans. The order was founded by a Spaniard called Dominic Gusman in 1216. Until then only bishops could preach and the word of god was having penetration issues. Dominic wanted preachers to reach remote areas and Estonia appeared early on the Dominican agenda. They traded fish to support themselves but preaching was their main job and the friary was labelled The Order of Preachers - but locally was known as the Blackfriars Monastery due to the black cloaks the men wore. The monastery was dedicated to Saint Catherine and the symbol of the order is a black and white dog holding a flaming torch in his mouth - a pun on the name of the order "Dominicanes" in Latin - The followers of Dominic. Split into two words it becomes Domini Canes - Hounds of the Lord and the torch represents truth. Almost totally destroyed by fire in 1524 when the Reformation reached Estonia shortly after it began in Germany. The monks were immediate victims due to their loyalty to Rome. In any event it was lovely to visit the basement - art on the walls, rocking chairs by a fire, everything made from stone - a step back in time almost 800 years. Lunch was a lucky find of soup and beer (definitely Estonian staple foods) for €5 each (a huge bargain on a weekend). The soup was very traditional - Solyanka. It's one of those words that has no translation - on English menus it will also appear as Solyanka - lots of smoked pork, onions, veges, sausage and olives. Given I don't even like most of those... I let James order first then got my own serve with some Estonian dark beer - luscious! Monday saw us having the business lunch at the Kwakinn - fairly strange chain of Belgian style beer cafes that are actually based out of St Petersburg. We discovered them in Riga when there was one just a few steps from our hotel. The business lunch is only 4.20 and includes soup, salad and main and a hot tea... It's a phenomenally well kept secret here in Tallinn as they don't advertise it at all and we had to go in and ask if they did it, and if so, what was on the menu. Turned out to be our Tallinn staple - schnitzel and mash with salad and a cabbage soup. From there we roamed the handicraft centre, tried on fur coats (great past time in a town with at least a dozen fur stores in the old town alone. In the evening we went ghost hunting (well we had a look). The most well known story in Tallinn is the Devil's Wedding Party - a short walk from our hotel is the 15th C house at Rataskaevu 16 with the top apartment bricked up and fake curtains painted on the facade. The story goes that the landlord was desperate for money, almost suicidal and he was approached by a mysterious cloaked stranger who wanted to rent the apartment for a party on condition of total privacy. During the evening of the party, the noise was horrendous, positively unholy. It sounded like hundreds of feet were tramping up the stairs. At 1 am everything went quiet. The next day the Landlord's servant was mortally ill. Before he died he admitted to peeping through the keyhole and swore he saw the Devil himself hosting a wedding party. Noises have been heard ever since. During recent remodelling of the restaurant now in the building, coins, documents and even human bones were found in the walls. In the vicinity of that particular haunted house sits the Cat's Well. The medieval residents were very fearful that evil water spirits would inundate the town with a devastating flood - so they threw dead cats into the well to appease them. This well was eventually shut due to contamination. Can't imagine why! We Then finished the evening by visiting another section of the old walls, and enjoying the views of St Nicholas's church by night. We got our final pack out of the way on Monday (prior to ghost explorations) so on Tuesday when the sky was blue and the sun was shining we went outside the Old Town to Depoo Turg (The Depot Market). Not a touristy spot at all - thus very keenly priced for locals. We have been in despair for months now - mostly in hotels (and Air BnBs... and at some housesits), there are tiny tea cups. 150-200 ml jobs. Not a real mug in sight. We end up having 3 cups of tea just to start the day. We've been hunting online for some super light travel mugs to carry with us for decent cuppas... Best we could find was a posh titanium model on Amazon - 80 grams each, US$23 each plus heavens knows what for shipping. Never! So we kept our eyes open today and found two perfect cups - only 70 grams each and a grand total of €4.50 for the pair (A$6 or so) - woo hoo! Don't know how long they'll last. Don't care. Also bought socks and a replacement pair of little black gloves as my last ones are in Riga. Somewhere. We stopped for a coffee and a cake then trundled back to the Old Town for lunch at the Kwakinn (when we're on to a good thing, we stick to it). What's next? Tomorrow (Wed 5 April), we'll be up and at 'em relatively early and flying to Helsinki (just 30 minutes) for a 9 am arrival. We are taking a ferry late Wednesday afternoon to St Petersburg - so just need to amuse ourselves from about 10 am until 2 pm check-in. As we're on the ferry for 2 nights and in St Petersburg for 1 night, there is no reason to lug our big bags on and off a ship and into Russia. So first port of call after landing at Helsinki Airport will be a stop at our hotel to drop off our big bags and have them securely stored until our return on Saturday. From there... the voyage to Russia begins!