Tallinn in October 2013

Catching up, catching up...Back in 2013, we went to Tallinn for a couple of days on my autumn break. We actually went to Estonia quite a few times in 2013 and 2014 as Julcsi needed to leave the country every three months, and Tallinn is the obvious choice from Finland since it only takes 2,5 hours to get there by ferry. We stayed at our favourite hostel, Viru Backpackers, which is both reasonably priced and located right in the middle of everything in the Old Town.

On our way, still in Helsinki.

The view from our hostel room window.

As usual, we managed to do quite a few things during the couple of days we had in Tallinn. Our first destination was Kadriorg Palace, which is a completely gorgeous place built for Catherine I of Russia. We wandered around in the park before going into the palace, which also functions as an art museum.

Evening coffee in Viru Keskus the shopping mall.

On the next day, we had two destinations: the KGB Museum at Viru Hotel and Kiek in de Kök and Bastion Passages. Out of these two, I highly recommend the former! Viru Hotel used to be bugged, and up on the 23rd floor, there is a room where KGB people were sitting and listening in on the guests' conversations in various parts of the hotel. You can only go up there on a guided tour that you need to pre-book and the tour guides are excellent! They have a lot of stories about what went on in the hotel, and even if the museum is tiny, it's well worth the visit. You can expect to see a lot of spy gear! The view from the 23rd floor over Tallinn is quite excellent, too.

This is priceless :D!

Kiek in de Kök, on the other hand, is an exhibition underground and it pretty much describes the many ways the Kiek in de Kök tower tunnels have been used over the years - they even have a time train that will take you into the future! Not sure how interesting the tunnels are but I still enjoyed the experience. I was maybe expecting a little bit more from the exhibition, though.

War time usage.

Teens' hangout place.

The walls have ears...

Drunks keeping themselves warm...

After a lovely two-day trip, we sailed back to Finland. Of course, we needed to entertain ourselves on the ferry somehow, and what could be a better way of doing it than revamping a sudoku puzzle...