I had booked my trip to Tallinn at the only Finnish company operating on the route, Eckerö Line. That was unfortunately a mistake: it may have been partly due to the weekend, but the ship was crowded and cramped, with very few seats - no opportunity to sit in the cafe or restaurant either, due to the crowdedness. It was difficult to find a peaceful spot: if I'd sit leaning on a wall, I'd have people jumping over my legs. On the way back I especially failed in my quest for a peaceful spot: on one occasion I had a drunken bozo - French I think - disturbing my reading with a "Hello! How ya doing??". At another occasion I was forced to listen to an older lady who was swigging from her bottle of vodka at a steady pace going on an on very loudly about how marvellously she can get along with all sorts because when her husband was alive she met all kinds of fine people. With the trip taking 3 hours in one direction, it was very tiresome. This is clearly a ferry company where the idea is to get people spend as much money as possible on board: book cabins, drink and eat at the restaurants, and shop at tax free. Next time I'll take one of the Estonian ferries, Tallink or Linda Line.
In contrast, the hotel was absolutely superb and I'll certainly book it the next time I visit. Hotel City Portus is right at the port, by one of the terminals. Fantastic value for money (without my package a single room would have cost 44 euros): wonderful service and breakfast; good rooms with excellent shower. You could even book the sauna at their top floor. I also loved the interior design which was very retro pop: red, yellow, orange, white and brown, with a poster of Madonna on the wall.
As soon as I had reached Tallinn at midday and got my room, I proceeded to buy a 24 hour ticket for the public transport (a mere 4,5 euros) and headed to Lasnamäe. The cloudy weather indeed offered a suitably different mood compared to the bright days of the summer:
Here Laagna tee, the asphalt river which runs all through the area. I read somewhere that a local train line was planned to be built to run in between the lanes but like so many other things here, it never materialized. I must say, though, that I would love to visit the area on a foggy day! Those huge concrete blocks would look fantastic enclosed in mist, I'm sure.
This is my favourite of the things I found on saturday:
Very sweet and very cool I think. :-)I debated whether or not to stay in Lasnamäe until after dark but decided against it: for one thing the wind was chilly, but more importantly it's not necessarily a good idea to wander around there alone after dark.
It was an early night for me, because in the previous night I had in vain to get to sleep early so that I'd have enough sleep by the time I had to get up at 6 am. This time, I slept like a log and was up for breakfast at the 8 am starting time, so as to maximize time. I went back to Lasnamäe for a while, then strolled around in central Tallinn for a bit, until it was time to catch the 4 pm ferry.
Whilst waiting I had the occasion to be "proud" of Finnish Tallinn travellers again: most of the people I saw with alcohol purchases had cartloads of Finnish beer, cider and long drink which are exported to Estonia and then the Finns go buy it back. Sitting beside me in the terminal was a group of 20+ girls with similar cartloads. They were talking about how incredibly drunk they'd been the previous night and how "incredibly fucking sick" they now feel. Where is the romance of travelling in that, I ask? This is an example of why Finnish tourists don't have a good reputation in Tallin. I suppose it has got a bit better at least. I came across a blog of a Canadian man who had lived in Estonia for years and years. In one of his posts he said that 10 years ago, if you went to the Old Town, you would come across a drunk Finn at every corner. And it's not the only reference I've seen!
The ferry company and the annoying Finnish tourists notwithstanding, I again enjoyed my time in Tallinn tremendously. Next time I better book two nights, however: in summertime one night would be enough but with the sun now setting at 4 pm there just isn't enough time.
More pictures later.
6 comments:
Hi Maria,
The boat ride sounds like a nightmare, but at least once you got there, things looked up. I love the birthday wall greetings, and I think you have a real sense of poetry in your words: "a river of asphalt", nicely put.
Looking forward to more shots.
xx
AM
Our ferries here are part of the public transit system. Therefore, they do not sell alcohol on board, but they do trap you in the gift shops and sell items at highly-inflated prices. Our ferries also do not have cabins, but I have to admit, their kitchens serve great food! It's like riding on an expansive city bus floating upon the water. I also like the sound of the engines thrumming deep in the hidden bowels of the ship.
I cannot imagine it being an enjoyable ride whilst hungover, though...
As for Tallinn in November, it looks cold and dreary. Is it just another norther city, or is there a certain attraction? I love your river of asphalt - it looks very flat there, too.
I do love the birthday greeting!
Dale, in terms of the climate it is just another northern city but what attracts me there is the Soviet history: Estonia was under Soviet rule from the end of the second world war to the new independence in 1990. There are still, after 20 years, plenty of reminders of the past: a gigantic 70's concert hall by the port; decayed and abandoned buildings (residential and industrial) outside the central city; and Lasnamäe, which is what the two pictures are from. Lasnamäe is a huge (some 10,6 square miles) suburb of nothing but concrete blocks that they began to build in the 70's and never Finished. It's quite a surreal place: mile after mile of those concrete blocks, plus the Soviet architecture tended to be fairly monotonous. Also Estonia, and Tallinn, is a very divided country still: there is the native Estonian population and a large Russian minority. The majority of the residents in Lasnamäe, for instance, is Russian. Only something like a third (if I remember correctly) of the Russian population has Estonian citizenship and they also do not have Russian citizenship. Many do not speak Estonian. There's also a huge difference in the interpretation of history: for the Russian population, the Soviet Union was a liberator, from German occupation, whereas for the Estonian it was an occupation. I can sort of see the points of view of both sides, the Soviet time left deep scars, but on the other hand the Russian population is not the guilty party. They were basically transported to Estonia forcibly, and the younger generations of Russians in Estonia have never known another country. So it seems to me that the policies of the Estonian government to keep up the division don't make much sense.
Oh, I think it might not be such a bad idea if the Helsinki-Tallinn ferries stopped serving/selling alcohol. But I doubt they would do it. Their business would crash, because so many Finns go to Tallinn mainly to buy cheaper alcohol.
Hi Maria, I'm so impressed by the way you take these trips as a sort of enjoyable mission. It's such a shame that your travelling companions leave so much to be desired, though. Your photos are a portrait of what I imagine the cold grey soviet atmosphere to have been. Your fascination with this convinces me you would love Poland too! Looking forward to the next instalment now. I loved your earlier photos of old Tallinn!
It seems that the history repeats itself, in the fifties to the late seventies we had the Swedish meat-, butter-, and taxfree Koskenkorva tourists swarming like the locusts of Egypt on the ferries and all over Helsinki, Turku and Vaasa, drunk and very loud the dispersed their Swedish krona all over the poor and war-torn finnsish landscape...
The tide turned during the economic upswing in Finland in the eighties and there were kind of a balance in the crowds that populated the ferries between Finland and Sweden then but now after the fall of the USSR we see the finns and swedes swarming all over the poor Baltic countries...
Your pics however are good as usual :)
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