Sunday, 26 August 2012

Estonia: St Petersburg BOOO!! Tallinn YAY!!!

Well after spending our 8th and final night in possibly the shittiest hostel room in St Petersburg we made our way to Tallinn in Estonia, which was a delightfully pleasant change, despite the 7 hour bus ride (1hr of which included crossing the Russian border into Estonia). Our last night saw us buy a $3 bottle of Vodka and smash out some serious Uno with a couple of Brits and a Brazilian! The vodka wasn't as bad as one would imagine but most definitely could not be considered to be "good".

1/2 litre of Vodka - 1 litre can of beer plus a regular can - $7, thanks for coming!

Tom sampling Russia's largest/cheapest can of beer!
Our trip to Estonia started with us walking to the metro station in the pouring rain, finally getting to the metro station, catching it to where we needed to be and then not being able to find out bus stop - like most of Russia the signage for our bus could be described as... "non-existent"! After about an hour of walking around in the rain, we both made it to the bus, exceptionally wet, rather annoyed and very much ready to leave Russia. The border crossing from Russia to Estonia was typically Russian, not a word of English to be seen and ONE very disgruntled looking woman taking care of an entire bus worth of passports!

We arrived in Estonia semi-dry and ready to relax in to a city that was a) smaller and b) friendlier than St Petersburg and we were not let down. It's like stepping back in time to a medieval village, full of cobblestone paths and buildings that have been there since the 1400s.

After continually being conquered or invaded Estonia won their independence from Russia in 1991 - weird looking monument to celebrate and by the sounds if it, it is universally hated by Estonians
KG smashing out some K's by the Estonian coast
Supposedly means "peek in the kitchen" (insert story of meaning here) - I translated it to mean "Kick in the Cock"
Artsy photo of Tallinn Town Sqaure
Doorways weren't massive in the 1400s - bastards!
Whilst in Estonia we also managed to head along to see Lady Gaga supported by The Darkness. Despite promoting 2 supporting acts with the show starting at 7:30 it actually turned out that The Darkness were the only supporting act and only "supported" for 30 mins, so our arrival at 7:45 meant we missed most of their set, but we did get to see a 15 minute version of Love On The Rocks With No Ice, absolute money. Lady Gaga was absolutely amazing, insane stage show and an epic performance! Definitely worth the money!

Justin Hawkins from The Darkness
Lady Gaga's absurd stage set up
It's currently our last day in Tallinn before we head off to Riga in Latvia tomorrow, by far the highlight of Tallinn for KG has been the amazing yoghurt she purchased at the local shopping centre, the look of excitement eliminates the need for any caption...


1 comment:

  1. I was becoming concerned, there had been pictures of food but then you brought it home with Cold Rock looking yogurt, phew! Xxoo

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