MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025

ACROSS THE BALTIC FOR A DAY IN TALLINN

When Estonia is a quick ferry ride from Helsinki, why not visit the capital for the day and check off another country?

Now a Helsinki tram expert, I took it down to the Port of Helsinki for the Tallink-Silja ferry shuttle that goes the two hours back and forth from Helsinki to Tallinn several times a day. When I got out at the port I was walking around to find the right ferry – there was a giant cruise ship in the port but I ignored that because I was looking for a shuttle.

…Except that giant ship was my ship, and holy cow I was not expecting it to be this size! I had booked the 10:30–12:30 trip in advance, and similar to a flight, I got an email the day before that my boarding pass was available. So I had the QR code ready on my phone, and it was an easy walk to scan and board the boat with very little wait.

I had booked the Comfort Lounge which was one of a few different reserved rooms where you could hang your coat for the ride and have a snack, versus the main open areas for the boat. They had magazines and newspapers, though they were in Finnish so not so helpful for me haha.

I got a little breakfast snack of veggies with green goddess dip, along with a roll and a slice of cheese. A perfect light snack to tide me over to lunch.

Greeted when you walk on the boat

After sitting for a little while, I left to wander around and check out the boat. I found a number of different sitting areas, some bars, plenty of gambling stations and some arcade games, and a massive multi-floor store with the typical duty free stuff along with a Moomin shop. (Moomin is an iconic IP in Finnish culture, with books, comics, and a TV series. The characters and merch are everywhere.)

Eventually, we started getting near to Tallinn, and I stood by the window to watch the approaching port and then the ship’s docking.

Getting off at the pier, I headed to a nearby tram stop, very similar to what they have in Helsinki. I wanted to head to Telleskivi Creative City, an artist’s district with cafes, shops, and a lot of street art.

What I quickly learned is that lots of things are closed in Tallinn on Mondays (whoops!) so in lieu of stopping where I had planned to eat lunch (a popular taco truck), I just walked around the neighborhood and took in the vibe.

I thought this was a woman meditating so quickly took this picture without trying to disturb her… but when walking back past it I realized she’s a sculpture 😄

Leaving Telleskivi, I started walking towards Tallinn’s “old city,” the picturesque, quaint medieval part of Tallinn, and what most tourists are going for on these day trips. My first stop was to climb up to a viewing point to get an aerial view of the town and its pretty buildings.

Walking through the narrow streets at this high part of the city it was really pretty, though full of souvenir stands with beckoning sellers dressed in medieval costumes.

In this part of town they were mostly selling a lot of different kinds of sugared nuts, along with fudge and honey, with a handful of knit things and jewelry.

This is an iStock photo — I would’ve felt icky taking pictures of them while not wanting to buy anything.

I unintentionally ended up passing the striking Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, an Eastern Orthodox church that was built at the end of the 19th century when Estonia was part of the former Russian empire. And clearly showing off that influence.

Getting into town, my first stop was to get some lunch and charge my phone. In lieu of my planned Telleskivi taco truck, I had looked at this well-reviewed pancake place Pub Kompressor online, and since it was close by decided that would work. They have a menu of tons of different kinds of pancakes, both savory and sweet.

The entrance wasn’t exactly glaring behind an iron gated door, but once inside it was a pleasant, homey place. I settled down at a table and pored over the menu, really couldn’t make up my mind, and ended up getting a vegetarian cheese & garlic pancake. It came as a thick pancake folded like a crepe, with knock-you-over heavy garlic haha. I’m not even sure what kind of cheese it was because the garlic was so strong, but like a soft Boursin type? It was good, but hard to eat a ton of it as it was both pretty intense and pretty dense.

Was the cheese and garlic the right choice in hindsight? Probably not, I’d for sure pick something different if I was starting over. But oh well. Glad I had a breath freshener with me. 😅

I didn’t take a picture of the inside of mine, but this is from TripAdvisor (looks like the smoked salmon one maybe) and gives a good sense of the thickness.

Menu pulled from TripAdvisor if you wanted to see all the savory choices. I know I would! 😄

After lunch I just wanted to wander around town a bit and stop into some of the shops. Most of the local ones are selling the same kinds of handicrafts: tons of hand-knitted mittens, along with scarves and hats, things made out of amber, and lots of juniper wood — from beautifully carved kitchen items to small Tallinn souvenirs. And honey is clearly a thing, lots of different kinds of honey!

So many mittens

It's really, uh, sharp - don't you think?

I didn't take these two - they're from a google image search

But worth showing the amount of wood products in these stores

Right in that main open square is the Town Hall Pharmacy, the oldest European apothecary that’s continually run on the same premises*, this one established in 1422. And that timespan is noticeable as soon as you walk in, with medieval potions and powders on display right next to the Sudafed haha.

*I told my parents this, and they were like, wait a minute WE visited the oldest apothecary in Europe in Croatia. So I googled it and google is saying it’s in Florence! 😄 So it’s clear there are a few that claim it, all with a different qualification. The “on the same premises” is what I think is distinct about this one.

Attached to the working pharmacy is a little museum dedicated to medieval healing methods, from dried toads and bats blood, to flasks and corking machines. It was really interesting! Pharma has come a long way. There’s also a lot dedicated to the Burchart family who amazingly ran the business for over 10 generations — across 325 years from around 1582 to 1911.

Back in the main square, I found my way to a little Estonian handicraft store called Oma Asi. It was fun to look around, and I got a couple of cute little ceramic houses that are in the same shape as a lot of the buildings here, including the shop!

This is also about when it started to gently snow.

These two are from TripAdvisor, I didn't take pictures inside

Café Maiasmokk is the oldest café in Europe and home to their Marzipan Room. I love marzipan so had to check it out, and it was nice to see the charmingly hand-painted and not mass produced little figures. There were a few cases of displays as well as a lot for sale, along with an artist’s setup for painting.

I thought this was sweet and enjoyed looking at the little figures, but there’s not much to it.

I’ve since learned that there is a whole basement/downstairs with a lot more to look at. Entirely possible there was a sign I didn’t see (or wasn’t in English) but whoops! I can’t believe I missed the majority of it! 🤦🏼‍♀️

Nearby St. Catherine’s Passage is a picturesque 400+-year-old passage that connects the Old Town to the city wall, with high arches over the walkway.

On one side of the street is a lot of artisan workshops — glass, ceramics, textiles. I stopped into a few that were open to admire the work.

The wall on the other side is a part of St Catherine's Friary, a Dominican Monastery that was active from the 1200s to the 1500s. Then in the mid-1800s the crumbling wall was restored and they hung giant tombstones (and fragments) that were removed from the friary grounds.

At this point it was starting to snow harder, and as I was walking aimlessly, I found myself at the entrance to the Old Town, with some shops outside including a really charming flower shop that took up a long stretch of walkway.

Given the snow and my tired feet, I decided to just head back to the Ferry terminal early and relax a bit. I was really early for it, but it’s a good thing I was as I took the wrong tram not once but twice trying to get back to the port! Thank god for the little blue dot moving in google maps to show me I was going in the wrong direction so I could get off and wait for a tram going the other direction, but by the third time I was waiting outside I was shivering and wet and definitely ready to get inside.

I eventually got back to the (pretty empty) port and still had some time to kill, and stumbled on the perfect thing: a bunch of electric massage chairs.

For €8 you could get a 15 minute massage, which was an incredibly well spent €8. It felt so good, especially on the calves. But it was an unexpectedly intense massage! And then I flew too close to the sun and decided to go for another 15 minutes, but this time I took my coat off to better feel it. And feel it I did, ending up with some serious bruises on my back! The coat came back on about a minute into that. Ouch. But still worth it.

First 15. Relaxed. And smart to be wearing my coat.

Battered and beaten haha, I found my way to the waiting area and chilled until the 7:30 ferry to Helsinki started boarding. Loved the honey vending machine!

On the way back I opted for the Business Lounge as it came with a full buffet dinner. Even though there seemed to be a lot of people getting on the boat, there were literally six of us total in the lounge. Nice to have all of that space, but I felt bad because there was SO much food put out! I hope they were able to donate that or something when we docked.

In hindsight this really wasn’t a necessary upgrade, and probably should’ve just taken the Comfort Lounge back. But it was nice to check out the new space, and have a lot of options for dinner!

Two hours later we were back in Helsinki where it thankfully wasn’t snowing, and I was able to catch the tram pretty quickly and be in bed by like 10:45. Nice full day visiting an all new country, and excited that I can add Estonia to the list!