Travel Week pt. 1: Estonia

Travel Week officially started with Lauren and I trying to catch a plane outta Moscow.  Russian airports confuse me.  It took more time to wait for the check-in ladies to be ready than it did to go through all the security checkpoints.  And all of that time combined was probably equal to the time I stood in line waiting for passport control.

I don't understand why this is a thing

But they let us on the plane and we soared off to Tallinn.  Also the airport in Estonia is SO COMFY LOOKING!!  There are chairs and couches with big cushions and bean bags and rugs and things everywhere and it looks like an amazing place to curl up with a book and read.  There was also a wonderful amount of purple everywhere.

But I digress.

Our hostel was the Feel Good Hostel, located at the bottom of the hill leading up to the old town center in Tallinn.  It was pretty nice, very clean, and the staff were friendly.  The rest of our party showed up later that night - in the meantime, Lauren and I wandered around the old town and farther on down to the harbor and back up.

The thing that struck me about Tallinn was how quiet it was.  It is the capital city of a country and there were parts of our wanderings where it was literally dead silent.  You could hear the wind and your footfalls on the cobblestones and that's about it.  And there was never very many people around.  Only in very touristy spots - like the overlook - had more than a handful of people.

Just look at that view.  So picturesque

There wasn't much to do in Tallinn, mostly because we as a group were still trying to figure out how to function as a group.  Where do we go, how do we get there, how long will it take, how much does lunch cost??  Those are very important things.  So Tallinn was mostly just wandering around and taking pictures and getting to know everyone (all five of us).

One of the interesting things we did do in Tallinn was take a walk inside the town wall.  There were three towers from which you could see both the old city and the new, and many arrow slits in the wall in general.

Like something outta Robin Hood.....

Aaaaaaand this was the square by our hostel, known as "Freedom Square".  The cross lights up at night.

The weather mostly held out for us.  It was sunny and cloudless when Lauren and I touched down in Estonia. The sky stayed mainly blue throughout our stay, with only a bit of bad weather on the last day - and even then, I don't particularly consider snow bad weather.  It added a soft layer of white to everything and made the city look even more adorable.

That's Tallinn.  Not nearly as exciting as the Moscow trip, but it was nice to spend the first few days of Travel Week in a city that wasn't going at a breakneck pace around the clock.