We had an early-ish start to make sure we returned the rental car on time at the Tallinn airport. There was a reduced ferry schedule on Sundays, and I incorrectly read the timetables for the opposite direction, so instead of waiting for 10 minutes, we waited about 45. Regardless, our timing was still on track and we arrived at the Tallinn airport around noon…sort of.
You see, there was no signage for rental car return and all vehicle traffic passing through the terminal was forced to take a ticket to enter. We went into the kiss-and-fly lane since that was the only one that allowed you to exit within ten minutes for free. We thought we saw a Hertz sign as we were funneled into exit lanes from the airport. There was a big red Do Not Enter sign that appeared to lead to the rental car return, so we went into the parking lot next to it which required pulling another ticket — thinking that the rental companies also use the common parking lot.
Spoiler alert: it was not the car rental return. In fact, despite entering just a minute or two earlier, I was not allowed to exit without paying 1 euro. This put us in an infinite loop of confusion, kiss-and-fly, and choice words. Eventually, we saw that below the giant do-not-enter sign, was a much smaller, seemingly insignificant white sign with small text reading, “except rental cars.” I feel like there is a metaphor in all this for putting too much effort into keeping certain people out that the original intention was completely lost.
Alas! After recovering from the rollercoaster ride that was the car rental return, we made our way to central Tallinn and old town which took about ten minutes. We checked into the Nuune Hotel and proceeded to our room. After getting settled, we embarked upon the cobblestoned streets of old town to explore the neighborhood. It was quite crowded and bustling, particularly in the main square. There seemed to be a lot more tour groups than Riga, for example. So even though Riga had its share of tourists, it seemed much calmer than Tallinn. Perhaps the fact that it’s Sunday had something to do with that as well.
We had some mini pancakes with Nutella from a street stand to fulfill our needs for lunch before trying in vain to avoid all the tourists. It seemed that no matter where we went they found us. Even when we tried to duck off to the side, people would follow us. YES, WE ARE BRICOLE, EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE CELEBRITY COUPLE, NOT ZOO ANIMALS. We dispersed to the Danish gardens on the grounds of Toompea Castle. There were three sculptures of monks that I thought looked shockingly similar to the ghost sculpture in Klaipeda.
Though the shot above looks nice and open, I had to move quickly to get a shot without people in it. We tired of dodging the hordes of people, especially when they kept stopping abruptly or veering blindly across narrow streets. I hadn’t initially thought we would do another occupation/communism history museum, but it seemed to oddly be the calmest thing one could do at that hour, so I subjected poor Nicole to the Vabamu Museum of Occupation and Freedom.
The Estonia edition of the various occupation museums had a different theme than Riga’s. The object was not to focus so much on the occupiers, but rather the Estonian experience and how they prevailed through such difficult times. It focused a lot on the philosophical. Rather than point the blame at people like Stalin or the NKVD (later KGB), it challenged the visitor to think about everyone who just went along with things. Was it out of fear? Self-preservation? Or something else? The moral was forgiveness, not grudge-holding. It was also more interactive and tech-heavy compared to its Latvian counterpart. At one point, I decorated a Soviet apartment using VR goggles.
After the museum, we made a brief pit stop at the Alexander Nevsky cathedral. I liked the way it looked on the outside. The inside, however was soon inundated with a tour group who were loud, slow-moving, blocking us from the exit, and inexplicably holding scarves over their mouths like they smelled dead bodies or something. I do recall putting on deodorant this morning in any event.
We again continued to wander the streets eventually finding more quiet areas for the old town. I popped into an antique store and was eyeing a Yuri Gagarin commemorative alarm clock, but I wasn’t sure of the authenticity, and thought it was overpriced. Furthermore, does Soviet style count as mid century modern to go with the rest of our decor? Debatable. But wait! On the note of architectural styles, behold the following building for one Dr. Herscher, PhD to feast his eyes upon.
You will note some common elements of art nouveau architecture in this cute little building. Now what if I told you it housed the jail cells used by NKVD and KGB to interrogate its prisoners. We popped in for a bit to check out the cells. They had an addendum exhibit to talk about Russian citizens in current times who have been imprisoned (or in some cases died) under rather dubious circumstances thanks to Putin. My biggest takeaway, however, is that the building is otherwise used presently as normal residences as if nothing ever happened there.
After dinner at an Italian restaurant, we began our spa experience at the Nuune hotel. We are entering sauna country, and it seemed appropriate to take part in this cultural phenomenon. There were three temperature options: 45ºc and steamy, 70ºc and dry with the smell of cedar, or 90ºc which was just…hot. We started off in 70ºc (or approximately 160ºf). It didn’t seem too intense. The way it is done in Nordic countries is to alternate hot and cold. Hot sauna then jump in a cold pool or cold shower. The end result of this process is that you never feel true relief jumping into a cold pool — it is always cold. Then you come out and roast again in the sauna. This is supposed to rid the body of toxins or maybe just sweat. The 45º sauna with steam was very muggy like a summer’s day in Orlando. I did try my hand at the 90ºc sauna (or 194ºf). It was palatable after a cold dip, but after a few minutes the simple act of breathing in and out almost became painful. Anyway, that was spa day for Bricole. After that we retired for the evening — rid of toxins, a pound of sweat, and possibly our dignity. Tomorrow involves yet another ferry — this time an international 2 hour voyage over to Helsinki, Finland.
passports & pepto bismol 