A Love Letter (and Guide) to Estonia

I fall in love easily. In my defense, it’s not people I fall in love with, but ideas, activities, and places. I intentionally don't call it obsession, because it doesn’t turn all-consuming and it's not a phase. I don’t have to fall out of love with one thing to fall in love with another. I simply add to the list of things that I get intensely excited and intensely passionate about. My cat Boo. The University of North Carolina. Chickpeas. Paddleboarding. The nation of Afghanistan. Very strong coffee.

So, although it was a little surprising, it wasn’t unprecedented for me to fall in love with Estonia. And I did!

trees at the University of Tartu

I loved walking over old train tracks to get to the coffee shop that plays American music and serves Swedish pastries. I sat in that coffee shop for hours and wrote, watching everyone walk by, bundled in their coats and scarves, babies snuggled in their strollers with layers of quilts and hats, little noses red. I loved going to get a beer at eight p.m. in a bar and it being perfectly acceptable to sit there with my computer, working on law school applications. The trio of guys next to me was clearly working on a project for work, fueled by gin and tonics. Nobody bothered me, everybody was polite. The only man who ever was gross towards me was another American.

graffiti on the roof of the Linnahall

I loved the trees, the ones in the city parks that are shedding their leaves and the silvery forest that covers half of Estonia. The forests are special to the Estonian people, and my guide in Tartu said that although Christianity came to Estonia in the thirteenth century, Estonians never really abandoned the spiritual connection they felt to their nature. I’m reading a novel called The Man Who Spoke Snakish that’s set at this time and follows a man who resists the Baltic German occupation to stay in the forests, living the traditional way of life.

I loved the beaches; cold, windy places that people still frequent when it’s cloudy. The water and the sand feel cleaner, more refreshing somehow when it’s so cold out that you’ve got your hands shoved in your jacket pockets.

I loved that everything is close together, but nobody is on top of each other. I loved hopping on a bus and tapping my green card against the sensor, pretending that, why yes, I do live in here (although I’m clearly not a resident of Tallinn proper; they don’t have to pay for public transit). I loved that, even during rush hour, the buses and trams weren’t all that crowded.

I loved how the Estonian language slowly revealed itself to me and I started noticing words and patterns. By no means can I say anything other than “thank you” and “hello,” but now when I stare at the case of savory pies in the grocery store, I can read the names and tell which ones have meat and which ones don’t. Helpful for a vegetarian. I can read the monitors at the open-air train station with only eight tracks. I also loved studying the Russian on the advertisements inside the buses, sounding out the letters to myself.

I loved the contrast between the medieval old town, with its churches and cobblestones and scenic viewpoints, and the graffiti-covered concrete of the rest of the city. I loved how, if I wanted, I could cross through the old town on my way from one side of the city to the other, if I didn’t feel like taking the bus. I loved how, when the sky was blue, it felt like a holiday, a special occasion, and I’d look out the window and be excited to get up and get outside.

This is a love letter to Estonia, but it’s also a guide for you, because I want you to come here to Tallinn and love it too. That coffee shop is on Telliskivi, it’s called Fika Café and Bakery, and you should get a cardamom bun and whatever kind of hot coffee you like. The bar was Põhja Konn and it’s only a few steps away from Fika. For more about food in Estonia, you should see my previous post about grocery shopping at Rimi and Selver. Also visit the Balti Jaama Turg, an indoor market with produce and food stalls.

coffee at Fika

To see the trees, you should walk in the parks that surround the old city, Toompark and Hirvepark, and spend some time staring at the paired-off ducks in the ponds. If you need to cry about anything, you should do it here; no one will see you except the ducks. You should also take the two-and-a-half-hour train to Tartu and look out the window to see that thick, silvery forest. Go to Tartu’s university and sit on a bench in Toomemäe Park, a name that translates to “Dome (Cathedral) Mountain.” It’s not a mountain, it’s just a hill. There are no mountains in Estonia.

While you’re in Tartu, take a tour with twenty-six-year-old Stanislav from Ukraine (Google “free tour Tartu”), tip him well, and tell him the girl from Texas sent you. Also tell him I thought he was cute.

Go to Pikakari Beach with a swimsuit and a towel if you’re feeling brave, or just walk on the old pier in your jacket and hat and wonder about the industrial equipment lying under the water’s surface.

Get a Smartcard (ühiskaart) at any R-kiosk around the city and download the Tallinna Transport app on your phone to easily put ten or so euros on the card. An hour-long pass is two euros, a day pass is five-and-a-half, but the app will calculate all that for you. Use Google Maps to figure out the transit system—compared to the Netherlands, it’s easy.

Say tere to say hello, pronounced “teh-REH,” with the “r” rolled just a tiny bit, and say aitäh to say thank you, pronounced “eye-TAH.”

views over the Vanalinn (Old Town)

A walking tour is the best way to see the old town, in my opinion, and there’s a good one every day at 3:15pm from the old city hall. It’s twenty euros very well-spent. I learned so much that I could give two elderly Canadians a mini tour only a few days later. Why yes, the domes of Alexander Nevski used to be covered in gold, but it was taken to pay for two British-made submarines before World War II. You can see one of them in a museum, but the other was sunk. Have you been to Rome? They stole the bronze from the roof of the Pantheon the same way, only instead of commissioning subs, the Pope gave it to Bernini to make a ridiculously opulent canopy for inside St. Peter’s.

Kadriorg Park

Outside of the old town, visit the stately Kadriorg Park—that’s where I’m sitting right now—and its accompanying Russian palace. There are two museums here if you want to see some Estonian art (at the KUMU) and the Dutch, German, and Russian art that influenced it (at Kadriorg Palace). You can also go in some of the old towers and fortifications at the Kiek in de Kök Museum; you can save some money and just buy the pass to see the towers. The bastions are kind of meh.

a painting of Tallinn in the Kumu, Estonia's national art museum

Visit the Vabamu Museum of Occupation, the former KGB prison cells, and the striking monument to the victims of communism near Maarjamäe Palace to learn just how much the Estonian people have been through, and then climb to the top of the Linnahall, an old arena built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and meditate on it. If you smoke, this is a great place to do it. You’ll fit in with all the teenagers.

There are some places in Estonia that I didn’t get to. Narva is right on the Russian border and is apparently a blast from the Soviet past. Pärnu is on the southwest coast and sounds like a great place to go in the summertime if you don’t have a cast you can’t get wet. I also would like to rent a car and travel to some of the national parks near Tallinn, like Lahemaa. But I have a feeling I’ll be back to Estonia. Maybe next time, you’ll come with me!