Best Western Hotell Tallink Tallinn

... s one of the only things I like about large cities... Some cities have it more, and some less...and again, you can feel it from the architecture. Sometimes it's as if the walls themselves hold the energy from years ago... As I hung out in this castle courtyard overlooking the city of Tallinn...I had this feeling like the walls of the castle were wondering who this girl is now?? What happened here in this beautiful little place? Who am I ...

... sees. Keith ütleb, et tem* m*g*s täits* okeilt, Kärt tundis k* voodist mõnu ning s*i s*muti süg*v* une. J*ns* j* K*rin m*g*sid kõrvuti ning mingid *sj*d sõid neid ning *lgse voodilin* koht* oli neil öeld*, et tädil on väg* värvik*s elu, või on t* voodimärg*j*. Eero m*g*b ikk* veel kell pool 11 ning ilmselt on t*l he* uni, sest k* tem* h*kk*s koheselt norsk*m*. Nii t* siin leb*b om* superm*ni poosis. Ig*ljuhul on kell pr*egu veer*nd 12 j* h*kk*me minem* v*ikselt, kuigi Eero m*g*b veel ...

... sting out of a 2.5 hour trip across land that's as flat as Ohio, but with slightly more trees. Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were quite boring, as my only activities were writing my paper, going to Easter service on Sunday, and then finishing my paper. The paper has been turned in and I'm taking a break from serious work for a couple of days...I have an exam in the same class (it's ending after the exam, though) but I'll study for that as it gets closer. Until then, it's student life as usual!

... the remnants of old city walls. And the city was old. If 5000 years old traces of the first human settlement found in the city centre are set aside, Tallinn as people know it today probably had its birth in 1050 when the first fortress was built on Tallinn's Toompea, or Cathedral hill. It became an important trade port, growing in size and prosperity, and as such automatically saw some uninvited guests at its dining table, first like Danes and Germans. In Medieval times it ...

... days, and unfortunately a tacky reminder that even these ancient cities are not safe from cheerless plastic food and poor nutrition. I used their dunny, ****** the manager off by refusing to buy anything, then joined Danny back on the street to continue our search for a place to drink. We stumbled across a place a few alleys later... it is called "The no name pub" and was packed to the rafters with drunken students, all cheering on a couple of really good looking lasses ...

... be possibly the best decision we made! Flying from Birmingham early on a Saturday morning with Scandinavian Airlines, we transferred to Estonia Air in Copenhagen, although there are now direct flights to Tallinn from London Stansted with Easyjet www.easyjet.com Tallinn Airport is new, and first impressions were excellent - there is a free computer for use of passengers in the departure lounge! Driving through the outskirts reminded me of Prague ...

... was erected in the town square. The following day was the "Rat Race" where teams of office workers from all over the city arrived, many in costume, to run around a circuit through the cobbled town streets. The atmosphere was fun, there were all sorts of neat teams and we stayed to watch the race. Our favourite team was a group of men dressed as bodyguards, towering over their diminutive "leader" who was constantly jumping up to try to wave or ...

... red and eating chorzio and olives ad discussing politics and I came to understand just how much Russia is interferring with Estonian affairs and why they stick so closely to US policy (you need a big brother when the bully lives right next door!) Indrek got grumpy from his bedroom at us as we looked at pictures from her South American trip but we were quiet!

... of town names. Tallinna replaced the previously used official German name Reval (help·info) (Russian: Ревел 00;) in 1918, when Estonia became independent. In the early 1920s the official spelling of the city name was changed from Tallinna to Tallinn, making the new name notable since Estonian-language place names generally end with a vowel (denoting genitive case). However, somewhat confusingly to non-Estonian speakers, the word Tallinna ...

Returning to the capital to pick up my visa, I was half expecting there to have been some hideous cock-up and for my passport to have got lost in the system or something along those lines, but my paranoia was unjustified - it was returned as promised, complete with a shiney visa sticker with those strange cyrillic letters all over. 'James' and 'Geoffrey' look particularly odd (only the 'e' and the 'm' are the same in both alphabets), though the retranslation of 'James' back ...