Pirita Top Spa Hotel Tallinn

... vodka - of cause (since it was like £3 a litre) - til about 12ish before we headed out for the pub crawl, which consist of a whopping 1 bar before hitting the main night club in town. We exited the night club at about 3.30am in search for food only to find a 24 hour chineese restaurant (brilliant!)!<br><br>(29-10) After a good lie in to sleep off some of the drink and tiredness, we skipped breakfast and went straight for lunch at a well known bar-grill ...

... enclosed by city walls and towers. <br><br>Highlights:<br><br>- Nevsky Cathedral <br><br>- Toompea<br><br>- Kiek in de Kok Tower<br><br>- Fat Margaret Tower<br><br>- Town Hall Square

... museum. Here at the museum we tried some Estonian vodka and learned that after a shot of vodka you take a bite of a bread and butter pickle. The pickle cuts the strong flavor of the vodka. After a quick walk around of the museum (it didn&#8217;t take much), Siret asked for volunteers. Of course Bernie and I volunteered (what could be bad about volunteering at a vodka museum?). The volunteers were gathered over for a vodka tasting where Bernie and I were on the panel! We tried 5 ...

... showing the visitor who they are and everything there is to see. Everything is in dual language - English and Estonian, and then almost as an afterthought, Russian. They are galloping at an enormous rate away from Russia; to place as much distance economically, culturally and nationality-wise as they can - and yet they are exhibiting the kind of canniness that invented Skype: don't bury Russia, exploit it. So, there are tours ...

... and biddies, knowns and unknowns. But this kind of museum was not my bag and it hardly turned me on, and also there were even more famous wax museums out there I had already visited. So I merely continued in the same direction. Along the way I dropped by some CD-and-DVD shop and had a look at what they had on offer. Once I realised I could buy entire "Lord of the Rings" DVD trilogy for a ridiculously low price, and in the original language at that, not dubbed into Estonian, I didn ...

... in our two days in Tallinn, but of course the laundromat was not as close as we hoped. So we washed in the room what we needed. Hopefully my denim jeans will dry before we leave. Breakfast was good - the main differences to the Finnish breakfasts of last week were less options in the cereals/muesli area and the breads were not as fresh. We wandered to the Old City via the Viru shopping centre where we picked up a 6hr Tallinn Card. We then found ourselves in a park where ...

... Also, the grim headquarters of the Estonian KGB. More than 250,000 Estonians disappeard from after World War II until the death of Stalin. Many of them were incarcerated, executed and disposed of in this area. It was an age of unthinkable horror. After dinner at the Hansa we walked back to the Uniquestay and to bed. Rising will be early the next morning for our flight and continuing journey to Sweden.

... it was undeniably nice not have to worry about spending an hour trying to get to my hostel by bus or some other form of public transport. That is the cheapest way. Like Riga, the major reason for tourists to came to Tallinn is its old town. A wonderfully compact area of quiet streets, amazing churches, great restaurants and friendly people. Unlike Riga we both really enjoyed this old town as it seemed a little more ...

... walk around town - though it's known for nightlife, there isn't much to see or do in the old town if you're just walking around. That's why I like Spain so much - just walking around at night is fun and memorable there. But if you like strip joints, Tallinn is the place to be! <br><br>I had a very uncomfortable sleep tonight - I shrunk my sleeping shorts and they were pretty tight. Or perhaps as Mary predicted, my butt grew. Who knows ...

... I shoud h*ve known re*lly: wh*t h*ve I s*id *bout cities throwing * p*rty for us? Well, *ll th*t w*s open w*s the b*rs *nd *s Lister once s*id, "when in Rome, do wh*t the sn*moR do". H*ppily, we h*d enough time the next morning to t*ke in the missed museums (the prison one w*s gre*t) *s well *s the f*bulously n*med "Keik in de Kok", which me*ns "Peek in the kitchen". Of course. An excellent pl*ce to visit - go now before the st*g p*rties ruin it....