'What did you expect from this city?' she asked us. ‘Honestly, nothing in particular, because we don’t know much about this part of Europe’, we replied to our friend who calls Tallinn her home.
The medieval Old Town of Tallinn
Francien and I flew from Berlin across the Baltic Sea coastline to the capital city of Estonia. This city made a clean impression, highly organized and the many young people gave it a vibrant vibe. Modern architecture, lots of art galleries and shops were combined with historic buildings in particular in the Old Town. This well-preserved 13th century town center is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was covered with cobblestone streets and charming medieval houses. We saw many churches, guild houses and entered a 14th century pharmacy still operating at the same premises to this very day. The town hall dominated the medieval square. It all was surrounded by a city wall with several nice parks outside these historic defenses. This place is the main reason (before the corona pandemic) why thousands of tourists on the cruise ships ploughing the Baltic see make a stop over here.
Tallinn town square, which pre-corona was always packed with tourists.
The Old Town of Tallinn is a UNESCO World Heritage site
One 13th century city gate of Tallinn
But there was much more to see. Francien and I walked through the medieval town gates and explored some neighborhoods which had wood cladded buildings typical for Scandinavian architecture. We strolled passed hipster shops, co-working spaces and art galleries. The Telliskivi Creative City, located in a former industrial complex, has a unique beat of its own with hundreds of creative companies, NGOs, and start-ups all located there. A young entrepreneur kindly showed us around in the Lift99 co-working space. Impressive for its creative approach of this start-up community. A community of founders and future founders. The founder of Skype developed this first global internet telephone system in this unique working environment and other unicorns started here as well. Techies with their laptops sat around on beanbags, behind big screens, inside huddle rooms or simply relaxed playing table tennis or chess. They all wore house slippers. I loved the young vibe, out of the box thinking. I guess we stood out as a bit too old for this community. These young people came from all over the world. In fact, 80% were foreigners. No wonder this is one of Europe's most cutting-edge cities. From the nearby rooftop bar we not only had a beautiful view of the Old Town, but also the glass clad high rise office buildings in which new high tech companies did their business: what an 800 years contrast!
A co-working space in Tallinn where the founder of Skype started his business
The nearby port was busy with ferries going in and out to Helsinki, Riga, Stockholm and St. Petersburg. We took the ferry to Helsinki, 80 km to the North. I stood on the 11th deck sundeck and enjoyed the smell of the sea, which was calm, cold and dark. I saw many bulk carriers cross our way, plying the waters between St. Petersburg and Stockholm on the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. The 350-meter-long Megastar RO-RO ferry was LNG powered and indeed there was no black smoke belching out of the eight pipe-chimneys. This newest ferry also functioned as icebreaker during the long Nordic winters. It had a capacity of 2800, but my estimate was not more than 500 were on board: traveling during the corona pandemic has its advantages, because normally these ferries are busy with tourists and locals. We sat in the business lounge overlooking the bow of the ship. Free meals and alcoholic drinks were offered. Most local men and women behaved like kids in a candy store and although it was still early morning, drank in the early morning like there was no tomorrow. Beer, whisky, cognac, it all was part of their late breakfast. No surprise they became noisy and were not as reserved as they usually are. With the same currency in both countries, no immigration and similar cultures and languages, on this ferry alcohol tourism was very visible.
Watching the ferry leaving Tallinn for Helsinki
Helsinki is the most northern metro area as well as the coldest capital city in the world. The center has a Northern European ambience. With its one million inhabitants, it is more than double the size of Tallinn and with that gave us a big city feeling. That Francien and I immediately experienced when we arrived. A subway, trams and buses provided ample public transport. The streets were clean, everything seemed to work efficiently. Many people used e-steppers and bikes to get around. We saw all familiar European stores and brand names, hardly any particular Finnish. Old mixed with modern. The city center is dominated by yellow neo-classical buildings. The Presidential Palace, University, National Museum. The domed white national cathedral dominates the city. Although the sky was blue and the low standing sun still strong, the icy wind made us dress in four-layer clothing. Nevertheless, the locals dressed lightly, indeed some wearing T-shirts and shorts! In the bay adjacent to the central market square people swam in the sea as I was trying to keep warm! Three gigantic icebreakers (they can break 1.2 meters thick ice) moored at the quay were prove of extreme winter weather. Here like in Tallinn, the people were friendly and helpful, most women were blond, but the men not.
E-bikes in front of parliament building in Helsinki
Helsinki main square in front of Czar Alexander II monumnet
Buying fresh produce on a the market in Helsinki
Evangelical Lutheran cathedral in the center of Helsinki
In front of a huge ice breaker, which keeps the shipping lanes in the Baltic Sea open during the winters
Helsinki ferris wheel sauna cabin. Sauna’s are everywhere in Finland. Picture from third party
Using sauna’s is an important part of the culture in this part of the world. In Finland there are more saunas than cars. We saw even one sauna-cabin in a Ferris wheel on the central market square in Helsinki. All people we have met spoke English. The Fins claim to be the biggest coffee drinkers in the world. That would not surprise me, as in Helsinki a coffeeshop was never far away. We saw few 'refugees' or non-white skinned people. But many untamed and rugged looking men with scruffy beards and plenty of tattoo's caught our eyes: the prototypes of artic survivors.
In the Tallinn port three cruise ships anchored. Due to the corona pandemic these had been tied to the quay since April 2020. For Tallinn and Helsinki, most tourists arrive on these ships for day trips while on their way to other Baltic cities like St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Riga. Normally the Old Town in Tallinn in particular suffers from over-tourism. It just takes one cruise ship to dump thousands of camera-wielding tourists to clog up the 4-meter-wide alleyways leading up to the castle. Not now and that was good for us as we had the typical tourists’ sites all to ourselves.
With all the people we met during our journey, the relation with the former Soviet Union and to the Russian minority populations was a topic brought up many times. In particular in Estonia, which regained independence from the Soviet Union only 30 years ago, this relation is problematic. The 30% Russian ethnic population lives in a parallel society. They live in blocks of Soviet-built colorless high rises in the outskirts, sent their children to Russian speaking schools, speak Russian and socialize among themselves. On a sunny afternoon, Francien and I strolled through the Old Town and attended a Russian Orthodox Mass in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Six priests attended a ceremony. It all was colorful with mesmerizing chanting. Nice to see, but our guide who showed us the Old Town the day before explained to us that the locals despised the Soviets for building this church at the end of the 19th century. It is built next to their Parliament on top of the hill, dominating the city skyline. The Soviets wanted to symbolize that they did dominated and ruled Tallinn. No surprise that didn’t go well with the Estonians.
Francien and I visited a vernissage and met two Estonian diasporas living in New York and Melbourne. They shared with us their dislike of Soviets, with stories about how their grandparents were deported to Siberia or kept prisoner in the Patarei prison during and after the Second World War. For Estonians, this penal complex, just a stone-throw away on the shores of the Baltic Sea, is one of the most prominent symbols of Soviet terror. Fortunately, the younger generations seemed to get on much better with each other and the younger Russian Estonians integrate more readily with their fellow countrymen/women. In Finland the relationship with the Russians is less problematic, because here less than one percent of the population is of Russian descent and they fully integrate into the Finnish society.
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn, symbolizing Russian dominance during the Sovjet era
A watchtower at the former Sovjet Patarei prison in Tallinn
The former Patarei prison is one of the most prominent symbols of Soviet terror.in Estonia
Inside an old English submarine in Tallinn harbour
Something else struck me: the people we met and observed were tech savvy. In both countries, payments we only made electronically, free super-fast Wi-Fi (e.g. as soon as I tapped the swipe machines, the payment transactions occurred instantly) was offered everywhere. Car hailing services, e-car and e-bike sharing and home deliveries of all sort were never far away. In Estonia we saw advertisements about E-visas offered to digital nomads and the government advertised that 99% of all their services were digitalized. It was no surprise to me that both cities are listed in the top 10 digital cities of the world.
Estonian and Finnish cultures are founded on their unique languages (like we have experienced with Afrikaans in South Africa and Flemish in Belgium). These languages have been the main drivers behind the nationalism and ultimately the independence of both countries. These two languages are both related to the Hungarian language and our city guides didn’t stop telling us how difficult these are to speak and understand. Estonian and Finnish have no connection to the Latin or Germanic language groups. Indeed, hearing the people talk in Estonia and Finland and trying to read the signs did not resemble any language we had ever experienced. Believe it or not, jäääär means the edge of a sheet of ice. Having struggled to pronounce it myself, I would not recommend to even try it!
Traffic was kind to pedestrians, the service in our hotel and Airbnb, supermarkets, shops and restaurants was professional and the people walked and behaved in a calmly way. This is just a long way of saying: we enjoyed our stay. When you visit these cities, expect the same.