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Waking up to find a perfect blue sky over Tallinn. Hmm, that’s how I like to start a day!

The hostel is lcated in the old city, which is fantastic! A medieval galore. Houses colored in pale yellow, orange and pink, all surrounded by a 2.5 km fortified wall. All around that wall are several tower, in a unique three fourth circle shape. I visited one of them, who is hosting a small exhibition of medieval weaponry and armours, but I highly doubt their authenticity. Well, it was fun and it gave me a nice point of view from the top.

Next to the hostel was also the Saint Olaf Church. Now, as far as I’m concerned, there are two types of religious buildings: the ones that struck you by their architecture, the intricacy of the details, the statues and sculptures, the teinted glasses and so on (think Reims Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, Westminster Abbey, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque). And then there are the ones that are just a massive massive block of rock here to remind you they’re holier than thou. Saint Olaf was exactly that. A huge, white, square monolith. Quite impressive from the doorstep.

I kept strolling along the cobbled streets until I came to a hill, climbed it by the stairs until I was in front of the Stenbock House, the Estonian government seat. There is the Patkuli point of view, a balcony over the old city of Tallinn, high enough to see the entire Tallinn Bay. Awe-inspiring! The walk continued for an hour or two before I distanced myself from the old city for cheaper food.

I checked the train timetable for Tartu and saw one leaving in five minutes, then an hour and a half later? No time to think too much, I decide to climb aboard to see Tartu by daylight. I might regret it later though, I loved Tallinn.

I was scared about the Estonian, or even Baltics trains, because Estonia is, like Serbia, a country that didn’t put its train timetables on thhe common European registry, so Interrail doesn’t know them. I checked those timetables on the respective national rail network companies and there are few international daily connections. This all lead me to expect a complicated crossing of the Baltics. However, as it turned out, the Estonian trains are on time, comfortable, modern (you can by a ticket at a machine IN the train!), and in a beautiful orange livery. Great ride.

The Estonian countryside is similar yet different from the Finnish one. It’s difficult to put in words. It’s more forested, and the forests are denser. There’s more ground vegetation, mostly because there is not much snow left. I liked it a lot.

In Tartu, I check in at the hostel before walking towards the center. It’s not an ugly city at all, but it’s really nothing exceptional. Still, there are a few pleasant parks along the river, but indeed I wish I stayed a couple hours more in Tallinn. There was a possibility that I met another TM legend today, but unfortunate timing prevented it.

Back at the hostel a few hours later, I got to talk with a French girl and an American dude while eating dinner. It was a nice moment remembering my time in the United States and ranting about the lack of chocolate or proper sweet food there.