If Austin Powers did interior design...

Sunset over the concrete jungle

Tallinn was our final stop before we embarked on our journey across Russia and we consciously tried to remember to appreciate where we were rather than get carried away with the next step of our trip.  During our stay however we had to do a little bit of preparation work for the Trans - Siberian Express.  It is surprising when you are travelling just how quickly time runs away and just how much planning has to go in to try and make the most of each place you visit.  Most evenings in Tallinn (as with a lot of our stops) we spent time sorting out visa documents, making sure accommodation was booked in the right area of each city and saving seemingly countless maps to try and make life as easy as possible.  We did this in an apartment that had been designed by Austin Powers and set in a concrete jungle of bleak Soviet high rise apartment blocks.  Our pad was complete with leopard print wall paper, bright floral bedding and photos of half naked tribal women - nice!   

View from the upper town

As it turned out we did not need to worry about getting ahead of ourselves.  The historic centre of Tallinn was for me (if not Hannah) as charming and picturesque an old town as I had seen on the trip. Intertwining cobbled streets, colourful medieval buildings and imposing town walls topped by ancient church spires that sprung out above the town roofs adorned the city centre.  Tallinn was a major part of the Hanseatic group of cities in medieval Europe and the town is still divided after the merchants and artisans built a wall circling the lower section to separate themselves from the noble.   The upper section of town provides great views across the centre and contains the magnificent Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral with huge golden domes that greet you as you enter through the town walls.  The lower town is a maze of narrow streets housing countless museums, coffee shops and bars. We spent one afternoon in the old town designing marzipan sculptures as Tallinn (as well as a host of other cities) claims to have discovered the famous sweet.  After a hard fought competition my former art teacher was proved right to grade my ability as no more than very poor for 9 successive report cards.   My ship was by far the worst creation in the room and apart from Hannah I was at least 25 years older than the other people playing with marzipan.

The marzipan sculptures

KGB espionage equipment

The most interesting part of our trip was visiting the Viru KGB Museum, housed in the only hotel that was allowed to accommodate western visitors from across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. As such the KGB had an entire floor on the top of the hotel to monitor all of the guests in the hotel and follow them when they left.   After the collapse of the Soviet Union the KGB officers based in the hotel had left quickly, leaving behind their equipment including bugging devices, old cameras, exploding purses and their radio equipment.  There was even the laminated plan of the hotel restaurant marked with an X to indicate to the waiter which table to place the bread holder that contained a listening device in! The room had been left exactly as it had been found and it was a very cool insight into the espionage that took place, as well as offering amazing views across the city and Tallinn Bay.

After a prolonged shopping trip to buy a coat and a set of hand made woollen gloves that made my hands smell like a sheep’s arse we decided to test our clothes for Russia with a long walk.  We set off through Kadriorg Park, now unfortunately minus any leaves on the trees and continued on the 6 kilometre path that ran alongside the water front.  Although not the most picturesque walk of our trip with heavy industry and freight shipping lining the horizon we did at least establish we should be fine with anything the Russian winter could throw at us.  Waking up very excited the following morning the friendly owner of our apartment, Dimitri, gave us an Estonia fridge magnet (just what every backpacker wants to carry) and a lift to the bus station to begin our journey to Russia.