CENTRAL EUROPE BLOG May 14th, 2026 - TALLINN, ESTONIA

 

5/14/26– The morning starts off well with another happy blue sky and a quick trip to the store. We’re stocking up for the day for our ferry ride across the Finnish Gulf to Tallinn, Estonia.

We disembark at 1:30pm but we’re expected to be there up to an hour before to check-in. We’re bored so we arrive an hour and a half early and proceed to wait. Luckily, they allow us to board the ferry at 12:50pm, and since we’re one of the first ones on we get our pick of seats.

Not knowing what part of the ship we should be on we follow those in front and find some comfortable seats near the back at the restaurant. Apparently there are no assigned seats and the restaurant is free game (meaning we don’t have to order anything). Once we shove off, I’m in prime position to take some photos of Helsinki at the rear.

The trip lasts two hours and it’s a boring two hours mind you. The bar area quickly fills up so loud talking is all around, not the place to rest. We try taking turns walking around the ship but there’s nothing that interesting to see other than a few shops.

We get to Tallinn at 3:30pm and begin our twenty minute walk through the city to the historic part of town (which is one of the best preserved in Europe). Immediately I’m drawn to the color of the buildings reflecting off the sun, but it only lasts for so long before hiding behind the clouds.

We get some souvenirs then walk through the main square before continuing toward the city walls. It’s now pushing toward the time this closes but we make it with twenty minutes to spare.

It costs 5 Euros to enter and we climb some steps to walk a small portion of the wall. Every so often there’s an entry way inside the towers that lead us to a nice view of the town, which is worth the price of admission itself.

Continuing on, we walk further to Pikk Street, which is a historic artery in the heart of this Medieval Old Town. We thought about checking out the city museum but 10 Euros seems a bit pricey for something we really don’t have much time to do.

With our three hour timetable almost up, we grab some food at KFC (badly in need of some good chicken right now) and head back to the port terminal for our ferry ride back to Helsinki. Again we’re one of the first ones to board and this time we choose the quiet section of seats and get a set of four to ourselves.

This time the two hour ride is much more relaxing and goes by quick as we watch the sun set over the water. We get back at 9:30pm around, take the tram to our AirBnb and settle in for the night.

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