I’m back from a little break in Tatra Mountains, ready to pick up where we left off – in Tallinn!
I’m not done with singing praises yet. After all – three days in this Baltic capital took their toll on my mental well-being. In the most positive sense you can imagine.
Let’s do a proper tourist experience today, shall we?
I’m not talking about getting on the hop-on-and-off bus, visiting museums or joining in a guided tour. Let’s not get crazy here.
You can be a tourist without surrendering yourself to none of the tortures mentioned above.
Experience the city with all your senses – and my favourite one – taste. Hop in the first tourist restaurant you encounter and wish for the best. Sometime it might actually work out to be one to remember.
Starting at the gates to the old town….
… you will move closer to the town square and find yourself by the Olde Hansa.
I know what you think.
Tourist trap like no other.
You can’t be more wrong.
After being greeted by a waiter dressed in medieval outfit and with a fitting enthusiasm known for the dark medieval times, we were handed these gorgeous themed menus.
As a non-meat eater most of the stuff was off limits, but I was pretty impressed with the amount of detail and planning that went into the craft that is designing restaurant menus.
We arrived before lunchtime, which was still a bit too early for food, no matter how tempting the options were.
We ended up with a liquid lunch of honey beer.
If you haven’t heard about it, make sure you ask for one. There are plenty other beer flavours to choose from too.
The lady-like portions are served in a clay jug even Henry VIII would be proud of.
The place was buzzing and ladies in envy-worthy medieval dresses were passing by to bring the latest orders.
I couldn’t help to sneak a peak inside the restaurant.
It was like stepping into a time machine. Judge yourself! (ok, just imagine there are virtually no tourists and your time machine will work fine)
Olde Hansa is right at the corner of the town square and you can’t miss it.
If you will, a kind lady will hand you a leaflet with the menu and drags you in.
I already have regrets that we haven’t had any food there in the end. Judging from the tables next to us, that was another dimension to the whole medieval theme.
With a stomach full of beer, we satisfied our conscience with a brisk walk around the small shops and hidden alleyways to check off the fitness goals for the day.
On a gorgeous summer day, Tallinn is truly a hidden gem in Europe.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many sunny days even during summer, so we were in luck that Tallinn showed us around in bright sunshine for the whole weekend.
There is abundance of cool restaurants, bars, hangout places and medieval themed anything and everything.
As the day neared the end, we had to head back to the harbour to board the ferry back to Helsinki.
One last toast on the boat to a great weekend in Tallinn and hopefully just a start of more adventures in the Baltic countries.
