Tourist Information Tallinn Estonia

Arched Doorway
Originally uploaded by kden604.

Tallinn is a beautiful city in the northern part of Eastern Europe. The "Old Town" is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is very well deserved. Tallinn is quite a modern city in the downtown area, which makes a beautiful contrast to the "Old Town" only a couple of hundred metres away.

Tallinn was first mentioned in history in 1154 by an Arab geographer named Al-ldrsi on his "map of the world." Today it is a developing city of just over 400,000 people according to a 2007 census. Tallinn is an important Sea Port city and has multiple daily ferries running between Rostock, Stockholm and Helsinki.

Tallinn is an extremely touristic city. There is roughly 4-5 hostels operating in the Old Town area as well as one in the Kristine area. The airport is only a short 10 minute ride from town with a city bus that runs twice hourly for 15 EKK.

There are several tourist information centres in Tallinn, in the city centre there is a large Viru Plaza Mall just across the street from the entrance to "Old Town" which has a tourist information centre on the main floor. This is also the same building that houses the public city buses (not international ones).

The other Tourism Information Centre is located near the main square in the Old Town:

Tallinn Tourist Information Centre
Kullassepa 4 / Niguliste 2, 10146 Tallinn, Estonia
Phone: +372 645 7777
email: turisminfo@tallinnlv.ee
web: www.tourism.tallinn.ee

The Tallinn card

If you are staying in Tallinn for any length of time, it might be advisable to try and save money buy purchasing the Tallinn Card. This card gives you free admission to many of the cities tourist attractions and it generally a good value. There are several cards you can purchase, from 6 hours to 72 hours.

The Tallinn card can be purchased from the tourist information centres or you can find more information about them at their website.

General Information

Population: 400,000
Currency: EEK (1 Euro = Approx 15.5 EKK)
Time: GMT +2
Emergency Phone: 112

Language

Hello - Tere
Goodbye - Nagemist
Please - Palun
Thank You - Tanan
Sorry - Vabandust
Help - Appi
How Much? - Kui Palju?

More Interesting Language

Hello my dear - Tere, Kallis
Cheers - Terviseks
Hello, I love you - Tere, ma armastan Sind
Marry me - Tule mulle naiseks
Give me a kiss - Anna mulle musi
I can't understand a word - Ma ei saa muhvigi aru
You have a nice ass - Sul on kena tagumik
I am not a stupid tourist - Ma ei ole turistinass

Money Matters

Tallinn is very touristic, sadly that comes at a price. You always pay a premium when you are in a high tourist area. But here are a few prices to give you an idea of what to expect.

Hostel Room (Dorm) - 19 Euro
Hotel Room (Private) - 30 Euro
Hotel Room for 2 - 42 Euro
Apartments - 60-160 Euro
Fuel - 1 Euro / Litre
0.5L Beer (Restaurant) - 3,25 Euro
Slice of Pizza (Restaurant) - 3,50 Euro
Slice of Pizza (Grocery Store) - 1,25 Euro
Cigarettes - 1,50 Euro - 2,50 Euro

Hostels

Tallinn Backpackers - 12 Euro
Old House Hostel - 19 Euro (VERY POSH)
Viru 5 (Part of Tallinn Backpackers) - 20 Euro
Old Town Backpackers - 13 Euro
Chillout Apartments - 12 Euro

Popular Bars

Hell Hunt
Pub With No Name
Scotland Yard Pub
Woodstock
Depeche Mode Bar

Adult Entertainment

There are loads of strip tease and sex clubs in Tallinn, there is about three in the "Old Town" area and at least five more in the city centre. The women are hot and the drinks are reasonably priced, or at least similar to the high tourist prices in most of the Old Town area. There are also many casinos of different sizes in the city if you are in to gambling!

Transportation

The city of Tallinn is very small and can easily be walked across in less than one hour. However you may still need to get public transportation or a taxi from time to time. The airport has an express bus that leaves from the bus terminal in Viru shopping centre for 15 EKK and there are loads of trams and buses to take you to all corners of the city.

Taxi service can be a little bit frustrating, and I would like to share a little quote from the tourist information office.

Tallinn's taxis are somewhat notorious for overcharging - even locals get ripped off. Ask for an estimate of how much the ride will be beforehand. If it is more than 150 EKK then you must be going out of town or they are cheating you [normal price 1km = 6-8 EKK, starting rate 35-45 EKK].

Mumbai/Bombay

I've safely arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) and I have to say as far as first impressions go it's a pretty beautiful city!

There is so many old buildings and fantastic areas such as the High Courts and Session Courts, some beautiful Church's and just so much greenage and trees all over the place it makes for a sweet atmosphere!

The weather is hot a heck and it's killing me.

Interesting story... So there I was trying to find a Cab this morning... I start talking to the guy but he is a rickshaw driver, but of course his friend is a cabbie. So we are walking to the cab when this other rickshaw driver comes up to try and get me to go with him, while I am already walking with and talking to this other fellow. SMASH! The much larger rickshaw drivers I was walking with goes nuts and grabs the other guy and has him leaning back over a car and he's just giving it to him. At first I didn't realize what it was about, but I asked later to his friend and the other rickshaw driver always tries to "steal" other peoples clients.

So as I got in the cab, the rickshaw driver starts fighting again, and the cabbie was his friend so he jumped out. I'm impatient at this point and don't need to see this dumb fight, so I get out of the cab and say, "Guys I don't care about your petty feud, I need to get down to my hotel, so stop the bullshit and get me on the road or I'll find another Cab." That diffused the fight instantaneously and we were on our way. WTF.

Anyways, the hotel I was trying to find turned out to be a little high for my budget and overbooked, so I started wandering looking for some hotels. As with most places there are these toats who want to take you here and there for a commission. Well this one guy, friendly enough kept following me, I insisted that I didn't require help and that he could leave. He kept going on and on about how my cost for a room wouldn't increase because he was there and all this rubbish. I ended up calling a Brother in town to find a cheaper place to stay, when I got out of the phone place the guy was still there, I told him I needed a cab and was on my way to a different hotel. He wanted the name of the hotel, which I refused to give him, because he might phone ahead and get my costs bumped for a "referral." So as we were driving off he goes, "You are the most self-centred Canadian that I've met." To which I only responded, "Thank you, goodbye."

Despite all these little mishaps I really love Bombay so far, its extremely modern, very beautiful and there is just a really nice vibe going on.

I'm staying at the Salvation Army - Red Shield Hotel for 165 Rupees a night, which is dirt cheap. The dormitories are acceptable for the price, and it includes breakfast. There is Internet on the first floor, water, food and lockers available. The location is on the street behind the Taj Mahal Hotel which is a major fancy hotel along the waterfront. It's actually behind and over one block but there is a big-ass Salvation Army sign hanging that you can spot quite easily if you are walking on the side walk (opposite side from Big Hotel).

I already went down to the Grand Lodge of Western India and met RW Bro Gimi... He is a very wonderful man and though we didn't talk too long he was very interesting! He's arranged for me to have a jacket for a meeting tomorrow evening and I'm really looking forward to it.

Oh - The train ride from Bhopal to Mumbai was great, they sleeper car that I was in had maybe 75% of the seats full. Not the three people per seat kind of full, but 75% of one person per seat kind of full! It was a long night, and the guy below me had nasty foot odour... but other than that it was a good ride, nothing stolen, didn't get knocked out or attacked, and I met a couple interesting people.

OK That's enough!