Tallinn

Christmas market and airport

We will be pleased if you like this article.

It costs you nothing, but a good deed is done :-)

We ended up in Tallinn almost by sheer coincidence—it’s hard to believe. We were planning a route to Amsterdam, from where we had already purchased tickets to Cape Verde. The simplest option was to fly Ryanair to Eindhoven and then take a train to Schiphol Airport. We bought the tickets months in advance and were confident everything was set for the trip. However, about a month before the departure date, the low-cost airline unexpectedly cancelled the flights to Eindhoven and refunded the money to our card. We were stunned, as the cost of flights from Kyiv to Amsterdam at that time was higher than the fare from Amsterdam to the Cape Verde Islands—as the island nation of Cabo Verde was known in the Soviet era. We decided to monitor flight offers for the Kyiv–Amsterdam route daily, and luck was on our side. The airline Nordica announced it could get us to the Netherlands at a low price, provided we spent the night in Tallinn. We weighed the pros and cons, checked Booking.com for affordable accommodation in the Estonian capital, and decided to go for it. The plane to Tallinn was small, and I remember the flight attendants being incredibly polite. As one of them walked down the aisle, she accidentally bumped my elbow where it was resting on the armrest; she apologized and later brought me a small bottle of French cognac. Huge kudos to Nordica!

A gift of French cognac from a flight attendant

We specifically looked for a hotel in Tallinn situated somewhere between the airport and the Old Town, and ultimately chose the Paivilla Boutique Hotel. Upon leaving the airport, we headed for a taxi. The driver didn't speak Russian, but we managed to communicate in English and learned that the fare would be metered and payable by either cash or card. Back in December 2017, a taxi driver having a card terminal in the car was still something of a novelty. The ride was quick, and the fare came to 7 euros. Keep that figure in mind—you’ll see why later.

The hotel door was open, but there was no one in the lobby. It felt just like something out of a movie: "they arrived at an empty, deserted hotel"... We wandered through the halls and took photos of the interiors.

One of the rooms was filled with mugs, while another housed a stereo system with a vast collection of discs. Interesting items—such as sculptures or a giant chess set—were scattered everywhere.

In one corner, we even found a small memorial dedicated to singer Rod Stewart, which included an autographed ball.

Then the young man who had stepped out on personal business returned and handed us the keys to our room. The room was very warm (which is important in December 😉) and cozy. And the bathroom was decorated in a romantic style 😜.

The guy at the hotel called a taxi for us; the driver—as we had come to expect—didn't speak Russian, and we made it to the Old Town for 6 euros. We took a walk to the Depeche Mode bar, reminiscing about the band's stunning concert in Kyiv earlier that summer.

Trolls peer out from the windows of small shops all over the center of the Estonian capital. These "cheerful little monsters" are an integral part of a walk through Tallinn.

And so, we stepped out onto Town Hall Square, where the Christmas market was taking place.

Estonia’s main holiday tree was literally ablaze with bright lights.

We strolled among the stalls selling souvenirs and tasty treats, and even posted a photo of a colorful meat and sausage vendor on our Instagram—which we recommend you follow.

Meat and sausages at the fair in Tallinn

But we didn't have much time, since our flight to Amsterdam was very early—after all, cheap tickets are usually cheap because they’re inconvenient 🙂🙂🙂 We popped into the nearest convenience store, stocked up on food for dinner and breakfast, snapped a photo of one of the shop windows, and headed to the hotel.

Vegetables and fruits in the minimarket in Tallinn

In the Old Town, some streets are pedestrian-only, so to catch a taxi, you have to go to an area where cars are allowed. On one of the narrow streets, wise owls watched us pass from a window.

Owls are looking out the window in Tallinn.

Coming out of the pedestrian zone, we came across a taxi standing at the side of the road, the driver of which happily shoved us into the car with the words: "Brothers, how I missed our tourists, I will take you at the lowest rate, if only to hear my native speech." In fact, no one planned to listen to us, and on the way he told us that he himself was from somewhere in the Leningrad region, here in Estonia he allegedly has his own taxi company with several cars and at the same time he does not like Estonians. We told him that we were from Ukraine, after a short pause he began to praise the Maidan and the determination of Ukrainians to join the European Union. To our timid questions about the meter not being turned on, he said that the meter broke that afternoon. There was no terminal for card payment in the car either.

When we arrived, the taxi driver gave a long tirade about the wonderful Ukrainians, who are very freedom-loving and therefore, turning a blind eye to the high cost of gasoline in Estonia, he was ready to reduce the fare by half, lowering the price from 30 euros to 15.

We were kind of stunned by such "friendship". It was the third time we took a taxi in Tallinn and the previous one, exactly the same route between the hotel and the old town, we did for 6 euros, paying by card and without listening to "friendly outpourings".

After our remark that this route costs only 6 euros, and even if we add "brotherly love" to it, we did not plan to pay more than 10 euros, hysteria, swearing, shouting and threats began. We discussed among ourselves that it was already evening, and we had to get up at 3 am and decided to pay this "comrade" those 15 euros, so as not to waste time calling the police. The mood, as you understand, was very spoiled.

Lifehack from Tallinn - get into a taxi only when three rules are met:

1. The counter is working

2. There is a terminal for card payment

3. The driver does not speak Russian.

At the hotel, we went to bed and woke up around three in the morning. We went down to the kitchen to drink coffee. The hosts left us a small breakfast, we had a snack and got to the airport for the same 7 euros as yesterday, when we flew to Tallinn. The airport itself was very pleasant. There was history and modernity. History was represented by a canoe, on which the Estonians in the Middle Ages ploughed the rivers, and modernity was depicted with the help of a Maserati, standing on an advertising podium.

In one of the halls stood the pride of the country—an "Estonia" grand piano—at which some passengers would sit down to play various melodies.

An entire airport lounge was dedicated to Tallink, the company whose ferries we have frequently taken to sail the Baltic Sea. We even made a film about the Riga–Stockholm cruise, which you can watch on our YouTube channel.

In the waiting area, there was a fitness room and a corner with exercise equipment.

Exercise equipment corner at Tallinn airport

There was also a ping-pong table and a giant chess set.

Since the report started with cognac, it’s only logical to wrap it up with a beer 😜 A massive advertising installation featuring beer bubbling inside is another highlight of Tallinn Airport—a place that really goes out of its way to ensure passengers don't get bored.