Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tallinn

we've made it to the last point in our Baltic states and Europe portion of are trip (treating Russia as separate from Europe). we're in Tallinn now and head to st petersburg on Friday.

our time in hiiumaa was enjoyable. we rented bikes one day and biked a total of 50 km. we saw the tahkuna lighthouse, old military ruins from the soviet era, hill of crosses, the airport (huge runway with no planes at the airport) and palukula church which is abandoned and used for target practice in WWII. also stopped at some glacial boulders with our climbing shoes in case there was any potential but unfortunately nothing.

the next day we rented a car with a Finnish couple we met at the guesthouse. they go to hiiumaa almost every year so were very familiar with the sights and history. for them they liked the laid back life in hiiumaa and the old farming life reminicent of Finland 30 years ago. we hit the rest if the sights on the island, the kopu lighthouse, kassari area, the wool factory, surremoisa castle, and another trip to the airport.

came to Tallinn yesterday and after spending so much time recently on islands with fewer tourists we were a bit overwhelmed at how touristy Tallinn is and how many people there are. if course having 5 cruise ships in yesterday didn't help. after checking out the suburban bus schedules decided there's no way we can explore the bouldering we found online. even if there were more than one bus a day it'd be a miracle if we actually got off at the right place.

covered the old town sights yesterday and went to the zoo today. nice zoo with lots of different goats and sheep, polar bears, a snow leopard, and a takin.

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