Tallinn, Estonia

I managed to get off the ship for a grand total of 1 hour in Tallinn. Which was long enough to walk right to the entryway of old town, turn around, and return to the ship. Once you get off the pier, the port sidewalk is lined with little shops and stuff, like a miniature bazaar. You could tell that most of them rely on it being really to help sell their merchandise (mostly scarves, hats, gloves, etc.). There were some AMAZING natural wooden bowls and serving dishes. I almost got one, and then I realized I would have absolutely NO WAY to get it back home. And I don't know how much they cost, but that's neither here nor there...

Getting to the old part of town was about a 25 minute walk from the ship.


This steeple was my beacon. I just followed it and figured it would be surrounded by cool stuff, or, if nothing else, it would be cool on its own.


I walked up what felt like a million stairs (speaking of which, my stair tolerance is slowly going through the roof right now), finally arriving at what looked like a giant citadel (that's probably not really the word I want, but it sounds good and the internet is too slow to look it up). I had no idea what I would see as I slowly walked around it to peer through the archway...


Only to begin to see beautiful buildings on the other side...


Honestly it looks like something from a happy Harry Potter movie. Beautiful side-by-side quirky buildings. So unique. Right as I saw this, it was literally time for me to turn around and start walking back to the ship or I was going to be late for rehearsal. So next time, I know which direction to head, I will walk faster, and I will leave earlier. Because now all I want to do is explore what's there.

On my way back I overheard an older woman trying to find someone who spoke English. I piped up and asked if I could help. She was lost, trying to find the shuttle stop to head back to the Constellation. I explained that I didn't even know there was a shuttle (nonetheless where the stop was), but that I was about to walk back and she could join me if she cared to. So she obliged, and I walked back with a very lovely Canadian doctor who explained to me that her two middle-aged sons had taken the shuttle map and somehow managed to ditch their own mom. She was peeved to say the least. It was nice to have a real conversation with someone who doesn't work on the ship. By the time we were walking back through the bazaar, she stumbled upon her husband and we parted ways. It was definitely my good deed for the day.