Day 2 Tallinn
I decided to buy a 24 hour Tallinn card which is one of those tourist cards that gives you access to a bunch of museums, some discounts to other things and as much public transport as you can use.
After pretty much covering the old town I had a look at the activities on the card and I reckoned I would save some money based on what I wanted to look at.
So after luxuriating in my private room for a bit (though I'm still not completely sure it's going to be private the whole stay) I made breakfast then headed out and grabbed my card from the tourist information desk.
First cab off the rank was a bus out to the Seaplane Harbour ... part of the Estonian Maritime Museum. I'm developing a bit of a fascination for boats and all things water (maybe not water sports) after doing a couple of boat rides this trip. This place is supposed to have a bunch of boats in the harbour, a submarine and various other things on display.
Got off the bus, found the entrance, scanned my card for entry and HOLY SHIT! What a cool space! The museum is a giant hangar with a huge domed ceiling, is coloured blue like the ocean and has a fucking submarine parked in the middle of it! What a fantastic room to walk into when you're not expecting it.
I really enjoyed wandering around this place. The submarine is obviously the centrepiece of the museum and you get to crawl around inside it which was pretty cool but there are a bunch of other interesting watercraft in there as well. They have the frame of the earliest Estonian boat they've ever excavated, a bunch of deep sea buoys (which were quite fascinating - I'd never really thought about them before but they are pretty interesting), naval warfare stuff (mines, torpedoes, artillery, a tank), a bunch of various boats used in Estonia and various other cool things.
One of my favourites was the small collection of ice sled boats. Think a normal boat but with ice skates strapped to the bottom for people to zoom around on frozen lakes.
They also had a really interesting exhibit on sea rescue technology. Among other things they had sample life rafts from big ships, example distress calls, a rescue helicopter you could climb into and interviews with various people involved in the rescue industry. A great exhibit focusing on something most people don't really think about but is incredibly important.
Various other small things like some interactive games and whatnot were around as well. Out the back they had a bunch of old boats (both civilian and military) that you could look at and walk around inside some of them. One of them was a pretty famous Estonian boat (I gather) that was pretty cool to wander around. The engine room in that thing was huge!
Overall I'd say this was one of the most interesting museums I've ever been to. They seemed to strike a good balance (for me anyway) of some real wow exhibits, interesting information without going overboard and interactivity to make for a really good time. Evidently the Estonians think so as well because there were tons of families with kids there which was the only real downer. Little fuckers hogged all the video game exhibits.
After that I got the bus out to the Estonian National Art Gallery. I'd read that this was a really good gallery on some review sites and I was feeling like some culture after playing on a submarine so I thought I'd give it a crack.
And I'm really glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the collections here. Well not the contemporary art one - I just don't get that shit - but the historic Estonian art for sure.
It started with another wow moment - the building the gallery is in is absolutely fantastic! A real gem of modern architecture. Probably my favourite part of the gallery to be honest.
It's not a huge gallery which is good. I think I made my way through the whole thing in about 2 hours and while there was definitely a bunch of stuff I thought was shit or boring there were enough pieces in there that I really liked. They had an interesting exhibit on art under the Soviet Union. A pity they didn't have any posters or fake canvases for sales in the gift shop like the Hermitage did because I think I would have picked one or two up. I don't think I've really got any particular styles I'm interested in ... I just walk around and know what I like when I see it.
Contemporary art. What is that shit all about? I looked at the contemporary art floor but I just left confused about what they were trying to demonstrate with any of the pieces.
Very glad I went to the gallery.
Down the road a few minutes was the Peter the Great House Museum. Basically an old house that Peter lived in when he was visiting Estonia. Very small - only took about 10 minutes to look at and not really worth my time.
Walked through the park to get the tram back into town and I walked past a couple of nice buildings. One of them was the Estonian President's office. Which you can almost walk right into. There were only 2 guards and they were standing at the front door. A far cry from the White House.
The museums were all just about ready to close for the day by the time I got back into town but the Estonian Architecture Museum was around the corner from the hostel and it was open a little later than the others so I headed over there. And again it was a really interesting museum. The ground floor had a collection of scale models of buildings that were either important examples of Estonian buildings for some reason or were concept buildings. They had some pretty cool buildings. I particularly liked the one the Estonians built to be their exhibit at the first World's Fair after they gained Independence. Have a look at the video for that one.
The first floor was an interesting exhibit on the urban water supply in Tallinn and how they are trying to improve it. The top floor was almost like a science lab. They had a bunch of pretty cool exhibits that showcased ethical or environmentally friendly building techniques or materials. One of the things they had was a device that was intended to remove all the tiny particles of plastic that are now infesting our oceans.
And finally the basement had an exhibit about the oldest continually occupied house in Estonia. This house had been lived in by one family or another for over 400 years. The exhibit showed a bit about the architecture of the house as well as a collection of items that had been excavated from the yard or found stashed in the house from the last 400 years.
Overall quite an enjoyable and interesting museum and better than I expected.
Unfortunately I did not get a chance to visit the Kiek in de Koek museum.
Back to the hostel for a bit of a relax.
I decided I felt like some beers so after a while I strapped on my boots and went over to what they call the bohemian district to find some dinner and a craft beer bar I'd found on the Internet. I'm not sure what made it bohemian but it seemed like a nice area with a few lively pubs around the place.
I ended up eating dinner at a pretty popular Indian restaurant across the road from the bar. Food was good and reasonably priced.
The bar was pretty cool and had a great selection of Estonian beers. I had 3 or 4 beers and sat in the corner doing some trip planning and blog writing and people watching. It was Sunday night and the place was packed with a fairly young and trendy crowd. Craft beer is clearly having a good time in Estonia!
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