We breakfast at Tatevik’s flat not far from the sea, and walk to the nearby bus stop with an icy wind blowing into our jackets. There’s a lot to do and we start off the day by going to the cinema so I can finally see 300 (SPAAARTAAA!!). After that we walk into the old town, the medieval centre of Tallinn. We walk along a modern street until we reach the old city gate, a massive arch that’s still connected to high city walls enclosing to old town centre. Not many European cities retain any parts of their old city walls, I’ve seen a small piece of one at the Barbican centre in London, a gate in Cologne, and one in Munich, but by far Tallinn’s seems to be the best kept. Past the gate we enter into the narrow cobbled streets, where obviously the tourist dollars are what the local shops are aiming for. We pass a restaurant that offers a traditional Estonian meal, with a menu written on old style parchment in a leather bound book chained to the wall. A giant cauldron sits out front as well, its kinda kitschy and looks quite over priced so we move on. We take the narrow street up the hill that leads to the old rich quarter of the city (Toompea), 
where the Parliament is now and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The Cathedral is a beautiful orthodox church with spires reminiscent of the Russian style, tops that kinda swirl like soft serve ice cream, or an onion. There’s no photos allowed on the inside, which does force one to stop looking for the best shots and just appreciate the place. We stroll the outside and Tatevik notices that we keep running into the same tourist couple, at a lookout they ask us to take their picture and we ask for the same. We then head to a student restaurant that Tatevik knows where the specialty is an Estonian pancake with various fillings. We order and take a seat, it takes a long time to arrive and so we dig in eagerly, taking half of each other’s to see how’s is best, mine (chicken) easily beats out Tatevik’s (ham), I wish it down with a tall beer called A le Coq (hee hee).We walk out of the city centre past another gate where the “fat Margaret” tower stands, and head to see the Soviet-era opera house, a giant concrete square now riddled with graffiti. We
walk up its long stairs to see the cold grey sea but the fast winds force us back down fairly quickly. We take the bus and head out to see Peter the Great’s Tallinn house, a large estate near to a park. We then head up to see the Tallinn museum of modern art but they are just closing as we approach so we order some coffees in the café to warm ourselves up. Behind our table is the posh sound of an English art director, discussing organization plans with colleagues for some Russian expose, he sounds like a pompous ass inquiring which are the embassies with a cultural attaché. Outside we watch a dog behind a fence looking incredibly bored, when we walk out I approach the fence to say hi to the dog, he turns around and starts growling and barking…well he looked friendly.
We walk a long path against the wind to the sea where a monument stands for a shipwreck, it’s a beautiful sunset but its far too chilly to appreciate it, so we hurry off to catch a bus back to Tatevik’s flat. After some tea and dinner we head out to shoot some pool and then go to by far the most interesting theme-bar I’ve ever been to. Its called Scotland Yard and as you enter you see the walls are covered with old black and white photos of bobbies and criminals, behind glass cases are old rifles, pistols, handcuffs and leg irons. The bar is covered in dark wood and lit by banker’s lamps under green shades, a large book case sits and the back and the leather armchairs look mighty comfortable. A tobacconist is at the side selling cigars, and the waitresses walk around in full police uniform including holstered pistol and cuffs. The special touch though is found at the lou, where the toilet seat has a full wooden electric chair built on top, complete with arm straps…
