11.7: Tallinn

After waking from an extremely deep sleep, I had two main objectives for the day: Purchase a local SIM and go geocaching. I had a fairly leisurely start to the morning, eventually making my way over to a large shopping centre located on the opposite side of the old town from me. It was a lovely sunny morning and around 19˚C. Ideal photo taking weather. Buying a SIM was very straight forward, costing €16 for 5GB of data which I think will last me for the time I’m here.

Toompea Castle - Estonian Parliament

Raekoja plats - Main Square

Pikk Street

Squirrel

Seagull

Me

It was then off to a geocaching event. Ben, being the proactive geocacher he is, had been in touch with several local cachers prior to his arrival and one offered to hold an event for us. I was a bit late, but still met many geocachers from around Tallinn and overseas. We chatted about all things geocaching and were soon on our way. Ben and I headed off to find some more caches, some of which were quite ingenious.

Ingenious cache

Eventually, we went our separate ways and I continued caching back towards the old town. At another tricky cache, near an Estonian war memorial, I ran into two suspicious characters, and was soon greeted with the usual, ‘have you found it yet?’ Eventually we found the cache, a fake magnetic sign, and struck up conversation. They were a couple from Austria, Herman and Alexandra, who had been at the event earlier but left before I arrived. We continued caching into the old town, making finds on some pretty devious caches. 

Alex and me

Eventually, the heavens opened and we decided that our hard days work should be rewarded with a drink. We first went to a bar on Pikk Street - an attractive, narrow, steep cobbled street that connects the higher part of the old town to the lower and then on to the Raekoja Plats (main square). Alexandra is a childcare worker who works with children with physical and mental disabilities while Herman works for a plastic injection molding company. He was quite well versed with the state of the Australian car industry as his company supplied Ford Australia with various components. Another interesting conversation was about the refugee situation in our respective countries. I thought there were some striking similarities. A substantial number of refugees cross Austria’s land borders every year. They were upset with their government because, despite being a wealthy country, there is a lack of services available to these people, meaning many of these people end up living rough on the street.

I went in search of food and ended up in a hamburger joint. Shortly after I had made my order, three Australians of about my age wandered in. They’re travelling around the area, having started in Helsinki, then St Peterburg, Tallinn and next onto Riga. The hamburger was very good.