One of the three Baltic States (along with Latvia and Lithuania) annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940, Estonia re-gained her independence only nine years ago. While traces of the Soviets are still evident, Estonia is the most "western" of the Baltics, and a very cool little country. Estonia is definitely worth an extended stop.

Essential facts

The national language is Estonian, a member of the Finno-Ugric family. Estonian is closely related to Finnish, distantly to Hungarian, and shares with those languages the propensity to sound totally incomprehensible to Indo-European speakers. Most Estonians speak passable to excellent English, which in practice means you'll generally need little more then a few Tere and Tanan, which is good since Estonian just isn't one of those languages you can just "pick up". The sizable Russian population usually doesn't speak Estonian or English, just Russian. Many native Estonians speak some Russian as well, but speaking the language of the oppressors isn't a great way to make friends. The currency is the Kroon, abbreviated EEK, and pegged to the Euro at a rate of 15.65 EEK to 1 EUR. When I was there, it was worth roughly 16 EEK to the USD. ATMs are plentiful in Tallinn and are on the Cirrus/MasterCard network, but you might want to stock up some if you're heading out into the boondocks. Male travelers will enjoy that Estonian women all seem to look like supermodels, dubious tips for picking them up can be found in the "Barn book". Any visitor to the country needs to pick up the In Your Pocket guide - it lists all hotels, restaurants, clubs, bars, etc. essentially for finding cool places to hang out.

Getting there and away

Northernmost of the Baltics, and a mere hour from Finland.

Getting to Estonia can be difficult. Direct flights tend to be expensive and thus not an option for many travelers, which leaves sea and land. The former is the quickest, with Helsinki-Tallinn ferries and catamarans run frequently, the latter costing more but taking a quarter of the time. A longer overnight ferry (16 hours) runs daily between Tallinn and Stockholm. Land-wise, Estonia boasts numerous daily buses to Riga (5 hours - not fun but acceptable), and weekly long distance links to Kaliningrad, Kiel, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Tampere and Vilnius. Why anyone would torture themselves with these, I just don't know. There's also daily trains to both Moscow and St. Petersburg, where connections to the rest of the former USSR are much more plentiful.

Tallinn

Capital of Estonia, Tallinn is a small and lively city of medieval buildings encased within the city walls. The city comes alive in summer with activities and festivals, and is a fantastic place to recharge the batteries.

Attractions

One of the major attractions is just the old town itself - full of medieval buildings, outdoor cafes, festivals and other free entertainment (at least in summer).

The heart of the old town is Raekoja plats (Town hall square), dominated by the only medieval town hall in Northern Europe, dating back to the 14th century (left).

Within the old town is Toompea, the hilltop castle built in 1219 by the Danes. Within these grounds lie numerous attractions, the orthodox Alexandr Nevsky Cathedral, the Estonian Parliament building, the Lutheran Toomkirik and the "Kiek-in-de-K�k" tower.

The walls of Hanseatic Tallinn still stand in much of the old town.

Food and Lodging

For the budget traveler, the place to stay is the Barn. It's located right off Raekoja plats in the heart of the old town, and has singles and doubles available as well as dorm beds. Follow signs for the Erotik Baar which is about the hotel. Another plus of the Barn is the "Barn Book", musing, advice and stories from years of travelers (how to pick up Estonian women and what women should do if their boyfriends disappear into the strip club are popular topics, along with the more standard travel advice). It makes a humorous and fascinating read. Tallinn has tons of different types of restaurants - your best bet is to pick one out of the Pocket guides listings, but I can whole-heartedly recommend Exit, an up-scale Georgian restaurant in the Old town with fantastic food and large portions, and Vanaema Juures, which had a good lunch buffet of traditional Estonian fare.