Estonia our second Baltic country, and all within 24 hours from leaving the UK. As soon as we crossed the border you got a feel for the more ruralness of the country. Large forests appeared either side of the road, the driving style changed to be more whatever works best for the locals and the traffic in general decreased.
Our first stop in Estonia was Parnu beach, a bustling resort type of sea side town. While we were here in August, we hadn't expected in such a cold place for people to actually
be on holiday at the beach. But they were and were seemingly having a lot of fun, perhaps they were Finnish given Estonia's close proximity. I presume it might be a cheap
destination for the Finns. We arrived in the early evening here and just had time to check out the beach as the sun was setting before heading out for food. We hadn't expected it
but we found a gem of a place serving fantastic gourmet food whilst also clearly labelling what was gluten free, vegetarian and dairy free. Usually finding a place we can all
eat is a challenge and even then the food might not be the best. As we sat out on a terrace drinking white wine and enjoying our meal we were happy with how our short trip in
the Baltics had begun.
The next morning we set out early on route to Tallin. On the drive we stopped at the Soomaa National Park and did the boardwalk loop through the marshes. We hadn't realised it
but you can actually wild swim in several of the fresh water marshes found around the walk. Although we didn't bring swimsuits and the water was sure to be freezing I stripped
down into my underpants and went for a dip. It was quiet around but strangely refreshing even though I couldn't touch the bottom at all and the water was so brown that I couldn't
actually tell if anything was in it. One for the fun spontaneous activities though. From here we headed on up close to Tallin making another brief stop at the almost deserted
witches well. This place felt more like you were breaking into someone's back garden than anything else. I wouldn't say it was a key stop but it certainly helped break up our
day into Tallin.
Like most European cities Tallin had an Old Town and these areas are where most of the sites a tourist would want to see are located.
Driving into an old town though, very difficult and easy to go lost / stuck. Unfortunately google didn't understand the no cars allowed sign when driving to
the hotel. This was made worse by the fact the no cars allowed sign was hidden almost out of sight. We also ended up driving right past the Russian embassy
where protests were being made outside against the War in Ukraine. On the corner we were stopped by police, thankfully they were nice and forgiving and allowed
us to continue on to the hotel which was now just around the corner. As with most these hotels we had parking but it was impossible to find, get into and park.
After the drama of our arrival we realised we were staying perfectly in the old town. We had an afternoon and evening here exploring the many sights, revisiting
the protest at the embassy and enjoying wine out on a terrace with good food. While it wasn't quite as nice as Parnu we did find the city nice, not too large
and with a bit of hunting we did find a good restaurant which was open.
Next stop on our Baltic road trip was to be Lithuania. While Latvia and Estonia had been similar there were clear differences in driving styles, following rules and ruralness of the countries. Estonia had felt like a very sparsely populated place compared to Latvia.
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