Tallinn, Estonia, Day 3 and 4 - Old Town, Solaris, Harju

Dec 22nd, first day after the end of the world.  We had syrniki for breakfast/lunch, which is basically mini pancakes.  We bought them from the Rimi the previous night.

Didn't leave the apartment till 1:30pm.  Our first stop of the day was the house of the government, there's a scenic lookout from this spot, we walked along Lai through the arches of Fat Margaret.

Tram along Põhja pst.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Lai.

Along Nunne.  The building you see on the right at the top of the stairs is the house of the government. Where the people are standing, that's the scenic spot.

Tallinn from the top of the stairs, you can see the defence towers, and St Olav's church as well as the smaller orthodox church.

We stopped here for a bit while I bought a souvenir for a friend.  Our next stop was the dome church which had another lookout point overlooking Schnelli park.

Along Rahukohtu.

Along Rahukohtu.

Dome church (part of it :))

The Dome Church.  Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside without paying a fee.  The inside of the church was quite plain.

Train passing.

Here's the back of the church, with Schnelli park on the right.  Not very scenic though.

2:50pm Next stop was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

A school of sorts along Toom-Kooli.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  We stopped and had a look inside.  There's beggars right in front of the church, how convenient.

Parliament house facing Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Another tower that has a cafe at the top.  Along Lühike jalg.

Part of the same tower.  Along Lühike jalg.

St Nicholas Church and Museum in the background.  Along Lühike jalg.

Walkway along Lühike jalg.

It was 3:30pm at this point, when we entered St Nicholas Church.  There was an organ concert at 4pm that goes for half an hour, so we took a break here.  Also there was an exhibition going on in the church.  The niguliste muuseum is part of the church.  There's an "Ars moriendi – the Art of Dying" exhibit going on and a silver chamber exhibition going on.

Just imagine the organ music in your head.

Interior of the church, and art exhibits.

Interior of the church.

Interior of the church.

Interior of the church.

Interior of the church.

Coffin of an important female person. :)

Silver chamber exhibits, these are pendants.

Silver chamber.

Silver chamber.

Always amazed at how silver and gold maintains its value, both numismatic and intrinsic.  Your paper money, worth less day by day and ultimately, worth as much as a piece of toilet paper.  You won't see any singapore dollars, euros, australian dollars in any museum.

Shortly after the church started to close.  At 5pm we took a walk back to Lühike jalg and stopped at a bar called napsikamber and had some food here.

Beef liver and potatoes.  I had a bouillabaisse but it wasn't worth taking a photo.  The shrimps were tiny and so were the crayfish.  I was quite disappointed.

At 6pm, we took a walk to Harju where the ice skating rink was.  And then to the freedom square.

Harju ice skating rink.

Freedom square.

Well I was still quite hungry afterwards so we stopped at the pizza place, Pizza Americana, diagonally opposite the ice skating rink.

Chicken, pineapple and jalapeño peppers pizza.

Then we took a walk back to the Old Town Square.  I can't remember what time nights out was, but it was a long day.  We came back and watched "Existenz" on the laptop before nights out.

Old Town Square.

Dec 23rd, another late start.  Breakfast/lunch was omelette and chicken.  Spent most of the day ice skating.  Some random Russian came up to me and started speaking Chinese, he worked in Taiwan for a period of time.  Took a short break in the cafe because the rink had to be resurfaced.  It's a very small rink.  After ice skating, we walked to Solaris, which is a shopping centre in Tallinn and also houses the biggest bookstore called Apollo.  After dinner at Lido, on the topmost floor, we went to the supermarket and bought some food for the apartment as well.  We caught the tram #2 back afterwards because we had to carry the food back, I was quite buggered.  The night's home movie was "Expendables 2" before lights out.

Me.

Solaris Shopping Centre.

The opera house, opposite Solaris.

Chicken, cod with mushrooms, potatoes, shrimp salad, curd with strawberry sauce, and kvass.

Pork shashlykk, potatoes, rye bread, and salad.