Our Visit To Tallinn

It was a wonderful trip to Tallinn during the Easter long weekend. It was planned by us in a short notice, however things fall in place by God's blessings. The entire trip was enjoyable as they were sunny days and so a great salutations to Lord Surya (Sun God).
We started on April 22nd morning from Tampere and by the time we reach the harbour of Linda Line it was around 10.30 AM. Our ferry is at 12 and it started drizzling which slowly turned to rain showers. I was praying Lord Surya to bless our trip with sunny days and yes, he answered it. The rains were only during our ferry travel and by the time we reach Tallinn it was sunny. Barathraam enjoyed the ferry travel. We took a taxi to our guest house which was cheaper when compared to Tallinn. We stayed at Valge Villa and the hosts are very cordial. The rooms were good with small, well-equipped kitchen except for the kreeech sound from the wooden floors.
We refreshed ourselves and set out to have a look at the city. Tallinn has good public transport by buses, trolley bus (running on electric lines) and trams and also has good frequency even during easter weekend. It is cheaper to take one/two or 3 days tickets rather than single travel tickets. We got it at R-Kiosks. We took trolley bus 3 and get down at Vabaduse Valjak. We visited the Old town, the famous Toompea Castle and the Russian church (we found it good to visit church on Good Friday). Its worthy to mention that those streets and the place is a mixture of ancient heritage with a modern outlook. To my surprise we saw some Indian restaurants too in the middle of the Freedom Square. Need to say, that there is a large crowd of people at Tallinn in every corner we saw, seams like a real tourist destination. Tourist books speak about a place called Katharina Kaik as a famous passage and we paid a visit there.. (Wonder whats it?? Namma oor santhu (The narrow street in our places!) ). I read that Rottermann square is a place for cheap shopping and we went there. But to my disappointment I found eveything to be as costly as in Finland. It may be because Estonia has adopted Euro as its currency from 1st Jan, 2011. We then got the trolley bus and reached our guest house.

The next morning, as we woke up the sun shined brightly and we got ready to visit Tallinn Zoo. I was hoping that Barathraam will enjoy it as he has started recognizing animals and birds. We took the trolley bus connection 3 from our Tedre bus stop to Vabaduse Valjak  and then got to the other side and took trolley bus number 6 and got down at Zoo. We were happy to see many children entering along with us.  The Zoo was really nice with many different collections of birds, tiget, lion, fishes, elephant, deer and also strange species like Kangaroos, Polar Bear etc. It did has a vast open space for a variety of sheeps and goats. Barathraam got tired in the mid and slept while we covered most of the species and thought of giving some rest to our legs.
Whenever I visit Zoo, I get a guilty feeling on our human approach towards animals. Though we give enough space for the animals to roam, it cannot be matched to the space given to it by Nature. I really felt bad on seeing a big Polar bear walking exactly on the same path again and again within a fenced area. If a living being is constrained within walls it will surely lose its originality.


Then we thought of getting some details about the museums in the tourist information centre and visited Viru Keskus, the shopping centre in the town center. We decided to pay visit to the science museums for family and kids. It had few exhibits on science principles, the 4D movie and some journey in black. We did not visit 4D movie and the journey in black. But otherwise, there was not much to see in the museum when compared to science museums in India. I personally felt that the entrance fee is a bit costlier for the exhibits in the museum. We then returned back to our cage.

Next day, we planned to visit the open air museum ROCCA AL MARE which had many special events for the Easter on that day. From the map we found it to be just opposite side of Zoo and got down in the same stop as we did the day before. But we could not locate the place easily and after we enquiries we came to know that it is in a road parallel to the zoo and we had to walk 20 minutes to that place from Zoo stop. When you plan to visit that place, see the correct route from the map. We were surprised to see the number of cars and people entering the museum and thought it should be a special day there. As we stepped in, we were welcomed by trade fairs from rural communities. All products starting from soaps, chocolates, breads and toys to clothes and crafts. We were surprised to observe Barathraam not willing to come away from a shop selling wooden cars and wanted to have it. This was the first time he demanded something to be bought for him and I am sure it will continue from now. We then saw traditional village houses which had rooms for cattles and livestock. I was amazed to see a room with a bed and a cradle, almost similar to "thottil" (cradle in Tamil). The picture of it is here. It reminded me that different cultures have similar traditions during the course of time. There was another example for it in the museum. It was the water juice coming from the birch tree. A passer-by mentioned that during Spring, the birch tree absorbs water from the ground and pumps to the whole part of the tree and by having a hole in the stem will let some water juice coming out. We all could taste that, which ofcourse is full of health benefits (like our palm water taken from palm tree.)

We ate food prepared by us and then saw some village games played during Spring in Estonian culture. I also got planted two plants with the help of the village girls there. It was a nice Spring festival and we could enjoy the Estonian traditional way in a true sense. In the evening we met our friend Venki and his friend. We all went to the Kadriorg lake, but we could not visit the palace as it was closed already. We took Barathraam to the park there and he enjoyed playing there a lot and did not want to come out of it. Somehow we persuaded him to take him away from there.

Next and the last day, we went to the botanical garden. We took bus no 34A (also 38) from Viru Keskus and got down at Kloostrimetsa. The botanical garden was big and hosted many plant varieties. Rock garden welcomed us and I could see people planting flower plants. We went to the "Green House" which was very big. We could see most of the flower varieties, plants, trees and cactus family. It was a real bliss to be there, for its a long time since I saw such a green place.. (Yes, we were in Finland watching snow all these days!!)
I am surprised to see coconut, palm and banana tree there. They had some groups from the schools and an instructor explained all of the trees and their collections. We talked to the instructor and could see that the instructor is part of ISKCON and she bid adieu to us saying "Hare Krishna". Barathraam enjoyed seeing the plants and also having his hand in the soil. Below are some photos from the "Green House".

Banana tree

A cactus family (Mother, Father and their younger ones).

This plant is named "Krishnae" and is found in India, Himalayas!

Doesn't this plant look like having two eyes, two long ears and a big mouth?

This is how they give sunlight to the plants during winter. They have artificial sunlight and air circulation conducive for the plants growth.

Flowers planted outside

And, Here is our little Barathraam enjoying the Nature.

On the whole, it was a leisure trip enjoyable with the blessings of God.

If you want any details about visiting Tallinn, I can give my two cents.