Estonia Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

May 5, 2026May 5, 2026

Try out Tallinn

back in Estonia there is this major and kind of nice little city, definitely the one city you should visit if you go to Estonia. So if you go to the Baltic states try out Tallinn.

Hate for Russians try out Tallinn — These people really hate the Russians for what they did. It’s evident in many places you go.

Shopping area try out Tallinn — A major shopping area

Baby sled try out Tallinn — Bring your kids. You can buy a cheap sled in town which is a lot easier to use on the snow then I have baby carriage

Significant station Bill Smale — The railway station is pretty significant. But note that if you’re trying to catch a taxi you have to walk a little bit to the taxi area.

Map of Tallinn Bill Smale — The map of Tallinn

City wall Bill Smale — A huge castle wall and city wall are still in pretty good shape

Borscht stew — This is a local borscht stew which was delicious

Tortellini Bill Smale — These are kind of like tortellini

Russian comics — An old Russian comic show , maybe their version of Tom and Jerry

Flower shops — Flower shops near the main shopping area

Chinese pomelo — Chinese pomelo. Actually, I would rather have a Thai pomelo

Boozer bar — At least they tell you a lot about their clientele

City Tower Bill Smale — The towers were good for spotting enemies and strange stuff

Pay tower — If I remember correctly you have to pay to go up into the tower. I didn’t go up.

Backstreet — Along the back city streets

Backstreet — Some more of the Backstreets

Band books — You can see here which books were banned by the Soviet Union

Standing up in a Russian church — Inside the Russian church. No place to sit down. I guess that the strain of standing up is part of their religion

Graveyard — The entrance to a graveyard

City gate — The old entrance to the city

Russian prison — You should go inside to see what the KGB prisoners were like in Estonia

Eggs Benedict — I always thought there was some catch to this food. I never could understand the mixture of flavors. I wonder where this food was invented.

Coworker — A fellow who was working on a Sunday and a cold and windy time it was

Hell hunt — Interesting name for a restaurant. You could see the prices of the food

Garage museu — Garage is during the Soviet Union time were not just for cars since not everybody could buy a car of course. They were used for a whole variety of things and that became part of the social fabric of the Balkin states. This museum is dedicated to the garage society.

Russian embassy protest — This and other anti-war and anti-Russian posters were on the wall of the Russian embassy

Russian embassy

You can see all the demonstration posters outside the Russian embassy

Irish pub — And here we have the Irish embassy, also known as a pub

Main Street — A Main Street on a stormy day

Karaoke bar — You can guess what this is

February 1, 2026February 1, 2026

Winter Tartu Fun

Tartu is in the southeast part of Estonia and it’s one of the larger cities. I am sure during the summertime, spring and fall there are a lot of outdoor activities but during the winter you get very much restricted to the city and there’s really not that much of interest so I’m not sure I would recommend spending much time here during the winter. But it was interesting to stay here and see what’s going on.

Valga station Winter Tartu Fun — On the way to Tartu we stopped in Voaga and I just liked the station here, nice building.

Winter time on the train Winter Tartu Fun — On the train looking out the window

tartu downtown Winter Tartu Fun — Part of the downtown area

Tartu train station Bill Smale — Tartu train station

Tartu town hall Bill Smale — The town hall

Downtown Tartu Bill Smale — Walking in the downtown area

Dodo Pizza Bill Smale — This is not a sister business to the dodo bar on Koh Chang island in Thailand. The dodo bar in Thailand is owned by a friend from Scotland

Playing in the snow — Kids playing in the snow