Even the Estonian Musuem staff do not know where Estonians came from... quoting them: "it is a big mystery but we think we are descendant from the Haseatic Tribes of Siberia". There you have it. Estonia (pop 1.4 million) covering only 45,000 square kilometers ( a third of Greece) is not sure of its origins. What they can tell us is that they are not Slavic and their language is very close to Finnish! One thing is for sure, Estonia has had a turbulent history. They have been occupied by Germany, Russia, Denmark and even Sweden. No wonder they are confused about origins!Tallinn (pop 371,000) is a UNESCO protected tourist haven. A magical place of cosy cobbledstone streets, great coffee and very very cheap eating. St Olaf's church has a 159m tall bell tower (first photo shows view of old town from tower) that made it the tallest structure in the world in the early 13th century! "Toompea" is the elevated part of the old town containing the old castle, Orthodox Nevsky Cathedral and now houses the parliament of Estonia since independence in 1991 (second photo shows view of the lower old town from Toompea). The main square "Raekoja Plats" is a statistitians wonderland (bottom photo): it contains the world's oldest pharmacy, town hall and even the highest toilet up to the early 1900's (77m high in the town hall tower). The best thing about Estonia and Tallinn is the willingness of locals to help tourists, high use of English, small walkable sites and yes, the 10-15AUD meals (with beer)!!! Distance travelled so far: 16,109km (Total distance covered in Russia by train: 2,440km).
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