More exploring in Tallinn

 The next day we went out exploring again, beginning with Town Hall square (Raekoja plats). There was a dinky little train called Toomas doing the rounds that Dan was particularly fond of.

After more wandering, we came across a pretty waterfall with a statue of a deer in a green park. We went to the Russian markets, which was full of tat but interesting in its own right, and bought Nik a very cool present (an old video tape of something or other). We then started in the direction of the old prison. After a time, we started seeing some old wooden houses. And then things started getting very dilapidated indeed. Upon reaching the sea, we saw the old prison, which is boarded up, and surrounded by barbed wire and graffiti. The shore was littered with old blocks of concrete and wire. It's like this part of Tallinn has been completely forgotten - it was like looking at a piece of history.

We walked around a little port as the sun came out to a large, low-built, graffitied concrete structure. I felt sure that it was the famous song grounds, in which hundreds of thousands of people had begun the singing revolution. Unfortunately, I was grossly mistaken. It was in fact the Linnahall (City Concert Hall), which was built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Dan thought it was a good idea to follow some people with guitars on their backs into the bowels of the building. Seems like there was a recording studio of some kind in the dim tunnels.

We were about to leave when Dan spotted another staircase and we went down it. At the bottom was a little old man who didn't speak much English and insisted that we leave. Oops.

We kept walking around behind the ferry port (you can get a boat to Helsinki), past the expensive tourist-trap shops, and through some pretty uninteresting bits of town with nowhere to eat. Finally, we came out in some nice parkland next to a proper beach, with a long foreshore stretching ahead of us.

We came across the beautiful Russalka memorial halfway along. The statue of an angel is pointing to the site of a shipwreck.

The only place we found to eat lunch along here was in a burger joint. Weirdest hamburger I've ever had. The crinkle-cut chips were good, though. While we were inside, the weather took a turn for the worse. It was suddenly horribly windy instead of being just grey and indifferent.

From this vantage point, we could see the contrasting aspects of Tallinn's skyline: modern tower blocks, ancient spires, and big ships. We went as far as the Soviet war memorial, which itself is fairly unexceptional, and decided to turn back.

Finally, and sort of by accident, on the way back we found the Song Grounds (Lauluväljak) by walking up to what we thought was a modern stadium. Dan made friends with the huge seated statue of Maestro Johann Voldemar Jannsen. 

The Song Grounds were built in 1959 to house the national Song Festival, and can hold 15,000 singers on the stage. In 1988 it was the scene of the Singing Revolution that led to the overthrow of Soviet rule. It was very atmospheric, with a huge shell, and a vast expanse of green grass. There was also a menacing looking tower beside the shell.

I only later saw that Metallica had played there, and Madonna did a concert there for 72,067 people in August that year. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:XXV_laulupidu_(3).jpg. All we saw were some people rolling down the hill inside a giant plastic ball.

From there, we went into Kadriorg park. It was beautiful and green after the other things we'd seen that day. And within Kadriorg Park is the palace of Peter the Great, built for Catherine (Kadri), his empress. The grounds were extensive. I think we went inside the palace, but can't remember.

On the way back to the city (the short way, this time), we passed a fountain. It was pink. Then it was blue. Then it was green. Then it was orange. Exciting.

That night, we went to by far the worst place we ate at while in Tallinn - Peppersack. We were intrigued, but just don't even consider it. Not unless you REALLY LOVE PEPPER! It was in an old raftered building, which had plenty of character in a pub sort of way, the service was fairly bad, too. The one saving grace was that there was no pepper in my dessert. I was half expecting it, though.