Unfortunately today we are leaving Finland but not to worry because we're going to a country that is very closely related to Finland in fact I've even heard it being called little Finland online so next stop Estonia by the way nice place no very nice yeah nice terminal terminal yeah and so Color Me surprised because I figured there'd be , I don't know a couple hundred people on a boat to Estonia on a weekday at 1: p.m. but this ship is . massive and there are tons of people on board the good news is we're still going to a shenen country meaning despite all the people the process was totally fast like less than 10 minutes in line and , just like that we are on this absolutely massive boat where I guess what we'll do is try to find , a seat near a window maybe order a tall glass of beer and watch the world go by for 2 hours as we . make our way to Estonia which sounds good to me and so of course they have a full dutyfree shop , here on board with a bunch of drinks I think at good prices and even some clothes and cologne and , perfume and what have you and I think there's a bit of a casino in terms of electronic casino with , slots and everything although for Ivana and I we are just relaxing in the restaurant area with , my first ever Estonian beer I said can I have one beer she said would you like a Finnish , or an Estonian beer I said Estonian please oh very good beer although you guys . know me I tend to like beer anyway we're almost there so let's check out . Estonia sun is shining beautiful oh my gosh we made it outside be honest , that was like a 2 km walk that was far yes all right check out this accommodation everybody first things first this last staircase here is just for us it only goes to our , front door so I guess we're in the penthouse of this apartment my building up here on the fourth , floor now the floor plan here is something totally unique you've got this sort of front foyer which . is like a triangle going out the wall Cuts in and then you've got this little carpeted corner I think this is the only 90° Corner in the whole apartment everything else is on a very interesting . trapezoid or hexagonal plan it's got everything we need so I'm not complaining we got stove oven , coffee machine even a dishwasher which is great with the microwave we won't use and uh fridge so . full kitchen for us you guys know we love that this is our chilling area where this door tends , to do an optical illusion this is the bedroom door that goes there but you can see it's got this beam , here which has a light switch on the beam I've never seen that before I thought it would have been a solid concrete beam it feels like a hollow beam which is like just there for Aesthetics or . something uh Great Furniture old and big got the huge speakers so the apartment has everything we , need but the layout is peculiar here it feels like it's old enough to be a communist era building . but the way it's designed it feels like it's some Modern interpretation or some artistic build . uh this is our bedroom with a slight slope in the roof just to make you wonder at first glance if it , sloped or if you're going crazy and then a second bedroom which I guess they just put a couch , in so you can sit here I'm not sure if this is a communist era building because typically the , Communist area buildings are just 90° Corners sort of plain and simple they build them all the , exact same and line them up this one is like I mean everything is all crooked and the windows . are different shapes and the windows are different heights and I haven't even got to the best part yet as we Circle back to the second foyer uh here's the bathroom which looks pretty normal at . first glance you say there's no shower but there is a shower over here which is built into the , bathroom with drywall and tiles something unique but the Crown Jewel of the whole apartment is the sauna which to me is distinctly finnished but maybe estonians also love the sauna you got the , electric uh heater with the Rocks here if you look up top you can see it used to be a wood burning , SAA that's like a sock that's plugged in the old vent hole and so this doesn't look like they've . added it recently it almost looks like it was built with it cuz this wall looks a million years , old so I think this building was built with a SAA maybe this is my first impressions of Estonia and maybe it's too early to say but I think I think Estonia is like Finland plus communist era . that's a very basic breakdown and to be clear I've been here for about 10 minutes and haven't left , the apartment yet but uh interesting apartment never seen anything like it very funky awesome unique in every corner and so part of me wants to go chill in the SAA uhhuh but it's the first , minute in a new country you got to go hit the road you want to hit the streets come on all right , let's go let's go how cool that's a big door yeah wow at this wow and so we're blessed to have some really nice weather here today and naturally our first stop is the old town you can see behind , me which features an incredibly well- intact City plan from the 13th century which means the , layout of all of the roads as well as the type and location of all of the buildings has not changed in something like 800 years now obviously the buildings have been renovated and in most cases rebuilt due to war and fire but it's still a great place to travel back in .

time and enjoy some history as well as some very instagrammable locations now what I really love is obviously very touristic but around the Old Town regular life is still going on we are in a , European Capital after all so for one there's a really beautiful football field just outside the , city wall where these kids are playing and it's probably just a regular day for them whereas , just inside the city wall a bunch of tourists are sort of out of their minds and so I really , love the blending of the old and the new as well as the blending of the historic and touristic with the sort of regular and modern local life here in Talen and I'm assuming in this place we can find some traditional Estonian food I hope so so let's eat because wandering around on the . cobblestones make your feet very tired no cuz so uneven uh and so time to sit down enjoy a beer and . some food let's go let's go oh wow check it out I love the themed cart here with the outfits very . mediva looking in front of the old henza looking like a Ye Old restaurant just great all right . so I was inclined to go to that very thematic restaurant around the corner but unfortunately , they did not have blood sausage available and I for one really wanted to try the Estonian blood . sausage because as you guys remember two weeks ago or so we tried blood sausage for the first . time in Finland and Iana and I both had very low expectations but the flavor was distinctly not bad it was so good it was good and it was really unique tastes like ashes mixed with dirt , which sounds bad but it was pretty good in the end so I wanted to try it now this particular Arrangement doesn't look so traditional it strikes me as not the way they would serve it , for hundreds and hundreds of years I think this is a very tourist friendly uh Arrangement . or plating but I really want to try because the blood sausage actually looks the same as in , Finland so I bet you it has that sort of similar flavor uh and first I'll try it by itself mhm good it's good good yeah it's very good and I bet you this is lingen berry is it yes yeah it is so quite good , uh this is very familiar to what we had in Finland although obviously a totally . different Arrangement even with some bacon on the blood sausage and some oh even sauerkraut that's something new let's try that for me it's very good very very good no , I'm jealous of your order this is really five star food we can do a half half as per couples . travel half and half sharing the food is a way to go because I got four Crips nothing special . look really good though and doesn't look that big just two ribs yeah so I can share you some . of mine and I want to say this before the food scene is over this beer first of all empty before the food came but that's good beer it was served at a very European temperature , which is not cold enough but that's good Estonian beer so uh for me this is a five star , meal although we are paying tourist price here T price right in the Central Square where there's a horse going by H oh what wow what timing was that that's quite funny and actually as the video continues we'll jump out here to the main Square for some very interesting history so let's eat , and then continue the video enjoy your yeah cheers very good right very good with . the bacon on the outside and the lingan berry good nice and so here in the main square of the . old town we are surrounded to be fair by beautiful buildings with restaurants in front of them one of which we just ate at although clearly the focal point is the old town hall right behind me which . gives a good backdrop for me to give a very brief history of Estonia so Estonia was pagan meaning . non-Christian or non monotheist up until the 13th century which is one of the last places in Europe . we'll learn more about this at the Danish King Garden coming soon but after that it was part of the Danish Empire and the Swedish Empire for hundreds of years to the point where they're . selling souvenirs here in the old town naturally and they are Viking helmets with the Estonian flag on it so I'm learning something new when you think of Vikings you can also think of Estonia as , contributing to that sort of amazing uh you know biking idea and so after that Estonia got its independence in 198 unfortunately right after World War I was World War II where afterwards the Estonian SSR was established mhm which is the Soviet Socialist Republic and so there was , a long communist period until uh communism and the Soviets fell in late 80s early '90s so that . fast forwards till today where Estonia is part of the European Union part of shangan as we know and even part of NATO so my feeling is where the Nordic meets the Slavic you have the Baltic now maybe estonians might not love that guess to be clear I am not a historic I'm just a guy who . likes history because there is the Russian Embassy nearby right and out front of it is a bunch of . protests including pictures and information of political prisoners in Russia so I'm feeling that . estonians today are feeling much more Western than they are feeling Russian although I am curious . to learn more about the Soviets and the KGB and the Communist era so next up we're going to the . KGB Museum right where we've booked a guided tour curious what we'll see there so let's go learn . more about uh the KGB I guess in the KGB Museum let's go and so introducing the viru hotel which .

was opened for business in 1972 by the Soviets and back then it was the tallest building in , all of tenine standing 23 stories tall which is interesting because to this day the elevator . only goes to the 22nd floor and the top floor is only accessible by Hidden Staircase and so the . reason for this is because this hotel was targeted Finnish tourists keep in mind Finnish was not Soviet it was a capitalist democracy and so the purpose of this hotel was to show Finn . tourists how great the Soviet Union is they were eating food that the average Estonian was not eating they were watching dancing shows that the average Estonian was not watching and oh by . the way the 23rd floor was full of the KGB Radio Room and there were microphones in your bedroom , so uh the tour itself took us to the radio room on the 23rd floor we had KGB only access but it wasn't the most visual tour there wasn't that many artifacts with that being said our tour guide was really good right and she relayed a lot of information about the inefficiency and the corruption and just the general awfulness of the Soviet Union including uh back then in the 70s it , had a thousand employees this hotel whereas today it still runs as a hotel and it has 100 employees . so the reason why they got rid of 90% of their staff is because back then most of the staff was buying on other staff because you couldn't have a local Estonian person interacting with a Finnish person in a way that was not appropriate right so the KGB was spying on the employees and . then the employee employees in turn were spying on the other employees and so it's just lies and dishonesty and blackmail with the sprinkling in of just deceit and so it was a good tour although like I say not the most visual tour and so it'll be a short section in our video was fun to learn about uh the Soviet Union and just how generally awful it was anyway the Vlog continues let's go oh check it out Iana I think it's a bridge for cats I think so and so we've come to the Danish King's Garden which is a lovely place to relax sort of a big Park here despite the fact that there are . some relatively creepy statues very Lord of the Rings inspired but nonetheless it is a good place to relax at the end of a long day of walking now the year was 1219 and Denmark was on a crusade . here in Estonia which I believe means they were on a war with the intention of bringing Christianity because as we know the estonians were still Pagan or pre-christian uh polytheist religion and so the , Danes were losing the war but then the sky opened up and a piece of red fabric came wafting down , and on the red fabric was a white cross Not only was this a turning point to make Denmark conquer Estonia and bring Christianity but it also became Denmark's flag which I believe is the oldest . flag in the world yes so there you have it it's obviously a myth I don't believe it's a literal story but in the end it's a thoughtful sort of nice place to relax cuz it happened right here . I believe and so it's a good way for us to end the Old Town section of our video I love the . old town it's not necessarily the biggest Old Town we've seen But packed with history totally authentic loved it five star Old Town picturesque and historic and great and so I think we will now , venture to a place to have a cold drink and rest hour weary feet yes which will be outside the , old town so let's go see modern Helen let's go and so cheers everybody we have come to a place . called The Creative city which I guess was these old factories that went abandoned and then people . bought them and turned them into restaurants with some really nice street art sort of all around now to be fair the sun is still up but it's on a low angle and it's getting colder now and I . think that's why it's not full of people Street performance and other things would be very groovy , here I think in the summertime so it's getting colder and it's sort of nice we have a SAA in our , apartment oh yeah we're going to go home and fire it up now it turns out what I said earlier might not be that wrong uh there definitely is a feeling to a former communist country it is here in , Estonia it was in Romania Bulgaria Albania Serbia the list goes on um but there is a Nordic sort , of flavor Happening Here not the least of which is the SAA in our apartment right so it was a good , day I wish there was more action here now but it's early May and we might be a bit early for chil but it was a good day with some good beer by the Wayan beer might be the best of all the Nordic what it's pretty good really so far I've had two or three different brands all very good and and the best price too and the price stands out Finland is high Sweden is like 2% or , whatever they're selling and Denmark even higher in prices so uh Estonia come for the Old Town , stay for the beer and I got this Plum cardamom which I think they love Plum and cardamoms here in . Estonia yeah of course it's uh lemonade actually they love Plum and cardamom even in dessert , I've seen it on dessert and stuff it's a good flavor it's not very sweet very good cardamom . is a unique flavor but kind of good with Plum yeah you have guys all right let's end this . day thanks for watching and tonight we'll hit the son definitely guaranteed we're going to . crank it up to 65 okay Swedish on all night.

FIRST TIME IN ESTONIA (Tallinn blew my mind!) 🇪🇪