Estonia -- August 2012
Two good friends visited this month, so we packed up for a few days in Estonia. We took a bus to Tallinn, where we spent a day and a half exploring that beautiful city. While Riga is a flat, riverside city, Tallinn's old town sits on top of a hill, so the cities are different enough in character to make them interesting. We happened upon a delightful courtyard of galleries and artisans, and looked at cannonballs still embedded in Kiek in de Kok Tower (image from Wikimedia by Vladi Stoichkov).
The second half of our trip took us to Saaremaa, a beautiful island off the western coast of Estonia. I was able to drag my friends along on a solid day's hike in a wilderness reserve on the northeast coast. We also did some cycling around Kuressaare, the capital (image from Flickr by trepeshchenok).
Advice: Saaremaa is beautiful, but getting around is difficult without a car. Tallinn has something for everyone. I haven't been yet, but I've been told that the city of Tartu has a fantastic science museum.
