19:50 I can answer that for you since I grew up in Tallinn and still live here. The Old Town is still most likely the nicest part of the city but during the last 20 years or so it has gone through what some might call disneyfication i.e. everyday life has largely left the Old Town and it has mostly become a tourist attraction. Sure, there are still some nice restaurants here and there but most establishments are geared towards tourists. Due to covid the number of tourists has decreased significantly and therefore the price levels in the Old Town have dropped to more reasonable levels but it's hard to win back locals after decades of pushing them out. What also matters is that the Old Town is very small compared to the rest of the city. Currently only around 1% of the population lives there. Tallinn was an important city on the coast of the Baltic Sea in the middle ages but not so much after that. Tallinn started to grow again during the 1900s after the railroad connection to St. Petersburg was established and even more during the Soviet Union when large scale industries were built which resulted in a massive wave of immigration from other parts of the Soviet Union, mostly Russia. This means that roughly half the population lives in Soviet-era housing estates which were built on the outskirts of the city and after re-gaining independence a post-Soviet American way of suburbanisation has happened on a large scale as well. Due to all of that the city centre as a whole is quite underdeveloped and not very dense, at least compared to many other similar-sized cities in Europe. Fortunately, the population of the city centre is growing at a healthy rate but it will still take decades until the city centre around the Old Town starts feeling like an actual centre worth the city's size.
That's an interesting perspective. I noticed when I went out to the TV tower that there seemed to be a lot more housing projects on the outskirts of the city as compared to the Old Town. I'm glad that Tallinn is continuing to grow though. I think your city has a lot to offer.
Thank you Sam. Your video hped me plan my trip, by myself, to Estonia (5/26-6/3/22). My Mom and family from Parnu but had to do a couple days in Tallinn, then Parnu and Sarremaa (heritage). It was a must do trip and loved it. You inspire me for other places. Keep up great videos. NYr Val
It was great walking with you through the streets of Tallinn. I went there a couple of years ago and loved the city. Please visit Lithuania and Latvia if you have a chance. Greetings from California!
Really enjoyed this video, thank you! I can totally relate to what you said about wandering around old town squares in Europe never getting old!! I too just love that whole historical vibe and there’s nothing better than setting off and seeing where and what you can discover in wonderful places like Tallinn! Plan to be there myself next September, fingers crossed! How did you find the restrictions etc re COVID? It looks as though tourist numbers were definitely down, but great for you re no crowds, which is a bonus when trying to photograph things! The title of this video said part 4 but I don’t see the other 3! Are they still able to be viewed please? Safe travels. Cheers, Marg
The COVID restrictions were not too intense while I was there. The most important thing was to have an acceptable COVID certificate with you at all times. Without that, you won't be able to enter restaurants or museums. If I could do it over again, I'd get my US CDC certificate converted to the scannable European one just because it's easier for people there. Tallinn is absolutely awesome though, especially with fewer tourists. You'll have an absolute blast
@@samc.3261 thanks Sam! I’m Australian, so at this stage I just have the international certificate which is all that our govt has offered if you plan to travel internationally, but I’ll be interested to see if things get more streamlined as time passes regarding that. Normally I don’t activate any roaming plan on my phone as I always find I can easily manage using wifi in cafes and at my accommodations. But I guess next time that may not suffice if I have to have a scannable certificate available. Thanks for your help. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to exploring the Baltic countries plus others, as I’ll be away for more than 3 months!! Can’t wait to travel again! 👍
@@margsangster8994 There are some doctors in Germany who will convert US certificates into the EU code and I imagine they'd do Australian certificates as well so that might be worth looking into depending on how the COVID situation develops. I was fine with my US one 99.9% of the time though so you'll likely be ok whatever you decide to do.
Nice channel- subscribed :) Really enjoyed this one. Good to hear what foreigners think about the town. Did you also visit Kalamaja and Telliskivi? This is the place where people go to hang out these days.
Thank you! Sadly I didn't get out that way this time. Because I was on such a tight schedule, I spent most of my time in the Old Town. Hopefully, when I come back I'll be able to see more of Tallinn and more of Estonia in general.
@@samc.3261 Cool. If you come next time, then hit me up. We could go fly my drone somewhere and you can also have some areal footages in your videos. And im always interested to show the town to foreigners lol :)
Slight correction: you show the Great Guild which is a museum; the Blackheads were down the street. Yes, the Old Town is very tourist-oriented & hopefully the businesses can survive the pandemic.
Ah darn it! Well, hopefully, I at least saw the right building at some point! I truly hope the businesses in the Old Town can survive the pandemic as well. It's troubling when watching other peoples' Tallinn videos to see how busy it looked compared to when I was there.
I am an e resident of estonia..... I have applied for a short term employment and am given an appointment in october.... to appear before Police and Border Guard Ofice in Tallin? Pls Advise? May I proceed for an opertunity?
I grow up there I walked the small child, I also Know stories of ghost there. Don't worry, those mostly ghosts are good, not evil, They'd better save you than hurt you. :)
The Mongols never reached Estonia. "The Slavs" were pretty much only Russians - Poland did control Southern Estonia, but they never reached Tallinn. For the original Danish controllers of the town, the Germans themselves were the main enemy. Later for the Germans it was either the Russians or the Swedes they needed to defend themselves against. Estonia was not really a part of the Soviet Union, but a widely recognized sovereign state illegally occupied by the Soviet Union. If you grow up in Tallinn, you certainly do get used to the old town. I mean, it's still possible to take the wrong turn here and there, but you will quickly re-orient yourself. You can always distinguish between the tourists and the locals by how fast they are walking and by whether they look at the roofs or whether they look straight ahead when walking. ;) The church colours have a few rules in Estonia, but this is the Lutheran St John's Church and is a bit randomly yellow. Most Lutheran Churches, especially those is the countryside, i.e. the "parish churches", are plain white and very simplistic in their design. Many rural Orthodox churches are made with "ground stones" and look red and grey. Urban Orthodox churches are either made of wood or some newer ones have a very Russian style.
Estonia was a part of the Soviet Union and nobody realised it before it was too late. I lived it , I grew up with it..and I hate communism & everything that comes with it.
When speaking of churches in Estonia then, most of them are lutheran. It starts turning more catholic the further south you move through baltics. I think the line runs somewhere between Latvia and Lithuania and finally you end up with almost exclusively catholic in Poland. Ofcource there are also few orthodox churches around because of the Russian influence and in modern times even evangelists and mormons from US have managed to set up some communities. In my home town we have Jehova's witnesses church/establishment not far from where i live. Allthough, i have to admit, dont know many estonians who are all that religious. Its more like a cultural heritage if nothing else. Then again, lutheran christianity is very personal by nature. People dont go around trying to convert others and generally speakin, these matters are not discussed with strangers at all.
I love Bald and Bankrupt's videos. I haven't seen his Estonia videos, but his videos in Russia and India are always amazing. I'll have to go check those out
Vilnius, Lithuania should be even more interesting for you as it has such a rich history as the capital of Grand duchy Lithuania, big jewish, polish past, countless churches, palaces everywhere etc.
Vilnius was amazing! I can't wait to post those videos. I was blown away by the architecture there. It almost felt like I was walking through central Paris without all of the crowds and ridiculous prices
In my opinion it’s time to let Estonia be a nice small Nordic country. Estonia very deserves to be a Nordic country, because Estonia has done a lot of work, we have many smart people, we are good at digital things, we have northern lights and we are very similar to Finland and other Nordic countries like: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Greenland. We are not similar to Latvia and Lithuania and the other Eastern Europe countries. It’s time to stop calling Estonia Eastern Europe country and Baltic country and forget all this terrible, rude and mean Soviet times. Let’s just stop this Eastern Europe and Soviet stigma thing and let Estonia turn the new page and let them be a normal small Nordic country next to Sweden and Finland!!! Estonians call themselves the Nordic country and many other people and tourists had also said that Estonia should be a Nordic country, because Estonian people are Finnic people not Balts and we are more similar to Scandinavia. Yes many people had agreed with that Estonia must belong to the Nordic group and seperate from Latvia and Lithuania. They don’t even need these countries, because Estonians communicate more with Finns and other Scandinavian countries. Estonia will be a very good partner for the other Nordic countries. We will do a very great work and we will be very strong!!!
Overall I agree with you. I do think, however, that the entire notion of eastern vs. western Europe is a bit archaic at this point. At least in my experience, I haven't seen a massive cultural divide between countries that, historically, have been considered "eastern" and those considered western. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were, to my eye, just as developed as, for instance, Berlin. Granted, I spent most of my time in major cities, but I doubt the standard of living falls off that much in the countryside. The idea of east vs west started as a political division between the eastern bloc and liberal democracies. Now that most countries in Europe have embraced democracy, that distinction has outlived its usefulness. With all that being said, I can certainly see how culturally it makes more sense to group Estonia and Finland together considering the similar languages and values.
John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
In fact, you can somehow "thank" the Soviet union that our old town has been preserved so nicely. Many other countries started redeveloping the old parts of the town after WWII and tore down ancient buildings. Soviets meanwhile, didn't have funds for that and instead had other priorities.
Very interesting. My only point of reference is the former DDR where the Soviets completely rebuilt the country, but I guess that had a lot to do with the destruction caused by WWII. I’m definitely glad they didn’t mess with Tallinn’s Old Town!
You forgot the "red eagles" bombing in March 1944, which destroyed a significant part of this old town and city center. If the Finns had not started bombing their bases, the whole old town could have been leveled. Because the goal was not to destroy the port or industrial buildings, but the city. At that time, there were no more German troops in the city. Wounded in hospitals only and some small units. It was mainly the city dwellers who suffered. So it doesn't pay to gold this Soviet era. After all, they leveled the city of Narva. And later the part that could have been restored. After all, all civilians had to be destroyed and replaced by "Soviet classics".
Ironic speaking of how you trust ferry over plane. It appears You are not familiar with 'Estonia' ferry sinking on Tallinn-Stockholm line. More dead with one accident than estonia has ever lost to aircraft.
Believe me, the irony is not lost on me. Once I was on a flight, and when it landed, the pilot said, "the safest part of your journey just ended". I know that, statistically, flying is the safest means of travel, but the irrational part of me will always feel safer on a boat or in a car.
Thanks for the virtual walk. Plan on visiting there in August!
I admire Estonia for their constant push to modernity and high IT service.
Very clean city and gorgeous
19:50 I can answer that for you since I grew up in Tallinn and still live here. The Old Town is still most likely the nicest part of the city but during the last 20 years or so it has gone through what some might call disneyfication i.e. everyday life has largely left the Old Town and it has mostly become a tourist attraction. Sure, there are still some nice restaurants here and there but most establishments are geared towards tourists. Due to covid the number of tourists has decreased significantly and therefore the price levels in the Old Town have dropped to more reasonable levels but it's hard to win back locals after decades of pushing them out.
What also matters is that the Old Town is very small compared to the rest of the city. Currently only around 1% of the population lives there. Tallinn was an important city on the coast of the Baltic Sea in the middle ages but not so much after that. Tallinn started to grow again during the 1900s after the railroad connection to St. Petersburg was established and even more during the Soviet Union when large scale industries were built which resulted in a massive wave of immigration from other parts of the Soviet Union, mostly Russia.
This means that roughly half the population lives in Soviet-era housing estates which were built on the outskirts of the city and after re-gaining independence a post-Soviet American way of suburbanisation has happened on a large scale as well. Due to all of that the city centre as a whole is quite underdeveloped and not very dense, at least compared to many other similar-sized cities in Europe. Fortunately, the population of the city centre is growing at a healthy rate but it will still take decades until the city centre around the Old Town starts feeling like an actual centre worth the city's size.
That's an interesting perspective. I noticed when I went out to the TV tower that there seemed to be a lot more housing projects on the outskirts of the city as compared to the Old Town. I'm glad that Tallinn is continuing to grow though. I think your city has a lot to offer.
Really enjoyed the vlog. Its so far the best video i have seen on Tallinn. Keep up the good work 👍🏻
Wow….I’ve been in Tallinn,it’s nice to be there and I enjoy sliding in the snow ❄️
Thank you Sam. Your video hped me plan my trip, by myself, to Estonia (5/26-6/3/22). My Mom and family from Parnu but had to do a couple days in Tallinn, then Parnu and Sarremaa (heritage). It was a must do trip and loved it. You inspire me for other places. Keep up great videos. NYr Val
Thank you! I’m glad the video was some help for your trip
As an Estonian who grew up in the US, i never get tired of the old town.
I've been there at least 30 times. Actually lost count. Half of visits just over day. rest 2-3 nights and 2 times a week. Never got tired of it.
Grew up in Tallinn and the oldtown still captivates me! it hase soo much corners to find every time you take a walk.
I'm very jealous of you! It seems like a great place to live
This makes me miss home. 🇪🇪 so unique and beautiful. 🤍🤍
You definitely should've gone to that Texas restaurant, it has such nice atmosphere and music and they have the spiciest wings in Estonia(can approve)
Best walking tour video of Tallinn on YT. Keep up the good work!
It was great walking with you through the streets of Tallinn. I went there a couple of years ago and loved the city. Please visit Lithuania and Latvia if you have a chance. Greetings from California!
Really enjoyed this video, thank you! I can totally relate to what you said about wandering around old town squares in Europe never getting old!! I too just love that whole historical vibe and there’s nothing better than setting off and seeing where and what you can discover in wonderful places like Tallinn! Plan to be there myself next September, fingers crossed! How did you find the restrictions etc re COVID? It looks as though tourist numbers were definitely down, but great for you re no crowds, which is a bonus when trying to photograph things! The title of this video said part 4 but I don’t see the other 3! Are they still able to be viewed please? Safe travels. Cheers,
Marg
The COVID restrictions were not too intense while I was there. The most important thing was to have an acceptable COVID certificate with you at all times. Without that, you won't be able to enter restaurants or museums. If I could do it over again, I'd get my US CDC certificate converted to the scannable European one just because it's easier for people there. Tallinn is absolutely awesome though, especially with fewer tourists. You'll have an absolute blast
@@samc.3261 thanks Sam! I’m Australian, so at this stage I just have the international certificate which is all that our govt has offered if you plan to travel internationally, but I’ll be interested to see if things get more streamlined as time passes regarding that. Normally I don’t activate any roaming plan on my phone as I always find I can easily manage using wifi in cafes and at my accommodations. But I guess next time that may not suffice if I have to have a scannable certificate available. Thanks for your help. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to exploring the Baltic countries plus others, as I’ll be away for more than 3 months!! Can’t wait to travel again! 👍
@@margsangster8994 There are some doctors in Germany who will convert US certificates into the EU code and I imagine they'd do Australian certificates as well so that might be worth looking into depending on how the COVID situation develops. I was fine with my US one 99.9% of the time though so you'll likely be ok whatever you decide to do.
Nice channel- subscribed :)
Really enjoyed this one. Good to hear what foreigners think about the town. Did you also visit Kalamaja and Telliskivi? This is the place where people go to hang out these days.
Thank you! Sadly I didn't get out that way this time. Because I was on such a tight schedule, I spent most of my time in the Old Town. Hopefully, when I come back I'll be able to see more of Tallinn and more of Estonia in general.
@@samc.3261 Cool. If you come next time, then hit me up. We could go fly my drone somewhere and you can also have some areal footages in your videos. And im always interested to show the town to foreigners lol :)
Went to Tallinn recently and this video makes me miss it :(
Just clicked the video because of your cap. Gotta love #SV5
Quite laid back.
Was there 2 weeks ago .
Very clean including hardly any graffiti.
Slight correction: you show the Great Guild which is a museum; the Blackheads were down the street. Yes, the Old Town is very tourist-oriented & hopefully the businesses can survive the pandemic.
Ah darn it! Well, hopefully, I at least saw the right building at some point! I truly hope the businesses in the Old Town can survive the pandemic as well. It's troubling when watching other peoples' Tallinn videos to see how busy it looked compared to when I was there.
Are you using a fisheye lense?
I am an e resident of estonia..... I have applied for a short term employment and am given an appointment in october.... to appear before Police and Border Guard Ofice in Tallin? Pls Advise? May I proceed for an opertunity?
I grow up there I walked the small child, I also Know stories of ghost there. Don't worry, those mostly ghosts are good, not evil, They'd better save you than hurt you. :)
like Valge daam in Haapsalu
The Mongols never reached Estonia. "The Slavs" were pretty much only Russians - Poland did control Southern Estonia, but they never reached Tallinn. For the original Danish controllers of the town, the Germans themselves were the main enemy. Later for the Germans it was either the Russians or the Swedes they needed to defend themselves against.
Estonia was not really a part of the Soviet Union, but a widely recognized sovereign state illegally occupied by the Soviet Union.
If you grow up in Tallinn, you certainly do get used to the old town. I mean, it's still possible to take the wrong turn here and there, but you will quickly re-orient yourself. You can always distinguish between the tourists and the locals by how fast they are walking and by whether they look at the roofs or whether they look straight ahead when walking. ;)
The church colours have a few rules in Estonia, but this is the Lutheran St John's Church and is a bit randomly yellow. Most Lutheran Churches, especially those is the countryside, i.e. the "parish churches", are plain white and very simplistic in their design. Many rural Orthodox churches are made with "ground stones" and look red and grey. Urban Orthodox churches are either made of wood or some newer ones have a very Russian style.
Estonia was a part of the Soviet Union and nobody realised it before it was too late. I lived it , I grew up with it..and I hate communism & everything that comes with it.
@@zana01 Estonia was illegally occupied by the Soviet Union.
When speaking of churches in Estonia then, most of them are lutheran. It starts turning more catholic the further south you move through baltics. I think the line runs somewhere between Latvia and Lithuania and finally you end up with almost exclusively catholic in Poland.
Ofcource there are also few orthodox churches around because of the Russian influence and in modern times even evangelists and mormons from US have managed to set up some communities.
In my home town we have Jehova's witnesses church/establishment not far from where i live. Allthough, i have to admit, dont know many estonians who are all that religious. Its more like a cultural heritage if nothing else. Then again, lutheran christianity is very personal by nature. People dont go around trying to convert others and generally speakin, these matters are not discussed with strangers at all.
Hello from Indonesia
Estonia the Baltic Tiger and Bald and Bancrupt Eastonia - those are good videos about Estonia in YT.
I love Bald and Bankrupt's videos. I haven't seen his Estonia videos, but his videos in Russia and India are always amazing. I'll have to go check those out
Note that he mostly visited the newly Russified areas of the country.
👍
How are you friend
Estland🇪🇪
Vilnius, Lithuania should be even more interesting for you as it has such a rich history as the capital of Grand duchy Lithuania, big jewish, polish past, countless churches, palaces everywhere etc.
Vilnius was amazing! I can't wait to post those videos. I was blown away by the architecture there. It almost felt like I was walking through central Paris without all of the crowds and ridiculous prices
In my opinion it’s time to let Estonia be a nice small Nordic country. Estonia very deserves to be a Nordic country, because Estonia has done a lot of work, we have many smart people, we are good at digital things, we have northern lights and we are very similar to Finland and other Nordic countries like: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Greenland. We are not similar to Latvia and Lithuania and the other Eastern Europe countries. It’s time to stop calling Estonia Eastern Europe country and Baltic country and forget all this terrible, rude and mean Soviet times. Let’s just stop this Eastern Europe and Soviet stigma thing and let Estonia turn the new page and let them be a normal small Nordic country next to Sweden and Finland!!! Estonians call themselves the Nordic country and many other people and tourists had also said that Estonia should be a Nordic country, because Estonian people are Finnic people not Balts and we are more similar to Scandinavia. Yes many people had agreed with that Estonia must belong to the Nordic group and seperate from Latvia and Lithuania. They don’t even need these countries, because Estonians communicate more with Finns and other Scandinavian countries. Estonia will be a very good partner for the other Nordic countries. We will do a very great work and we will be very strong!!!
Overall I agree with you. I do think, however, that the entire notion of eastern vs. western Europe is a bit archaic at this point. At least in my experience, I haven't seen a massive cultural divide between countries that, historically, have been considered "eastern" and those considered western. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were, to my eye, just as developed as, for instance, Berlin. Granted, I spent most of my time in major cities, but I doubt the standard of living falls off that much in the countryside. The idea of east vs west started as a political division between the eastern bloc and liberal democracies. Now that most countries in Europe have embraced democracy, that distinction has outlived its usefulness. With all that being said, I can certainly see how culturally it makes more sense to group Estonia and Finland together considering the similar languages and values.
Nordic is a geographic location. Why stop there? Why not let it be an asian country? Or the first country on mars? Or in another galaxy?
Pls 🙏 ane job Estonia plz and
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
In fact, you can somehow "thank" the Soviet union that our old town has been preserved so nicely. Many other countries started redeveloping the old parts of the town after WWII and tore down ancient buildings. Soviets meanwhile, didn't have funds for that and instead had other priorities.
Very interesting. My only point of reference is the former DDR where the Soviets completely rebuilt the country, but I guess that had a lot to do with the destruction caused by WWII. I’m definitely glad they didn’t mess with Tallinn’s Old Town!
You forgot the "red eagles" bombing in March 1944, which destroyed a significant part of this old town and city center. If the Finns had not started bombing their bases, the whole old town could have been leveled. Because the goal was not to destroy the port or industrial buildings, but the city. At that time, there were no more German troops in the city. Wounded in hospitals only and some small units. It was mainly the city dwellers who suffered. So it doesn't pay to gold this Soviet era. After all, they leveled the city of Narva. And later the part that could have been restored. After all, all civilians had to be destroyed and replaced by "Soviet classics".
Estonia never wasn´t a part of USSR, it was occupied by USSR.
Ironic speaking of how you trust ferry over plane. It appears You are not familiar with 'Estonia' ferry sinking on Tallinn-Stockholm line. More dead with one accident than estonia has ever lost to aircraft.
Believe me, the irony is not lost on me. Once I was on a flight, and when it landed, the pilot said, "the safest part of your journey just ended". I know that, statistically, flying is the safest means of travel, but the irrational part of me will always feel safer on a boat or in a car.
@@samc.3261 To be fair, I'm not sure if there is a plane connection on that line. The helicopter line was discontinued after a fatal crash.
@@sulevturnpuu5491 There is. From Tallinn to Helsinki, also Stockholm, Oslo, Riga, Vilnius.
I am from Tallinn but live in Germany and have visited Weimar 20:15 . But Tallinn is much bigger. Both towns are hanza cities.