Global Wanderer

19/11/24 – 20/11/24

We woke up to find Tallinn had been blanketed with a small layer of snow overnight – making our walk to the railway station a very pretty one!

A park in Tallinn near the railway station, decorated in a light layer of snow

Unfortunately, our trip to Tartu was going to be a slightly broken-up one – instead of taking a train directly to Estonia’s second city, we had to change onto a bus halfway through the journey, due to track maintenance that was beginning the exact day we’d decided to go to Tartu. Good timing, right?

Luckily, we still managed to arrive in the city before midday, and the bus dropped everyone off at the intercity bus stand (logical), rather than the railway station, saving us a 15 minute walk. Our accommodation for the night, Hotel Soho, was located on one of the main streets in Tartu’s centre, which was perfect in terms of access to the city!

Tartu’s main square. The city was selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2024 – they were pretty good about advertising this around town!

Tartu is a university town, and is known for its impressive street art scene, which was on display all throughout the city.

Some shots of Tartu’s street art from throughout the evening

We spent the afternoon wandering around the city, in particular walking to the opposite side of the river that divides Tartu – where we saw some amazing examples of traditional wooden housing. You can definitely sense the youthful vibe of Tartu when you’re walking around – the demographics are heavily weighted towards university students, there are more bars and cafes that seem geared towards students, and a significant chunk of buildings are actually owned and used by the University of Tartu – including the Botanic Gardens, which we walked through (amazing how they keep all of those plants alive during the harsh Estonian winter!).

Some examples of the wooden housing in Tartu – including one being built!

Tartu, like Tallinn, has its own central Turg (market) – the entrance to Tartu’s is graced by a large statue of a pig, divided into the different cuts of meat it becomes! We walked through the markets, before heading back into the city centre for a quick coffee break – you need to warm your hands up in this weather!

The entrance to Tartu’s central market

As the sun began to set – at 3:30 in the afternoon – we continued our walk around the old part of Tartu, stopping past a statue of Oscar Wilde, a beautiful university building illuminated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, an old church (with someone playing a very haunting organ!), and the main square, which was decorated with a #tartu2024 sign – they are very much on board with promoting their European Capital of Culture status! We were also on the lookout for more street art! Tartu is very much a small, compact city – we walked up the main hill to the remains of the cathedral, and it really puts the size into perspective!

Some photos of Tartu at night

We were lucky enough to have another night of snowfall, which continued into the morning! We did have a train to catch, but we took the scenic route to the railway station, visiting some of Tartu’s famous bridges along the way. The snow was still coming down, which made for some beautiful views!

Tartu in the morning snow

We were taking the train to Valga, a town on the Estonian/Latvian border, before taking a Latvian train into Riga. The timetables of the two trains are coordinated, to some degree, but there was still a 4 hour wait in Valga to navigate (this will be totally obsolete when the Rail Baltica project, designed to link the capitals of the three Baltics states, comes online in 2028). Luckily, being a border town, Valga provided me with an opportunity to stand with one foot in Estonia, the other in Latvia – as someone from a gigantic island country, this was a hilarious novelty.

The border between Estonia and Latvia, and the Estonian train we took to Valga

Valga was a pretty pleasant little town to spend a few hours in – there’s only around 18,000 residents, split between the Estonian and Latvian sides of the town (can you believe that until they both joined the Schengen Area, they had to enforce passport controls within the town, whose proud slogan is ‘Two Countries, One Town’). We wandered around looking around at street art, particularly on former factory buildings, and stopped in Cafe Johanna for a coffee to warm up, before heading back to the train station for our connection to Latvia! Next stop – Riga!

A few photos from Valga – an old locomotive at the railway station, the main street, and some of the street art we came across