A short bus ride from Tallinn and we were in Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia- population 100,000 and the historic university city.
As it is university holidays there are no students about but usually the students make up one fifth of the population.
We booked into a student villa that is rented to students during the year and travelers in the holidays. It was a small wooden higgeldy piggeldy cottage built by Jack for Hobbits! There were only 2 hostels online and the other was for folk who wanted to party all night. In the cottage there were 3 bedrooms and one had a doorway that was no more than my two handspans wide! Luckily we did not have to share the cottage with anyone else as it lacked privacy and would have been cramped and noisy. nevertheless we were able to have cook up in the kitchen and it had TV and the internet and we were able to us the washing machine and give our clothes and good soak.
Lining our street were many old wooden buildings. Some were being renovated and we could see that they were originally built from logs and then sawn planks were nailed over the logs to give them a modern look. They have two sets of windows and in between the windows they are insulated with glass wool blankets, all necessary to keep themselves warm.
In the town square we happened upon a brass band and many soldiers who looked like they were part of the NATO alliance.
The Emajogi River runs through the city.
Toomemagi Hill was an Estonian stronghold in 6th century and it was a lovely spot to look over the city and walk through the old buildings that are being renovated.
They have a ski marathon here, a bicycle marathon and a running race every year.
We visited a sports bar to watch some of the Euro 08 soccer finals which cheered John up.
