18/10/2010

I have always wanted to go to Tallinn. I’d heard that it’s a beautiful, old city, with cobble stoned streets and a real medieval atmosphere. Well I wasn’t disappointed.

A few months ago I decided to try and plan a few days holiday there. October for me is a good time to travel, as it’s always off-peak, meaning that most of the time it’s a bit cheaper and not so busy. And to be able to get away for just a few days was great. Four days away is just about enough to feel like it’s a break, especially if it’s in a different country, with a different language and a different currency. I thought perfect, as Estonia still has its own currency (until January 2011, when it joins the EU), which will make it even more interesting.

So I checked out the internet for flights and accommodation. I also checked through a guidebook which I always buy and read through before I travel anywhere. It’s good to have different sources of information because then you can take the best information from all of them and come up with your own itinerary.

My best option at the time was a flight with Estonian airways, on a direct flight from Amsterdam (with a fuel stop) to Tallinn, at 09.40am in the morning. Ok, not too early, considering that I’m not really a morning person and back with a non-direct flight via Copenhagen. Fine, so I booked it. Then I tried to book the accommodation. I had a problem with my credit card though because my credit card was going to expire a month before I was supposed to fly, so Booking.com wouldn’t take my booking. So I called the L’Ermitage Hotel in Tallinn and explained the situation to them. They suggested that when I get my new credit card, that I call them with the new expiry date and I asked them if they could still give me the room for the price quoted on Booking.com (which was 225 euros for 5 nights, including breakfast) and they said yes. That was great, so I was delighted.

So, the flights and accommodation were booked and paid for back in September. Now in the meantime, I was writing an article for the Holland Times about an exhibition that the Volkenkunde Museum were having about the Maoris and the official opening was originally scheduled for the 14th October, so that would have fitted in well with my holiday to Tallinn. But it turned out in the end, that the date of the opening ceremony, for which I had an invitation, was changed to the 18th October, the day I was supposed to fly to Tallinn. Darn it, I had already paid for the flight and accommodation! But I had to go the opening, I didn’t care how much it cost to change the flight and hotel, I was going to that opening, whatever happened. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!

So, I re booked the flight, which cost me another 180 euros and luckily the hotel didn’t charge any extra for the change in dates, so I paid the extra money and went to Tallinn on the following day, the 19th October. It was bloody worth it but I’ll tell you more about that in another blog to follow.