Sunshine, Seaside & Surprise Estonia

We woke up in another wonderfully quiet parking spot, courtesy of the Park4Night app. It was one of those peaceful mornings that makes life on the road feel easy.

Cotty made a delicious breakfast and brunch beside the Blue Gnu, and after a leisurely start, we headed into Tallinn.

We absolutely loved it.

We spent the day wandering through the Old Town, which somehow managed to exceed our expectations at every turn. The cobblestone streets, towers, colourful buildings, and hidden courtyards felt almost too charming to be real. We stopped at a tiny café at the top of the hill that was advertising huge cinnamon buns. They were sold out, however it was still a very sweet little place, run by lovely women, and I even managed to find something I could eat.

From there we went on to explore the Creative City district, which had a completely different feel but was just as interesting — full of art, creativity, and repurposed industrial spaces.

To be honest, I spent much of the day slightly stunned that we had actually made it to Estonia at all. It's one of those places that had lived in my imagination for a long time, and it was every bit as interesting as I'd hoped — beautiful, welcoming, and surprisingly easy to travel in.

It probably didn't hurt that the sun was shining.

We've discovered that sunshine makes a huge difference when you're travelling the way we are. We have workarounds for bad weather, but when you only have a short time in a place, sunshine really helps a destination show off its best side.

We soaked up as much of Tallinn as we could before deciding to head for the coast.

A quick stop at a truck stop led to one of those random travel encounters that make road trips so memorable. We met an Estonian Mini enthusiast travelling with a tiny camper, and ended up having a great chat about vehicles, travel, and life on the road. We hope our paths cross again someday.

Continuing south, we made our way toward Pärnu and stopped at the beach, where we were impressed by some of the nicest container-style washrooms and showers we've encountered anywhere. Functional infrastructure can be surprisingly exciting when you're living out of a car.

One mystery we never fully solved was Estonia's apparent fondness for elephants. Between the tiny amber elephant carvings in Tallinn and the elephant statues scattered around Pärnu, we encountered far more elephants than expected in a country where none actually live.

The coastal drive itself was beautiful. Throughout the afternoon we found ourselves stopping to admire all sorts of unexpected little sights along the way. One small but very noticeable detail across the whole country has been the internet — it has been consistently fast and reliable everywhere we’ve been, which is not something we can say at home in the Comox Valley, haha.

Before saying goodbye, our new Estonian friend recommended a beachside parking spot for the night. As I write this, we're almost there.

The sun is still shining, the Blue Gnu is humming along happily, and we're ending the day feeling very grateful that we decided to come to Estonia.

What a wonderful day.