Tartu, the student's paradise

I followed through with my plan. After two complete days in Latvia, I moved to Estonia. The capital, Tallinn, being in the North, I used the occasion to stop on the way.

After about four hours on a bus on the road from Riga to Saint-Petersburg, I stopped in Tartu, a student city in the south-east of Estonia.

Tartu

Being on the bus for a long time makes it hard to find a comfortable position, especially when an old lady takes all the available room. But it seems the antipathy was mutual because she asked if she could change place. And I could use the free wi-fi on the bus.

Tartu is a small town that feels so alive because of its citizens who, like in Sherbrooke, are mostly students. All the interesting sites are close together and it's easy to walk to most of them.

It is the most interesting way of visiting anyway. One of the good spots is behind the city hall, where you get a great view.

Highly recommanded by the guidebooks, the KGB cells museum is not really interesting, especially compared to the one in Vilnius, more shocking and authentic.

The botanic garden is worth the detour (the outdoor one is free) as is the promenade along the river, which crosses the heart of the city.

From the whole trip, that is probably the city where I would feel like moving to. I could live there. Probably like in the rest of Estonia.

But from a touristic point of view, one day, maybe two, is enough. And there are buses every 30 minutes to Tallinn, which means nobody needs to book. You go to the bus station, you ask, and hop, five minutes later, you're on the road.

*On the picture, the sculpture represents the sculptor himself, hand in hand with his son... but both of them are the same size.