A Crafty Traveler | Family and Travel Adventures

So where are you going for your honeymoon?

Tallinn

Tall-what?

Tallinn. You know, the capital of Estonia.

Oh….

That’s how most of the exchanges went when we started telling people where we were planning to spend long-weekend after our wedding.

I can’t really blame them I guess, how many people really have an intense desire to visit an ex-Soviet republic which is best known for grey skies and unusual language. I have to admit that Tallinn hadn’t really crossed my mind either for a post-wedding getaway (oh, how I deplore the term ‘mini-moon’) until Damian found a good deal on flights.

Flights and hotel booked and we were good to go.

With the lead-up to the wedding we didn’t have much time to actually plan anything for our trip, so what the city held for us was a bit of a mystery. We landed at Tallinna Lennujaam, hopped in a taxi, and we were off.

The beautiful view during one of our dinners

I’ve never really understood the purpose of a honeymoon, to be quite frank. Sure, I’ll use any excuse to take a trip, but heading off immediately following the wedding always seemed a bit unnecessary and just another wedding marketing ploy that helps to contribute to the $321 billion wedding industry. Yes I am a sceptic, I know.

What I’ve since learned is that planning and hosting a wedding is exhausting – even one as small as ours. We had less than 40 people at our wedding and by the end of it all we were both drained and exhausted and the thought of heading straight back to work and real life was completely overwhelming.

Now I understand the honeymoon. It isn’t about long walks on the beach and staring lovingly into your new wife/husbands eyes. It’s about sleeping in late, eating copious amounts of food, and not having to plan, organize, or placate anyone!

There was a lot of cake a coffee involved in the weekend

When travelling we’re generally a get up and go type couple. We aim to fit as much as possible into every single day, rarely taking a day or afternoon off to just relax in the hotel room. On this trip however, that is exactly what we needed so that’s exactly what we did. Well, that’s some of what we did. Truth be told, Tallinn is far too nice a city to miss, but we did take it much slower than usual.

Everywhere you turn there’s something else amazing to see

At first it was really hard for me to allow myself to not get out on the town first thing in the morning and keep going until after dinner. Being in a new place is such a luxury and it seems wasteful to not make the most out of every moment. The reality was, however, that had we forced ourselves to push through the wall of fatigue we wouldn’t have been enjoying ourselves; we would have been doing it just for the sake of it, and that in itself is a waste.

Sometimes you just have to let yourself slow down.

In the end, much of our Sunday in Tallinn was spent in bed reading, napping, and watching Estonian subtitled television and I don’t regret the decision at all. The weather wasn’t great and on such days there is nothing better to do, whether you’re on holiday or not. Don’t get me wrong, we saw a lot of the city and I feel like we made the most out of the trip, but that was in large part due to letting ourselves take it slow. In the end that was exactly what we needed.

Really, why would you want to leave the hotel with a view like this?