Most Tallinn visitors tend to flock to the Old Town and Toompea for the sum of their experiences of the Estonian capital. There are nonetheless other areas around the outskirts of this central section that are also worth a visit, if only to satisfy a curiosity about the less touristy parts of town. Sadama, Pohja and Kalamaja are three such sub-districts of North Tallinn. I happened upon these parts largely because our Kalasadama hotel is near them. Sadama (Estonian for ‘harbour’) is the port region of Tallinn, opening out on to the Gulf of Tallinn and the Baltic. Footnote: Tallinn’s harbour is a world-class one, when (inland) Moscow hosted the 1980 Olympic Games, Tallinn was chosen to stage the sailing events.

Close to the cruise ship and passenger vessel ports is the Sadamaturg (markets) which has stalls under the roof and outside all selling pretty much the same items – clothing, bags, ladies fashion, belts, caps, souvenirs, etc. Hardly anyone there when I visited, the stall-holders (95% women) aren’t particularly friendly but they seem to watch you pretty closely (not a great ambience conducive to relaxed shopping). You will find bargain buys at the markets but there are no better deals on offer than there is across the tramlines at Vanalinn. Obviously Sadama’s main customer target is the visitors who come off the boats & ferries from the Port (Terminal B is just behind the markets). The markets had the usual cut-price alcohol for sale, slabs of cheap Saku and A. De Coq beer, Vana Tallinn, whiskey, etc all over the shop.

One product I spotted for sale at Sadama Markets made me look twice with some measure of alarm. One of the outside stalls was displaying an armoury of handguns and rifles, sporting weapons of all types, hunting knifes, AK-47P air rifles, ZM20 pistols, & lots more. It was quite an arsenal, a paradise for Estonian recreational shooters no doubt! My slight sense of unease was not abated by the dubious-looking, tough dude manning the stall. After dark the whole area around Sadama takes on a bit of dodgy feel, there are several striptiis clubs and shady-looking nightclubs around and behind Sadama street. Strip clubs are apparently a trend on the rise in Tallinn (they must have been slow out of the blocks on this one!).

On the western side of the Sadama foreshore the terrain becomes even more grotty and rundown, with lots of abandoned businesses, burnt-out shells of old warehouses, aicraft hangars and broken glass strewn everywhere. Near the Linnahall ferry port there is the scarred remains of an enormous concrete structure, long abandoned, on the edge of the water. Tallinna Linnahall was a concert hall and sporting venue created for the 1980 Olympics, but what remains has been likened to an ancient Mayan ruin. The roof of the grey-hued old complex, highly defaced by graffiti, is now just a roost for seabirds and an out-of-the-way rendezvous point for local youth to hang out at. One hundred metres along the shoreline from the ferry port is the Tallinn fish markets (Kalaturg), a very small affair indeed, certainly nothing like Billingsgate!

Further to the west on the coast in Kalamaja district in a sparsely populated area is yet another abandoned complex of buildings. This is the site of a very large, former prison, which had all the earmarks of being abandoned – broken glass and tiles, graffiti, and the only residents appeared to the odd stray cat. When I checked it out later I was surprised to discover that Patarei Prison had only been closed as recently as 2004 after operating for 85 years! Guided tours of the complex, now a museum called Patarei vanglamuuseum, take place in summer when the prison’s beachfront café is open. The grim place, as expected of a former penitentiary, has an air of eeriness and foreboding about it, the Patarei operators describe it as “very dark (they advise visitors to bring a torch) and partly very dangerous” (piles of loose rubble and decaying rooms). Visiting this prison-fortress museum, remaining in a condition that has not been altered, cleaned up or sanitised in any way, is a fantastic opportunity for an unusual tourist experience – to observe close at hand the workings of a harsh Soviet-era place of incarceration.

We walked south through the streets of Kalamaja noting that there were ageing examples of the traditional, all-wooden houses around, especially in the less well-to-do parts of town (hence the original reason for the sub-district being called Kalamaja – meaning “fish house”). At Balti Jaam (Tallinn’s central train station) the Jaamaturg (part produce market and part ‘flea’ market) was getting underway for the day. The station markets had pre-used clothing and the usual stuff but if you have an eye for curios you might find the most interest in Balti Jaam in its old Soviet junk items, toys, weapon cartridge cases and badges. Definitely items for specialist collectors only!