"The long awaited Tartu!" Top 5 Page for this destination Tartu by Carletto76

Tartu Travel Guide: 121 reviews and 193 photos

The town of my favourite girls! ;-)

The fist time I heard about Tartu was quite a lot of years ago, when a nice Estonian girl, who lived in this town, started writing e-mails to me. She was my first "keyboard-pal", not a very good English writer, but very kind and nice! She also sent me brochures, pictures and any goods related to this old university-town. But Estonia was (and still is!) too far from Italy and I was at the first years of university with no money to spend in long trips.
Then years passed, never heard of that girl for much time, and another Estonian girl starts corresponding with me... and guess where is she from? Yes, Tartu again!
This time I'm older, I'm still studying since I'm a bad student, but worked a bit too so that I had enough money to do that trip to the Baltic Reps. I wanted to do many years ago... and finally I came to Tartu, and it wasn't easy...

The long and hard way to Tartu! (part 1)

Old locomotive at Valga station

Yeah, it wasn't easy at all to get to Tartu! Did you ever tried to go there from Riga? Without a car of course. And with all the buses passing through Pärnu already booked... Well, it's kind of an adventure, so I'll tell you my story! ;-)

There is a rail line which goes directly to Tartu, but there are just 2 trains that stop at Lugaži, 1 stop before the Estonian border in Valka/Valga. We took the 2nd one, since we first visited Sigulda and the Gaujas National park (see my future page!).
We arriverd there at 17.13 (the trains are quite slow in Latvia), and it started raining a bit. There was a bus which took us to Valka; it took about 15 mins to get there.
In Valka we crossed the border on foot (that's a new experience!) and walked along for about 3/4Kms to reach the bus/train station in Valga (the Estonian side of the same town)
We arrived there just 10/15 mins before the penultimate bus to Tartu (leaves at 18.30) left, but we had no Estonian money and they didn't accept Latvian one, nor credit cards. So I had to go back 1Km to an ATM, took some money, and I came back at the station, at 18.30 sharp, but the bus had already left! The last bus of the day was an Eurolines, fully booked one.

The long and hard way to Tartu! (part 2)

Sunset in Tartu

We decided to take a taxi, but there were no taxis outside the station! So we came back 1Km, where the ATM was, and entered a gas-station hoping to find some help.
We found there probably the kindest person on Earth, I even don't know her name, but she works for Shell in Varna, and she's an incredibly tall, dark haired girl who helped us really a lot! She called many taxis, to get the best fare, then also tried asking some friends of her to take us to Tartu, and finally she convinced a Russian/German family, which was going to Varna, to take us with them, on their overloaded Opel Astra! And they agreed, so we finally arrived in Tartu, where I could finally meet my key-pal in real life, also thanks to the help of another wonderful (and really beautiful!) Estonian girl we met there! Thank you Erika! ;-))

We had really an incredible day that day, and I wish to thank very much again the girl at the gas station as well as the Russian family which took us there! They will probably never read this page, but who knows! And I'm very happy to see that there are still very good people in this "sick" World! Thank you again! ;-)

Oh, and, the girls from Tartu seem to be, not only very kind, but soooo beautiful! ;-))

Pros and Cons

Pros:Nice town, lots of young people around, very nice atmosphere!
Cons:Not so easy to get there from Riga!
In a nutshell:Estonian 2nd largest town, and probably the best place to live!

Last visit to Tartu: Aug 2004
Intro Updated Sep 3, 2004
Add to Trip Planner (?)
Report Abuse

Reviews (17)

Emajõgi River Things to Do (13)

Emajõgi is the name of the river which flows across Tartu. It's not an "important" river, but I liked just walking along... more travel advice

Wireless internet everywhere! Local Customs (1)

I was really surprised when I fist saw the "Wifi.ee" sign in downtown Tartu. Then I saw many other signs like the one... more travel advice

You cannot miss it! Restaurants (1)

Wilde Irish pub is probably the most known restaurant, pub and nightlife spot in Tartu. With a typically Victorian... more travel advice

Two Wilde and two friends! ;-) Things to Do (13)

Everyone knows (or at least have heard about) the Irish write Oscar Wilde (1854-1900, but probably few of you (including... more travel advice

Transportation (1)
Plenty of buses (but in Estonia only!)

Hotels (1)
Hoste and Hotel at the same place!

Comments (7)

Reply
- Report abuse
mindcrime Oct 19, 2007 at 8:43 AM

Happy Bday Carlo! Interesting page!
Reply
- Report abuse
Jim_Eliason May 14, 2006 at 2:26 PM

great tips!
Reply
- Report abuse
LanaFromRiga Aug 2, 2005 at 1:27 AM

Thanks for your nice Tartu page. I find information what was searching. Probably I'll go to Tartu very soon.
Reply
- Report abuse
King_Golo Jul 19, 2005 at 12:47 AM

nice page - i've lived in tartu for half a year and you're definitely right about all those beautiful girls!!!
Reply
- Report abuse
FletteMette Jul 13, 2005 at 1:05 AM

Nice little page!:o) Might be going to Tartu tomorrow (I'm in Tallinn at the moment) - so I'm doing a little research:o) ~Mette~
Reply
- Report abuse
Raimix Jan 17, 2005 at 7:01 AM

Hi Carlo! I returned to VT! :) Really nice Estonian city Tartu! Hope to visit it in near future! Raimundas.
Reply
- Report abuse
diocletianvs Jan 14, 2005 at 11:55 PM

This page still waits to be discovered by VT crowds ;) Excellent presentation of the lovely town. And good to see there are still many helpful people around.