It’s the end of March in Tallinn, Estonia. Usually there is a plenty of people walking around in Tallinn Old Town. It’s the medieval part of the city, a fortress with a city wall and several hundreds of old stone buildings inside of it, which are nowadays mostly restaurants, museums, hotels and bars. It is home for about 4000 inhabitants with about triple as much visiting it daily in a high season. All of the 1st floors are taken by restaurants and souvenir shops and the rent is extremely high, as probably in any other popular tourist place. Some locals blame foreigners for taking the quietness and calmness of their normal life which is very appreciated by nordic temperament of Estonians.
Well, nowadays everything is empty. No tourists means no income and probably bankruptcy for many small businesses. You can’t see smiles as many locals are wearing masks, which was very uncommon here in Estonia even during the flu season. Well, there is no reason for keeping smiling anyway, no one knows what to expect from COVID-19 or economics next weeks or months.
Well, Tallinn has survived several war sieges, as well as cholera and plague epidemics with the last leaving just about 200 inhabitants alive. Tallinn has survived through ages and I am sure it will flourish in a few months again.
From time to time I have made 360 tours on Google Maps just for fun, so that tourists can see what to expect if they visit one or another tourist location. Nowadays I feel it’s my duty to support small businesses and make 360 tours as well as reviews to let the potential customers see what’s inside the souvenir shop or a museum thus planning to visit them when coming to Tallinn next time.
I am not a doctor to help people recover, nor a policeman to keep order, I am a photographer and the Local Guides program means I can really help my society and tourist sector recover fast after full shutdown during the quarantine.