No Segs please, we're rubbish

For some reason I'd been expecting Estonia to be full of crumbling, Soviet-era, concrete monoliths but so far I've been very wrong. Tallinn is just beautiful. The old town is a cobbled labyrinth of little alleyways, courtyards, quaint old buildings, towers and churches. And restaurant after restaurant. Some are chic and modern, some are traditional and old, some have the waiting staff dressed as peasants from the middle ages. But the food is amazing – I can recommend elk steak!

The newer part of town is modern and bustling with trams and shoppers. Everywhere you go there is the clash of modern life trying to wrestle its way out of the old and traditional. You can sit in a quaint little courtyard in the old town, drinking at a twee little café, and everyone will be on wifi. Little souvenir shops sit side by side with chic, high-end fashion outlets. This isn't the backwater city I was expecting at all. This is the 2011 European Capital of Culture (mind you, didn't Liverpool once hold that title?).

One such clash was our chosen means of transport for the afternoon – Segways. What better way to enjoy the the lovely medieval walled town than to whizz around on what is essentially a pimped-up mobility scooter. We whirred our way around the narrow streets, occasionally clipping a curb or a Finnish tourist, while the cobbles transformed my knees to rubble. They are actually hardest to control when you step off as they seem to be prone to wandering off of their own accord. I even managed to run over my own foot at one point. Once you get the hang of it, though, it is just so much fun and renders walking an unnecessary chore. I might just get wheels surgically attached to my legs.

One area where Estonia has yet to develop, however, is their camping facilities. In Denmark and Sweden we've been camping in lush forests or next to stunning lakes – in Tallinn we are in a car park on an industrial estate. We saw one Austrian couple try to make the best of it by setting out their little table and chairs on the potholed tarmac but I think the homeless guy rummaging through the bins behind them shattered any illusion of charm. Fittingly, I am sat drinking cheap Russian lager and eating elk paté smeared on a type of local bread which seems to be made from memory foam. Bought some tinned bear meat today which I am quite excited about. Loving the Baltic cuisine!