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Day 2 in Tallinn

I went to Tallinn City library this afternoon. It's small, but a nice place, good fancy ceilings, some nice rooms with nice chairs and old books, the wifi is good, lots of power sockets, very quiet. I hung out with my laptop for about an hour and a half. Just before 5.30pm I realised I had thought the library closes at 5, but hey I guess not. A short while later I packed up my stuff and went downstairs.

The front door was locked. All the lights were off. Not a soul was in sight.

I went back upstairs to ask the other person sitting on her laptop there if she this was normal and she knew another way out. She did not. We wandered around and tried a few doors.

Haha. We were locked in the library. It didn't open again until Monday.

We proceeded to call and email every contact number on the library webpage we could find. She also called the 24h Tallinn city general helpline, and they promised to call back. She called her mother, who called someone she knew who worked at a different library, who also promised to call back.

Meanwhile we found a window that was big enough to climb through and not too far off the ground to jump out if necessary. We decided this or calling the police would be an absolute last resort.

We made an effort to get through to the pub next door, in case they either happened to have a spare key or the library employees had gone there after work.. but no answer.

M and I introduced ourselves, and bonded over veganism (<3!) and travel and chocolate and the small art display in the library we would not have bothered to look at if we weren't trapped there.

M's family members turned up outside the window, and went to see if anyone was in the pub who could help.

The city helpline called back and said the director had been contacted and was on her way, but lived 30 minutes away.

She eventually showed up, and turned out to be a distant relative of M, and the daughter of the person M's mother had called earlier! It's a small country. She was accompanied by a surly security guard who took photos of our IDs. Apparently we'd set of a silent alarm when we opened the window earlier and security were already quietly surrounding the building.

Then they let us out and I had dinner with M and her family at a nearby veg*n buffet.

Just another day..

(Also this morning I went on a walking tour and found a SPECTACULAR vegan chocolate shop, really enjoying Tallinn so far.)

🏷 library life travel Tallinn, Estonia