Marta Guesthouse and its garden are a real treasure in a part of Tallinn where you wouldn’t expect an oasis of tranquility. Hidden in a small side street, the traditional wooden house is mostly sheltered from the city noises while at the same time, the guesthouse is in walking distance to public transport that will get you into the buzzy city centre in just a few minutes. Coming back from the city, you can sit in one of the garden chairs and end the day listening to the birds, or with a good read. (As in any old house, there are in fact books all over the place!) Unfortunately, breakfast generally wasn’t offered during our stay in August 2021, which we only learned a few days before our arrival. Despite the owner’s various suggestions of alternatives, we must admit there really isn’t any decent culinary infrastructure in the close vicinity of Marta Guesthouse which is mostly a residential area. Inside the house, one could use a common fridge, microwave and water boiler, but the place clearly isn’t laid out for preparing your own meals. During our four nights at Marta Guesthouse as a family of three, we got the impression that the owner of the place has, over the years, indeed put a lot of love and hard work into retaining the authentic atmosphere of the traditional Estonian wooden house while at the same time giving it a modern-day boho appearance. The individual rooms are equipped with vintage furniture, and the entire premises bear the traces of long-forgotten times. Especially the “attic chambres“ - in all their simplicity - retain the cozy charm of an Estonian log house. Most of the rooms share a small shower and toilet (which was fine for us - despite the stiff price nonetheless). Our double room in the basement had its individual build-in shower/toilet partition, though. Unfortunately, we only met the owner the night before we left. Before that, she would mostly text us promptly and very friendly whenever we got a question, but of course, communication with your host is much easier face-to-face, particularly if you just need a second role of toilet paper... We felt a slight irritation upon our first day when nobody was around when we arrived and also the beautiful garden (where we then waited around for an hour) seemed quite deserted: the cafe sign was put down in the lawn - the garden chairs were quite dirty as if they hadn’t been used for weeks. What added to our irritation was the many little things that made us conclude Marta Guesthouse had been somewhat neglected in recent times, and not just because of COVID: the main door that couldn’t be shut properly for the entire time (we were supposed to just leave it open - one time we locked ourselves in!), the missing top window pane in our basement room, other guests who (right in front of that window) kept calling the host in the middle of the night to find out how to get into the house and where to find their booked rooms (and who twice ended up bolting into our room instead). Guests
自動翻訳