Tartu is a university town and centre of Estonian intellectual life. With its population of about 100000 in an area of 38.8 square kilometres, it is the second largest city of Estonia. Tartu, lying 185 kilometres south of Tallinn, is also the centre of Southern Estonia. The Emajõgi River, which connects the two largest lakes of Estonia, flows for the length of 10 kilometres within the city limits and adds colour to the city.

You may arrive in Tartu by bus. The bus station is in the town centre. There is a great number of local buses from all over Estonia coming here and bringing students every day. So this is also a convenient starting point of exploring the rest of the country.

We took a train from Tallinn to Tartu. We decided to go in the first class car as there was only £1.00 difference in price. Second class ticket was £4.00 and first class was £5.00. We were pleasantly surprised by the service. There were soft seats and nice tables where you could use your laptops and Internet. You also get a nice complimentary cup of coffee with Estonian sweets. And all this is included in the price of your ticket.

After a nice journey in the Estonian countryside we arrived in Tartu Station, the state of which shocked us a little bit… It is quite an interesting old wooden building that regrettably nobody is taking care of. With its broken doors and smashed windows it is really an ideal place for “gangsters” and is ready for demolishing. It is deserted, not a soul anywhere. We decided to look inside and found ourselves in a colourfully painted underground, the “underground art centre”. Some beautiful samples of graffiti. Welcome to students town!

Then we took a bus to the centre to explore the attractions. Leaving aside historical buildings the main attractions of Tartu are students' dormitories and university buildings that are spread all over the town. There are still some old and shabby ones, some have been renovated recently and some new European style dorms have just been built. Although there is quite a few dormitories all over the town there is still a great lack of spaces for the students and most of them have to rent rooms or flats. So there is no shortage of renters.

After exploring a couple of those dorms we went on to see the historical and cultural centre. We visited a small Russian Church near the old dormitory. They have service only on Sundays and on special occasions. So we were just lucky to come when they were cleaning up and let us in. Then passing red terrakota St'John's Church on to the most important building. That is of course Tartu University main block that's a beautiful sample of Classisism Architecture of 19 th century recently renovated and freshly painted. There is a nice university café to the left of the main building. There you can either have a cup of coffee or tea with a bread bun or have a nice warm meal-pick yourself what you want, that is sold by weight.

Then we went on to the Town Hall Square with a famous controversial “Students Kiss” Fountain. Then on to The Angels' Bridge passing the new Lossi buildings of the university. And on to Toomemagi the Famous Hill of Tartu with The Museum of University and the ruins of Tartu Cathedral on top and the monuments of well known scientists around it. There is also a sacrifice stone on the top. At midnight students usually come to this stone, sacrifice a couple of Estonian coins and make their wishes hoping they'll come true.