Thursday, March 29, 2012

Shopping for crystal

Once upon a time I remember hearing about good quality crystal for reasonable prices in Tallinn. Is this still the case? If yes, what are good places to shop at? Preferably within old town, or close by.




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Estonia is not known for crystal (think Czech Republic for good crystal).





Estonia does have good amber, though.




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I just have one day and hopping over to Prague, or Poland is not an option. I will be in Helsinki for the rest of my trip.





I know for sure that people have bought crystal while in Estonia, but this is years ago and it was still a budget destination. I have not visited for over 10 years, so I am not sure how times have changed.




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There is a beautiful crystal store right on the main street going into Old Town (down the street from McDonald%26#39;s on the same side). It is all imported (mostly from Germany and CZ I think). The prices in there seemed reasonable to me...I bought a few small things to bring back as presents. The lady there is very nice (I think she is the owner?) but she doesn%26#39;t speak alot of English.




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Tallinn%26#39;s reputation as a good place for buying crystal is from Soviet times, when the export-import connections between Soviet countries were tight. So there was a lot of Czech crystal in Estonian shops. Unfortuantely sometimes it was all there was. Now the situation is somewhat different, obviously.



Shops - the one on Viru street, some tourist traps on Toompea, a very odd place on Narva road (next to Uni of Tallinn) also supermarkets like Kaubamaja and Stockmann sell still that superb quality Bohemian crystal. Prices have gone up, sorry.



As Castleblanca mentioned, now Estonia has the reputation of an amber country. Practically no amber found in Estonia! It%26#39;s all imported from Lithuania, and also from Latvia.

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