In Juli we visited Tartu whilst on a tour througout Estonia. Never been there before we came in and were surprized about the city. A great neighborhood of old and very new architecture - a lot of young folks over there. That is surely caused by the students that are are located at the local University. Something that no one should miss is the walk over the "Burgberg" where the remains of the Tartu Toomkirik are hosted.
A wonderful view is the "Raekoja Plats" headed by the "Tartu Linnavalitsus" - the city hall. A lot of folks meet up here in the evening and the lights brings out a great mood. A lot of restaurants from all over the world and ones we do not see pretty often in western Europe give Tartu an international flair.
Tht is a short drive by car or taxi. In summa: a very impressive visit of a formerly unknow territory and city. Definitely worth a longer stay than one and a half days. I spent about 2 weeks in Tartu visiting a friend who was doing an exchange there. It's a small university town and the students, in general, are very friendly. I really enjoyed the university atmosphere not to mention the affordable prices for food and housing.
The downside is that Tartu is probably the most racist town I've visited in a very long time. I, as a Hawaiian, have dark skin due to my mixed race background. It's never been a problem for me in most of Western Europe but in Tartu, not only was I called [--] at least several times, I actually got shoved and had objects thrown at me when I happened to veer out of the Old Town on a few nights and walked near the bars situated away from the university main area.
I was told it's because the guys are jealous of foreign men dating "their" girls, and I'll say the women were very attractive and extremely friendly towards me. But really, the amount of racial taunting, assaults, and hostile glares from the men at night really took me aback. I'd recommend anyone non-white males to stick with the Old Town area during the day and avoid going out alone at night.
