Surprise, I went to Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius over Easter break! I don’t want to try to cram all three places into one, blog because that wouldn’t be fare to expect you fine people to read and look at all of those pictures all in one go and most importantly it would be unfair to each unique city.
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| Tallinn |
I will start off with Tallinn, Estonia which is a small country of about 1.4 million people south of Finland, to the west of Russia, to north of Latvia, and east of the Baltic sea. Arriving in Tallinn on April 11th, I was tired from my traveling to I checked in to my hostel and took a two hour nap. I then went out and naturally found, say it with me people I know you all know where I went because I just got into town, the grocery store! Whatever moron, thinks it’s a good idea to let someone go to a grocery store after spending the past four months in Georgia is wrong. I was so giddy to be in a place that sold food that was so bright and clean. The chicken was even already butchered and put in nice little packages to buy. I didn’t have to buy a live one and kill it myself! They also had Ben and Jerry’s, which I wanted so badly, but it was almost €7, so I will wait until I get back to the States in January-ish and have my mother buy me a pint for every month I was gone. (Love you mom!) I didn’t make too many poor choices when I checked out. I ended up with carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, rice, oranges, kiwis, muesli, and assorted liquorish. I just really wanted the option to be able to eat food that is not dripping in sunflower oil and salt.
When I got back to the hostel I took one of the most amazing showers I have ever had. I am lucky enough to have hot water at my house in Georgia, but to say it’s lacking water pressure is an understatement and when I was in Ukraine I bathed in a bath tub that was in a freezing cold kitchen. (I still love my kitchen bath tub, but it is a bath not a shower.) The hostel, just opened up and the show head is one of those ones that is suppose to mimic rain or being under a water fall or something. All I know is that it was amazing.
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| Me in my Ukrainian bathtub this past May |
After my shower and so dinner of rice and veggies I went to go see the Hunger Games. I have been wanting to see this movie so badly and in Georgia all the movies are dubbed in Russian or Georgian so I had to wait until now to see it. I thought it was fantastic. It was also odd sitting in such a modern movie theater, dare I say better then the ones in Maine, and then leaving it to go back to my hostel. I kept thinking that I would be going back to my house in Maine, but alas it was back to my hostel to get a goodnights sleep.
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On day two in Tallinn I woke up and took shower number two in less then 24 hours (amazing!), ate a nice healthy breakfast and heading out to kill sometime time before going on a free walking tour at noon. I ended up at a great little cafe in Old Town that I don’t remember the name of, but they had real coffee and strawberry cheesecake. I sat in the dimly lit place, just so happy, but feeling a little weird, that I was not in Georgia for the first time in three months.
I set off and found where the walking tour and for two hours a lovely Estonian girl took us all around and told us all about the history of the city and fun other little tidbits.
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| Georgian food in Tallinn |
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| Estonian Freedom Monument |
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| Orthodox Church |
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| Former KGB Headquarters that are now going to be luxury apartments. |
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| Swedish Embasy |
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| Town Center |
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| Town Center |
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| Town Center |
After that I set off and walked along the sea and it reminded me of my autumn spent in and out of Aarhus, Denmark. Tallinn has a very Scandinavian feel to it to began with. I eventually drifted back towards town and found a little bistro that had the most amazing tomato and ginger soup with feta. It was simply to die for. I will find a way to make this when I get back to the States and have a proper kitchen.
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| Best Soup Ever! |
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| Street Art |
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| Street Art |
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| Street Art |
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On day three of my Tallinn adventure, it was raining so I decided to go to their occupation museum, which covered when they were taken over by Germany and Russia. It had lots of artifacts, and showed long half hour portions of a documentary every few meters. Needless to say I did not watch them all, because I would have been there all day. Down in the basement there was this odd collection of Soviet statues, in a room that had a bunch of lockers in it. There was nothing also nothing stopping me from going up and cuddling with the massive Lenin statue. I thought about it, but I have higher standards, now if there was a statue of Stalin there... Just kidding! Still kind of perplexing that room.
That night I was suppose to go to the ballet, but smart me thought it started at 8, and it was actually 7. I normally never mess up on times or dates, but it happens. I stood pouting in my black dress, looking all nice for the missed ballet, when one of the guys who worked at the hostel asked me if I wanted to go to a metal concert with him and three other guys. Who wouldn’t want to go to a metal concert with a Belgian, two Brits, and a Russia in Estonia?! Of course I said yes.
To be honest I said yes very reluctantly. I don’t really ever listen to metal, but it was one of those “Oh, why not Emily? It’s not like you are ever going to get this chance again,” moments. I stood awkwardly for the first few songs, clutching onto my beer for dear life, surrounded by hipster metal heads, looking like I had just walked out of Banana Republic, and I felt like someone was going to throw me out for clearly not belonging. I downed my beer, and thought, “Screw it, screw them. This is your last night in Estonia, might as well enjoy this.” I just threw myself into the music and started dancing and moshing, while most people just bobbed up and down. During the breaks the Belgian who worked at the hostel introduced me to some Estonians, and a girl complemented me on not looking like every other douche bag in the place and that I was beautiful. She became my new best friend at that very moment. I really wish I had taken some pictures of me on that night to share, but I didn’t think my camera and metal concerts mixed. (Russian Circles, Junius, Deafheaven, Wolves Like Us, and SoundArcade were the bands I saw just incase that means anything to you.)
Overall I thought Tallinn was a great arty little city, people had hair more outrages then mine! It was full of plenty of cafes, where I could get my coffee fix, and not curse not having Starbucks for once in almost five months. Creative restaurants to get my foodie on and the glorious ocean that I have missed. Possibly the next semi-permanent destination on my list?
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| What a gem of a poster. |
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