talvine Tallinn

I was visiting Tallinn as a tourist on 14-17 January. As an American from Paris had decided to visit Estonia and was counting on me as a tour guide. It turned out to be a quite nice weekend.

We started the tour from Hell Hunt with a beer. And the American liked it so much, that we went back every following day and evening:)

On Friday we visited park Kadriorg (where the president, and the other Evelin, live) amd Russalka. It was just a gorgeous snow-white day. So at least one American is very impressed by Estonian winters:)

We also went to visit Estonian Art museum KuMu,

which was AMAZING. Even the critical American found it fabulous. The tour ended with a puant, where one girl came to ask me, whether sh e can ask me questions in English. I smiled and said in Estonian that she can ask

them in Estonian, too. And to my embarrassment it turned out that she didn't speak any Estonian. But I did give her very positive feedback about the museum. The funniest question was: what would you expect from an art museum? How would you answer to that? Mmm... art?:)

PS! 4 - one of those pictures was taken specially for you! Found it?

We walked around the Old town and admirered the views from Patkuli and Kohtuotsa viewing spots. And then - one hot wine at the Maiasmokk cafe (from 1863), followed by a dinner at the Olde Hansa (the medieval restaurant). The evening ended in Hell Hunt.

Saturday started from the art exhibition that I loved. The American was not too impressed. The point of the exhibition was to induce innovation, thus the canvases were blank. Just titles. Neat, methinks. Then we visited Bastion tunnels that were built on 16-17th century. 12 bastions were initially planned, but only two were built (due to lack of manpower and finances too). Very cool place though.

We had an 'aperatif' in Hell Hunt, lunch at Komeet and then went to Tallink spa. The last part was a little complicated, as google had given us (me) a wrong address. Overall I would say that I prefer Pärnu spas:)

For dinner we chose 'Mekk' restaurant and it was amazing!

I highly recommend it. And the fun started after the dinner. I decided to show the American some REAL culture and took him to the Valli bar, that looks pretty much the same it was 20 years ago. We downed two 'jellyfish' shots that almost killed us, and then revived ourselves with beer. Great times! We made friends with young locals and eventually ended up in 'Levist väljas' (Out of Service). We even met a famous person - the son of one great singer. Hometime came around 3 or 4 am. I was really happy that it was not me, who had to catch a plane at 11 am:)

On picture: Pikk Jalg (Long leg street)

And Sunday was beautiful. I had pancakes at Marit and Moos place. And then had a sweet afternoon with Uudu and tea and walks and more tea:)